View Full Version : Windows XP - your thoughs gentlemen (and birds)
Like it says in the tin, i have a copy i am going to install on me pooter tonight - just wanted to know peeps opinions of it and if anyone would seriously advise against it......usually use 2000, but my copy died and some nice kind fellow provided this instead, never used it before though........
Cheers in advance,
Adam :)
After you get rid of all the blotware and the teletubbies GUI then you have a decent copy of win 2k... just take a bit more work then installing win2k to get then :p
Ive upgraded from 2000 and now find my computer alot quicker and stable :D
if its warez you may not be able* to install the latest service pack. this will mean that you have stability and security holes. that even the most novice of script kiddies will be able to exploit.
*depending on whether the product key is well known to MicroSoft.
Orrible in Home version,
stable as fook in Office
Since I've had my PC built by the great Mr T (with Pro), it has locked up once.
The other one hangs all the time with Home...
If you have what he says I have something else that makes it into what he says second, and that way you can cure all holes ;)
Cryptic I know :D
Originally posted by Vez
If you have what he says I have something else that makes it into what he says second, and that way you can cure all holes ;)
Cryptic I know :D
Winks as good as a nod to a blind bat,
will have a look into what i have and not get back to you ;)
:notworthy
I installed XP Pro on my PC from new when I first got my PC, and it's been more or less faultless. Good stuff IMO.
Dunc. :)
Do it, do it, do it....
Only crashed my PC twice since I built it... and I install all sorts of sh1t onto it:eek:
If you are an expierenced PC user you'll turn off many of the annoying "features" straight away.
Originally posted by Exactly
Do it, do it, do it....
Only crashed my PC twice since I built it... and I install all sorts of sh1t onto it:eek:
If you are an expierenced PC user you'll turn off many of the annoying "features" straight away.
I like to think i am experienced, i also used to "arch" as only the best people do ;)
Cheers folks, ill be doing it tonight, so if you dont see me about for a while, presume it went tits up :D
Duff Man
07-07-2003, 16:55
Using XP Pro on my two home systems, works great and even supported an old legacy Soud blaster 64 Gold straight out of the 'ahem' box ;)
Super stable, efficient and I havent managed to kill it yet (and if I do, finger's x'ed and try the roll back feature) :D
Oh Ive managed to kill XP on a factory installed Dell at work a number of times :D
mostly lock ups due to CDR/CDRW problems butmanaged to BSOD it once so far :wack: MWAhahahaaaa....
Duff Man
07-07-2003, 17:28
Originally posted by Yak
factory installed Dell
...Here lies your problem ;) :D
ScoobyDoo
07-07-2003, 17:55
Originally posted by Starionman
Orrible in Home version,
stable as fook in Office
I was under the impression they are the same OS but pro comes with extra admin tools
Namely :-
Administrative Tools (in the Start Menu and Control Panel)
Automated System Recovery (ASR)
Boot Configuration Manager
DriverQuery
Group Policy Refresh Utility
Multi-lingual User Interface (MUI) add-on
NTFS Encryption Utilitiy
Offline Files and Folders
OpenFiles
Performance Log Manager
Remote Desktop
Scheduled Tasks Console
Security Template Utility
Taskkill
Tasklist
Telnet Administrator
Succinctly, as a business OS: shite. As a home OS to play games on: can't be beat. Less succinctly: if you use your machine just as a workstation, you'll find Win2K faster. If you want to play games, and use a few apps once in a while, WinXP's your OS of choice. Personally I prefer Linux, but that's just me :p :D
Chris_thedr
07-07-2003, 20:26
I don't think it's as good as 98 or 2k for overclocking. Read this quite a few times now and in my experience it seems to be the case. Stable as can be until you boost the clock speed...
Having said that it is more user friendly and I don't seem to have any other troubles - unlike 98 which I had to reinstall about every month!!
Seems as I've had a few requests, PM me and you can download something from my ftp server :D
right, buggering thing....
Vez - cheers mate but it is the pro version already, and being on clock work connection down loading anything over 30k takes hours, but cheers for the offer.
Right, intsalled it, but it spat the dummy with regards my modem, it did this before which is why i formatted the damn thing......so im gonna do it again, trouble is i can get to a stand alone version of DOS without xp in the back ground - so it wont format.....
question - how can i format the damn thing now i have xp.......
