ubuysa
The BSOD Doctor
As always, apologies if this was already well known, I've only just found out how to do this myself. 
Getting into safe mode in Windows 8/8.1 can be a problem, pressing F8 on boot doesn't bring up the familiar text menu containing Safe Mode etc. However, you can restore this behaviour with a simple command.
It's all controlled by a new (in Windows 8/8.1) parameter on the BCDEDIT command called BootMenuPolicy. The default value is Standard which gives you the rich, modern UI OS selection screen (if you dual boot) but it doesn't recognise F8 on boot. The value of Legacy gives you the old text based OS selection screen (as per Windows 7) if you dual boot but it does recognise F8 on boot and provides that Safe Mode etc. text menu. If you're not dual booting and you only have Windows 8/8.1 installed, setting BootMenuPolicy to Legacy does not change your boot experience at all (unless you press F8 of course).
So, to enable F8 pressing on boot open an elevated command prompt, ensure you are on the boot drive and enter the command:
BCDEDIT /Set {default} BootMenuPolicy Legacy
(Note the spaces between all arguments). Then reboot. If you press F8 on boot you'll get the good old Safe Mode etc. menu.
To return to the default mode (where F8 doesn't work on boot) open an elevated command prompt, ensure you are on the boot drive and enter the command:
BCDEDIT /Set {default} BootMenuPolicy Standard
(Note the spaces between all arguments). Then reboot, things will be back the way they were.
Getting into safe mode in Windows 8/8.1 can be a problem, pressing F8 on boot doesn't bring up the familiar text menu containing Safe Mode etc. However, you can restore this behaviour with a simple command.
It's all controlled by a new (in Windows 8/8.1) parameter on the BCDEDIT command called BootMenuPolicy. The default value is Standard which gives you the rich, modern UI OS selection screen (if you dual boot) but it doesn't recognise F8 on boot. The value of Legacy gives you the old text based OS selection screen (as per Windows 7) if you dual boot but it does recognise F8 on boot and provides that Safe Mode etc. text menu. If you're not dual booting and you only have Windows 8/8.1 installed, setting BootMenuPolicy to Legacy does not change your boot experience at all (unless you press F8 of course).
So, to enable F8 pressing on boot open an elevated command prompt, ensure you are on the boot drive and enter the command:
BCDEDIT /Set {default} BootMenuPolicy Legacy
(Note the spaces between all arguments). Then reboot. If you press F8 on boot you'll get the good old Safe Mode etc. menu.
To return to the default mode (where F8 doesn't work on boot) open an elevated command prompt, ensure you are on the boot drive and enter the command:
BCDEDIT /Set {default} BootMenuPolicy Standard
(Note the spaces between all arguments). Then reboot, things will be back the way they were.
