Hi, John.
If you can boot WinXP normally, there are at least two ways to force your
computer to reboot into Safe Mode.
The simplest is to Run msconfig.exe and choose Diagnostic Startup, then
reboot.
The other way is a bit more complicated. Go to System Properties | Advanced
| Startup and Recovery Settings. Click the Edit button to open C:\boot.ini
in Notepad. Find the line under [operating systems] that points to your
normal WinXP; it probably looks something like mine, although the numbers in
the parentheses may be different for your computer and you may have
different parameters after the label in quotes:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect
Copy that line and paste it immediately, giving you two copies of the line.
Then, at the end of one copy of that line, add the parameter "/safeboot", so
that one line looks like this:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect /safeboot
And, so that YOU can tell the difference (it won't matter to the computer),
edit the label between the quotes. Your line then might look like:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional (Safe Mode)" /fastdetect /safeboot
Then Exit Notepad, saving your changes. Back on the Startup and Recovery
page, under Default operating system, your new line should appear on the
drop-down menu. Choose Safe Mode as your default. OK your way back to the
Desktop and reboot. (All this is easier to do than to explain.)
This default to Safe Mode setting will persist through reboots until you
change it. So, when your maintenance is done and you want to return to
booting normally, come back to this Startup and Recovery Settings page and
choose your original default. (Note that this is also where you can change
the time the operating system menu stays onscreen at each reboot; 30 seconds
is too long when things are working right, so I've reduced it to 5 seconds
on my computer. This gives me time to press F8 if I want to boot into Safe
Mode without editing Boot.ini again.)
RC
