If your PC is having trouble even getting to the stage where Windows loads, check out our guide on what to do when Windows won’t start for more help. Note: We’re talking here specifically about if your PC is able to power on and successfully run through its hardware initialization, but then cannot load Windows successfully. If your PC won’t start Windows normally twice in a row, it should automatically present you with a “Recovery” option that lets you see advanced repair options. Using either of these methods (Shift+Restart or the Settings app) takes you to the recovery environment, which we’ll discuss just a bit later in our section on the second step of this process. In the right pane, scroll down a bit, and then click the “Restart Now” button in the “Advanced Startup” section. In the left pane, switch to the “Recovery” tab. Press Windows+I to open Settings, and then click the “Update & Security” option. You can also get to the recovery environment through your Settings app. How you get there depends on whether your PC can start Windows normally or not. The recovery environment includes a number of troubleshooting options, and Safe Mode is one of them. Most of the ways you access Safe Mode involve getting into the Windows recovery environment first. Step One: Get to the Advanced Troubleshooting Tools in the Recovery Environment We’ll note any differences where they occur.

Note: This article is written using screenshots from Windows 10, but the techniques work pretty much the same way in Windows 8. RELATED: How to Use Safe Mode to Fix Your Windows PC (and When You Should)

The good news is that getting into Safe Mode is doable. And even on PCs that still support it, Windows startup (and particularly the handoff between the regular boot process and Windows startup) happens so much faster now, you barely have time to press the key. The trouble is that some computer manufacturers disable this option. From there, you can boot into Safe Mode (and we’ll talk about that environment a bit later. If you mash the F8 key at just the right time (or get lucky spamming the key during boot up), Windows might still take you to a screen that lets you get into the recovery environment. For a long time this has been achieved by pressing the F8 key, this all changes with Windows 10 and its Automatic Repair mode. One of the most common steps when troubleshooting a PC is to boot into Safe Mode.

How to enter safe mode on note 4