So my parent’s neighbour is a good guy but after changing the ink on his wireless printer he got error messages and phoned the helpline. May not have been kosher. After following instructions his computer is now locked in safe mode. thy’ve tried all they can think of to get it out of safe mode but nothing works.

So

Over to the hivemind. What to do?

System restore?

TBH, it’s a very vague question; it’s like saying “my car doesn’t start, what’s wrong with it?”

Which operating system?

Windows 7.

Know it’s vague but that’s what it’s doing. Safe mode is on, everything works as it does in safe mode but they can’t get it out of safe mode.

On the off-chance it’s Windows 7 and not totally fubared, have you tried telling it to start normally?

Press F8 while it’s booting to get to the advanced boot options and then select ‘Start Windows Normally’?

Know it’s vague but that’s what it’s doing.

I doubt it. If it starts up in safe mode and then they reboot, what happens exactly, step by step?

What ‘instructions’ did they follow, what did they have him do? I know the answer to this is going to be “I can’t remember” but any clues are better than nothing.

Try this

1. Click Start, type msconfig in the search box.
2. Click on Boot, and in the boot option, check whether the safe boot is checked.
3. If it is checked, then please uncheck.
4. Then click on general, select Normal Startup.
5. Click on apply, then ok.
6. System prompts you to restart, please restart the system.

msconfig does it.