How to Clean Boot State in Microsoft Windows 8, 10, 7, Vista and XP?

Clean boot in Windows 10 is the process of starting up Windows with only the minimal set of drivers and startup programs in order to troubleshoot, identify and resolve performance issues within booting process, including software conflicts, error messages and more.

Follow below steps to perform clean boot on Microsoft Windows by temporarily disable all non-critical services and startup programs.

Pre Steps

1. Set up System Restore Point or backup computer.
2. Sign in to the computer as an administrator.

Perform Clean boot in Windows 8 and Windows 10

1. Press Win + R to open Run window. Type msconfig in the box and Enter.
2. On the General tab, click Selective startup and uncheck the Load startup items check box.
3. Switch to Services tab to display a list of all services.
4. Select Hide All Microsoft Services option at the bottom of window and click Disable All button to disable all non-Microsoft services.
5. Click OK.
6. Click Exit Without Restart button in the warning window.
7. Press Ctrl + Shift + Escape to open Task Manager and switch to Startup tab.
8. Select enabled app and then click Disable button. Do that for all the enabled apps on the tab.
9. Restart computer.
10. After troubleshooting, go back to Services tab in msconfig, click the Enable All button and then individually disable any services that caused problems.
11. In Task Manager, turn on all the startup apps that did not cause any problems.

Perform Clean boot in Windows 7 and Vista

1. Click Start. Type msconfig in the search box and press Enter.
2. On the General tab, click Selective startup. Uncheck the Load startup items check box.
3. Click the Services tab. Select the Hide all Microsoft services check box.
4. Click Disable all.
5. Click OK then restart the computer.

Perform Clean boot in Windows XP

1. Click Start > Run, type msconfig and then click OK.
2. On the General tab, choose Selective Startup.
3. Uncheck the following check boxes:
   • Process SYSTEM.INI file
   • Process WIN.INI file
   • Load Startup items
4. Click the Services tab. Select the Hide All Microsoft services check box.
5. Click Disable all.
6. Click OK then restart computer.

Post Steps

After complete troubleshooting, restore system by doing the following:

1. Click Start > Run, type msconfig and then click OK.
2. On the General tab, select Normal Startup.
3. Click OK then YES when asked to restart computer.