5 Ways To Enable safe mode On Windows 10

If your PC is in malfunction, Windows 10 Safe Mode could help you find out what's causing those malfunctions. Windows 10 safe mode is a mode in which Windows boots with only those parts that are necessary for a computer to work.


What exactly is Windows 10 Safe Mode? When Windows is started in safe mode, only those components will be started that are strictly necessary for Windows and therefore your PC to work.

For this reason, drivers of components of the PC and peripherals will not be loaded or controlled via a standard Windows driver. This applies, for example, to the graphics card.

You can assume that basically your PC is still working properly when your PC starts in Safe Mode without any problems and that a device or software you are using with your PC is causing the problems.

In other words, with the help of Windows 10 Safe Mode, you can rule out possible causes of a computer problem and also fix various problems.

You can also use Windows 10 Safe Mode to secure important personal files when you need to reinstall Windows and where personal files may be lost.

How does Windows 10 boot in safe mode work? Windows 10 has two versions of Safe Mode. To know:

1. Safe mode without network connection. 2. Safe mode with network connection. Safe mode with network connection ensures that any components and drivers that are needed but located somewhere on your computer network can be loaded. Something similar really only occurs with computers that are part of an extensive corporate network.

This means that safe mode without a network connection is usually enough for your home computer.

In Windows 7, before starting safe mode, we were used to pressing function key F8 as soon as the boot was transferred to Windows after turning on the PC. This point could be recognized by a black screen with the Windows logo in which you as a user were told that Windows was starting up.


However, if you were late pressing F8, Windows would boot normally and you would have to restart the PC to try again to press the F8 function key in time.

Booting Windows 10 in Safe Mode is in no way comparable to the way we did it in previous versions of Windows. In addition, in Windows 10, there are multiple ways to boot in safe mode. And we are going to look at them one by one.

1) The general method The first method we are going to take a look at is the method to enable Windows 10 Safe Mode with the PC just on and Windows 10 booted normally as we are used to. In that case, switching on safe mode is done as follows:

1. Open the Start menu and click Settings .

2. In Settings, click the Update & security option .

3. In Update & Security in the left column, click the System Restore option .

4. If you click on System Restore , all parts of System Restore will be displayed in the right column . Including the Advanced Boot Options section . In the Advanced Boot Options section, click the Restart Now button .

5. After a few moments, a completely blue screen will appear on the screen titled Choose an option. In this screen, choose the Troubleshoot option .

6. Another full blue screen titled Troubleshooting will be displayed . In this screen, choose the Advanced options option.

7. Again a full blue screen will be displayed, this time with the title Advanced Options . On this screen, click on the Show more recovery options entry . The Startup Settings option will now be displayed . Click this option.

8. The next full blue screen titled Startup Settings will show you an overview of all the ways you can start Windows 10. Below is how to enable safe mode. In this window, click the button labeled Restart .

9. The Start-up settings screen now shows the same overview of options, but with numbers. The numbers displayed correspond to the function keys F1 to F12. Therefore, to boot in safe mode without a network, press the F4 function key. After pressing the F4 function key, the PC will reboot, but in safe mode. Safe mode is successful when you see Safe mode in all four corners of your screen . Also, in Safe Mode, Windows will display your desktop differently from what you are used to.

In particular, the icons on the desktop will be displayed much larger. This is because Windows uses its own default display driver in Safe Mode. This will automatically recover when you restart your computer as you normally do.


2) Enable Windows 10 Safe Mode from Login Screen / Lock Screen You may have noticed a few things while going through the steps to enable Safe Mode in Windows 10:

1. That you have to go through a number of steps before the PC can finally boot into Safe Mode.

2. At the very least, the PC must still function reasonably well in order to enter Safe Mode this way. And the latter is of course not always the case when there are problems with the computer. However, the PC may still show the login screen / lock screen normally before the problems start.

The login screen is the screen that is shown to you at start-up, in which your username or account name is displayed and in which you can enter your password that corresponds to your username. This is usually only possible when you have pressed the space bar.

When you press the spacebar, you will also see some buttons appear at the bottom right of the login screen, including the On / Off button on the far right. If you click on it, it will normally display the options Hibernate , Shutdown and Restart. However, if you click the On / Off button while holding down the Shift key and continue holding the Shift key while clicking Restart , after a few moments a full blue screen will be displayed again titled Choose an option. From this point on, you can simply follow the step-by-step guide for enabling Safe Mode again, starting at Step 5.

3) Enable Safe Mode with MsConfig The fastest way to boot Windows 10 in Safe Mode is to use the MsConfig system program and do the following:

1. Click the Search button in the taskbar to open Windows 10's search function.

2. Type the query msconfig in the search box.

3. The System Configuration app will now be shown in the search results. Click on this.

4. The System Configuration app will now open. (In previous versions of Windows this was called MsConfig) In the app, click the Start computer tab .

5. Under this tab you will find the Boot Options section where you can check Boot in Safe Mode and then select which Safe Mode you want to use by clicking a radio button.

6. Once you click the Apply button and then the OK button, the PC will immediately restart and enter Safe Mode. Using MsConfig, or the System Configuration app in Windows 10, enabling safe mode is not only fast, but remains active until you disable the safe mode boot. This is especially useful when you know in advance that you will want to restart the PC in safe mode one or more times.


4) Boot into Safe Mode when your PC is idle The methods discussed so far to boot Windows 10 in safe mode only work when the PC and thus Windows still want to function more or less normally. But that is not always the case. If Windows seems to be refusing all service, try the following procedure to start Windows in safe mode:

1. Press and hold the On / Off button on your PC for 10 seconds if the PC is still on. This ensures that the PC is really turned off.

2. Press the On / Off button to start the PC.

3. Press and hold the On / Off button again for 10 seconds to turn the PC off completely as soon as the PC gives any sign that Windows is starting. For example, displaying the logo of your PC's brand on the screen.

4. Press the On / Off button again to start the PC. Usually turning the PC on and off twice in this way is enough to trigger automatic recovery of Windows 10. Windows will notify you that automatic recovery has been activated by displaying the Preparing automatic recovery message on the screen.

Then Windows will tell you that it is trying to diagnose problems on your computer. After a few moments, Windows will show on the screen what might be going on. You will then also be given the option to click on a button labeled Advanced Options . This will again display the full blue screen titled Choose an option .

With which you can continue from step 5 in the first step- by-step plan in this article.


5) Boot from USB stick to enable safe mode If one of the 4 methods described in this article does not work to enable Windows 10 safe mode, then all you have to do is create a USB stick with Windows 10 on it and start the PC with it. If that succeeds and the Windows installation program starts, you will at least know that your PC hardware is still fine and that perhaps only Windows has suffered serious damage.

The installation program will ask you in which language to install Windows and the like. Set your preferences and click the Next button .

In the screen that follows you will be offered the option to repair your PC. Even then you will return to the now familiar blue screen with the title Choose an option . And now you can continue from step 5 in the first step-by-step plan in this article. With these 5 Ways to Enable Windows 10 Safe Mode, you'll have all the options you need to boot your PC anyway when you're having problems with Windows.