When your HP laptop starts acting up—maybe it’s running painfully slow, a program won’t load correctly, or you’re dealing with persistent error messages—it can feel frustrating. Before you consider more drastic measures, starting in Safe Mode is a fantastic first step. This special mode loads only the most essential files and drivers Windows needs to run, making it a powerful tool for figuring out what’s wrong.
What Safe Mode Can Help You With
Think of Safe Mode as a diagnostic workshop for your laptop. By running only the basics, it helps you isolate the problem. If your laptop works perfectly in Safe Mode, you know the issue is likely caused by a recently installed program, a driver, or a setting change. This is the perfect environment to uninstall problematic software, run a virus scan without interference, or update drivers that might be causing conflicts.
The Easiest Way: From the Windows Sign-In Screen
If you can get to the screen where you enter your password, this is often the quickest method. First, hold down the Shift key on your keyboard. While still holding Shift, click the Power button in the bottom-right corner and select Restart. Your laptop will restart into a blue menu screen. From here, go to Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Startup Settings. Finally, click Restart. After your laptop reboots again, you’ll see a list of options; press the 4 or F4 key to start in Safe Mode.
Using Settings If Windows Is Accessible
If you can log into Windows normally, you can also navigate there through your settings. Open the Start Menu and click the Settings gear icon. Navigate to Update & Security and then select Recovery from the left-hand menu. Under Advanced startup, click Restart now. This will also take you to the same blue menu screen, where you can follow the same steps: Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Startup Settings > Restart, and then press 4 or F4.
Getting Back to Normal Mode
Once you’ve finished your troubleshooting in Safe Mode, simply restart your laptop as you normally would. It will automatically boot back into standard Windows mode with all your programs and drivers enabled.
Knowing how to start your HP laptop in Safe Mode gives you a powerful tool to solve many common computer issues on your own. It’s a simple process that can save you a lot of time and help you get your laptop running smoothly again.
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