Computer Science E-1: Understanding Computers and the Internet
Harvard Extension School
Fall 2006
How-To: Boot Into Safe Mode
Contact Information
Instructor: David Malan
TFs: Rei, Dan, Eugenia
Course Staff Email:
cscie1@fas.harvard.edu
Meetings available by appointment
Removal
Booting Into Safe Mode
Restart your machine if its on, turn it on if its off.
After your BIOS screen, immediately hit F8. Windows will remind you that this is an option but you have to be FAST!
Select "Safe Mode" with your arrow keys and hit Enter.
Windows will then appear to start up normally, but it may take significantly longer to complete the process.
Once it has started up, Windows will tell you that you are in Safe Mode. Certain features of Windows are disabled to ensure compatibility with your machine so that it will boot "for sure." Specifically, one of the useful features of Safe Mode is that it does not start up any programs with Windows, so your StartUp menu and the StartUp registry key are ignored.
Click OK on the Safe Mode warning and you will be presented with the desktop. From here you may run a Virus Scan (or some other tool) in an attempt to recover your system.
When you are done, restart the machine as you normally would. You do not have to interfere with the machine because when it restarts it will not boot into Safe Mode; it will boot normally.
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