How Do I Get To Repair Mode In Windows 10?

What’s Happening

Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) is a stripped-down OS that loads when your main Windows installation refuses to start—or when you need to tweak boot settings. It packs Startup Repair (an automatic fix for boot files), System Restore (a time-machine rollback), Command Prompt (for manual tweaks), and a handful of other utilities. Microsoft ditched the old F8 boot menu way back in Windows 8, so the Shift+Restart shortcut is now the standard way to reach these tools in Windows 10 (as of 2026, anyway).

Step-by-Step Solution

1. Open Settings → Update & Security → Recovery. On the right side, under “Advanced startup,” click Restart now. Your PC boots straight into Windows RE.

2. On the Choose an option screen, tap Troubleshoot (the blue tile).

3. Next, hit Advanced options.

4. Finally, choose Startup Repair. Windows runs a quick diagnostic and repairs any missing or damaged system files automatically. Give it five to ten minutes; if it fails, it usually spits out a helpful error.

If Startup Repair didn’t fix the problem, try these other recovery routes:

What if Startup Repair didn’t work?

• Build bootable recovery media from another PC. Grab the Media Creation Tool on a working Windows 10 or 11 machine, make a USB drive, boot from it, and pick Repair your computer instead of Install. This skips a damaged local recovery partition entirely.

• Clear a stuck “reboot pending” flag from the registry. In Advanced options → Command Prompt, run:

  C:\> reg load HKLM\TempHive C:\Windows\System32\config\SOFTWARE
  C:\> reg delete HKLM\TempHive\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Component Based Servicing\RebootPending /f
  C:\> reg unload HKLM\TempHive
  C:\> shutdown /r /t 0

  (That last command reboots the machine instantly.)

• Reset this PC (but keep your files). In Advanced options → Recovery, choose Reset this PC → Keep my files. Windows reinstalls itself while leaving documents and most settings intact—plan on twenty to forty minutes.

How can I keep Windows from landing in repair mode again?

• Turn on System Restore once a week: open Create a restore point from the Start menu, highlight your system drive, click Configure, and flip on “Turn on system protection.” Odds are it’s still disabled on some brand-new PCs.

• Don’t pause Windows Update for more than 30 days. Microsoft’s monthly “B” updates plug security holes that can lead to boot corruption. Microsoft Support keeps the latest pause limits updated.

• Disable fast startup: open Power Options → Choose what the power buttons do → Change settings currently unavailable → uncheck Turn on fast startup. It stops hibernation-file corruption that can brick Windows after a power failure.

• Check your drive health every ninety days with CrystalDiskInfo (free). Look for “Caution” or “Bad” under the drive’s Health Status; swap the drive before it fails. (Honestly, this is the best way to dodge repair-mode visits.)