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System boots directly to recovery

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In some scenarios when Windows detects a critical boot error it goes directly to the recovery mode. This is so that we can troubleshoot the problem, but sometimes it is good to know what the error is in order to know where to start troubleshooting.

The good news is that we do have a way to tell Windows to stop going to recovery and stop at the error screen instead:

  1. In the recovery menu open Command Prompt
  2. Run the following command: bcdedit /set {default} recoveryenabled no
  3. Reboot

On next reboot Windows should not go to recovery anymore and you will be able to see the error code on the screen. If the message is not self explanatory then you can try using err.exe to find out what the error code means. You can get err.exe from here.

There is a downside to this though: in some cases, you will not be able to go back in Recovery Mode as the error will appear before you can press F8 and get the Advanced Boot Options menu. This, in most cases, is not really a problem as we can boot off a Windows DVD and go into recovery that way.