Add Safe Mode to the Windows 10 and 8 Boot Menu

With Windows 8, Microsoft brought some changes to the operating system boot. The boot loader which is a plain text is hidden by default in its place. However, there is also a friendly graphical user interface with images and text that serves the same function. Windows 10 uses the same system.

But the UI is very cumbersome to navigate and requires multiple OS components to load before you see the GUI boot menu. In comparison, the classic Windows 7 was significantly faster and loaded all the troubleshooting options on a single screen.

For example, if you were to boot your computer in Safe Mode, you would have to load the boot GUI first and then select Safe Mode.
Today, we will see how you can add the Safe Mode option directly to the new boot loader on the screen where all the operating system options are.

All you need to do is clone the current OS boot options and modify them to start the operating system in safe mode. This is very easy to do. We will only use the built-in Windows tool bcdedit.

Open a command prompt with elevated privileges (Administrator).
Type the following command:

bcdedit /copy {current} /d "Windows 10 Safe Mode"

It will give you the following result:

This command will copy the current boot options of the OS with the new name “Windows 10 Safe Mode”.
From the results that will appear in bcdedit, note the value {GUID}. Copy and paste the following command:

bcdedit /set {guid} safeboot minimal

Replace the GUID with your new GUID value.
If you now want to add networking support to your new Safe Mode, copy the current boot options once again:

bcdedit /copy {current} /d "Windows 10 Safe Mode with Networking Support"

Another new GUID will be created.
Now we will modify it as follows Use networking support guid instead of {GUID}:

bcdedit /set {guid} safeboot network

If you need to add the “Safe Mode (Command Prompt)” item, run the following commands:
– Make another new startup entry:

bcdedit /copy {current} /d "Windows 10 Safe Mode (Command Prompt)"

Note the value of {GUID}.
– Modify it to run in safe mode using the GUID above:

bcdedit /set {guid} safeboot minimal

– Finally, use the command line, instead of the Explorer shell:

bcdedit /set {guid} safebootalternateshell yes

Now restart your computer and try out the new options available in the boot menu: