Rebooting to Windows 8 Safe Mode

I always love it when I’ve been one of the first to include a feature that I want myself and believe other users will appreciate it. Our new version is not only important, but it may be critical for Windows 8 users who may need to repair their computer.

One of the benefits of Windows 8 is the instant boot capabilities on Windows RT and almost instant boot on Windows 8 Pro. Unfortunately, this speedy boot time may prevent the traditional “Press F8” to enter safe mode. The new release of WinPatrol 2013 provides an easy method to reboot Windows 8 version of Safe Mode also called the Repair, Reset or Restore mode.

This is the new Safe Mode for Windows 8. In previous versions of Windows getting to Safe Mode required banging on the F8 key during reboot or hoping to choose the correct key to access the firmware menu.

Sorry to say, this new feature is not available on WinPatrol’s Free Edition. Like ActiveX monitoring and Custom Registry monitoring this feature gives users access to more advanced features. My policy has been to keep more technical features reserved to PLUS members who typically have more experience using WinPatrol and can reverse any unsafe changes.

While I’ve explored possible enhancements for Windows 8, I heard everyone say they wanted WinPatrol 2013 to include bug fixes and improvements needed by other Windows versions. There are also plenty of new features that are useful to FREE Edition users.

New bug fixes include preventing the launch and subsequent error message if you’ve Uninstalled a program after moving it to the Delayed Start list. Uninstall programs don’t know about WinPatrol so I’ve had some confused users wondering why they got an error when the Delayed Start list tried to launch a program that no longer existed.

Other fixes of reported problems include:

Bug fixed when hiding the Scotty System Tray icon.

Bug fixed in the "First Detected" Date for Active Tasks. Since the First Detected list is valuable in finding programs that infiltrated your system at the same time this was a major priority to help you hunt for and remove attacking programs.

Schedule Task 1.0 differentiated from Scheduled Tasks 2.0. 

Added Minimize, Maximize buttons to main tabbed screen. WinPatrol is built using what Windows called a PropertySheet window. This type of window was common in Control Panel Applets. While it’s not designed to be resizable or include a Max/Min feature WinPatrol uses some programming tricks to give users what they’ve always wanted.

Options available for Delayed Start programs now include “Run program as Administrator”. There are few instances where you need to run a program as an administrator but this gives more power to the WinPatrol feature that launches applications in a specific order. 

Complete update of WinPatrol Help pages. Documentation is included stored locally and is available on each tab by clicking blue help icon.
There is still room for improvement but this feature has been considered essential for new and/or non-expert users.  Each help file includes a link to any updated information including better ways to teach WinPatrol based on user feedback. Our goal continues to make WinPatrol a program for everyone.

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Back to our new Reboot to Safe Mode feature here are more screens available using our new feature for Windows 8 users. Under normal use, you may never see these screens.

Based on past updates there are a lot more people using Windows 8 then I really expected. I have heard from a number of people who were pleased they can use WinPatrol to boot directly into the Desktop mode.

No matter how you feel about Windows 8 I’m dedicated to do everything possible to support changes that occur in the Windows world. When the time comes to upgrade to Windows 8 or even Windows 9, WinPatrol will be there for you.