For those who are considering upgrading to WinXP!

[[XR]Sri]

Hi All:wave:,
I just thought someone might be interested in this. I just found from warp2search that WinXp is available for 40$. Its only for people living in US. Here is the link,

http://www.microsoft.com/partner/campaign/Winpro1.asp -^

:beer:

If you must upgrade to Windows XP, then, go for the Professional version..

It's truly the ultimate in reliability, and functionality.I have never had Windows XP Professional crash on me, and I've been using it for a long time now..

It runs all of my software properly now, as well.

[bogs]

i think the next ( and probably last ) windows upgrade i'll be making is to win2k , if i upgrade any farther at all . after that , it would be hard to say , but xp will never be on my system .

[budge]

Hey bogs... just curious, you seem really adamant about not touching XP. With such a blunt statement, I just have to know why? It's been running smooth on my system for the last short bit, what's the scoop? I've heard talk of security issues, probably wouldn't understand them if somebody explained them. (Not overly computer litterate over here)

One downfall that I find with XP is that it pretty much takes care of just about everything for you. This may sound like an obvious advantage, but I've noticed my roomate, who has only ever owned an XP system is completely oblivious to some essential knowledge that I aquired playing around and fixing probs with the older operating systems. I am glad that I had a chance to work on 98 for a while in order to grasp some understanding of the goings on.

All this said, I suspect those of you who've worked with the older systems feel that windows 98, even 95 make the user blind to most of the inner workings.

blah blah I suspect you hear what i'm getting at. When I installed XP, I think I had to install one driver, probably wasn't even necessary... essentially I can reformat my machine and have it up and runnig without even looking at my control panel. The older OS's forced me to learn a bit, XP just pulls it off for ya. Enough of this rant... I'm going back to win98 ;) (maybe next week)

[bogs]

heya budge .

( going into heavily edited mode for length , content , and to generally save everyone else from going to sleep )

its kinda along the lines of its just not my cup of tea . there are people bound to love it , and i have no argument with that .

i dont suppose its any secret that i started out in a dos environment ( 1.0 to be exact ) and slowly worked my way up to 6.22 , then kind of sidestepped over to ibm's dos 7.0 before being dragged kicking and screaming into windows 95 . to be quite honest with ya , i never had much use for windows of any flavor , and just about never touched the version of 3.xx i had ( other than as a learning challenge ) . i did have some fun with executive dos ( some people say the original windows from ms ) but thats as close to liking windows as i got . 95 , and most of the later revisions came as necessity warranted , and i still mostly worked from the command line .

aside from that little rant , i really dont see the huge great rush to upgrade even to 2k as most software out there is still written mainly compatible for the 9x boxes ( at least that i use , at any rate ) .

with xp there also seems to be , at least to me , the " mother may i " complex from ms , at least according to what i've read about it . i go through quite a few hardware changes ( sometimes from week to week ) . the thought of having to ask ms to please let me use my o.s. because i've changed gawd forbid 6 out of 10 components ( or , golly , i switch nic's ) really cuts against my grain .

for me , at least , to put it in a nutshell , its more hassle to go to than its worth on my value scale .

i think i covered the biggest highlights , security issues not withstanding.........

HOWEVER........
........

i'd not presume to indicate that my feelings should be shared . everyone has their own levels and indicators , if xp trips your trigger , more power to you . :)

In many cases, Windows 2000 Professional is just as expensive as Windows XP Professional, and sometimes even more so..

You may as well just upgrade to XP Professional and be done with it.. XP does definately run faster than all previous Windows operating systems, and, it's definately more stable (built on an enhanced version of the Windows 2000 kernel).. -^

Maybe some might be turned away by the colourful user interface, but, in my books, the new user interface is a blessing, because, with a readily downloadable patch, you can customise it completely, and download masses upon masses of skins which give it a completely different look.. My Windows XP Professional looks like the Mac OS X Aqua interface.. (very cool and visually attractive). :cool:

I find that after a couple of quick little updates for a couple of the programs I use, everything runs smoothly, and without problems.. NFS-Wizard still has an error message on start up, but, it continues to run without problem after I continue.. :)


I'll give you my tips for installing XP Professional:

1. Back up (or burn to CD) all of your essential files that you want to keep..

2. Reformat the HDD, and, let Windows XP Professional format it using NTFS (NT file system).

3. If using 3DSMax R4, download the C-Dilla license update for Windows XP from www.discreet.com

4. The WindowsUpdate site has numerous updates and patches available to download.. Most of these are only needed if you are doing specialised sort of stuff, but, you may as well get them anyway..

5. Product Activation: This is a simple, over the phone process.. You just dial the number Windows tells you, then, using your phone keypad, enter the code Windows provides on the screen, then, write down the Activation code that you are told.. You can also register at this point too.. Registration has some useful benefits, especially for those using the high-end versions of Windows (who seem to get the very important customer, we must look after this person sort of treatment..) :D

[MATT]

Without any special downloads you can use the 'traditional' Windows layout (even go back to a more traditional start-bar layout).

But I kinda like the bold colors :)

Here is what my desktop looks like (see the attachment).. Quite nice, isn't it.. Note the buttons and dialog boxes.. :cool:

[bogs]

Originally posted by chris
In many cases, Windows 2000 Professional is just as expensive as Windows XP Professional, and sometimes even more so........You may as well just upgrade to XP Professional and be done with it..

i knew i would forget something . i forgot to mention i already have 2 copies of 2k sitting around for the most part gathering dust . the upgrade price point to 2k for me at least is moot .

[budge]

A mysterious gent to say the least bogs... I dig your style.... hope to meet you in the pits again. Puter is acting up funny this eve, seems to crash upon every race. I'll copy the error report next time. Maybe this is peanuts to you PC profs.

[MATT]

Nice Chris. I downloaded and tried that one too. But I'm the opposite of you, apparently. I like my dark colors on the desktop :)

Matt: Yeah, I don't like dark colours..

And, I like the glass-look buttons that Mac OS X has..

[NameX]

So... can XP layout look exatly like ME,98 or whatever? icons and all.


The colours I have for my Desktop are Pink (not Hot Pink) and Blue, which actually looks quite nice. :D