Can't boot Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 in Safe Mode? You press F8 or Shift + F8, but it doesn't get you anywhere? The loading of the new operating system from Microsoft is so fast that it is not always possible to interrupt it with keystrokes.
You can enter safe mode Windows 8 or 8.1 in 5 different ways, any of them will allow you to start the system on Windows 8-8.1 safely!
Safe Mode in Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 is almost the same as in earlier OS versions.
The operating system still only loads the most basic drivers and services. The only noticeable difference is that the minimum screen resolution in Safe Mode has increased from 800x600 pixels to 1024x768 pixels.
1. Use the System Configuration tool (Msconfig.exe)
As with, the easiest way to boot into Safe Mode is to use System Configuration, also known as msconfig.exe.
Run it, go to the "Boot" tab and activate the "Safe Mode" option in the boot options. Then click on the "OK" button.
Next, you will see a message that you need to restart your computer. Click Restart or Quit without restarting, depending on whether you want the computer to restart now or later.
The next time you start Windows 8 (Windows 8.1) will boot into Safe Mode.
2. Use the combination Shift + Restart
Press the power button on the Windows logon screen or in the Settings Charm. Then press and hold the SHIFT key on your keyboard and hit Restart.
Windows will prompt you for an option. Select "Diagnostics".
On the Diagnostics screen, click the More Options button.
On the Advanced Options screen, click Boot Options.
When your computer restarts, a list of 9 options will appear on the screen, including three types of Safe Mode.
Press F4 on your keyboard to enable Safe Mode, F5 to enable Safe Mode with Network Driver Support, and F6 to enable Safe Mode with Command Prompt. After that Windows 8 / Windows 8.1 will be loaded according to your choice.
3. Boot into Safe Mode using the System Recovery CD / DVD (Windows 8 only)
On Windows 8, but not Windows 8.1, you can. So, if you have such a disk, you can boot from it.
After booting from the recovery disc, you will be prompted to select a keyboard layout. Choose the one you want to use. Then you will see the options screen. All further steps will be identical to those described in method 2.
4. Boot into Safe Mode using USB for System Recovery
Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 allow. Detailed instructions can be found here. Using such a disk, you can also boot the OS in safe mode. To do this, boot from your USB system recovery drive and follow the instructions from the previous method.
5. Use F8 or Shift + F8 (does not work when using UEFI BIOS and SSD)
In the case of Windows 7, just press F8 just before starting the operating system to get to the menu with additional boot options, from where you can already boot the operating system in safe mode.
For Windows 8 and 8.1, some sites advise using the Shift + F8 keyboard shortcut, which launches recovery mode, allowing you to boot into safe mode. However, the problem is that neither Shift + F8 nor just F8 often work.
In a post on its official blog, Microsoft explains that this behavior is due to a very fast boot process. Steve Sinofsky once said: “Windows 8 has a problem. It loads too fast, so fast that in fact, you simply don't have time to interrupt its download when you turn on your PC. The operating system simply does not have time to detect the pressing of the F2 or F8 keys. "
In general, if you have a modern computer with UEFI BIOS and SSD, you are unlikely to be able to interrupt the boot process with keystrokes. On older PCs with classic BIOS and no SSD, pressing these keys still works.
Have a great day!
Hello dear admin, thank you for a really very useful, exclusive project, of which there are not so many in runet. Within 5 days, I studied the materials on your site, I learned a lot of interesting things, but unfortunately, after this period of time, I could not fix my recently arisen problem on the laptop, so I would like to contact you for help in the hope of finding out my problem and finally then solve it. I apologize in advance that there will be many "letters").
I bought a laptop Acer Aspire v5-122p 2 years ago with a preinstalled Windows 8 64-bit OS (I don't remember the edition). Then after some time it was automatically updated to 8.1. The last 2 months there were frequent freezes in the system, and I delayed everything with the restoration of the Windows system. A week ago, the system once again hung up badly and I had to urgently turn off the laptop by holding the shutdown button. After that, the following problem has occurred and is not being fixed. After turning on the laptop, the acer logo appears and the boot icon is spinning for about 40 seconds and the message "There is a problem on your computer, you need to restart it" appears on a blue background. After this message, the computer itself reboots and "Preparing automatic recovery" starts, the boot icon is spinning for 30 seconds and then everything disappears, nothing, just a black background glows without any messages, but the laptop seems to continue to work, but does not respond to any what actions, except as an emergency shutdown of the laptop. And so all the time.
