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Have Microsoft themselves ever answered the glaring question about Safe Mode?

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Billiam29

Billiam29

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I was just curious if anyone ever recalls seeing an actual response from Microsoft as to why they pulled the ability to boot into Safe Mode from a powered-off or POST state.

I just spent a few minutes searching again and found the same thing that I always have, just conjecture from other end users that it has to do with fast startup. That seems logical but I have never seen anything actually from Microsoft on the subject.
 
I've never seen anything from Microsoft on why they made that stupid change.

Safe mode is a very useful tool in debugging problems. Now, to get there from a cold boot requires booting three times, but then pulling the plug halfway through the boot on the first two times. That was a pretty stupid change by Microsoft.
 
Billiam29 said:
I was just curious if anyone ever recalls seeing an actual response from Microsoft as to why they pulled the ability to boot into Safe Mode from a powered-off or POST state.

I just spent a few minutes searching again and found the same thing that I always have, just conjecture from other end users that it has to do with fast startup. That seems logical but I have never seen anything actually from Microsoft on the subject.
Click to expand...
The functionality is still there. I add Safe Mode to the boot menu in Windows 11.

https://www.elevenforum.com/t/add-safe-mode-to-boot-options-menu-in-windows-11.5448/
 
SC489 said:
Billiam29 said:
I was just curious if anyone ever recalls seeing an actual response from Microsoft as to why they pulled the ability to boot into Safe Mode from a powered-off or POST state.
Click to expand...
The functionality is still there. I add Safe Mode to the boot menu in Windows 11.

https://www.elevenforum.com/t/add-safe-mode-to-boot-options-menu-in-windows-11.5448/
Click to expand...
Yes, but how do you access that boot menu? Can you access it from a powered-off state or system POST state during a restart? I don’t believe you can* but I’ll be happy to be shown that I’m wrong.

* I recall seeing some mentions that the boot menu was accessible from POST if your OS was on a mechanical spinning hard drive. I don’t know if that was ever true, still true, or even works for Windows 11 though. Regardless, almost nobody has their OS on spinner these days.
 
Billiam29 said:
SC489 said:
Billiam29 said:
I was just curious if anyone ever recalls seeing an actual response from Microsoft as to why they pulled the ability to boot into Safe Mode from a powered-off or POST state.
Click to expand...
The functionality is still there. I add Safe Mode to the boot menu in Windows 11.

https://www.elevenforum.com/t/add-safe-mode-to-boot-options-menu-in-windows-11.5448/
Click to expand...
Yes, but how do you access that boot menu? Can you access it from a powered-off state or system POST state during a restart? I don’t believe you can* but I’ll be happy to be shown that I’m wrong.

* I recall seeing some mentions that the boot menu was accessible from POST if your OS was on a mechanical spinning hard drive. I don’t know if that was ever true, still true, or even works for Windows 11 though. Regardless, almost nobody has their OS on spinner these days.
Click to expand...
You see that menu from a cold boot or restart. My PCs shows these three options:
  • Windows 11 (normal boot)
  • Macrium Reflect Recovery
  • Windows 11 Safe Mode
All works fine on all PCs.

You can use reagentc / info from an admin command window to see what has been set.
 
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You have to configure Windows 10 or 11 to use the Metro bootloader from Windows 8 in order to see startup options when you boot, which includes Safe Mode options.

I use it on a PC that has Win 10 and 11 installed on different drives. I'm not sure booting directly into Safe Mode is as valuable as it used to be, other than to see if the computer can be booted at all, but I suppose that is up to the individual user.

The options do see the Metro bootloader are/were deeply buried in the Win 10 GUI, don't remember about Win 11.

There is free utility, Easy BCD, that will configure that Metro start menu and allow you to choose other options. Be sure you understand how to use it or you could mess up the boot loader.
 
Billiam29 said:
I was just curious if anyone ever recalls seeing an actual response from Microsoft as to why they pulled the ability to boot into Safe Mode from a powered-off or POST state.

I just spent a few minutes searching again and found the same thing that I always have, just conjecture from other end users that it has to do with fast startup. That seems logical but I have never seen anything actually from Microsoft on the subject.
Click to expand...
It was nonsensical for MS to remove safe mode from the boot menu.

The current decision maker(s) for Windows is/are a different breed than the ones in charge up to Win7. Sometimes one has to wonder if they ever troubleshoot Windows or if they just turn a problem over to a tech below them to fix problems.
 
skyglider said:
It was nonsensical for MS to remove safe mode from the boot menu.
Click to expand...
Not as stupid as the person who decided to make "hide file extensions" the default.
 
bmoag said:
You have to configure Windows 10 or 11 to use the Metro bootloader from Windows 8 in order to see startup options when you boot, which includes Safe Mode options.

