How can I get into safe mode when dual booted with windows 8?

cryptoncore · 15 Jul 2013

Hello everyone, I'm not sure if I am allowed to post this on here since its partially about windows 8, so if it's not allowed then I apologize.

First off I have a 2TB internal HDD and 1.75TB of that is for windows 7 the rest for 8, and everything runs okay at the moment as I symlinked my steam games.

Anyway, I can access windows 8 safe mode easily enough through the select operating system screen, but how do I now access windows 7's safe mode? it must be possible, preferably without booting into it.

I may not have looked hard enough and if it's extremely simple I'm going to feel stupid

nommy the first · 15 Jul 2013

Hello Cryptoncore,

You might be interested in option two and three in this tutorial.

If you want it the easy way (which I recommend), you might want to read this tutorial (it is on Eight Forums, but this works on both Windows 7 and 8), it will explain how to add all boot options to your context menu, which is very useful in both Windows 7 and 8.

Good luck and keep us posted,
Nommy

Ztruker · 15 Jul 2013

The problem with adding it to the Context menu is that it doesn't help if your computer won't boot. F8 is no longer supported. Another great tutorial by Brink solves that problem, if you remember to set it up before you can't boot the computer.

Safe Mode - Add to Windows Boot Manager in Windows 8

gregrocker · 15 Jul 2013

Did you try tapping F8 immediately after you choose Win7 on the Dual Boot menu? This is when it should be accessible, in the preboot environment.

This may have changed with Win8 managed Dual Boot. In the past for example with Asus which uses F8 for BIOS boot menu key, you had to wait til it got past BIOS but just before it boots Windows to access F8 Advanced Boot Options. Kinda tricky.

Metalman · 15 Jul 2013

See if this helps.

Win + X keyboard combination and launch and elevated command prompt.

bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy legacy

If you want to return the boot menu back to normal, you can use this command:

bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy standard

cryptoncore · 16 Jul 2013

Ztrucker! Thank you very much that is perfect! I now have 4 options when i boot with 30 seconds to decide between#:
Windows 8 Pro, windows 8 safe mode, windows 7 ultimate and windows 7 safe mode. Brinks guide worked a treat.

Solved :)

Ztruker · 16 Jul 2013

Glad to hear it. You can reduce the length of time to between 3 and 30 seconds. I have mine set at 3 seconds. If I'm not sure in that time I press Esc which terminates the timer then I have as long as I want to chose.