Safe Mode Q

[rooster]

I've recently moved from W98 to XP. I don't seem to be able to figure
out the new regime to start in Safe Mode. According to the, "Help and
Support Center", for "Windows XP Home Edition", I see the following:

" Click Start,
click Shut Down, and then, in the drop-down list,
click Shut down*.

In the Shut Down Windows dialog box,
click Restart, and then
click OK.

When you see the message "Please select the operating system to start",
press F8.

Use the arrow keys to highlight the appropriate safe mode option, and then
press ENTER. "

However, when I click "Start", my display says; "Turn off Computer", not
"Shut Down"*.
If I click , "Turn off Computer", I get a window with 3 options: "Stand By",
"Turn Off" and "Restart".
If I click "Shut Down"* as the instruction says, no further options appear.
The unit simply alerts that, "Windows is shutting down". And it does.
Likewise, if I click on, "Restart", I get the same notice and Windows
restarts. There is no, "OK" offered, neither is there a message saying,
"Please select the operating system to start".

I tried this in both Windows Classic Style and in the XP Style just to see
if it made a difference. It didn't.

What's the trick?

rooster

 

[Daniel Crichton]

rooster wrote on Mon, 4 Jul 2005 02:05:23 -0700:

I've recently moved from W98 to XP. I don't seem to be able to figure
out the new regime to start in Safe Mode. According to the, "Help and
Support Center", for "Windows XP Home Edition", I see the following:

" Click Start,
click Shut Down, and then, in the drop-down list,
click Shut down*.

In the Shut Down Windows dialog box,
click Restart, and then
click OK.

When you see the message "Please select the operating system to start",
press F8.

Use the arrow keys to highlight the appropriate safe mode option, and then
press ENTER. "

However, when I click "Start", my display says; "Turn off Computer", not
"Shut Down"*.
If I click , "Turn off Computer", I get a window with 3 options: "Stand
By", "Turn Off" and "Restart".
If I click "Shut Down"* as the instruction says, no further options
appear. The unit simply alerts that, "Windows is shutting down". And it
does. Likewise, if I click on, "Restart", I get the same notice and
Windows restarts. There is no, "OK" offered, neither is there a message
saying, "Please select the operating system to start".

I tried this in both Windows Classic Style and in the XP Style just to see
if it made a difference. It didn't.

What's the trick?

rooster

Turn off Fast User Switching to get the different shut down text. It still
does the same thing though - the important part is pressing F8 on startup to
get to Safe Mode, the text on the buttons is irrelevant. The message should
appear just before the Windows XP logo screen starts up - if you don't see
it, just restart again and press the F8 key a few times just after the BIOS
POST finishes.

Dan

 

[Guest]

Wow.....

First of all, what did you think was going to happen when you chose shut
down vrs restart?

you have one OS, so you don't get a choice of a start up menu.

You can change this.

right click my computer, go to properties, advanced tab, start up button,
and modify the settins to display the startup menu.

A better way to do this would be to install the recovery console.

Using the winxp cd type from run or a cmd prompt x:\i386\winnt32 /cmdcons
replacing x: with the letter of your CDROM drive.

Since you are obviously concerned with troubleshooting tools, this is a
great one.

After you install this you will have a boot menu.

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi,

How to start in Safe mode:
http://www.rickrogers.org/fixes.htm#Safe mode

It doesn't work quite as easily as those instructions, and obviously you
want to choose the restart option and not shutdown.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Richard Urban]

Immediately after energizing your computer, start tapping the F8 key, about
once per second. You will be taken to the selective startup menu where you
can choose one of about 8, or so, startup options.

If you have one of those specialized keyboards, such as a Microsoft Office
keyboard, that has an F-Lock key, the F-Lock key must be activated first
before the F8 key can be applied!

--
Regards,

Richard Urban

If you knew as much as you thought you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[rooster]

Dan;



Thanks. “Turn off Fast User Switching”. I don’t remember having this feature
in W98, so it was never an issue.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`



Manny;



<snip>

“First of all, what did you think was going to happen when you chose shut
down vrs restart? “

<snip>

I was just following the directions.