I did not bother to make a boot disk, a USB flash drive from under the system, when the system was still working normally. Having studied the materials on your site, I tried to do the following. I downloaded images with Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 in English via mediacreationtool, I also made bootable USB flash drives separately with Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 in English, I also tried to make bootable USB flash drives through WinSetupFromUSB_1-4_x64 and rufus programs with these images. I did it according to your materials, initially tried through these programs to make a bootable USB flash drive for the UEFI BIOS with formatting in FAT32 with a GPT scheme, but did not change anything in the BIOS, UEFI was enabled with secure boot, set the boot priority to the first USB HDD, also specially by pressing the f12 button could select a bootable USB flash drive connected to the laptop, as a result, after these manipulations, the acer logo and the boot icon did not appear for long, and after that the black background lights up again without anything. I also tried to disable D2D RECOVERY, even then in the BIOS I registered the path in the select an uefi file as trusted for executing item in usb1 the path to the BOOTX64.efi file, which is on the USB flash drive, but the result is the same.
Then I decided to go differently. According to the article "How to disable Secure Boot on an Acer Aspire laptop" I disabled secure boot to disabled by setting a password, then switched UEFI to Legacy in boot mode. I set the boot priorities from usb hdd in the BIOS, then through the WinSetupFromUSB_1-4_x64 and rufus programs I formatted it in NTFS with MBR and made bootable flash drives. When I connected this flash drive to a laptop in usb 2.0 and by pressing f12 I selected my bootable USB flash drive, the laptop rebooted, after a while the Windows 8 logo appeared with a blue background with a boot icon, but it did not come to the points to install Windows and restore the system, black again background covered download.
In this appearing black background, the whole problem is, for some reason I cannot run the bootable flash drives to the end from Windows.
But two other facts are noteworthy, when I write all sorts of programs like eset.nod32, Victoria and some other Live CD programs to a bootable USB flash drive, then everything is fine they boot from the flash drive and there is no black background, there are not even any freezes.
These days it got to the point that I even had to initially disassemble my laptop due to this problem, removed the RAM, hard drive. I disconnected the wires, the floppy drive, cleaned the video card of dust, applied neatly new thermal paste, but unfortunately this did not affect the solution of this problem. And I wondered if it was a hardware problem or a software problem.
As a result, I decided to start a laptop without a hard drive with a bootable USB flash drive not from under UEFI, an interesting fact turned out, a logo in Windows 8 with a blue background, a boot icon, and finally there were items to install Windows and restore the system, i.e. there were no black screens, at that moment I decided to put the hard drive back in, there was no black screen, but when I tried to recover or install the system there were such errors, the disk was locked, unlock it and reboot, also the blue background "Your PC needs to be repeired" file: boot / BCD .......
As a result, 1 day I left with experiments with the Victoria program from under DOS, SMART seemed to give the status to the disk "GOOD", I found out 8 defective bad blocks during the test, ADVANCED REMAP seemed to first correct them, then when I pass again 6 pieces found it at the same addresses, but the SMART status for a disk like "GOOD" remained.
Therefore, now I am puzzled and cannot understand, after all, the black screen is the tricks of the hard drive in connection with some hardware problem or a software problem, but then what is this paradox with a black screen and how to get rid of it all the same.
Those. at the moment I cannot achieve in any way so that I can run to the end a bootable USB flash drive from Windows without a black background with a connected hard drive, and as I have already said many other programs eset.nod.32, Victoria with a LIVE CD when connected hard drive startup normally with no black background.
Thank you in advance for your response.
Starting the operating system in safe mode is one of the most common ways to diagnose problems. Previously, you could get into safe mode by clicking at boot, but this leads to the launch of automatic recovery. What if you need Safe Mode?You can still get into Safe Mode, but you will have to dig into the Windows 8 recovery settings. The key now starts automatic recovery, but if you press + instead of it, you can manually select recovery options. However, it's even easier to hold down and select the Restart command in Windows itself or on the login screen.
There are several ways to get into Safe Mode - it all depends on whether the system boots and whether you can enter it. Let's start with the simplest.
