Start your PC in safe mode in Windows 10

Safe mode starts Windows in a basic state, using a limited set of files and drivers. If a problem doesn’t happen in safe mode, this means that default settings and basic device drivers aren’t causing the issue. Observing Windows in safe mode enables you to narrow down the source of a problem, and can help you troubleshoot problems on your PC.

There are two versions of safe mode: Safe Mode and Safe Mode with Networking. Safe Mode with Networking adds the network drivers and services you’ll need to access the Internet and other computers on your network.

Select from the following sections to find out how to start your PC in safe mode from Settings, from the sign-in screen, or from a black or blank screen.

Press Windows logo key + I on your keyboard to open Settings. If that doesn’t work, select the Start button, then select Settings .

Under Advanced startup, select Restart now.

After your PC restarts to the Choose an option screen, select Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Startup Settings > Restart. You may be asked to enter your BitLocker recovery key.

After your PC restarts, you’ll see a list of options. Select 4 or press F4 to start your PC in Safe Mode. Or if you’ll need to use the Internet, select 5 or press F5 for Safe Mode with Networking.

When you can’t open Settings to get into safe mode, restart your device from the Windows sign-in screen.

On the Windows sign-in screen, press and hold the Shift key while you select the Power > Restart .

After your PC restarts to the Choose an option screen, select Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Startup Settings > Restart. You may be asked to enter your BitLocker recovery key.

After your PC restarts, you’ll see a list of options. Select 4 or F4 to start your PC in safe mode. Or if you’ll need to use the Internet, select 5 or F5 for Safe Mode with Networking.

Note: If you’ve encrypted your device, you’ll need your BitLocker key to start in safe mode.

Before you enter safe mode, you need to enter the Windows Recovery Environment (winRE). To do this, you will repeatedly turn your device off, then on:

Hold down the power button for 10 seconds to turn off your device.

Press the power button again to turn on your device.

On the first sign that Windows has started (for example, some devices show the manufacturer’s logo when restarting) hold down the power button for 10 seconds to turn off your device.

Press the power button again to turn on your device.

When Windows restarts, hold down the power button for 10 seconds to turn off your device.

Press the power button again to turn on your device.

Allow your device to fully restart. You will enter winRE.

Now that you are in winRE, you will follow these steps to take you to safe mode:

On the Choose an option screen, select Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Startup Settings > Restart.

After your device restarts, you’ll see a list of options. Select option 5 from the list or press F5 for Safe Mode with Networking.

If you need more info on a black or blank screen error, see Troubleshoot black or blank screen errors.

Notes: If you need to exit safe mode, simply restart your device, or:

Press the Windows logo key + R.

Type msconfig in the Open box and then select OK.

Select the Boot tab.

Under Boot options, clear the Safe boot checkbox.

Windows Setup: Installing using the MBR or GPT partition style

When installing Windows on UEFI-based PCs using Windows Setup, your hard drive partition style must be set up to support either UEFI mode or legacy BIOS-compatibility mode.

For example, if you receive the error message: “Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk is not of the GPT partition style”, it’s because your PC is booted in UEFI mode, but your hard drive is not configured for UEFI mode. You’ve got a few options:

Reboot the PC in legacy BIOS-compatibility mode. This option lets you keep the existing partition style. For more info, see Boot to UEFI Mode or Legacy BIOS mode.

Configure your drive for UEFI by using the GPT partition style. This option lets you use the PC’s UEFI firmware features.

You can preserve your data and convert the drive using the MBR2GPT tool. You can also choose to reformat the drive using the instructions below. Reformatting will erase all the data on the drive.

Why should I convert my drive?

Many PCs now include the ability to use the UEFI version of BIOS, which can speed up boot and shutdown times and can provide additional security advantages. To boot your PC in UEFI mode, you’ll need to use a drive formatted using the GPT drive format.

Many PCs are ready to use UEFI, but include a compatibility support module (CSM) that is set up to use the legacy version of BIOS. This version of BIOS was developed in the 1970s and provides compatibility to a variety of older equipment and network configurations, and requires a drive that uses the MBR drive format.

However, the basic MBR drive format does not support drives over 4TB. It’s also difficult to set up more than four partitions. The GPT drive format lets you set up drives that are larger than 4 terabytes (TB), and lets you easily set up as many partitions as you need.

Reformatting the drive using a different partition style

To wipe and convert the drive by using Windows Setup

Turn off the PC, and put in the Windows installation DVD or USB key.

