safe boot with network - no network

I typed "msconfig", chose "boot", clicked on "safe boot" and chose "network", then, restarted the PC.

There was no network connection. I righ-clicked on the PC icon on the desktop, chose "manage", opened "Device Manager", clicked on "Network Adapters", and found the Killer E2600 Gibabit network adapter driver was not loaded.

Is this a general problem with Windows 11? I'm sure I didn't have this problem when running Windows 10 on a different PC.

Is there a way to load the network driver using a cmd command? Please note that this is in safe mode. Thanks.

Consider returning to normal boot then try another method.

See options 3 and 4.


Some computers may or may not have safe mode with Wifi.

Most have safe mode with Ethernet.

yky378 said:

Is this a general problem with Windows 11?

Click to expand...

For many people it is extremely common. Me Included on both my Dells which use Intel wireless adapters and none of the solutions that work for some people will work for me. The only network driver that gets loaded is ethernet. It's been going on for several years now, more so on machines using newer wireless adapters.

Some folks have reported using certain usb wireless adapters working in safe mode. I've tried 3 brands and it's a no-go. (the common denominator between all of them though is they use a Realtek chip)

Other folks say that connecting from the network icon on the login screen before you put in your pin/password works

I spent days trying to get wireless to work in safe boot using every method I could find on the web. I ended up running a 75 foot lan cable across the floor to get it into my office. If one has a device that is not equipped with an ethernet port, you can buy usb ethernet adapters for cheap. At least if you have a laptop rather than a PC like I do, it's easy to move close to your router.

The biggest problem I have with this issue is no one, neither Microsoft, OEMs, or the manufacturers like Intel will give users a definitive answer as to why. Is it the fault of the OEM bios, the adapters/drivers themselves, a combination of both, or Windows?

This article has most of all the things people have tried across the web. You might hit it lucky and find something that works, but I seriously doubt it.

There is even a long discussion about it over in tenforums. Safe Mode with Networking - No network - No WiFi adapter... - Windows 10 Help Forums

@zbook Thanks for the reply.

I tried this command in option 3 - "bcdedit /set {current} safeboot network" and got this error message - "The integer data is not valid as specified." In a PS window, it gave this error message - "The set command specified is not valid."

Both cmd and PS were run in elevated mode.

@glasskuter Thank you for the reply. I apologized for not specifying that my PC was connected to the router using an Ethernet cable. On the login window in safe mode, the network icon was a globe, indicating there was not network. The Ethernet driver- Killer E2600 Gigabit driver - was not loaded. In the Device Manager\Network Adapters window, the Killer E2600 icon had an exclamation mark.

This is a guess here. If you per chance have both killer wireless and killer ethernet, and have Killer Network Manager software installed, you might configure Killer Doubleshot Pro in its settings.It might load then...notice I say might...twice.

yky378 said:

I typed "msconfig", chose "boot", clicked on "safe boot" and chose "network", then, restarted the PC.

There was no network connection. I righ-clicked on the PC icon on the desktop, chose "manage", opened "Device Manager", clicked on "Network Adapters", and found the Killer E2600 Gibabit network adapter driver was not loaded.

Is this a general problem with Windows 11? I'm sure I didn't have this problem when running Windows 10 on a different PC.

Is there a way to load the network driver using a cmd command? Please note that this is in safe mode. Thanks.

Click to expand...

If your talking about Wi-Fi then I can say that this happened to me and I did a lot of searching to find a solution. I even went as far as buying a USB Wi-Fi adapter that was well known to work. In the end I found that the OEM of the motherboards prevents this as a security measure. If the Bios doesn't allow it, It's not going to happen. My router is on another floor and to far away to use the wired network so I gave up.

Windows will only load certain drivers in Safe Mode w/ Networking according to the Safe Boot registry key. You will need to ensure that the appropriate driver service is set to load in that particular Safe Mode.

I think I recall adding some things to win7 safe mode. The details escape me for the moment.

If anyone knows how to bypass the Bios to allow blocked drivers please tell us how. I wasted a few dollars and a lot of time and effort and never found a way.

Windows will only load drivers, more specifically services, which have permitted to do so, according to the SafeBoot registry key.