How to enter safe mode in Windows 7 – 4 ways

There are situations when users need to perform work on diagnosing and identifying problems in the operating system, so they need to learn how to start Windows 7 Safe Mode. In this article, we will look at different ways to enter Safe Mode on a computer.

Safe Mode – Windows 7 Safe Mode is a special mode of operation of the operating system, in which only essential services and drivers are started. This mode performs a diagnostic run of a system with limited functionality to detect problems with the computer, or to scan for viruses.

Windows 7 Safe Mode on a laptop or desktop PC will help you detect problems with components, diagnose the system, and identify problematic software.

There are two methods by which you can enter the safe mode of Windows 7. You can do this as follows:

• Enabling Windows 7 Safe Mode from a running OS.
• Performing a boot in safe mode before starting the operating system.

Depending on the circumstances, the user can use several methods to enter the safe mode of Windows 7 on the computer:

• Using the built-in System Configuration tool.
• From the Windows command line.
• From the menu of additional options for loading the operating system.
• Using the Windows RE Recovery Environment.

In this guide, you will find instructions on how to enter Windows 7 Safe Mode in several ways that you can use in different situations.

How to Start Windows 7 Safe Mode

While working in the Windows 7 operating system, the user can boot into safe mode by changing the configuration settings that are responsible for booting the system.

Do the following:

1. On the keyboard, press the “Win” + “R” keys
2. The “Run” dialog box will open, in which you need to enter the command: “msconfig” (without quotes).
3. Click on the “OK” button.
4. In the System Configuration window that opens, go to the Boot tab.
5. In the Boot Options section, check the box next to Safe Mode.
6. Next, you need to click on the “OK” button.
7. In the “System Settings” window, click on the “Reboot” button.

As a result, the computer will start in safe mode with a limited set of components.

Windows 7 Safe Mode: Command Prompt

Now let’s see how to start safe mode in Windows 7 using the built-in system tool: the command line. In this example, we will enter Safe Mode from a running operating system.

Go through the following steps:

1. Run Command Prompt as Administrator .
2. In the command line interpreter window, execute the command (after entering the command, press the “Enter” key):

bcdedit /set {current} safeboot minimal

3. Close the command line interpreter and then restart your PC.

You can start in Windows 7 Safe Mode with other options using the appropriate commands below.

Starting Safe Mode with Networking in the GUI:

bcdedit /set {current} safeboot network

To start the safe mode running on the command line, run the following commands one by one:

bcdedit /set {current} safeboot minimal

bcdedit /set {current} safebootalternateshell yes

In command line mode, all further actions are carried out from the command line interface. To open the graphical interface of the OS, you must additionally execute the “explorer.exe” command.

How to Start Safe Mode on Windows 7 Boot

Now we will analyze how to enter the safe mode of Windows 7 at the start of the operating system. Booting in safe mode will begin before normal Windows startup.

You need to do the following:

1. Immediately after turning on the computer, you need to press the “F8” key several times. On a laptop, in most cases, you will have to press the “F8” + “Fn” keys. There are options: “Ctrl” + “F8” or “Shift” + “F8”.

On some devices, the “F8” key brings up the BIOS disk selection menu. In this case, you need to select the system hard drive, and then immediately again you need to press the “F8” key.

2. In the Advanced Boot Options menu, use the ↑ and ↓ arrow keys to select the appropriate option.

The Windows Advanced Boot Options menu offers several options to boot into Windows Safe Mode:

• safe mode;
• safe mode with loading network drivers;
• safe mode with command line support.

3. After selecting the appropriate mode, press the “Enter” key.

Next, Windows 7 boots into safe mode.

To exit safe mode, use the command:

bcdedit /deletevalue {default} safeboot

How to Enter Windows 7 Safe Mode from the Recovery Environment

There are situations when, due to failures and malfunctions of Windows, it is not possible to perform a normal boot of the operating system on the computer. To find and solve the problem, you need to boot Windows in safe mode.

Now we will see how to enter Windows 7 Safe Mode from the Windows RE Recovery Environment. To perform the operation, we need one of these bootable media: a bootable USB flash drive with Windows 7, Windows 7 Recovery Disc , or a Windows 7 installation DVD.

You will need to go through the following steps:

1. Start the computer, enter the boot menu (Boot Menu), select to boot from a bootable USB flash drive, DVD-ROM or recovery disk (CD / DVD drive or flash drive).
2. In the first window “Install Windows”, in which the OS language and other language options are selected, press the “Shift” + “F10” keys.
3. A command prompt window will open, in which you need to run the following command:

bcdedit /set {default} safeboot minimal

To start safe mode with network driver support, run this command:

bcdedit /set {default} safeboot network

To start safe mode with command line support, run both commands in sequence:

bcdedit /set {default} safeboot minimal

bcdedit /set {default} safebootalternateshell yes

4. Close the command prompt window and then restart your PC.

After executing the commands, the Windows 7 operating system should automatically boot into safe mode.

Article Conclusions

To perform diagnostics and search for problems in Windows, the computer uses a special mode of limited functionality Safe Mode (Safe Mode). In safe mode, only the main components and modules of the operating system are loaded.

You can enter Safe Mode in Windows 7 while the OS is running from the command line or from the System Configuration tool, as well as at the time of computer startup, before the system boots when choosing additional boot options, or from the Windows RE recovery environment.