Is there anything wrong with operating in safe mode for an extended time? Also, why is safe mode so much faster?
There’s nothing wrong with it as long as everything you need still works. It’s faster for the same reason it’s “safer” – no unnecessary background programs or services are loaded. That can include things from useless tray icons for various programs to important drivers or support programs for your hardware. Keep in mind that this may also mean that software firewalls / antivirus / antispyware programs may not load, possibly subjecting you to increased risk.
You can get a similar effect with a regular boot by disabling all the startup programs and services that you don’t need.
Ok, so what’s so safe about SAFE mode!?!?
It’s not meant for regular running, and going online. You bring it up when you’re getting problems with a regular boot, either to diagnose it, or clean up something you can’t clean in regular mode, because it’s a running program, or being used by one, and therefor Windows won’t mess with it.
It’s safe, because nothing but the bare minimum is running, so whatever’s making your system unstable causing you agita will stop doing so.
You shouldn’t be connected to the internet in safe mode. Only if you’re trying to fix a virus and need to access something to download.
It’s basically a diagnosis mode to solve problems with Windows. You shouldn’t use it for general use.
If your computer is running slow normally, then do start > run >msconfig and hit enter.
Here, you can disable things that auto-boot and don’t really need to be running.
Edit: Damn, beaten to it.
As others have pointed out, it’s “safe” because only the most basic drivers are running. You won’t have high performance video drivers, many extra devices won’t work, etc. If any of these components (hardware, drivers or other services) are having problems, Safe Mode will let you investigate the problems without them running.
There is a Safe Mode with Networking in case you need to download anything from the Internet, but as a rule, your machine is somewhat crippled by the lack of performance options, so it’s not really that viable for routine operation.