<snip>

“right click my computer, go to properties, advanced tab, start up button,
and modify the settins to display the startup menu”

<snip>

This is another new option I didn’t have in W98. In XP, there is a check box
for, “Time to Display list of Operating Systems”, which had been pre-set at.
“0”. I re-set it for “10 secs”. This pre-setting prevented me from seeing
the Boot Menu-sequence on restarts.



Windows XP CD

Mine is an OEM version which only comes with a, “Restore CD”. To do what you
suggest, vis., the “Recovery Console”, I think I would have to pull it out
from the .cab files. Being a bit of a Newbie, I’m fuzzy on what the,
“Recovery Console”, would actually accomplish vis à vis accessing Safe Mode,
as opposed to what I understand to be it’s purpose; which is, to execute
commands within Safe Mode. Turning off the Fast User Switching, modifying
the, “Time to Display…”, option and hitting the F8 key when starting seems
to have done the job.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Richard;



Yup; that and activating the, “Time to Display…” box has done the job.



Thanks to all of you for your help.



rooster

 

[Kelly]

Go to Start/Run/Msconfig. Boot.Ini and check off /SafeBoot. Apply/Ok,
reboot.
Note: Before leaving safe mode, revert.

Description of Safe Boot Mode in Windows
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q202/4/85.asp

Safe-Mode Boot Switches for Windows Boot.ini File
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q239/7/80.asp

Another option: Add Safe Mode to the Boot Screen

Use as an example/guideline: Go to Start/Run and type in: C:\boot.ini and
copy/add what you want (Safe Mode or with Command Prompt), then save,
reboot.

Normal, Safe Mode and Command Prompt.

[boot loader]
timeout =15
default = multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS = "Windows XP Normal"
/fastdetect /sos)

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS = "Windows XP SAFE
Mode"/safeboot:minimal)

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS = "XP SAFE Mode with
Command Prompt" /safeboot:minimal(alternateshell)

--

All the Best,
Kelly (MS-MVP)

Troubleshooting Windows XP
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com

 

[Daniel Crichton]

rooster wrote on Mon, 4 Jul 2005 12:25:30 -0700:

Thanks. “Turn off Fast User Switching”. I don’t remember having this
feature in W98, so it was never an issue.

It's one of the new features of Windows XP, which is the first Windows OS to
have this.

This is another new option I didn’t have in W98. In XP, there is a check
box for, “Time to Display list of Operating Systems”, which had been
pre-set at. “0”. I re-set it for “10 secs”. This pre-setting prevented me
from seeing the Boot Menu-sequence on restarts.

This is something that you would have previously seen if you'd run another
NT based OS (Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003). It's
default is zero - however, you can still get to the menu even when set like
this by pressing the F8 during the boot sequence starting at the end of the
BIOS POST summary (just keep pressing it until the boot menu appears).

Windows XP CD

Mine is an OEM version which only comes with a, “Restore CD”. To do what
you suggest, vis., the “Recovery Console”, I think I would have to pull it
out from the .cab files. Being a bit of a Newbie, I’m fuzzy on what the,
“Recovery Console”, would actually accomplish vis à vis accessing Safe
Mode, as opposed to what I understand to be it’s purpose; which is, to
execute commands within Safe Mode. Turning off the Fast User Switching,
modifying the, “Time to Display…”, option and hitting the F8 key when
starting seems to have done the job.

The Recovery Console won't get you into Safe Mode - it's a command line
diagnostics and recovery tool for fixing issues that prevent you from
getting into Windows.

You can turn Fast User Switching (FUS) back on, just remember that the
button labels have changed. Without FUS enabled you won't be able to switch
user accounts in XP and leave applications running (I do this a lot at home
as I leave IRC and other apps running while my wife uses her account to
check her email and browse QVC ). If you only ever use one account then
you'll probably never use FUS anyway.

Dan