What's your safe word?

Since the release of Windows 10 getting into SAFE Mode has become both harder and easier all at once.

If your PC is running you can simply HOLD down the SHIFT key and choose RESTART from any of the places you can find it. The PC will reboot and give you some options to choose from including safe mode and various other troubleshooting options.

But, if you can't do that for some reason...and there's been plenty of times when I haven't been able to do that...you're kinda stuffed...or so it seems.

The potentially familiar F8 press at boot up (or SHIFT F8) is no longer available to Windows 10 users.

So how the hell do you get into safe mode?

Well, turns out there are some other methods that we average folk aren't privy to.

In fact, according to this article: https://www.digitalcitizen.life/4-ways-boot-safe-mode-windows-10

There are 8 ways to get into safe mode on Windows 10.

The problem is that only 3 of those options work when you don't have a "working" machine, and by working I mean for some reason the system starts up but you aren't able to access the menu, login etc.

For me option "2. Interrupt the normal boot process of Windows 10 three times in a row" is the go-to replacement for being able hit (SHIFT) F8 at boot-up time.

It is worth noting that, in theory, F8 and SHIFT F8 do still work. It is just that the modern boot sequence is too fast for most of us to be able to press the key fast enough to interrupt it. yeah, sure. Anyway...refer to point 8. of the article for more information on that.

Happy booting. Although, if you need it I guess not much "happy" is going on right now.

David