What Exactly Can You Accomplish in Safe Mode?

[anselm1009]

I know what Safe Mode is. I have installed and uninstalled every kind
of hardware in PCs and in laptops a reasonably knowledgeable amateur
can. I've never accomplished anything in Safe Mode, so after nearly
twenty years on the Internet, I thought I'd ask. In Safe Mode, I have
this stupid, like, okay, so what am I supposed to do now that I
couldn't really do in WIndows?

What kind of fixes have you done in Safe Mode that 1) resolved a
specific problem or 2) resolved it in a way other approaches couldn't
(updating drivers, reinstalling Windows, etc.)?

 

[philo]

I know what Safe Mode is. I have installed and uninstalled every kind
of hardware in PCs and in laptops a reasonably knowledgeable amateur
can. I've never accomplished anything in Safe Mode, so after nearly
twenty years on the Internet, I thought I'd ask. In Safe Mode, I have
this stupid, like, okay, so what am I supposed to do now that I
couldn't really do in WIndows?

What kind of fixes have you done in Safe Mode that 1) resolved a
specific problem or 2) resolved it in a way other approaches couldn't
(updating drivers, reinstalling Windows, etc.)?

Safe mode is used simply to get to your desktop
if the machine cannot be booted up normally.

The system can then , hopefully , be repaired.


Just for an example:

Suppose you are using XP and have installed an update...
then upon reboot...the machine just "hung" and you could not get to the
desktop.

You could then boot to safemode and uninstall the update...
or perform a system restore.


Back in the days of win98...there was often a problem with defrag...in that
it could not complete
due to other applications running.
By booting to safe mode...one could generally defrag with no problems
as the system was operating minimally.


I have cited only two of possibly 1000 reasons for using safe mode.

 

[badgolferman]

I know what Safe Mode is. I have installed and uninstalled every kind
of hardware in PCs and in laptops a reasonably knowledgeable amateur
can. I've never accomplished anything in Safe Mode, so after nearly
twenty years on the Internet, I thought I'd ask. In Safe Mode, I have
this stupid, like, okay, so what am I supposed to do now that I
couldn't really do in WIndows?

What kind of fixes have you done in Safe Mode that 1) resolved a
specific problem or 2) resolved it in a way other approaches couldn't
(updating drivers, reinstalling Windows, etc.)?

As a tech support representative I have had customers boot up in Safe
Mode with Networking to prove to them they have internet service and
that there is some software on their computer blocking their access.

In Safe Mode you can also see old drivers in the Device Manager that
are still on your system. Sometimes they conflict with other drivers.

Safe Mode has allowed me to boot up to a place where I can run ERUNT
and restore my registry to what it was earlier when it worked before I
put some poorly written program on my computer.

Sometimes monitor drivers conflict and/or cause you to not see
anything. Safe mode allows you to escape from that predicament.

 

[Rui Maciel]

I know what Safe Mode is.  I have installed and uninstalled every kind
of hardware in PCs and in laptops a reasonably knowledgeable amateur
can.  I've never accomplished anything in Safe Mode, so after nearly
twenty years on the Internet, I thought I'd ask.  In Safe Mode, I have
this stupid, like, okay, so what am I supposed to do now that I
couldn't really do in WIndows?

What kind of fixes have you done in Safe Mode that 1) resolved a
specific problem or 2) resolved it in a way other approaches couldn't
(updating drivers, reinstalling Windows, etc.)?

This isn't rocket science. This "Safe Mode" thing is just a name that
microsoft gave to a boot option frequently available in the windows line of
operating systems where only a hand full of safe drivers are loaded and
only a restricted set of safe processes are started up.

This feature is useful if your windows install happens to suffer from some
problem that is caused by a faulty driver or a broken program that is
automatically loaded at boot time. Say, for example, a broken video driver
or some nasty virus.

Some linux distributions implement a similar boot option under the boot
menu, which is usually named fail safe.


Rui Maciel

 

[sandy58]

I know what Safe Mode is. I have installed and uninstalled every kind
of hardware in PCs and in laptops a reasonably knowledgeable amateur
can. I've never accomplished anything in Safe Mode, so after nearly
twenty years on the Internet, I thought I'd ask. In Safe Mode, I have
this stupid, like, okay, so what am I supposed to do now that I
couldn't really do in WIndows?

What kind of fixes have you done in Safe Mode that 1) resolved a
specific problem or 2) resolved it in a way other approaches couldn't
(updating drivers, reinstalling Windows, etc.)?

Safe Mode runs on minimal drivers.(unless otherwise asked for ie. cd-
rom etc)
Have you ever come across a file (pest or other) that you can't
delete? "xxx being used by another etc"
Or some persistent spy/adware that just won't go away?
Then you go into safe mode & try then. If no dice, open Command
Prompt (still in Safe Mode) & try there.
Also Virus removers like VundoFix, FixKlez, rogueremover &
VirtuMundoBeGone run better in safe mode.
The most common reason for being unable to remove/delete files in
Normal Mode is because Somewhere Something
in windows is using this thing that you wish to remove.
Hope you make sense outa this ramble.
ATB

 

[DevilsPGD]

In message
<16dabb8d-9283-4a70-9baf-13528aa40d14@i29g2000prf.googlegroups.com>

I know what Safe Mode is. I have installed and uninstalled every kind
of hardware in PCs and in laptops a reasonably knowledgeable amateur
can. I've never accomplished anything in Safe Mode, so after nearly
twenty years on the Internet, I thought I'd ask. In Safe Mode, I have
this stupid, like, okay, so what am I supposed to do now that I
couldn't really do in WIndows?

What kind of fixes have you done in Safe Mode that 1) resolved a
specific problem or 2) resolved it in a way other approaches couldn't
(updating drivers, reinstalling Windows, etc.)?

Removed a driver causing a BSOD on bootup in under 10 minutes. Sure,
you could reinstall Windows instead, but that's overkill.