Have you ever needed to boot Windows 11 into Safe Mode? Or maybe restore Windows 11 using a Restore Point? You can do all these and more with the Advanced Boot Options inside Windows 11.

Many people have never heard of the Advanced Boot Options in Windows 11. The Advanced Boot Options have been inside of Windows for several versions now. In Windows 7 and earlier versions, you could press the F7 key at boot to get to the Advanced Boot Options.

But starting with Windows 8, Microsoft changed how you get to the Advanced Boot Options. You can either get to the Advanced Boot Options inside of Windows 11 or when you log in to Windows 11.

So why would you want or need to get to the Advanced Boot Options? Some features can only be accessed through the Advanced Boot Options, like Safe Mode and UEFI / BIOS Settings.

Note: Accessing some of the features in the Advanced Boot Options may require a username, password, and a BitLocker decryption key. The BitLocker key is saved to your Microsoft account, so you may want to get the key before you attempt to access the Advanced Boot Options.

How to get to the Advanced Boot Options when logged in to Windows 11

1. Left-click on the Start button to bring up the Start menu.
2. In the list of pinned apps on the Start menu, left-click on Settings.
3. Left-click on the System category in the left-hand column.
4. Scroll down the right-hand column and left-click on Recovery.
5. Under Advanced startup, left-click on Restart now.

How to get to the Advanced Boot Options when logged out of Windows 11

1. At the login screen, left-click on the Power icon in the lower right-hand corner. This will bring up the power options.
2. Hold down the shift key while you left-click on Restart.

The following is a list of features you can access from the Advanced Boot Options.

• Continue - Exit and continue to Windows 11.
• Use a device - Use a USB drive, network connections, or a Windows recovery disk.
  
• Troubleshoot - Reset your PC or see advanced options.
• Reset this PC - Lets you choose to keep or remove your personal files and then reinstalls Windows.
• Advanced options
  
• Startup Repair - Fix problems that keep Windows from loading.
• Startup Settings - Change Windows startup behavior.
• Command Prompt - Use the Command Prompt to perform advanced troubleshooting.
• Uninstall Updates - Remove recently installed feature or quality updates from your computer.
• UEFI Firmware Settings - Change settings in your computer's BIOS (Basic Input/Output System).
• System Restore - Use a restore point on your computer to restore Windows.
• System Image Recovery - Recover Windows using a system image file.
• Turn off your PC - Turns your computer off.

For more on the Windows 11 Advanced Boot Options, check out our video on YouTube.

Since I do computer repair for a living, there are times when I need to boot a Windows 10 system up into Safe Mode. But with newer computers utilizing UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) and fast/safe boot features, this can be not easy. So here is how to use the Windows 10 Advanced Boot Options.

In previous versions of Windows, getting to the advanced boot options was pretty easy. All you had to do was press the F8 key at startup. But with Windows 10, getting the advanced boot options is a little different. You can bring up the advanced boot options just one time or set it up permanently. Both require the system to be able to boot up into Windows 10 first.

Enable Window 10 Advanced Boot Options screen one-time

You can bring up the one-time Windows 10 boot options, either logged on or off. Since I repair computers for a living, I prefer not to log in under any user's profile. That way, I don't have to deal with any of the programs that may load when a user signs in. There are two (2) ways (logged in and logged out) of getting to the Windows 10 one-time boot options.

When you are logged in to Windows 10:

1. Left-click on the Start button.
2. Left-click on Settings (the gear icon).
3. Left-click on Update & Security.
4. In the left column, left-click on Recovery.
   
   
5. Under Advanced startup, left-click on Restart now. The computer will log you off and bring up the Choose an option screen.

When you are logged out of Windows 10:

1. At the login screen, left-click on the Power button in the lower right-hand corner to bring up the different options.
   
   
2. Hold down the Shift key on the keyboard and right-click on Restart. This will bring up the Choose an option screen.

When you get to the Choose an option screen:

1. Left-click on Troubleshoot.
   
   
2. Left-click on Advanced options.
   
   
3. Left-click on Startup Settings.
   
   
4. Left-click on the Restart button.
   
   
5. When the Startup Settings page appears, select the number that coincides with the function you would like to perform.

Enable Window 10 Advanced Boot Options screen permanently

This option should be used very carefully. Not only do you have to edit the boot configuration of your Windows 10 computer, but once permanently enabled, you will have to select a boot option you want to use every time your computer starts or restarts. There is no timer for this screen as there was in previous versions of Windows. To edit the boot configuration, you will need to use an administrative command prompt.

The first thing we have to do is turn on the Windows 10 Advanced Boot Options. Type or cut and paste the following code into an administrative command prompt:

To turn off the Windows 10 Advanced Boot Options, type or cut and paste the following code into an administrative command prompt:

You can also change the default boot manager used with the advanced boot options. The default is the Windows 10 standard version, but you can change it to the legacy version if you like the old DOS look.

To change to the legacy boot manager used in previous Windows versions, like Windows 7, you can type or cut and paste the following code into an administrative command prompt:

To restore the boot menu to the default, type or cut/paste the following code into an administrative command prompt.