How to Use a Clean Boot in Windows 7 and Vista — Historical Guide

Historical support note: Windows 7 and Vista are out of support. The clean-boot concept remains valid, but the interface below is specific to these releases.

A clean boot starts Windows with essential Microsoft services and a reduced set of startup software so you can determine whether a background program is causing a problem. It is not the same as Safe Mode.

Perform a clean boot

1. Sign in with an administrator account.
2. Open Start, type msconfig, and press Enter.
3. On the General tab, choose Selective startup and clear Load startup items.
4. Open the Services tab.
5. Select Hide all Microsoft services.
6. Select Disable all to disable the remaining third-party services.
7. Select OK, then restart the PC.

Isolate the conflicting item

If the problem disappears in a clean boot, re-enable third-party services and startup items in groups and restart between tests. Testing half at a time is faster than enabling one item per reboot.

Return to normal startup

Open msconfig again and restore normal startup/service settings after troubleshooting. Do not leave essential third-party security, hardware, or backup software disabled unintentionally.

Official references

• Microsoft: How to perform a clean boot in Windows: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/experience/startup-boot/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows
• Microsoft: Windows support lifecycle: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/updates-lifecycle/what-does-it-mean-if-windows-isn-t-supported