Boot into Safe Mode

It is often recommended to boot into Safe Mode in order to run anti-spyware/virus/etc scans. You can do so by repeatedly hitting the F8 key while the computer is starting up.

However, since hitting the F8 key constantly to boot into safe mode is annoying (to me), and sometimes despite doing that I still sometimes miss my window of opportunity to get into safe mode & have to let the PC boot into standard mode & restart. On my computers I always set it to pause & show me the option of booting into safe mode or the regular mode (which would be the default) every time the computer starts. This is how you can do the same:

Right-Click "My Computer" -> Properties -> Advanced -> Startup and Recovery -> Settings

On the new window, there is a bunch of settings at the top under "System Startup". For the Default Operating System, it will probably show something like "Microsoft Windows XP Home" /fastdetect OR Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect" ... leave that alone.

Please notice that for this example I'll use "Windows XP Professional" for my computer Operating System...Substitute "Windows XP Home" if that is the Operating System you use.

Make sure the option for "Time to display list of operating systems" is checked. The default time is 30 seconds, I usually set the time to 10 seconds (sometimes even just 5).

Check the "Time do display recovery options" too (it should already be checked), and I leave it at the default 30 seconds.

Click the "Edit" button, and the boot.ini file will open in Notepad. It'll look something like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=10
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

The last line is the OS boot option.

If there is only one option, then you will not see a menu on start up & your computer will just boot straight into Windows. Let's add a second option at the end of this file, like so:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Safe Mode with Network" /safeboot:network /sos /bootlog /noguiboot

(You can just Copy & Paste that line right into the boot.ini file.)

This will give you the option of starting in Safe Mode with Network Support (so you can still access the internet or local network if needed).

To add an option of having Safe Mode with No Networking, use this line:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Safe Mode" /safeboot:minimal /sos /bootlog /noguiboot

(Again, you can just Copy & Paste that line right into the boot.ini file.)

By the way, if the lines already in your boot.ini look different from the "multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)" shown here, make sure that any new lines you add match what you've already got (ie. because you have Windows installed on a different drive/partition).

If you added both of these Safe Mode options, your file will now look something like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=10
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Safe Mode with Network" /safeboot:network /sos /bootlog /noguiboot
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Safe Mode" /safeboot:minimal /sos /bootlog /noguiboot

Save the file & close it & click Ok on any open dialogs. Next time you start the computer, you will see a little menu asking which boot option you want to use, with the default pre-selected (the default is the first one in the boot.ini file). If you don't make a choice (using cursor keys & Enter) before the timer counts down to zero, it'll use the default option.

As always, if you're nervous about manually changing settings for fear of messing things up, then leave things well enough alone and don't bother with this tweak. You can still get into Safe Mode by using the F8 key while starting the PC