Bits'n'Bytes

As heard on CJCD

Episode 34

When trying to help some of my customers over the phone, I sometimes have to ask them to go into "Safe Mode" to complete a part of the repair. And, quite often, I get asked what "Safe Mode" is and what it's for.

"Safe Mode" is a really convenient way of booting your Windows 98 or ME computer if you're having problems with a program or a piece of hardware. By tapping the "F8" key on your keyboard as Windows boots, you get to a screen that gives you several different boot options - one of which is "Safe Mode". What "Safe Mode" does is loads the Windows operating system and very little else. Your screen will look funny, you won't have any sound and you won't be able to access the Internet and very few of your programs will run - none of the drivers or files to perform these functions are loaded when you operate in "Safe Mode". Now if Windows won't work right, you know it's a Windows system file that's causing the problem. If everything seems to work okay, then you know it's one of the programs or hardware drivers you've put on your system that's ruining your day. Safe Mode is also a great way to run the defrag program, 'cause none of the programs that keep writing to the disk are running - so the defrag program can complete a lot faster.

Windows XP comes with a program called "MsConfig" that works the same as "Safe Mode" from Windows 98. If you click on the "Start" button, click on "Run" and type in the letters m-s-c-o-n-f-i-g and hit "OK", the msconfig program will come up. If you pick the "Diagnostic Startup" option, click "OK", then the "Restart" button, your system will reboot in XP's "Safe Mode". The great thing about the msconfig program is that you can add startup items one at a time, so it can be very easy to pin down the program, service or driver that's wreaking havoc on your system.

Stay tuned next week when I talk about recovering lost files.

I’m Computer Dave, thanks for your time.