Enable F8 key & Safe Mode in Windows 8 / 10

One big limitation in Windows 8.x and 10 is that you can't access Safe Mode when booting your PC. Instead, you have load to Windows, and from there you can reboot into Safe Mode. This a serious limitation, as often, the reason for booting in Safe Mode, is because Windows won't start normally.

However, The Windows Club has an excellent article explaning how to enabled the use of the F8 key to bring up the boot menu in Windows 8 and 10, which some may find helpful.

I just had an issue where a bad driver update rendered Windows 10 unbootable, and I was unable to boot into Safe Mode to fix the problem. I was eventually able to get Windows booting again by creating a bootable Windows 10 flash drive. But it was a hassle, and if it was not for me having an old Windows 7 hard drive with me, which I replaced my Windows 10 SSD with, in order to start Windows 7 and create a bootable Windows 10 flash drive, I would have not been able to fix the boot problem until tomorrow when I get home and have access to other computers. This lead me to look for a way to bring back the boot menu, for future emergencies. It would have been great if Microsoft had not decided in their infinite "wisdom" to make it hard to access Safe Mode. But, at least the situation can be fixed. Now if only there as a way to do a repair install of Windows by booting from a flash drive or DVD, like you could in XP.

 

Thanks, I've always wondered why they changed this with Win 8, why make it harder?

 

@Rasheed187 It's Microsoft, there's often no logic in their decisions.

 

Might as well go a step further and re-enable restore Last Known Good Configuration as well: http://winaero.com/blog/how-to-restore-the-last-known-good-configuration-feature-in-windows-8-1/

 

Yes it's ridiculous, and nice find.

 

thanks a lot
in short to enable f8 is enough to cmd as administrator bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy legacy , to restore back bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy standard
so easy ?
thanks ROGER!!!

 

You're welcome. It comes in really handy when you have serious Windows problems and can't actually boot to Windows to enable Safe Mode.

 

M$ will try anything to fool the sheep that their PC is fubared. And that it is time to buy a new one! Another W10 license sold sic.

 

@roger_m
in the article , there is written it takes few seconds more , but i did not notice it
did you notice it (few seconds lag)?
thanks

 

No I didn't notice any either.

 

thanks a lot !