Solved Microsoft have made a terrible omission - Startup Options (F8)

So I've got Win8 running as a VM under VirtualBox - all working nicely. I attempt to change my graphics card driver, in order to get proper support using the VirtualBox drivers, but unfortunately Windows boots up with a blank screen. No problem, I think, since I can always use VGA Mode / Last Known Good Configuration from the startup options (using F8).

To my horror it seems to that Microsoft has removed / hidden these options! These are very important to your average technician! I am an I.T. consultant at an SME and am now starting to think that Microsoft will make this next OS very difficult for us to troubleshoot. I can see the direction they're going in with 8, but if they're not careful they're going to completely alienate business users.

If you want to enable a safe mode option, use this.
Otherwise you will need to do this.

You should refresh, then enable safe mode, then install that other driver first.
Any problems from there and you can log in on safe mode and uninstall the driver.

Thanks for the reply Avalon - you see the problem is that because you're unable to roll back the new driver you can't even get to that screen, my guess would be that the OS switches from VGA Mode almost instantly. I can't see any way of getting passed this without a reinstall - pressing F8 brings you to a blank screen in the case of a bad display driver.

This is a terrible shortcoming of the new OS! Try it and you'll see what I mean, literally no solution without a reinstall or repair install.

No, the refresh means you can essentially reinstall the OS and keep your personal data. Do you have the installation media nearby? You should be able to boot to that, and run a refresh.

Hi Avalon,

I see what you are saying but still, I think that this is a problem with the way in which Windows 8 has been built and needs rectifying. People aren't going to want to have to get out their installation DVDs .etc for simple things like a bad display driver. Too many times I've seen Microsoft remove features and in doing so needlessly make the OS / software more difficult to troubleshoot.

What I'm saying is that it *must* be possible to get into VGA Mode without installation media

Well do not forget that we are running an Alpha version, with many more versions and updates in between before the final release.
It's likely a temporary problem and will be fixed in the future.

Just out of curiosity, which version of Windows 8 are you running? x86 or x64? And which driver?
[del]You're running off a virtual machine so you shouldn't be installing any hardware specific drivers unless you're actually running it directly as a dualboot.[/del]
Just ignore that. Need more info on your system.

Let me get this right, are you saying you cannot get to the screen where you can select "Last Known..." option after installing Windows 8? Is this in VM or actual host?

True, I may have jumped the gun a bit... I'm going to let them know about it anyway, it's an important feature IMO.

I'm running x64, VirtualBox provides a display driver as part of the Guest Additions - it allows better support for 2D / 3D acceleration, plus I'm using VT-x

aem said:

Let me get this right, are you saying you cannot get to the screen where you can select "Last Known..." option after installing Windows 8? Is this in VM or actual host?

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I believe he means inside the VirtualBox... But I'd've assumed a simple mount of the installation media was all that was required.

adamsharif said:

I'm running x64, VirtualBox provides a display driver as part of the Guest Additions - it allows better support for 2D / 3D acceleration, plus I'm using VT-x

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Do you actually need the guest addition? I believe Windows Update will provide all necessary drivers. There could be something conflicting with the default display driver.
Did you experience any issues before installing this new driver?

Thanks for all the assistance - well, I noticed the OS was a little sluggish so I was hoping that the Guest Additions would improve some of the graphics performance, it's no problem really. This is obviously not a production machine by a long stretch!

It's more that I am thinking about if the OS were to be released without those features being accessible, and the implications for businesses. VGA Mode can be very handy, and I can't see a good reason for making it inaccessible

A few things.

Is IO-Apic enabled in your VM settings?

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Go to Settings – Storage – Sata ControllerEnsure that the “Use host I/O” is selected for the SATA drive

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The only other thing I can suggest is performing a clean-install and allocate more RAM to the virtual machine, or run it as a direct dualboot. I can pretty much guarantee that VGA mode will work when it's directly installed, and if not, then there's something wrong I don't know about.

Microsoft will not release a partially functioning operating system, and this is only Alpha. I can guarantee they have already been notified of the problem and are working on a fix, as long as there isn't a roadblock on your end.

VGA Mode can be very handy, and I can't see a good reason for making it inaccessible

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I share of this point of view

It will be under Advance Options > Automatic Repair.

I strongly believe this is where the the Options will show up when the Beta/RTM server is released. The WPD version is really a WIP (work in progress).

aem said:

The WDP version is really a WIP (work in progress).

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This is what I've been trying to say. It's not representative of the finished product.

Hi there
I'm puzzled here.
You say you are running under Virtual Box -- so presumably why are you worried about the Native video drivers.

Run the "Additions" on your gest OS -- this will fix 99% of mouse / video / audio drivers on a VBOX virtual machine. (On VMware the same type of software is called VMware TOOLS).

Virtual machines make use of "Virtual Hardware" and a Virtual Bios -- irrespective of the actual physical hardware.

The only way normally to use actual physical drivers is to use something like VMware's Esxi which is a tiny OS allowing you to load a VM and also allow certain physical hardware cards to be allocated to a VM by "Pass through" -- a great idea but probably beyond the scope of this thread.

Cheers
jimbo

It's not just in VM, it's also on the host F8 will not give you those Options you see in Windows prior.

Ok guys, some of you are missing the point here - this isn't about getting my VM to work properly in VirtualBox. The more pressing issue is if this feature remains omitted in the final version. I personally feel that it may end up being that way, and this is going to cause problems for technicians.

I am not using a virtual box, only dual boot, so I do not know if you are able to select Msconfig but, assuming, what happens iof you select Base video in msconfig -boot tab? That would be the way I would normally force it into VGA mode.

That probably would work, but if you had messed up your video drivers you would need to enter VGA Mode in order to get to Msconfig in the first place!

adamsharif said:

Ok guys, some of you are missing the point here - this isn't about getting my VM to work properly in VirtualBox. The more pressing issue is if this feature remains omitted in the final version. I personally feel that it may end up being that way, and this is going to cause problems for technicians.

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Mate, relaxe will yah, this is not the final version by far so don't be going nuts on this. Just wait till the RTM comes one.

If you are that concern sent Microsoft a feedback.