Windows XP Safe Mode is a troubleshooting feature in Microsoft Windows XP.

In this mode, Windows XP does not load the normal device drivers for the installed devices like the video card and instead load only generic device drivers. It loads only the necessary device drivers to properly display and accept data or in short it goes into a reduced functionality mode.

In this way, usually, an unbootable system is able to boot and diagnostics and recovery utilities can be run and the necessary corrective actions can be taken.

The Safe Mode is accessed by pressing the F8 key at boot time before or right after the "Loading Windows" message.

Safe Mode: Uses a minimal set of device drivers to enable Windows XP to load. Windows Explorer (explorer.exe), the program that displays the Windows Desktop and the Start Menu is loaded.

Safe Mode With Networking: The same as the first mode but with the LAN card device driver loaded and the network is configured to make the local area network operational. You will have access to other computers on your network and may be able to access the internet with this mode, so this is most useful if you need device drivers and program updates while troubleshooting.

Safe Mode With Command Prompt: In this mode, the Windows Explorer is not loaded and instead a Command Prompt Window will appear. This mode is used if you know how to use a computer using text-based commands. Since the Windows Explorer is not loaded, you may only use text-based commands in this mode to start other programs, which means you must know the filenames of the programs you want to launch.

USES OF THE WINDOWS XP SAFE MODE

Safe Mode operation is usually the first step in troubleshooting a malfunctioning Windows XP installation. I have seen some PCs getting magically fixed by simply going into the Safe Mode and rebooting back again to normal mode.

One of the uses of the Safe Mode is starting the System Restore program. As can be seen in Figure 2 below, selecting "No" on the Desktop window which says "To proceed to work in safe mode, click Yes. If you prefer to restore to a previous state, click No," will launch System Restore.

The main use of the Safe Mode is it lets you run your troubleshooting and recovery utilities. You may actually be able to run your application programs like Microsoft Office Suite although the graphics display may not be as great as if you are in normal mode. While in this mode, you may run the disk checking program "chkdsk.exe", use your antivirus software to scan the whole computer for infections, modify the Windows Registry using "regedit.exe", and run any other troubleshooting and recovery tools and utilities you may have.

Safe Mode: How to practice Safe PC. - You really messed something up and now your Windows PC won't boot. Unless you want to stare at the BIOS Startup screen for the rest of your days, you have to try to get into the Windows desktop somehow, and the best way is to try and boot into Safe Mode.

Running Safe Mode in Windows - Sometimes when cleaning up your system or troubleshooting, you need to enter Windows via Safe Mode. Safe Mode enables you to run a basic version of your operating system in order to make changes that may not cause as much harm if done wrong running a full version of your OS. This will walk you through how to get into safe mode in the various versions of Microsoft Windows.

In Windows XP, If I lost my Adminstrator password, how to log in to the system? - With every new install on windows xp, an account named Administrator is created, this account is created automatically and has no password. So what you have to do? Well, if you haven't changed the password to this account, then you can restart your computer and reboot it in Safe Mode,

Safe Mode Can't Diagnose Windows System Files Issues - If you can not start your Windows 2000/XP/2003 computer by using the last known good configuration, you can use safe mode. It is a startup option, which disables nonessential services and startup programs for creating an environment that is useful for diagnosing and troubleshooting problems.