Plug and Play Detection Not Disabled in Safe-Mode Startup

When you start Windows 2000 in any safe mode, Plug and Play devices are still detected by the operating system.

Plug and Play detection is not disabled during a Windows 2000 safe-mode boot. This behavior facilitates repair processes in which a necessary device would otherwise not be installed. All devices are detected if they did not exist previously on the system, but if that class of device is not started, the device is not installed. For example, a video adapter may be detected as "new hardware" but may not be installed.