Shankar Ganesh

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Windows XP: How to add Safe Mode to Boot list?

with 11 comments

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Once in a while, you might want to switch to the Safe Mode in Windows during boot to solve some problems on your computer.

If you find it hard to boot into safe mode by pressing the F8 key – you can add the safe mode to the Windows XP boot list. Windows will now ask you whether you want to boot into the normal or safe mode everytime you switch on your computer.

To do this, try the following steps:

  • Go to Control Panel >> System
  • In the Advanced Tab, click the Edit button under Startup and Recovery
  • Add the following entry to the boot.ini file that opens up:

    multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)WINDOWS=”Microsoft Windows XP Professional Safe Mode” /fastdetect /safeboot:minimal /sos /bootlog

  • Save the file and exit by pressing Apply, OK
  • Restart your PC

You now have to options – to enter into the Normal Mode or get into Windows XP using the safe mode.

Written by admin

June 24th, 2007 at 1:09 pm

Posted in windows tips/tweaks

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  • http://tech4sure.blogspot.com/ Ashish Saini (Ashfame)

    Thanks for sharing the method but this trick doesnt do much good cuz you this will increase your boot time by a few seconds. Although you can choose default boot to normal boot but still it wastes few seconds, I wont mind pressing F8 key multiple time when i need to boot in safe mode.
    ———————————————————
    And why you change the theme Shankar, it was awesome except it doesn’t match with image ads but it was really good!

  • http://daily-tech-news.blogspot.com/ Ramkarthik

    Shankar, cool article buddy. I would love to try this.

  • http://blogs.mysites-advisor.com Ken Xu

    Stumbled! :mrgreen:

  • http://www.nirmaltv.com Nirmal

    Yesterday I had to start my system in safe mode because of some error in XP. :D

  • http://www.shankarganesh.com/ Shankar Ganesh

    @Ashfame: Yeah, you’re right but this is for those people who need to boot into safe mode often ;) Don’t ask me why they need to do that often :D
    @Ram: Hope it’ll be useful to you.
    @Ken: Thank you very much for the stumble
    @Nirmal: Hmm.. thanks for dropping by :D

  • http://www.whoismadhur.com Madhur Kapoor

    A nice and simple trick .

  • http://nextel-i90.blogspot.com/ nextel-i90

    Welcome friends!
    My best home site – Nextel i90!!!

  • aleem

    Hello guys, its good artical, but the problem i have may not be solved with above mentioned solution.
    I can not boot in to safe mode by pressing F8. on boot up pressing F8 takes me to page with few other options (safe mode, start in normal mode, start with command prompt etc etc) so when the timer goes to zero or i chose to go into safe mode it brings me back to the same page over and over each time i click on safe mode. In other words it will not take me into safe mode.
    Now the thing is if i do as said by the topic starter edit Boot.ini file in XP then it will take me into loop forever which means i’ll not be able to start windows in normal mode neither it will go to safe mode. i have already tried it. SO HAS ANYONE GOT ANY SOLUTION TO IT HOW I GO INTO SAFE MODE ??

  • aleem

    ADDITIONAL INFO: I HAVE 200GB OF HD without any partition, but i formatted the full HD in FAT32. Would this be the cause of problem not getting to safe mode ?

  • http://samira-mp3.blogspot.com samira-mp3

    Good work!!!
    Welcome dear friends on tne my blog with Samira!!!

  • Minxco2

    @aleem : HD 200GB witout partition 0o0..? are you using windows xp? windows xp best used NTFS.. F8 best way :)