Windows XP

[Fred T]

OK, I've got a couple destops at home. One a Dell Pen III 450-256 K and an HP Celeron 450 196K. Both running Win 98. Everythings is fine, but you know how win 98 is. Glitchy, hangs up. locks up on occasion. I've heard that XP runs better - is it true? Is an upgrade going to work smoothly. Do I have to blow out the hard drives, reformat and relaod it. (I don't want to go through loading all that stuff back on really)

Thanks for the opinions

 

[MikeT]

If you are going to upgrade to anything, make it Windows 2000. I have had ZERO problems since I did it. I used to have MEGA problems with windows ME and now I have none. Many people recommended that I stay away from XP and get 2000 if possible. Ijust wanted something to work and work well. 2000 does and I'm glad I got it. Plus it runs all my games!

 

[Tony Eeds]

Fred - I have a copy of XP Pro I am getting ready to load on my computer as it has locked up solid 3 times this morning alone. Grrrr.
There is a neet little program on the disk that checks your drivers etc. and tells you which ones you need to update before loading XP. I have spent the last week and a half rebuilding mine after a HD swap so I understand your concern about the enema route. The shop would only do and OEM load of 98 for me (I was wanting a clean XP load).
One thing I did notice in your post is that your machines are on the lower end of what MS recommends for speed and memory. Mine is a laptop that runs at 500mz on battery and 700mz plugged in so I have figured that battery mode will not be real satisfactory from this point on. Memory on mine shouldn’t be a problem, since I have 300+ meg of RAM. If I remember correctly MS recommends 400mz and 128 meg of RAM as the absolute minimum.
I’ll post up a “ride” report later today (hopefully) as to the pain of the process.
Tony

 

[Kawidude]

I bought a laptop almost a year ago that had Windows XP (Home Edition) already loaded on it. I've used almost all of the previous versions of Windows and XP is by far the best I've used so far. It's been very stable and I don't think it has hung up, locked or crashed even once. I use my laptop for lots of Photoshop and Pagemaker work, and it's been great.

 

[Smit-Dog]

Hey Fred,

Win XP is by far the most stable Windows OS offered. You should, however, have the right level of hardware in place to run it properly. Like someone else mentioned, your hardware is on the low-end for XP. It will be much more stable than Win98, but most likely will run quit a bit slower.

Part of it depends on what you use your computer for. A slow yet stable computer is fine if you spend most of your time in Outlook Express and Internet Explorer. If you are working with a number of large spreadsheets, Word documents, audio / visual editing applications, etc., then you are going to want to be using a PC with something like 750MHz and 512K RAM for starters.

XP adds a lot more multimedia capabilities than Windows 2000, so it is more processor/RAM hungry. If you load XP on a slower system though, you will not have the patience though to use all those neat multimedia capabilities!

Like MikeT said, Windows 2000 might be a good compromise. You get a lot more stability than Windows 98, without the RAM/processor requirements of XP.

The cleanest upgrades always involve reformatting the hard disk. It is a pain though going through and making sure that you've archived absolutely every file/setting you want to have on the rebuilt system. The best best is to burn a CD of your current HD so you can always get the stuff back. Not sure of all the apps you want to bring over, but even the basic ones require a lot of detective work to get everything back to the way it was.

Good luck! Shoot me specific questions if you have any!

 

[MXFastGuy]

Do it! I upgraded from Win98 to XP Pro, it's like night and day.

 

[linusb]

I have a PII 400 mhz, Desktop 128 MB RAM, that I bought new with Win98. Upgraded to ME, sucked bad, went back to 98. Upgraded to XP. Sucked big time....SLOW on my machine.

I also have a AMD Duron 900 mhz notebook with 256 MB, came with XP. SLOW!!! If I weren't so lazy, I'd probably format the drive and put Win98 on it. The only thing I like about XP is the way it handles photos, you don't need an external viewer. That doesn't make it worthwhile in my opinion. I have had XP crash on me several times.

I'm very happy with Win 98 and don't find it any more or less stable than XP.

 

[Okiewan]

XP is by FAR the best version of windows assuming you have the hp to run it. 128 MB Ram is borderline. Ram is cheap. Hate to say it, but a PII @ 400 mhz is outdated, you probably do need to stay with a lightweight OS.

