How To Enable F8 Boot Options to Windows 8
With the arrival of Windows 8 a new boot loader that decreases the time that it takes Windows 8 to start. In order to do this Microsoft needed to remove the ability to access the Advanced Boot Options screen when you press the F8 key when Windows starts.
Instead in order to access Safe Mode, you would need to either start Windows 8 and then tell it to restart into safe mode or for Windows to fail to start, where you could then tell Windows reboot again into safe mode.
In this tutorial will explain how to enable the F8 key in Windows 8 so you can quickly and easily access the Safe Mode boot options and other diagnostic tools. This will increase the boot time.
To enable the F8 key in Windows 8 you will first need to open an elevated command prompt. To do this you can follow the steps:
Use the Windows+X keyboard combination (Windows Key + X key) to open the Power User Tasks menu. When the menu is open click on the Command Prompt (Admin) menu option. If you use receive a User Account Control prompt, please allow it to continue. You will now see an elevated command prompt
When the elevated command prompt is open you will be at the C:\Windows\System32> prompt. To enable F8 in Windows 8 you need to type the following in the command prompt and then press the Enter key.
bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy legacy
Once the command has been enter as shown above, press the Enter key on your keyboard. If you entered the command correctly, Windows will report that the “The operation completed successfully.”. You now need to restart your computer for the change to go into effect. With this settings configured, you can now press F8 while Windows 8 starts in order to access Safe Mode and other Advanced Boot options.
If you would like to go back to the original Windows 8 setting you can open an elevated command prompt as earlier and enter the following command:
bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy standard
Once you enter the above command, press Enter on your keyboard. If you entered the command correctly, Windows will report that the “The operation completed successfully.” and you should now restart your computer. The F8 key will now be disabled in Windows 8.
Leave a Reply