Windows 10: Can't start individual programs in safe mode

I have been having some problems with Thunderbird on Windows 10 and decided to try the Windows safe mode to see what is affecting Thunderbird, My idea was that if TB worked OK then I would start turning on one program/app at a time to see what is causing the problem. TB does work fine when in safe mode.However, I have found a worse problem. Windows 10 doesn't allow you to turn on individual programs when in safe mode! Examples are Office 2013, my anti virus (NOD), printers, etc. Skype works OK and Thunderbird starts up fine.If I can't turn on apps, how am I supposed to locate the guilty party?Any help would be appreciated

:)

 

dxgkrnl.sys not loading

Yes, I am working in Safe Mode with Networking. That is the only thing that I can get to work. It won't boot up regularly, but I have no problem in Safe Mode. I haven't tried all of the different functions, but most of my programs seem to function just
fine (MS Office programs are the one exception that I can't get to start up in Safe Mode).

So when I did went through the steps to uninstall the display adapter driver, it was in Safe Mode.

 

flashing screen

have Toshiba...installing new windows program window started flashing...can't stop it...some suggested going to safe mode..how do I do this..

Randy

 

I'm using Windows 7 Pro, so I'm guessing about Windows10. Is there a way to get into msconfig? Start, run box type: msconfig ?
If so, hide microsoft items, perhaps temporarily turn off most of the services and startups you see in msconfig. If you see any button about making permanent the changes -- never click it. Meanwhile, if Thunderbird begins working, re-enable services and startups two by two, testing tBird along the way.

 

Hi Eric,

What do you mean "turn off"? Do you mean programs that automatically start at log-on?

If I was you I would turn them all off and then boot as normal (not in safe mode). The reason for that is many programs simply do not work in safe mode.

Start with Task manager (they are here now in Windows 10 not in msconfig as before). Go to the Startup tab and disable everything (here I mean)





As @RolandJS said above then reboot and enable things one by one (or 2 by 2) until you find the culprit.

 

I only have a few items in Startup, but I am sure there are many background programs that run automatically and I'm not sure I want to mess around with them.
I will try your suggestion, but if the problem turns out not to be one of my Startup items what would be the next step?

 

The next step would be to download Autoruns for Windows from Microsoft.

It will tell you everything that starts automatically (but you can subset by drivers, log-on items etc by picking the relevant tab).





The most obvious thing to do would be to go to Everything and then on the Options tab tick Hide Microsoft Entries





You can then turn things off and on from there.

 

Not sure how I'd deal with such a long list. Wouldn't know where to start !! In any case I'll try without the startup items and see what happens in the next few days. If I still have a problem I'll come back to the forum

 

Well, good luck.

Autoruns is the best way - just look at the non-Microsoft things (as you have to assume they are probably OK) and either turn them all off or have a guess.

If it was me I'd disable all the non MS ones and then turn them on a few at a time (perhaps half each reboot).

I have about 100 non-Microsoft start-up items.

One reboot I could narrow it to one of 50 being the problem.
Second reboot it would be one of 25
Third reboots one of 12
4 reboots 6
5 reboots 3
6 reboots 2
7 reboots I would have found it even if I had no clue what I was looking for.

Even if you had 1000 not 100 non-MS start-up items (which you do not) it would only take you an extra 2 reboots.

 

Appreciate all the quick responses and advice.

 

Well best of luck mate. You'll find it I'm sure.

Don't try safe mode though as lots of things just don't work (like every single modern store app).

 

I've been using Process Hacker [which also works in the background/icon in the icon notification tray] -- just another alternative to Autorun, that's all.

 

Used Autoruns but unfortunately it seems that you have to have some knowledge about these things before you start to disable startup items. I disabled groups of items with no effect until one of the deleted items caused my PC to not be able to start up. The PC did a self examination (clever things, computers!) and gave me a few options, one of which was to revert to an earlier build, which I did. I am now back on Windows 7 and everything works perfectly, including a few other items I had problems with on Windows 10. I think I'll stay here.