I use it on a PC that has Win 10 and 11 installed on different drives. I'm not sure booting directly into Safe Mode is as valuable as it used to be, other than to see if the computer can be booted at all, but I suppose that is up to the individual user.

The options do see the Metro bootloader are/were deeply buried in the Win 10 GUI, don't remember about Win 11.

There is free utility, Easy BCD, that will configure that Metro start menu and allow you to choose other options. Be sure you understand how to use it or you could mess up the boot loader.
Click to expand...
See my post above - no Metro bootloader needed.
 
SC489 said:
bmoag said:
You have to configure Windows 10 or 11 to use the Metro bootloader from Windows 8 in order to see startup options when you boot, which includes Safe Mode options.
Click to expand...
See my post above - no Metro bootloader needed.
Click to expand...
Would you please elaborate on the specifics of how you configured your systems to achieve what you have described in your prior posts.

The reason I'm making this request is because I do not believe it is possible to achieve what you're describing in a manner that is directly comparable to the on-demand safe mode functionality Microsoft removed.

Based on what you have posted so far, it would seem that you have done two things:
1) configured your systems to always boot into the Windows recovery environment (RE)
2) added a menu entry for Windows safe mode into the options presented by the RE

While this may achieve the same end result, I would argue that it is not the same as the functionality Microsoft removed.

Additionally, if my assumptions above are correct, then I believe that a standard “boot normally” system startup may require two POST cycles to complete: power-on POST to Windows RE, then a “restart POST” from Windows RE to booting Windows normally.
 
Billiam29 said:
SC489 said:
bmoag said:
You have to configure Windows 10 or 11 to use the Metro bootloader from Windows 8 in order to see startup options when you boot, which includes Safe Mode options.
Click to expand...
See my post above - no Metro bootloader needed.
Click to expand...
Would you please elaborate on the specifics of how you configured your systems to achieve what you have described in your prior posts.

The reason I'm making this request is because I do not believe it is possible to achieve what you're describing in a manner that is directly comparable to the on-demand safe mode functionality Microsoft removed.

Based on what you have posted so far, it would seem that you have done two things:
1) configured your systems to always boot into the Windows recovery environment (RE)
2) added a menu entry for Windows safe mode into the options presented by the RE

While this may achieve the same end result, I would argue that it is not the same as the functionality Microsoft removed.

Additionally, if my assumptions above are correct, then I believe that a standard “boot normally” system startup may require two POST cycles to complete: power-on POST to Windows RE, then a “restart POST” from Windows RE to booting Windows normally.
Click to expand...
You are wrong. I followed the tutorial listed. On boot I get a menu showing the three options set (normal Windows 11 boot, safe mode & Reflect recovery. If I do nothing then after the 3 second boot delay I set the PC will proceed to a normal Windows boot. Windows RE is not entered. If I select safe mode or Reflect recovery then the PC will proceed to boot to these environments. You can see the boot configuration set using the command reagentc /info.
 
SC489 said:
You are wrong. I followed the tutorial listed. On boot I get a menu showing the three options set (normal Windows 11 boot, safe mode & Reflect recovery.
Click to expand...
I stand corrected.

I will, however, say that Elevenforum tutorial you linked to is perhaps the most poorly written one I have ever viewed on that site and I have definitely read several.

I don't believe it says anywhere in the turorial that performing the steps will make the boot menu persistently visible at every boot. It just says the steps are for adding or removing entries from the menu. It also has at least one other instructional writing error but that's not really relevant to this discussion.

Regardless, I definitely gaffed by not examining the images close enough and just assuming I was looking at the Windows Recovery Environment. The entities changed by the bcdedit command are of course not the RE and that was clearely my error.
 
Billiam29 said:
SC489 said:
You are wrong. I followed the tutorial listed. On boot I get a menu showing the three options set (normal Windows 11 boot, safe mode & Reflect recovery.
Click to expand...
I stand corrected.

I will, however, say that Elevenforum tutorial you linked to is perhaps the most poorly written one I have ever viewed on that site and I have definitely read several.

I don't believe it says anywhere in the turorial that performing the steps will make the boot menu persistently visible at every boot. It just says the steps are for adding or removing entries from the menu. It also has at least one other instructional writing error but that's not really relevant to this discussion.

Regardless, I definitely gaffed by not examining the images close enough and just assuming I was looking at the Windows Recovery Environment. The entities changed by the bcdedit command are of course not the RE and that was clearely my error.
Click to expand...
You can set the boot delay using msconfig
 
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