Boot the PC to the DVD or USB key in UEFI mode. For more info, see Boot to UEFI Mode or Legacy BIOS mode.

When choosing an installation type, select Custom.

On the Where do you want to install Windows? screen, select each of the partitions on the drive, and select Delete. The drive will show a single area of unallocated space.

Select the unallocated space and click Next. Windows detects that the PC was booted into UEFI mode, and reformats the drive using the GPT drive format, and begins the installation.

To manually wipe a drive and convert it to GPT:

Turn off the PC, and put in the Windows installation DVD or USB key.

Boot the PC to the DVD or USB key in UEFI mode. For more info, see Boot to UEFI Mode or Legacy BIOS mode.

From inside Windows Setup, press Shift+F10 to open a command prompt window.

Open the diskpart tool:

Identify the drive to reformat:

Select the drive, and reformat it:

Close the command prompt window.

Continue the Windows Setup installation.

When choosing an installation type, select Custom. The drive will appear as a single area of unallocated space.

Select the unallocated space and click Next. Windows begins the installation.

Make sure Windows Setup boots to the correct firmware mode

To automate this process, you’ll need to run Windows Setup through Windows PE, and use a script to detect which mode you’re in before installing Windows. For more info, see WinPE: Boot in UEFI or legacy BIOS mode.

Windows Setup Supported Platforms and Cross-Platform Deployments

This topic describes the supported platforms and deployment scenarios for running for Windows Setup.

When you’re deploying different types of PCs, you can use Windows Setup as a way to choose between your images through the Windows Setup user interface to select a specific image. You can include images for a variety of hardware platforms (such as BIOS and UEFI, 32-bit and 64-bit PCs), and across different versions of Windows (such as Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2, and Windows 7).

You can also run Windows Setup through a script. Boot the PC to Windows PE, and then use the \sources\setup.exe file to specify your image.

Firmware considerations: BIOS vs. UEFI

For UEFI-based PCs that support booting into either UEFI or legacy BIOS modes, make sure your PC is booted into the correct firmware mode before starting Windows Setup. Otherwise, Windows Setup may set up the hard drive partitions incorrectly, or may abort the installation if the hard drives are preconfigured. For more information, see WinPE: Boot in UEFI or legacy BIOS mode.

Firmware: BIOS 32-bit and 64-bit

To set up a single environment or set of scripts that can deploy Windows to both 32-bit and 64-bit BIOS PCs, use a 32-bit version of Windows PE and a 32-bit version of Windows Setup.

The 64-bit version of Windows Setup does not run on the 32-bit version of Windows PE.

To install a 64-bit version of Windows from a 32-bit version of Windows PE:

Boot the PC using the 32-bit version of Windows PE.

Use any of the following techniques to install a 64-bit version of Windows:

Run a 32-bit version of Windows Setup, and use the /InstallFrom command-line option to select a 64-bit Windows image:

Run a 32-bit version of Windows Setup, and use the Microsoft-Windows-Setup\ImageInstall\OSImage\ InstallFrom unattend setting to select a 64-bit Windows image.

Use image-capturing tools to apply a 64-bit version of Windows to the PC.

WarningВ В This procedure does not support deploying Windows 7.

Using Windows Setup to Install Previous Versions of Windows

You can use the Windows 8.1 and WindowsВ Server 2012 R2 versions of Windows Setup to install previous versions of Windows:

WindowsВ Server 2012 R2

Windows ServerВ 2012

Windows ServerВ 2008В R2

Windows ServerВ 2008

Windows XP with SP3

Windows Server 2003 R2 and previous versions

Windows XP with SP2 and previous versions

You can also run Windows Setup from the Windows Preinstallation Environment (WindowsВ PE). The following table lists the supported WindowsВ PE environments:

Host Operating System	Windows 8.1 Setup Support

Windows 8.1 Setup

WindowsВ 8 Setup

WindowsВ 7 Setup

WindowsВ Vista Setup

Cross-Platform Deployment

Cross-platform deployment is the process of installing a specific architecture of Windows from an environment of a different architecture. For example, you can deploy a 64-bit edition of Windows 8.1 or WindowsВ 8 from a 32-bit edition of WindowsВ PE. The benefit of using a cross-platform deployment solution is that you don’t have to maintain multiple versions of WindowsВ PE for installing different architecture editions of Windows. You can build a single WindowsВ PE image that you can use to install both 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows.

When you install a 64-bit edition of Windows from a 32-bit version of WindowsВ PE, you must use WindowsВ PEВ 2.0 or a later version. For more information about WindowsВ PE releases, see WinPE for Windows 10.

