Windows boots really fast; as a result, you may have found that the F8 key does not work. There is a reason for this. Microsoft has reduced the time-periods for F2 and F8 keys to almost near-nil intervals – less than 200 milliseconds if you want to know – as a result of which the chances of it detecting the F8 interrupt is extremely low and users do not get time to press F8 for invoke the boot menu and subsequently enter Safe Mode in Windows.
Enable Safe Mode F8 key in Windows 11/10
While we know how to boot Windows into Safe Mode using the msconfig tool, we have seen how to make Windows show Advanced Boot Options and use it to boot into safe mode. We have also seen how we can display Startup Settings to boot into Safe Mode in Windows 8. In this post, we will see how to enable the F8 key so that we can boot into Windows 11/10/8 Safe Mode, using this key – as we did in Windows 7 and earlier.
You will have to enable the legacy boot policy. Mind you, when you do this, Windows will start a few seconds later. When you enable this policy on a dual-boot system, you will also be able to select the operating system you wish to boot into. You will no longer need to again follow these steps.
F8 keyboard shortcut not working in Windows 11/10
To enable the F8 keep, so that we can use it to start Windows 11/10/8 in safe mode, open an elevated command prompt window. Type the following and hit Enter:
bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy legacy
You will see a message: The operation completed successfully.
You will find that the Windows F8 key which was not working, is now working! You may have to restart your computer to get the setting to work.
If you wish to reverse the setting, type the following and hit Enter:
bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy standard
You will again see a message: The operation completed successfully. The settings will be restored back to Windows defaults.
If you need to boot to safe mode or access the diagnostic & troubleshooting tools frequently, you may want to enable the F8 key; but as mentioned, your Windows 11/10/8 could start a few seconds slower, and so you should be prepared to lose those few seconds.
NOTE: Juan Antonio Diaz of Microsoft has posted another way on how to enable it on TechNet on how to enable safe mode in Windows 11/10. Using this method you can set it so that pressing F8 will boot into safe mode and you can make this setting permanent. To do so, follow these steps:
Close all the applications that are open.
Type “CMD” in Search and right-click on it and click “Run as administrator
Then type in the following command:
bcdedit /enum /v
Now you’ll see two descriptions, look under “Windows Boot Loader” and copy the Identifier entry. In my case, it starts with {72b4a7cd-….}
Using this, type in this command:
bcdedit /copy {72b4a7cd-e189-11e0-af56-eb8118bcf02b} /d “Windows (Safe Mode)”
Replace the GUID with the one you copied.
Now from the same command prompt type in “MSCONFIG”. Then go to the Boot Tab and check the box where it says “Make all boot settings permanent” click on Apply and click OK.
Reboot your System now when you press F8 you should see this screen.
Click on “Use another operating system” then select Safe Mode then your system will restart and login to Safe Mode.
Hope this helps you boot Windows 11/10 in Safe Mode.
Also, read:
Access denied! What am i missing?
make sure you run the command prompt as an administrator
This explains jack S***
Also, this held me up for a minute. The parentheses looking symbol on each end of default is {default} Parentheses with points – Holding Shift and the two keys next to the P key = { and }
how do you open the window? this wasn’t explained?
If the bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy legacy gives you the following output
“The boot configuration data store could not be opened. The system cannot find the file specified”,follow the instructions from [1](the answer marked as the right one).
If you do not want to document yourself reading the answer from [1], just type the following command:
bcdedit /store c:BootBCD /set bootmenupolicy legacy
Restart your computer, choose your Windows from Grub, imediately press F8 and it should work as it did for me. Good luck!
[1]http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-performance/bcdedit-the-system-cannot-find-the-file-specified/7135b90a-c6a4-4a31-b752-822029671075
Explanations:
-Boot Configuration Data (BCD) files provide a store
that is used to describe boot applications and boot application
settings. The objects and elements in the store effectively replace
Boot.ini.
-BCDEdit is a command-line tool for managing BCD
stores. It can be used for a variety of purposes, including creating new
stores, modifying existing stores, adding boot menu options, and so on.
BCDEdit serves essentially the same purpose as Bootcfg.exe on earlier
versions of Windows, but with two major improvements.
Administrative privileges are required to use BCDEdit to modify BCD.
-/set Sets an entry option value.
-/store
This option can be used with most BCDedit commands to specify the store
to be used. If this option is not specified, then BCDEdit operates on
the system store.
So when you open cmd with the option “Run as adminstrator” you are in
C:Windowssystem32
and that is why system cannot find the file specified, so you must
specigy it c:BootBCD.
-bootmenupolicy [ Legacy | Standard ]
Defines the type of boot menu the system will use. For Windows 8.1,
Windows 8 and Windows RT the default is Standard. For Windows Server
2012 R2, Windows Server 2012, the default is Legacy. When Legacy is
selected, the Advanced options menu (F8) is available. When Standard is
selected, the boot menu will appear only under certain conditions: for
example, if there is a startup failure, if you are booting up from a
repair disk or installation media, if you have configured multiple boot
entries, or if you manually configured the computer to use Advanced
startup. When Standard is selected, the F8 key is ignored during boot.
Windows 8 PCs start up quickly so there isn’t enough time to press F8.
For more information, see Windows Startup Settings (including safe
mode).
Super! It works! Thanx!
it is pointless anyway, as usual in microsoft world, because if you have my problem, error code 0x00000074 (windows 8) doesn´t matter if you use Safe mode. Still, you will be stuck anyway in automtic repair, and you know that windows has never in his life repair anything. Thank God I have a Mac at home.
My computer screen is not turning on.
My computer screen won’t turn on after entering the command (I have an all in one)
Ok. Did the command and f8 now works. Although I got to safe mode… upon selecting safe mode, I am right back to the blue screen. It will NOT enter safe mode. Period. HP and Microsoft needs to be reported to the Federal Trade Commissioner (FTC). Selling crap computers with crap software . They got their money and we have to jump through hoops to fix what they knew was bunk? I don’t think so. I smell a joint action lawsuit!!! They either replace my shit or fix it at no charge. Done with this crap!
Hi my hubby’s windows 10 laptop has crashed and he can’t get the start up page to come on to get to safe mode, hope you’s guys can understand that because I’ve not got a clue about all this
Lenovo Windows 8.1 laptop :
Clicked on enable safe mode laptop just restarted and came back to we couldn’t complete the updates undoing changes tried to enable safe mode with networking and command prompt but all end up back at the couldn’t complete update page help this happened to me on my old laptop and had to do a hard reset and lost everything off my laptop
If there is already something wrong with your laptop this will not help you. This only enables the option to press F8 to enter safe mode. It does not mean if something is wrong with your computer safe mode will help you, maybe it will, maybe it wont. It depends what is wrong with your machine. However if you use this command if anything happens to you in the future you can easily get into safe mode and attempt to make repairs. It is a useful tweak because Microsoft has removed this feature in newer versions of windows and it used to be an easily accessible feature.
My problem is that windows will not open at all and just keeps telling me it is Diagnosing Your PC, then says the Repair cannot be made. I cannot get into the system to enter any commands at all. Is there a way to get to that F8 key? I am not even sure it would open if I did, though……..I think I am scuppered.
PS C:Windowssystem32> bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy legacy
The set command specified is not valid.
Run “bcdedit /?” for command line assistance.
The parameter is incorrect.
PS C:Windowssystem32>
BCD was probably edited by Aomei OneKey Recovery. Any idea how to enable perma-F8 in this case?