How to Enter Safe Mode Windows 10

To enter Safe Mode in Windows 10, hold Shift while you click Restart. Works from the sign-in screen too, no login needed. Your PC crashed, and you need to enter Safe Mode in Windows 10. Or a driver broke everything. Or you need to change the boot order for a USB stick.

• Shift + Restart, from the Start menu or the sign-in screen.
• Settings, Update & Security, Recovery.
• msconfig, for Safe Mode on every restart.
• Two interrupted boots, when Windows won’t start.

On the newer system the screens differ a little: see Windows 11 safe mode.

Then choose Troubleshoot, Advanced options, Startup Settings, Restart and press 4 or F4. Press 5 or F5 for Safe Mode with Networking.

If Windows won’t start at all, interrupt the boot twice. The third start opens the recovery menu. No Windows at all? A Windows 10 USB stick reaches the same menu.

We list several ways to reach each. So there’s a plan B when one fails.

What Safe Mode in Windows 10 is for

Safe Mode starts Windows 10 with a minimal set of drivers and services. A basic display driver, no third-party services, no startup programs. Just enough to boot.

If a problem disappears in Safe Mode, the cause is almost always a driver, a service or a startup app. Not Windows itself.

Use it when:

• A new driver causes a blue screen.
• Malware won’t let you run antivirus normally.
• Windows is stuck in a boot loop.
• Something refuses to uninstall in normal mode.

There are three flavors, chosen on the Startup Settings screen.

How to enter Safe Mode in Windows 10

Every route leads to the same place: the Advanced startup menu, also called the Windows Recovery Environment. We use the quickest one below. It works from the Start menu or the sign-in screen. No login needed.

1. Click the Power button, in the Start menu or on the sign-in screen.
2. Hold Shift and click Restart.
3. On the blue “Choose an option” screen, pick Troubleshoot, then Advanced options.
4. Pick Startup Settings and click Restart.
5. When the list appears, press F4, F5 or F6.

That takes about 30 seconds in total on most PCs.

If the drive is encrypted with BitLocker or device encryption, Windows may ask for the recovery key before Startup Settings. We’d look it up at aka.ms/myrecoverykey on another device beforehand. Sign in there with the Microsoft account linked to the PC.

Through Settings

This works when Windows boots fine and you can reach the desktop.

1. Press Windows + I.
2. Click Update & Security.
3. Click Recovery on the left.
4. Under “Advanced startup”, click Restart now.
5. On the blue screen, pick Troubleshoot, Advanced options, Startup Settings, Restart.
6. After the restart, press the key for the mode you want.

With msconfig, on every restart

This makes Windows boot into Safe Mode every time, until you switch it off. Handy when troubleshooting takes several restarts in a row.

1. Press Windows + R, type msconfig and press Enter.
2. Open the Boot tab.
3. Tick Safe boot and pick a variant from the table below.
4. Click OK and restart.

To go back to normal, follow the same steps and untick Safe boot.

Forcing it when Windows won’t start

The PC won’t boot, or there’s only a black screen. Use this.

1. Power on the PC.
2. Wait for the Windows logo or the spinning dots. Then hold the power button for about 10 seconds, until the PC turns off.
3. Do this a second time.
4. Power on a third time and let it run. Windows starts the recovery environment, with “Preparing Automatic Repair” or “Choose an option”.
5. Choose Advanced options, Troubleshoot, Advanced options, Startup Settings, Restart.
6. Press F4, F5 or F6.

Microsoft describes exactly this trick on its Windows Recovery Environment page. Repeated failed starts tell Windows something is wrong, and it opens recovery.

On some PCs it takes one more interruption. So if the third start boots normally, repeat.

From Command Prompt, with bcdedit

For those who like typing commands. Open Command Prompt as administrator, run one of the first two lines and restart the PC.

bcdedit /set {current} safeboot minimal
bcdedit /set {current} safeboot network
bcdedit /set {current} safebootalternateshell yes

When you’re done troubleshooting, undo it. The second line below is only needed if you set the alternate shell.

bcdedit /deletevalue {current} safeboot
bcdedit /deletevalue {current} safebootalternateshell

After that, Windows boots normally again.

From Command Prompt, with shutdown /r /o

No boot settings to undo with this one. It restarts the PC straight into the blue Advanced options menu, the same place Shift + Restart leads to.

Command Prompt, then this:

shutdown /r /o /t 0

Then Troubleshoot, Advanced options, Startup Settings, Restart, and F4. The /o switch only works together with /r, and /t 0 skips the default 30 second wait. Both are in Microsoft’s shutdown command reference.

Good for a one-off. For several Safe Mode boots in a row, the bcdedit lines above save the menu clicks each time.

What to do once you’re in

• Bad driver. Open Device Manager, find the device and roll back or uninstall the driver.
• Bad app. Uninstall it under Settings, Apps.
• Bad update. Remove it under Settings, Update & Security, View update history.
• Malware. Run a full scan with your antivirus. Use the networking variant if it needs fresh definitions.
• Startup program. Disable it on the Startup tab of Task Manager.
• Files. Copy anything important to an external drive while the system is stable.

Which method when

Safe Mode in Windows 10 from boot or a USB stick

Searching for “safe mode from BIOS”? Plenty of people do. The firmware itself has no Safe Mode switch, though. Windows decides that at boot. So every route runs through the Windows boot manager or the recovery environment.

From a PC that’s switched off, there are two doors.

The recovery menu after interrupted starts

Covered above, in the section on forcing it. Two forced shutdowns at the logo, then the third start opens “Choose an option”. Startup Settings and F4 from there.

A Windows 10 installation USB

For the PC where even the recovery menu won’t show. Any Windows 10 USB stick works, made on another computer.

