Wheres Safe Mode In Windows Xp Home?

[Emma18]

Hi, Trying to log in as admin in xp home and I have been told that to do this has to be done is safe mode.

I've pressed F8 while booting up and it brings a screen up with 3 options which none of them are safe mode.

The options that come up are:

PM-WDC WD2000BB-00FTAO
SM-DVD-RW IDEI008
SS-TOSHIBA ODD-DVD SD-MI802

Any ideas where's it gone?

Also when using windows xp pro do you know if that I can sign on as the admin account (without using safe mode) and use it as my own account?

Thanks in advanced for your help!

[Miz]

Are you holding the F8 key down or repeatedly pressing it? If you hold it down, you'll get a keyboard error...which may be what the rather cryptic messages you're getting mean.

Try just repeatedly pressing and releasing the F8 key while it boots and that should get you to the boot menu.

In XP Pro, pressing ctrl/alt/del twice at the logon screen should bring up the option to logon to the Administrator account.

[Emma18]

No, I am just pressing the key once after switching the computer on so it loads when booting up.

[pow1983]

By the sounds of it you are pressing it too early. The options you are getting are your CD ROMS and DVD ROMS. It looks like you have some other feature which also uses F8 for something else.

The best way round it (hopefully XP Home allows this), right click on the My Computer icon, click properties, click the Advanced tab, the bottom option is "Startup and Recovery" click the settings button, then set the "Time to display list of operating systems:" for something like 5 seconds or however long you wish.
You may see that the settings are already present, if it is your first time there they may not be activated, make sure you click OK.

Next time you boot you will have more time to press F8 whilst you see the menu.

Also when using windows xp pro do you know if that I can sign on as the admin account (without using safe mode) and use it as my own account?

Yes, you can. Personally I'd set up 2 accounts just incase that memory lapse ever happens. You can have more than one admin account, you just need to be logged in as an admin to set the other user(s) to admin privilages.

[patrickjb]

To log on to the Administrator account using Windows XP Home Edition, first make sure that your system is not set up to bypass the logon screen. (Bypassing the Logon Screen) Then press F8 while booting and choose Safe Mode from the menu that appears.

If you have “Bypassing the Logon Screen” turned on here's how to turn it off:

1. At a command prompt, type, “control userpasswords2” and press “Enter”. Doing so launches the Windows 2000-style User Accounts application.
2. On the “Users tab”, check the “Users Must Enter A User Name And Password To Use This Computer” check box and then click OK.

After you’ve logged on as Administrator and finished whatever you wanted to do, you can uncheck the box in step 2 above to turn “Bypassing the Logon Screen” option.

I don’t know why this is necessary only that it is the suggested procedure for Windows XP Home users who want to logon to their Administrator account.

[vidster]

Try pressing f5 when booting up!