The discussions I have found detail how to boot to a command prompt, but they all have at their starting point the "Advanced Startup Options".
This assumes you have a functional PC that successfully boots so you can access said options.
What do you do when your PC won't boot? Is there a way of getting from power - on to a command prompt as directly as possible?
** Background **
I had a fault that wiped out all my USB devices so at the end of startup I had a functional machine but no keyboard or mouse.
It all started when I updated to WireShark 2.2.1 and decided at the same time to include the USBPCap drivers. When I restarted, the machine (Dell 8700) started as per normal, but when it had finished starting windows the mouse (wireless - works via a USB dongle), and keyboard (wired, USB) were non-functional. I was able to gain control of the PC by TeamViewer and determine via the Device Manager that no USB drivers had loaded.
A bit of web poking around found that this is a known problem with USBCap, but I wanted to back a couple of things up before attempting any fixes so I wanted to boot to a command prompt so I could access some files (a backup of the registry at the time of the last successful Windows startup) that were normally locked under windows.
I have actually got out of the hole by uninstalling USBPCap but I am still wanting to know how and whether booting directly to a command prompt is possible.
Answer
Start up the PC, then while it's loading in the first screen that'll either have your PC manufacturer or the Windows logo, forcefully power it off by holding the power button, then start up the PC, then forcefully power it off, repeat until it gives you recovery options or enters startup repair. From here you should be able to access the "Advanced Startup Options" menu and boot into Safe Mode (or the command prompt, if you really want to for some reason).
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