It is very common that for one reason or another, you will find yourself needing to boot up into safe mode. This might be due to knowledge you already have, or it may be on the advice of a computer technician. But what is safe mode and how to you start up into safe mode?

Safe mode is a diagnostic tool that can be very useful when troubleshooting conflicts on the system. It is especially useful for when the system starts locking up every time it boots up normally, or when it displays very strange behavior or errors when it is started.

When you start up in safe mode, only the drivers that are necessary for the function of the computer actually start up. This means that if there is a problem with a program that was recently installed, causing a conflict or similar, the program will not load when you start the computer, so you can repair or remove it.

Some functions on the computer, such as scandisk/checkdisk and defrag will work better if you are in safe mode when you run them. The reason is that there are no other programs running that are trying to access or write to the hard drive, so the utilities don't need to continually restart or work against other programs in order to have their share of resources on the system. In fact, sometimes the only way to run the utilities may be when you are in safe mode. In any event, they will run quicker and more efficiently if the system is in safe mode.

Since Windows 95, all versions of Windows have had a safe mode startup. Most are very similar to initiate, the exceptions being some versions of Windows NT on some systems. (Note: Both Windows XP and Windows Vista are versions of NT, however the steps for getting into safe mode are the same as with Windows 95, 98, and ME.)

To get into safe mode:

1. Start or restart the computer.

2. When the system is starting up, continually tap the F5 key on the keyboard (see alternate method below) until you receive the notification on the screen that the startup files are being bypassed.

3. Allow the system to boot completely up. You are in safe mode, and this should be displayed in the corners of the screen.

Don't worry if the display looks pretty strange. Safe mode loads only necessary video drivers, so the colors and pictures can look unusual. Once you boot up again normally, everything should look right again, provided that the problem is fixed.

As mentioned in step two above, there is an alternate way to get into safe mode, though it is similar. Instead of tapping the F5 key, repeatedly tap the F8 key. This will give you a menu of choices and you can simply select Safe Mode.

For some versions of NT, the above won't get you into safe mode, but you can restart the computer while holding down the Shift key to have the computer start in safe mode.

Safe mode is a powerful tool that can enable you to do many troubleshooting steps that simply aren't possible in other ways. This running mode is widely used by computer technicians and technical engineers to fix computer problems. However, there is no reason that the average computer user can't use safe mode to help them with problems they come up against, so they don't need to call tech support.

Check out this tool and get used to its functions. Using Safe Mode can save a lot of time and effort, and could let you troubleshoot your own system, without relying on someone else to do it for you.

Learn more about this author, Rex Trulove.
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