HELP! :cry:
(a big thankyou to my creaky old laptop which is allowing me to be here today! :))
Chris_thedr
07-07-2003, 21:45
ooooo... someone should have mentioned that xp sometimes spits the dummy with some programs/hardware. It should warn you about it on the install though :confused:
I have no idea how to explain the answer to your question though, sorry.
Martin T
07-07-2003, 21:45
Tell your BIOS to boot from CD.
(Should be under advanced options) - 2nd in the list in a Award system. Will see it as boot order or similar - make the CD-ROM 1st.
Wait for ages
Yes everything before it starts asking real questions.
Its easier to just delete the old partition, and tell XP to install in the empty space. It will then ask you whether to use NTFS or FAT, and format it for you. It will automatically select between FAT or FAT32 (if you select FAT) depending on the size of the partition to install it into.
Go through the multitude of oiptions AGAIN.
Think about creating an answerfile coz you know you'll be doing this in future:rolleyes:
Enjoy:D
Using xp pro any way of getting to start menu screen without that annoying password log in.
You should be alright if you can find an XP (or Win2k as a last resort) driver for your modem. I've yet to come across a modem that I couldn't get working in XP, and I've chucked some obscure shite at it before now. I've even managed to get a couple of awkward feckers working with NT4 drivers :thumbs: If you're adamant about reformatting, just use your Win2K CD (if you're going back to Win2K and let the installer format the hard drive.
Originally posted by STiMPY
You should be alright if you can find an XP (or Win2k as a last resort) driver for your modem. I've yet to come across a modem that I couldn't get working in XP, and I've chucked some obscure shite at it before now. I've even managed to get a couple of awkward feckers working with NT4 drivers :thumbs: If you're adamant about reformatting, just use your Win2K CD (if you're going back to Win2K and let the installer format the hard drive.
I have no idea why it doesnt work, stopped working before - not being able to find a dialling tone, but there is one there, as im on the line now :D so dont know what its up to. Formatted it before and installed 98 again, worked peachy,just my pooter works very badly with 98 for some reason......
as for the win 2k disk, its fooked, which is why im trying to install xp, twas the only think i could get hold of :D
so - :cry:
NissanNewbie
07-07-2003, 22:08
i know some people who know this bloke who could possible obtain said copy of what you had before with SP2 included and all said friend of said people would need is said address for said postage.
Oh and you can boot XP from CD or i say OR create the 4 disk floppy set which is great in emergencies should your CD rom ever die a horrible death
Oh and while i remember i think aforementioned said bloke had service pack one on cd as well, can`t hurt to ask now can it, and he also has the tool needed to fox the said corporation into allowing application of aforementioned patch.
Fook i`m confused now
The last bit which he said I have for download not on my ftp server, so dont request user name and password not from me by pm.
Smiffad, havent I sent you what the last post describes already?
NissanNewbie
07-07-2003, 22:22
now i really need a shrink :D :thumbs:
Oh and david, you can get it to not require login at startup but its a balls ache to do, its all to do with the user accounts you set up in the first place.
Originally posted by Vez
Smiffad, havent I sent you what the last post describes already?
Now i pride myself on thinking im not totally dim.........but youve lost me somewhere vaz :D
Keychange util :rolleyes: or have I lost it too!
Originally posted by Vez
Keychange util :rolleyes: or have I lost it too!
:wack: no idea mate :)
I find XP by far an away the best and most stable Windows OS. Being NT based it's miles in advance of 9x OSes. If speed concerns you, don't install unless you have a 700MHz+ with at least 256MB of RAM (more prefferably). Once installed, you can alter the performance settings by turning off all the flashy XP stuff which will speed it up considerably. Use Microsoft's Bootvis program to get all the startup services and programs together in the same file. You will then find it starting quicker than anything except a fresh install of Win95 or ME.
I personally have 1GB of RAM, which allows me to stop using the Paging File. This speeds the processing quite a bit, as it avoids having to write memory to disk and pull it back.
SpeedyPete
08-07-2003, 10:03
I found it to be be the most reliable, exciting, feature full and use friendly (when you put it to network mode and classic control panel) OS theyve done yet........
