Michael, what is your computer and operating system?

Win XP (F8)

Several older systems (various, but mostly F8. In Win95 it was F5)

Win 7 (F8)

When the computer starts up, just keep mashing the F8 key until the safe mode starts. You don't want to miss that moment when it decides to go to the regular OS or the safe mode, so keep pushing it. :)

SRS