The following table lists the different architecture types of Windows images (32-bit or 64-bit) that a specific version of Windows 8.1 Setup is able to install.

Version of Windows Setup	Windows PE 5.0 (Windows 8.1)	WindowsВ PE 4.0 (WindowsВ 8)	WindowsВ PE 3.0 (WindowsВ 7)	WindowsВ PE 2.0 (WindowsВ Vista)

64-bit Windows 8.1 Setup

32-bit Windows 8.1 Setup

Limitations of cross-platform deployment

These cross-platform deployment scenarios aren’t supported:

Installing a 64-bit Windows image on a 32-bit computer.

Deploying a 32-bit Windows image from a 64-bit preinstallation environment.

Using a 32-bit version of Windows Setup to upgrade a 64-bit operating system.

Using a 32-bit version of WindowsВ 8 Setup to deploy a 64-bit version of the WindowsВ 7 operating system.

For example, you must use a 64-bit version of WindowsВ 8 Setup to deploy a 64-bit version of WindowsВ 7. In previous releases, the version of Windows Setup version had to match the operating system that you would deploy. For example, you had to use the WindowsВ 7 Setup.exe to install WindowsВ 7.

Using Microsoft Internet SCSI (iSCSI) boot disk in a cross-platform deployment scenario.

For example, installing Windows (64-bit version) from cross-platform media, such as Windows PE (32-bit version), to an iSCSI boot disk is unsupported. You must use the same architecture for Windows PE as the target deployment architecture when you deploy Windows to an iSCSI boot disk.

On Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI), deploying a 64-bit edition of Windows from a 32-bit version of WindowsВ PE. On some UEFI computers, you can’t install Windows in BIOS-compatibility mode and must switch to UEFI-compatibility mode. For more information, see Boot to UEFI Mode or Legacy BIOS mode.

Performing cross-platform deployments, except as part of a clean installation, or performing a Windows Deployment Services deployment.

Providing cross-platform installation media to users for recovery.

To prevent users from installing the wrong edition of Windows for the architecture of their computer, don’t provide cross-platform installation media to users for recovery or reinstallation. Also, the Windows Recovery Environment (WindowsВ RE) feature that’s included on the media applies only to 32-bit Windows installations.

Creating a .wim file for multiple architecture types

If a .wim file contains both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows editions, you must select the Windows image that you want to install. Typically, Windows Setup uses the product key that you specify in the ProductKey setting to determine which Windows image to install. But if the file contains 2 editions of the same Windows version, like Windows 8.1 Pro, you must use the MetaData setting in an answer file to specify the edition to install.

To choose an image, specify metadata that corresponds to the image index, name, description, or architecture type. For the metadata for architecture type, use 0В for 32-bit editions and 9В for 64-bit editions. For more info, see the MetaData В Key setting.

The answer file must include processor-specific components. The answer-file settings in the windowsPE configuration pass must match the architecture type of the preinstallation environment. The settings that apply to the Windows image must match the architecture type of the image. For example, if you create an answer file that deploys 64-bit images from a 32-bit preinstallation environment, all components in the answer file for the windowsPE configuration pass must include the processor attribute type of x86. Settings to be applied in the specialize, oobeSystem, or other configuration passes must include the processor attribute type of amd64.

Installing 64-bit drivers

All drivers that are included with Windows are signed. In cross-architecture deployments, you can use an out-of-box device driver. But if you use an unsigned out-of-box device driver that’s boot critical in a 64-bit installation, the installation may become unusable.

You can install 64-bit drivers for a Windows image during WindowsВ Setup in either of these ways:

In attended installations, you can press F6 or click the Load Driver button on the Disk Configuration page of Windows Setup.

In unattended installations, you can use the Microsoft-Windows-PnpCustomizationsWinPE or Microsoft-Windows-PnpCustomizationsNonWinPE component in an answer file to specify a driver path. For more information about how to automate your installation, see Automate Windows Setup.

Hardware considerations: Encrypted Hard Drives (e-Drives)

We added support for Encrypted Hard Drive Devices (also known as E-Drives) in WindowsВ 8, Windows ServerВ 2012, and WindowsВ PE 4.0.

To install a previous version of Windows (examples: WindowsВ 7 or WindowsВ Vista) to an Encrypted Hard Drive Device, use WindowsВ PE 4.0 or later.

64-Bit Windows 8.1 image	32-bit Windows 8.1 image	64-Bit WindowsВ 8 image	32-bit WindowsВ 8 image