If you are running Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP, Vista or 7 you may at some point need to boot into Safe Mode, this is a great diagnostic mode for Windows-based PCs and can often help you rectify problems.
In this post we will show you how to boot into Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Networking and Safe Mode with Command Prompt, if your computer fails to boot into Safe Mode it usually means that there is a more serious problem, such as a hardware fault or a corruption of important system files.
The first thing you must do is completely shut down your computer, once off you should turn it back on, wait roughly 5 seconds and then repeatedly press F8, if all goes to plan you should see a screen which says advanced boot options or something similar (see image below).
You can then use the up and down keys on your keyboard to choose different boot modes, when you have the correct one highlighted press enter and your PC will then boot into that mode.
In Safe Mode your computer only starts up a minimal amount of processes and services, this is for diagnostic purposes, however this does limit your computer’s functionality, one thing which you may notice is that there is no internet connectivity.
If your computer connects to the internet via a network/router you can instead choose Safe Mode with Networking, this should allow you to browse the internet, which can be very useful for virus removal etc.
Another option allows you to choose Safe Mode with Command Prompt, to be honest with you if you are confident enough to use command prompt you probably already know how to use Safe Mode.
Sometime pressing F8 too early upon boot up brings up the boot selection menu, if your computer shows this instead of the screen which shows the safe mode option the easiest thing to do is turn your PC off and upon boot up press F8 a little later than last time.
I hope this guide helps you to boot into safe mode, if you have any problems with the guide let me know in comments section below and I will do my best to help you.
*Identifying Monetised Links - outgoing links that we monetise are marked with an '*' symbol.