If the login screen is available
If the boot successfully reaches the login screen, you can hold down the key and select the "Restart" option from the shutdown menu. The diagnostic tools screen will appear, from where you can enter Safe Mode. How exactly - read below.
If the system does not boot, but there is a recovery disc
If you have another PC with the same version of Windows close at hand, you can create a USB recovery drive and boot the failed PC from it to access diagnostic tools, including Safe Mode (more details below).
If the login screen is not available
If the download does not even reach the login screen, the recovery screen usually appears automatically. If this does not happen, try holding down the key while loading and press until the new recovery mode loads. When the recovery screen appears, click the "Advanced Options" button.
The problem is that this screen does not always appear. Many computers, especially new ones, do not output it.
Using Advanced Options to Boot in Safe Mode
Whichever of the described methods you use, on the recovery screen that appears, click the "Troubleshoot" button.
Now select "Advanced Options".
Finally click on the Restart button.
After rebooting, by some miracle, the familiar boot options screen appears, where you can select Safe Mode.
Launch Safe Mode right from Windows 8
There is another way to get into Safe Mode, but it will only work if Windows is already loaded. Press the keys + [R], enter the command "msconfig" (without quotes) in the window that appears and press.
In the window that opens, go to the "Boot" tab and check the "Safe Boot" box.
You can also select secure boot options:
"Minimal" - normal safe mode.
Alternate Shell - safe mode with command line.
Active Directory repair - safe mode for recovering a server that is a domain controller in a local network.
"Network" - Safe mode with network connection.
After selecting the desired option, click "OK" and restart your computer.
The system will automatically boot into Safe Mode.
Practically no different from what it was in earlier versions of operating systems. The operating system, as before, loads only the most basic drivers and services. The only difference is that the minimum screen resolution in Safe Mode has increased from 800x600 pixels to 1024x768 pixels.
To run the tool system configuration press the keyboard shortcut + R in the window that opens Execute enter msconfig command and press key Enter↵
In the opened window system configuration go to the tab, select the operating system you want to boot in safe mode (if you have several of them), check the box Safe mode and press the button OK
Next, a window will appear with a message stating that you need to restart your computer. Click or Exit without reboot - depending on whether you want the computer to restart right now or later.
The next time you start Windows 8, Windows 8.1 will boot into Safe Mode.
Press on power button on the Windows login screen or in the panel Options (Settings charm). Then press and hold the button ⇑ Shift on the keyboard and press
After rebooting in the window Action selection select an option Diagnostics
In the window Diagnostics choose Extra options
In the window Boot options you will see a list with several parameters, including Enable Safe Mode.
Click Reboot
When the computer restarts, a list of 9 options will appear on the screen, including three types of safe mode.
Press the key on the keyboard F4 to enable safe mode.
F5 to enable Safe Mode with Network Driver Support.
Press the key on the keyboard F6 to enable Safe Mode with Command Prompt.
After that Windows 8, Windows 8.1 will be loaded according to your choice.
In Windows 8, but not Windows 8.1, you can create a system repair disc and boot from it.
After booting from the recovery disc, you will be prompted to select a keyboard layout. Choose the one you want to use. Then you will see the options screen. All further steps will be identical to those described in the method above.
Windows 8, Windows 8.1 allow you to create a system recovery disc on a USB drive. You can read the detailed instructions. Using such a disk, you can also boot the operating system in safe mode. To do this, boot from your USB system recovery drive and follow the instructions from the previous method.
(does not work when using UEFI BIOS and SSD)
In Windows 7, it was enough to press F8 just before starting the operating system to get to the menu with additional boot options, from where you can already boot the operating system in safe mode.
For Windows 8 and Windows 8.1, some sources advise using the key combination ⇑ Shift + F8, which launches the recovery mode, which allows you to boot into safe mode. However, the problem is that neither ⇑ Shift + F8 nor just F8 often do not work.
On their official blog, Microsoft explains that this behavior is due to a very fast boot process. Steve Sinofsky said: Windows 8 has a problem. It loads too fast, so fast that in fact you simply don't have time to interrupt its loading when you turn on your computer. The operating system simply does not have time to detect the pressing of the F2 or F8 keys.
If you have a modern computer with UEFI BIOS and SSD, you are unlikely to be able to interrupt the boot process with keystrokes. On older computers with classic BIOS and no SSD, pressing these keys still works.