1. Boot the PC from the stick.
2. On the first setup screen, click Next.
3. Pick Repair your computer, bottom left. Not Install now.
4. Troubleshoot, then Command Prompt.
5. Run the first line below, close the window and pick Continue.

bcdedit /set {default} safeboot minimal

Why {default} here and {current} earlier? Booted from the stick, the current entry is the stick’s own environment. The default entry is your installed Windows 10.

The PC now starts in Safe Mode on every boot. Done with the repair? Run this from an admin prompt inside Safe Mode, then restart:

bcdedit /deletevalue {default} safeboot

Need networking instead? Swap minimal for network in the first line. Both values sit in Microsoft’s BCDEdit reference.

No stick at hand? Our guide to a bootable Windows 10 USB makes one on any working PC. Boot order, setup keys by brand, UEFI menus? Separate job. We cover it in how to enter BIOS on Windows 10 and 11.

Why F8 doesn’t enter Safe Mode in Windows 10

Microsoft switched the boot menu to the “standard” policy. And fast startup leaves almost no time to catch a key press. Shift + Restart replaced the old key.

To bring F8 back, run the first line as administrator. The second line undoes it.

bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy legacy
bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy standard

Honestly, Shift + Restart works better, and you don’t have to change boot settings.

The legacy policy can make sense on a PC you repair often, though. F8 then works even when Windows fails before the desktop.

When you can’t enter Safe Mode in Windows 10

Windows asks for a recovery key first

Encrypted drive? Then Windows wants the BitLocker recovery key before Startup Settings opens. No way around that step.

Grab a phone. The key usually sits in the Microsoft account linked to the PC, under the devices list. Type all 48 digits and Safe Mode carries on as normal.

F4 or F5 does nothing

Laptops again. Many map the top row to brightness and volume first. So F4 turns something up and the list just sits there.

The number keys do the same job. Press 4, or 5 for networking. Holding Fn while pressing F4 works too.

No recovery menu after the interrupted starts

Four forced shutdowns and still nothing? The recovery environment may be switched off on that PC. Microsoft’s REAgentC tool shows its state and turns it back on, from an admin prompt in Windows:

reagentc /info
reagentc /enable

Windows won’t start at all? Then the USB route from the section above.

Stuck in a Safe Mode loop

Safe boot got enabled in msconfig and forgotten. Or the bcdedit command was never reversed.

1. Open msconfig and go to the Boot tab.
2. Untick Safe boot, click OK and restart.

Can’t get to msconfig? Open an admin Command Prompt, delete the safeboot value with the line from the bcdedit section and restart.

If Safe Mode didn’t fix it

Go back to the Advanced options menu and work down this list.

1. System Restore. Pick a restore point from when the PC still worked.
2. Startup Repair. It fixes boot files and some disk errors automatically.
3. Uninstall Updates. It removes the latest quality or feature update, if trouble started right after one.
4. Reset this PC. It reinstalls Windows. “Keep my files” saves your personal folders and removes apps. Activation of a digital license normally comes back on its own.
5. Clean install. Wipe and install fresh from a bootable Windows 10 USB drive, following our clean install guide. We’d have the Windows 10 Pro key ready for setup. The Windows 10 activation guide covers the rest.

Before any reset, we’d boot into Safe Mode with Networking and copy the important files to an external drive or cloud storage. Safe Mode can read your files even when normal Windows can’t start.

The other Windows 10 Startup Settings options

The list after Startup Settings has nine entries, not three. Safe Mode takes 4 to 6. The rest help in cases where Safe Mode alone doesn’t.

Press the number or the F key with that number. Enter starts Windows normally.

Option 9 deserves a word. With it, the blue screen stays put, so you can write down the stop code. Our BSOD guide for Windows 10 picks it up from there.

None of these stick. Restart once more and Windows boots as usual.

Plain Safe Mode, Networking or Command Prompt

Which of the three to pick? We start with plain Safe Mode, F4. Fewest drivers, fewest things that can go wrong, no network for malware to call home.

Need to download a driver or fresh antivirus definitions? Then F5, Safe Mode with Networking. Microsoft describes it as Safe Mode plus the network drivers and services needed to reach the internet.

Explorer crashes even in Safe Mode, or the desktop never draws? F6. A command prompt window, nothing else. From there sfc, chkdsk or bcdedit still run.

Not sure? F5. It covers most repairs, and we’d only drop to F4 if the network driver itself looks like the trouble.

Typical Safe Mode situations

The driver that broke the desktop

A new graphics driver, and the screen goes black after sign-in. Safe Mode loads the basic display driver. From there the bad driver gets removed, and the next normal start works.

The PC that never left Safe Mode

Every restart lands in Safe Mode again, long after the repair is done. Usual cause: the Safe boot box in msconfig is still ticked. Unticked, the PC starts normally.

The monitor that went black

A new refresh rate, and the monitor shows nothing after sign-in. Option 3 in Startup Settings, low-resolution video, brings the picture back. Settings, Display, a rate the monitor supports, restart. Nothing else needed, no driver reinstall.

The recovery key that wasn’t written down

Startup Settings asks for a BitLocker recovery key. Never written down? It’s normally saved in the Microsoft account linked to the PC, and a phone is enough to read it.

The boot that wouldn’t be interrupted

Two forced shutdowns, and the third start goes straight to the desktop. Some PCs need one more interruption. After the third, the recovery menu appears.

Windows versions this guide covers

Safe Mode works the same on Home and Pro.

Quick recap: entering Safe Mode in Windows 10

Related guides

• How to enter the BIOS on Windows 10 and 11
• Safe Mode in Windows 10 vs Windows 11
• How to run chkdsk
• How to fix a BSOD on Windows 10
• How to change the Windows 10 error sound
• Preparing Automatic Repair loop: fixes
• Safe Mode on Windows Server 2019