How to Enter Safe Mode on Windows 11 Quickly and Easily

What do you do when your computer crashes? Safe Mode is a useful feature for these situations. It allows you to boot into Windows without loading all the applications and drivers on your computer. This can help determine the cause of some problems or make it easier to make changes if your computer is not working properly. Most versions of Windows have Safe Mode, and so does the Windows 11 Insider Preview. In this article, TipsMake will show you how to boot into Safe Mode on Windows 11 quickly and easily!

There are three different types of Safe Modes in Windows 11: The basic Safe Mode , which gives you the regular Windows user interface but with most programs removed and some drivers disabled. That includes networking drivers, so you can't access the internet. There's also Safe Mode with networking , which is if you need internet access to troubleshoot your computer. Finally, there's Safe Mode with Command Prompt , which disables the Windows user interface and lets you troubleshoot problems with the command line.

How to Boot into Safe Mode in Windows 11

Recent versions of Windows have made booting into Safe Mode a lot easier. Thanks to the new advanced startup options, you can access these settings more easily without having to press the right key at the right time as your computer boots up. This is useful because previously the key you had to press might depend on the type of laptop you had, so it might be different if you have a Surface or HP computer. Otherwise, this method works on any Windows 11 computer.

1. Open Settings and click Recovery under System

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1. Next to Advanced startup, click the Restart now button .

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1. You will be taken to the Windows UEFI environment. Click Troubleshoot .

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1. Next, select Advanced options .

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1. Then click Startup Settings and restart

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1. You will have a number of boot options that you can select with your keyboard. Pressing f4 will boot into basic Safe Mode , f5 will give you Safe Mode with networking , and f6 will take you to Safe Mode with Command Prompt . Your computer will restart as soon as you press one of the keys. 

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1. Your computer will now boot into Safe Mode and you can log in as normal.

Note: With this procedure you will only boot into Safe Mode for the first time after all this. After restarting your computer everything will be back to normal. If in case you need to enter safe mode on windows 11 many times then you can set Safe mode on windows 11 as default, see the instructions below.

How to set safe mode on windows 11 as default

If you want to always boot into Safe Mode until you actively disable it, you can follow these steps:

1. Press the Windows key and type  msconfig . Press Enter to open the System Configuration tool.

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1. Go to the Boot tab and enable Safe boot

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1. The three options below let you choose between different Safe Mode variations. Minimal is the standard Safe Mode, while Alternate Shell gives you a Command Prompt interface.
2. Click OK and restart your computer. You will now boot into Safe Mode after each restart. You can run the System Configuration tool again to return to normal Windows mode by disabling Safe Mode.

Above are instructions on how to enter safe mode on windows 11. If after entering safe mode the problem on the computer is still not resolved, you can go to computer repair shops or TipsMake showrooms to find and fix those problems promptly.

Marvin Fry

Update 16 January 2025