Safe Mode is the strip-bared version of any operating system, allowing for the resolution of conflicts, errors, and the like with minimal interference. If you have a hardware problem that is caused by lack of the required Windows 8 drivers, or if an update is causing your computer to crash often, you can run it in Safe Mode and fix the problem easily.
How Safe Mode allows this is by barring the use of external devices, as well as a lion’s share of your internal hardware. You will notice, for instance, that in Safe Mode, even your video resolution drops to minimum. You can get to the Safe Mode holding the Shift key down, and pressing F8 right until you see the boot message. From the recovery screen, select See Advanced Repair Options, and then click Troubleshoot.
Getting to the Troubleshoot button is all the easier if you still have access to the Charms bar. In that case, select the Settings icon and then press and hold down Shift key on your keyboard. Choose Power, followed by Restart, and then release the Shift key. You will see a Troubleshoot button on the screen; click that and then follow the instructions as follows.
Using Safe Mode
How Safe Mode allows this is by barring the use of external devices, as well as a lion’s share of your internal hardware. You will notice, for instance, that in Safe Mode, even your video resolution drops to minimum. You can get to the Safe Mode holding the Shift key down, and pressing F8 right until you see the boot message. From the recovery screen, select See Advanced Repair Options, and then click Troubleshoot.
Getting to the Troubleshoot button is all the easier if you still have access to the Charms bar. In that case, select the Settings icon and then press and hold down Shift key on your keyboard. Choose Power, followed by Restart, and then release the Shift key. You will see a Troubleshoot button on the screen; click that and then follow the instructions as follows.
Using Safe Mode
- When you are on the Troubleshoot screen, select Advanced Options. From the screen that appears, choose Startup Settings. After that, hit Restart to reboot the system and bring you back to this same screen.
- Here you have to select standard Safe Mode by pressing 4, or if you want Safe Mode with Networking mode, skip this step.
- You will see Safe Mode at all corners of the screen, and of course, the display will be of lower resolution. A Help window will pop up on the screen, telling you all about Safe Mode and how to use it.
- Use of external devices is not supported in this mode, and you cannot access any of the advanced features either. All you can do from here is check the system files and fix the issues with them.
- For Safe Mode with Networking mode, press 5. In this mode, you will have the network drivers and services loaded, enabling logging on to the network. Where the standard Safe Mode does not, this one lets you copy to and paste from network drives.