...for about a week! Now I totally hate it, and all the machines its loaded on have slowly rotted to a buggy, terrible OS which crashes the OS less, but crashes actual applications more.
Ive gone back to a service pack 4'd win 2k and happier now. Some things in XP have been changed just for the sake of change and no benefit, and the user friendly stuff needs stripping back or it can really annoy a power user.
Give it time, I will go back, but they need to sort a few issues out with it first via service packs.... maybe take another look after SP3 for XP, or 2k can be my choice of OS.
Whatever you have, make sure it IS XP or 2k and nothing previous to that!!
cant stand XP or any windows packages to be honest :D :D give me linux instead.
:thumbs:
SpeedyPete
08-07-2003, 10:11
Originally posted by Dave200
cant stand XP or any windows packages to be honest :D :D give me linux instead.
:thumbs:
Been there.... but get peed off when apps are non linux compatible, drive you nuts having a lesser 'copy' of everything...
...the new outlook style email package looked cool though :thumbs:
Duff Man
08-07-2003, 10:13
Whats this bootvis then and how does it work?
My xp install is quite quick to get going but does this optimise it further, or is it likely to mess it up. In which case i wont bother for a few seconds of my time.
:confused:
Originally posted by SpeedyPete
Been there.... but get peed off when apps are non linux compatible, drive you nuts having a lesser 'copy' of everything...
...the new outlook style email package looked cool though :thumbs:
yeah i know what you mean..but you may not have the compatibility of some programs but you have the advantage of not having a illegal error every 5 seconds :D :D :D
:thumbs: to linux..
Originally posted by Adam D
Whats this bootvis then and how does it work?
My xp install is quite quick to get going but does this optimise it further, or is it likely to mess it up. In which case i wont bother for a few seconds of my time.
:confused:
Bootvis is produced by Microsoft for XP only. It analyses your startup, including driver loads if you wish, then optimises them by sticking them all together in one file. This mean that your HD doesn't have to be trawled to find all the usual files. On a particularly bad startup, I've found it reduced the time by 30 seconds.
You can get it here: http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/hwdev/platform/performance/fastboot/bootvis.mspx
SpeedyPete
08-07-2003, 10:20
Indeed. If someone threw a bit of cash its way it could be quite home compatible...
...however not sure if i like the microsoft way the new red hat has gone down, auto updates etc. and trying to do everything is one way that hackers gain vulnerabilites and users get patchy/buggy OS's....
Id like Warp to come back, stir things up a bit...
Originally posted by ScoobyDoo
I was under the impression they are the same OS but pro comes with extra admin tools
Namely :-
Administrative Tools (in the Start Menu and Control Panel)
Automated System Recovery (ASR)
Boot Configuration Manager
DriverQuery
Group Policy Refresh Utility
Multi-lingual User Interface (MUI) add-on
NTFS Encryption Utilitiy
Offline Files and Folders
OpenFiles
Performance Log Manager
Remote Desktop
Scheduled Tasks Console
Security Template Utility
Taskkill
Tasklist
Telnet Administrator
/shrug\
I'm just saying what I found dude. I've had Home on several machines and all of them have locked, crashed, hung and thrown the toys out on a regular basis, even with every service pack and recommended update.
My one machine with Pro has locked one App once causing me to restart it. Once in about a month, where as the other Home one was crashing 4 times a day.
Then again I have got over 1g RAM, so that might be the key to XP success?
Originally posted by david_t
Using xp pro any way of getting to start menu screen without that annoying password log in.
How many user accounts have you got?
If more than one, you should be able to turn the p/word off but still have to choose your identity. If only the one, you want to go to Control Panel -> User Accounts and have a poke around the advanced settings - the p/word is somewhere in there I'm certain...
SpeedyPete
08-07-2003, 10:37
certainly is. You can select 'Log in as this user' and you wont get the box at all.
Alternatively if its not a networked machine, take it out of the workgroup and it wont as you for it anyway
Originally posted by david_t
Using xp pro any way of getting to start menu screen without that annoying password log in. LOL! This is what's called 'security'. It's an unknown quantity to Windows 95/98/ME users. :p
a pic for you speedy pete..lol
enjoy:thumbs:
SpeedyPete
08-07-2003, 11:32
heh, that was actually my background here at work for a while :D :thumbs:
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