Page 831 - Windows 10 May 2019 Update The Missing Manual: The Book That Should Have Been in the Box

In that most dire situation, Microsoft is pleased to offer what’s known to

techies as WinRE (Windows Recovery Environment), shown in Figure 15-
8. It’s a special recovery mode, loaded with emergency tools: System Reset,
System Refresh, System Restore, System Image Recovery, Safe Mode, and
on and on.

Windows Recovery Environment is a pure, protected mode that’s separate
from the normal workings of Windows—a place to troubleshoot without
worrying about changes that have been made by any software, good or bad.

If the problems you’re having are caused by drivers that load just as the
computer is starting up, for example, then turning them all off can be
helpful. At the very least, WinRE allows you to get into your machine to

begin your troubleshooting pursuit. It’s a menu most people never even
know exists until they’re initiated into its secret world by a technically

savvy wizard.

It used to be easy to open this screen; you just pressed the F8 key at the
right moment during startup. But that trick doesn’t work in Windows 10.
Some machines start up so fast that you’d have only milliseconds to hit the

F8 key at just the right time.

Instead, WinRE appears automatically if the computer hasn’t successfully
started up after two attempts. If it doesn’t, or if you’re impatient, you can

get to it manually.

The steps differ depending on how much trouble you’re having getting the
computer going. Choose one of these four techniques:

Hold down the Shift key as you click Restart. (To find the

Restart button, open the menu, select , and then select
Restart.)

In → → Update & Security → Recovery, under
“Advanced startup,” click “Restart now.”

Start up from a Windows disc or a flash drive. At the Windows
Setup screen, hit Next; then choose “Repair your computer.” (This