Quick tip: How to use Safe Mode for a Windows/Mac-based computer.

Hello all!  This will be a fairly short blog, and I may start posting these more often.  As an avid computer user, I find interesting and neat tricks that users can use in case of certain scenarios.  If a computer doesn't work as intended, most people end up either asking their friends or calling technical support for help.  I frequently get questions asking, "how do you do this?", "what happens if [insert situation here]?", and "will I get a virus from this?"  That's where I come in.

Today's topic involves the situation where your computer just doesn't work as intended.  Maybe there's some weird error message popping up that says that you're lame, but if you buy our software, you'll be the coolest kid on the block.  Maybe your computer has decided that it doesn't like your taste of music and as a result, it just stops wanting to work.  Or maybe your computer really hates you.  Who knows? For the situations that are relatively plausible, however, there's (almost) always a way to save your computer from problems.

Windows and Mac both have an option to boot into a mode called "Safe Mode."  For the most part, this disables services from automatically running at startup so that only the necessary, core processes are only running.  To run this:

For a Windows-based machine, boot up your computer and continually press/hold F8.  You'll get to a menu that looks something like this:

Windows 7's Advanced Boot Options 

If your computer isn't booting up correctly on startup, you can try one of two things.  I would first try using "Last Known Good Configuration," which (as you can tell by the option) boots your computer based on the last configuration that worked successfully.  In the event that this doesn't work, you can try "Repair Your Computer." This runs diagnostic tests on your RAM, checks your system files for any corruption, and helps restore your system files to factory defaults if some system files somehow have disappeared.  

If your computer does boot successfully, but you get slow-down issues/bugs to fix, then consider running it in "Safe Mode." As mentioned above, only the core processes will run.  This is particularly useful if you have any form of malware, be it spyware, adware, viruses, trojan horses, etc. Run a scanner in safe mode to thoroughly clean up problems.

The process is similar for a Mac-based computer.  Boot up your computer and hold down the Shift key once your hear the startup sound.  You can release it once you see the Apple logo and progress indicator as shown below:

Once you see the progress indicator, you can release the Shift key.

Once you get into safe mode, you can diagnose your computer the same way you would with a Windows-based computer.  While you don't get a plethora of options, the core services still run so you can fix any problems you might find at startup.

That does it for this blog! Post your comments/questions below! As always, be sure to subscribe for more techie news!

Until next time,

Corey