How to enable the F8 key for booting Windows 10/11 into Safe Mode
Enjoy today's featured easy-to-follow tech tip.
Rick's Daily Tech Tips Update for Tuesday, December 3, 2024
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Today’s featured tech tip…
How to enable the F8 key for booting Windows 10/11 into Safe Mode
In Windows 7 (and earlier versions) we could easily boot our computers into Safe Mode by repeatedly pressing the F8 key when Windows first started loading.
Starting with Windows 8, Microsoft disabled that option in order to help speed up the boot process. Personally, I have never been very fond of that change.
If you miss being able to press F8 to boot into Safe Mode on your Windows 10/11 machine, you can easily enable it with a simple command line entry.
Enabling the F8 key at Windows Startup will slow down the boot process just a tad, but I happen to believe the trade-off is worth it. Here’s how to do it”
1 - Click the Start button and type the letters CMD into the Search box. The words "Command Prompt" should pop up in the search results pane.
2 - Right-click on Command Prompt and select Run as administrator from the drop-down menu.
Note: Click Yes if a "User Account Control" window appears. You should now see a "Command Prompt" dialog box.
3 - Copy and paste the following line after the command prompt, then press the Enter key:
bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy legacy
You should now see a message stating "The operation completed successfully". If not, double-check the entry above and re-paste it after the command prompt.
4 - Click the X at the top-right corner of the window to close the "Command Prompt" dialog box.
That's all there is to it. The F8 key should now be enabled for booting into Safe Mode.
From now on when you need to boot your PC into Safe Mode, simply start tapping the F8 key at the very beginning of the boot process and keep tapping it until the "Advanced Boot Options" menu appears.
From there you'll be able to select either Safe Mode or Safe Mode with Networking to finish booting the system into Safe Mode.
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Picture of the Day...
“Morning in Germany”
Today’s POTD features a very colorful morning scene from the countryside of rural Germany. I hope you like it.
Bonus tips from some the web’s best Tech sites...
Every day I hand-pick five of the best tips I found on my favorite tech sites and share them with you, my wonderful subscribers. Here is today’s selection:
• How to clear a specific website from your Firefox history
• Keep your packages safe: How to ship to and use an Amazon Locker
• How to create free AI images with Microsoft Designer
• Every MacBook owner needs to know this display hack
• Ads could come to ChatGPT in the future
Today's post from 'Living (and loving) Life'...
How to add an electrical outlet to a finished wall (without attic or basement access)
Today’s tech news headlines...
• Apple accused of snooping on workers’ iPhones in new lawsuit
• Tesla Model 3, Model Y and Cybertruck owners finally get SiriusXM access
• This worrying new phishing attack is going after Microsoft 365 accounts
• New research hints wearables could one day sense our emotions
• Tesla’s robotaxis and robots will be controlled remotely - by humans
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Thanks so much, and have an amazing day.
Your tech buddy,
Rick Rouse
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