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Safe Mode in Windows

Last modified: 2012-02-28 16:18:14 EET

If Last Known Good Configuration did not solve your problem, try Safe Mode next.

In Safe Mode you can adjust all settings you might have changed before failure, remove or add drivers, uninstall or install some software (the ones that do not use Windows Installer for installing) and of course, remove hard-to-delete viruses and malware.
You can also use System Restore that is covered in next article.
If you need to forward errors or screenshots to IT support, get accustomed to the Take screenshots for troubleshooting in Windows and Use Problem Steps Recorder for troubleshooting in Windows 7 articles.

Safe Mode is still a limited mode, for several functions do not work at all. This is because only essential services are loaded to prevent malware and problematic programs/drivers from loading.

A big advantage of Safe Mode is that is checks and repairs all essential system files and if necessary, runs a disk check. This way, all trivial problems are solved just by starting Windows in that mode.

Again, you will have to press F8 key on your keyboard after the big logo or black screen with white texts appears.
On some computers you will see a boot selection after pressing F8, cancel that by pressing Esc key on your keyboard and then press F8 key again.

First you might see an operating system selection screen. Select the correct one with arrow keys and press Enter key. If you already pressed F8 repeatedly, this screen might not appear.

There are three different types of Safe Mode available, usually the first one works best. If you want to troubleshoot a device or its drivers, work with settings and registry, always choose the first one - pure Safe Mode!
If you really need access to the Internet while using Safe Mode (for example, for installing or updating anti-virus and antimalware programs), select Safe Mode with Networking instead.
Safe Mode with Command Prompt is not really of much use unless you know all different command-line programs by heart. We will not cover this mode here, as it is meant for advanced users only.
Choose your liking with arrow keys on your keyboard and press Enter to start it.
 

Windows will load and check essential files and drivers. Next, it checks if a disk is marked "dirty" due to messed files and failed shutdown or startup.
If none of disks is flagged as containing errors, Windows starts in Safe Mode right away.

If a disk or partition needs checking, hard drive activity indicator light will flash or stay on for several minutes or even up to half an hour. Disk check most commonly starts after loading mup.sys, classpnp.sys or crcdisk.sys. Do not turn off or restart your computer while the disk activity indicator light is on or flashes - you might cause severe damage to files on the disk!
If file system on your hard disk needs some thorough fixing, Windows might restart your computer once or twice before starting Safe Mode. In such cases, use F8 key again to choose Safe Mode, do not let Windows start normally.

In case your computer restarts more than three times without going to Safe Mode or it stops responding for more than 30 minutes during disk check, then Windows files are badly damaged and you will have to use other ways of repairing it (see next articles).
 

In Windows XP, you might see a black screen with "Safe Mode" written to every corner for a while. This is normal.
Then you will see your familiar logon screen. Click your user name, type your password and log on as usual. Both Start Menu and My Computer will have Classic look, because Windows themes are disabled in Safe Mode. Desktop background will be black with white "Safe Mode" written to all four corners of screen.
In Windows XP, a dialog asking to choose between Safe Mode and System Restore appears. Click Yes here to continue working in Safe Mode.
In Windows Vista and 7, Windows Help and Support will open a help page on Safe Mode. Close the window.
 

Anti-virus and anti-malware scanning in Safe Mode

You might want to run a full virus scan now - both avast! Free Antivirus and Microsoft Security Essentials work if you have one of these programs installed (do not install more than one anti-virus program!).  Please note that both these programs will report that real-time scanning is not working. Ignore such error messages - real-time anti-virus protection does not work in Safe Mode. Spybot Search and Destroy and Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware on-demand scanners also work to help with removing stubborn malware.

If using Safe Mode with Networking, you can even download and install avast! Free Antivirus, Spybot Search & Destroy or Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware! Perform a database update and then run a scan (see links above).

Events to ignore in Safe Mode

While in Safe Mode, always check for error and warning events in Event Viewer, this might help a lot. Ignore typical Safe Mode events such as DCOM "This service cannot be started in Safe Mode" (Event ID 10005) and events with ID 7001. These events happen because Safe Mode starts only essential services to help fighting malware or stop problematic drivers/programs from loading. Scroll down in events list to find the time when your computer was still working and see if there were any error or warning events at that time.

Uninstalling software in Safe Mode

If Windows problems appeared right after installing or updating a program, try uninstalling the ill-behaving software.
Please note that not all software can be uninstalled in Safe Mode! Programs that use Windows Installer for installing and uninstalling will give you a failure message.

To uninstall a program, click Start button or press Ctrl+Esc on your keyboard.
In Windows XP, click Control Panel and then open Add or Remove Programs.
In Windows Vista and 7, type "program" into Start menu Search Box and click Programs and Features.
 

The installed software list might take a while to build. After the list appears, find the program you want to uninstall.
In Windows XP, click the program and then click the Remove or Change/Remove button.
In Windows Vista and 7, right-click the program name and select Uninstall or Uninstall/Change.
 

Windows might ask if you want to remove the program. Click Yes.
If the program can be removed, its uninstaller will start. Follow its instructions and select "Uninstall" or "Remove" when needed.

You might see an error message "The Windows Installer Service could not be accessed". This means that this program cannot be removed in Safe Mode. Click OK here and try using System Restore instead.

Rolling back, disabling or uninstalling a driver in Safe Mode

If the problems appeared after installing or updating a driver, remove the troublesome one using Device Manager.
In Windows XP, use keyboard shortcut Windows Key+R to open Run dialog. You can also open Start menu and click Run for this. Type devmgmt.msc and click OK.
In Windows Vista and 7, press Ctrl+Esc on your keyboard to open Start Menu. Type "device manager" into Search box and click Device Manager.
 

Rolling back a driver in Device Manager

Use Roll Back Driver if the device was present before and worked fine until a driver update. You can roll back drivers only if the device had some other drivers installed before.

Find the device that caused trouble, right-click on its name and click Properties:

Now click on Driver tab above and then click on Roll Back Driver.

Answer Yes in Driver Package rollback dialog.

Disabling a device/driver in Device Manager

Disable a device if you want to verify that the device is causing problems with Windows starting or working properly. This is useful in case the hardware used to work fine and its driver has not been recently updated, but it seems to be causing trouble now.
Disabling is good for temporary testing and you do not have to reinstall its drivers if this device appears to be working well after all.

Find and right-click the device in question. Click Disable.

Answer Yes.

Uninstalling a device in Device Manager

Use Uninstall if you want to remove a device physically afterwards. Just removing the device from your computer might not give expected results because buggy drivers might still get loaded and cause trouble.

Find the device you want to remove and right-click it. Select Uninstall.

Click Yes.

After using Device Manager for rolling back a driver or disabling a device, restart your computer and see if Windows now works better.
If you uninstalled a driver, shut down your computer, unplug power cord and remove the hardware device. Then start Windows and check if everything works fine.

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