hi guys. while reading some posts in these forums (quite interesting reading material), i noticed that you, experts, reccomend removing and installing devices from the device manager in safe mode. why is that? is it because it's performed better this way? or for protection of other cumputer elemens? something else?
TIA for your answers
david

When you enter safe mode, none of the peripheral devices you would normally have are loaded into the system. Safe mode provides a very basic structure in which to run the computer.
If you were to try to remove some troublesome software/hardware from a normal boot, the system may not release all the files/programs, as it may actually be trying to use them.
As safe mode doesn't use them, it is a more certain way to remove everything. Also, if there is a conflict between devices, the conflict will not cause problems under safe mode, so you don't end up tearing your hair out!

Also, if the device drivers aren't loaded, in Safe Mode you can see if there are duplicate or triplicate instances of drivers for specific devices.

Kind of like when working on a car. If you want to remove and replace your carburetor, then it makes sense to shut the engine off.;)

thanks guys, it's pretty clear now, however i am very careful about my hair since i haven't much left...
david

Its the way windows was built; ie-in safe mode you have 16 bit real mode access; whereas when windows is running "normally" you are running in protected mode ( or 32bit access )-where the programs have to get windows "permission" to access the hardware directly-in 16 bit real mode the programs have direct control over the system.

This is one of the reasons the NT kernel is so powerful-there is no " safe mode " as in the 9x kernel-you are always running in protected mode with NT derivatives, that's why you can manually stop a running process before it blue screens your system ( at least most of the time it works that way :) )


It's not a good idea to install progs in safe mode-simply because they aren't able to call on the win32 api's they usually need to function properly; but it's great for trouble shooting just for that purpose-those same pesky troubling programs can't run while in 16 bit real mode.


Just know that the 9X series is still running on top of DOS ( 16 bit ), for backwards compatability-in the NT series you have 16 bit emulation for backwards compatability-big difference in controllability and distance between BSOD's


Note XP's safe mode is not the same as 95/98/ME safe mode.

Note XP's safe mode is not the same as 95/98/ME safe mode.
Why's that then ?
Regards
FBW

Re the POST i " posted " above, the NT kernel is built exclusivley 32bit-16 bit is only used for emulation-even in XP " safe mode " you're still runing the HAL & 32bit systems-it's only that certain normal windows services are temporarily disabled ( like networking-unless you choose safe mode with networking )-also any non-essentials like themes are diabled ( the actual driver for your video is one of the major disabled items-as video drivers can cause major probs in a system, hence window uses it's basic VGA service to alleviate any possible conflicts ) and any other " eye " candy programs/services.

Capiche? :)

Thanks :)