For some reason, maybe because this was the way things were many years ago, I was under the impression that booting a domain controller into safe mode (e.g. to uninstall an anti-virus program) always meant using Directory Services Repair Mode (DSRM). Wrong.
You can get into “normal” safe mode on a DC. Active Directory starts and you can log in as any user.
Only if you need to actually restore Active Directory do you need to work in Active Directory Repair mode.
The Server 2025 DC I’m working on is a virtual machine. Pressing F8 during boot didn’t work. I did manage to get to the Startup options by telling Windows to load the WinRE environment on boot (shutdown /r /o /f /t 0 from an administrative command prompt), but the easier way to trigger safe mode or Active Directory repair mode is to run msconfig and choose Safe boot from the Boot tab:
