Most of you know to press F8 but for some that doesn't work.  I won't go into why.

There is another way to get to safe mode.

Click on start, click on run, type msconfig, press enter or click on OK (in Vista just type msconfig in the start search area then press enter or click on msconfig.exe that appears)

When the msconfig window appears click on the BOOT tab.

 Safe boot will be an option.  If you need to download something from the Internet select safe boot with networking.

Now reboot and it will come up in safe mode.

HOWEVER it will always come up in safe mode until you once again run msconfig and remove the check mark from safe boot!  So remember to run msconfig when you are done fixing your problems.