I ran Win2K on this machine (P4, 1.4Ghz, 384 MB Ram) for a year, upgraded to the public preview of XP last year, then the full version early this year. BLOWS W2K away in every respect. Faster and very stable.

 

[Danman]

PII @ 400 mhz is outdated, you probably do need to stay with a lightweight OS.

Jeez, then I guess my 333Mhz must be a paper weight ? ;) It was the best you could get when I bought it in 98! :whiner: They just change stuff way to fast.

 

[Smit-Dog]

About 3 months ago I threw away a Pentium 133MHz, 48MB RAM (max you could get at the time), and a 2.1GB HD laptop that I paid just over $6,000 for in October 1996.

Ouch....

 

[yzeater]

Get a mac?

 

[Moto Squid]

Originally posted by yzeater
Get a mac?

:scream: whahaha whaaa what did you say??? A..A...A...A Mac, a mac-in-trash :p I hate macs! I've got XP home edition and it's fine

 

[dthoms]

Hey Fred,
Are you the guy I went riding with in by Kalkaska? AKA Fast Freddy? You were with a guy named Mark.
Anyway, I have Windows 2000 on my work PC and XP on my home PC, and I like XP better. There is a lot of things that are easier to do on XP than the 2000. The only down side I found of XP is that not all compents are compatible. I upgraded my Mom's and her present scanner isn't supported by XP. I had a friend that had the same problem. When I upgraded mine I had one game that would no longer run but it was no big deal. Also I think 256K Ram is recommended.
See ya on the trail,
Dave.

 

[Fred T]

Yep, I'm the guy. Deciphering all this stuff leads me to believe that on my machine Win 2000 would be best until I get newer machines with bigger processors.

 

[geremacheks]

Ditto all the good things said about Home XP. Eleven months ago I updated to Compac unit desktop fully maxed out (it's got power and memory coming out of it's electronic ears) and running XP. Runs wonderful with few problems and used five days a week, eight plus hours a day, trading markets.

But the software I had before it: Windows 95. What trash (crash). I owe Bill Gates of MicroScat a punch in the nose. So many wasted hours fretting with that machine...kind of like your cam bearings blowing out every other day of riding. Where's that Gates?

 

[Danman]

Get a mac?

:|

 

[linusb]

I know my desktop doesn't have the hp to support XP. I see no compelling reason to upgrade. I keep the minimum number of applications installed so as not to tax the registry. Bottom line: my desktop machine with Win98 is faster than my AMD 900 mhz notebook with XP. Concerning the original poster, he's best to stay with Win98 considering his system is comparable to mine.

 

[Chili]

Fred given your system specs I also would suggest win2k pro vs XP.

 

[Jasle]

I am running xp pro on a cirrus 400 with 128M ram. I did notice a slight slowdown but it rocks over the win 98 I was running. No lockups to date after a few weeks. Also I really loke MS Frontpage for xP. Much better version for xP. I am totally new at web pages and it has helped a bunch.
If anyone would care to give me some CONSTRUCTIVE critisism on the site I sure would appreciate it. I am working on a few things. But the bright yellow has to stay!
Jason

 

[Tony Eeds]

Down periscope and dog the hatches ... were going down. :)
After 15 hours downloading drivers and other miscellaneous stuff that XP told me was too old, I am starting the upgrade in a minute.
Throw me a rope if you don't hear from me soon. :yeehaw:

 

[linusb]

Good Luck!!!

 

[marcusgunby]

I tried to upgrade a 400MHz pc to XP pro and it wouldnt load-i assume it needed a new bios program installing-you have to flash a bios which isnt for the faintharted.I would look at upgrading you processor as they are very cheap nowdays.Get as much RAM as you can afford as XP loves ram-256 is a minumum and 512 is desirable-if you have alot of pregrams open at once 700meg is really needed.
BTW XP is miles better than all previous o/s, i have used them all from 3.11 and they all sucked up until xp IMO.

 

[Smit-Dog]

The minimum I would consider running XP on is a 500MHz / 256 RAM box. You're right mgunby, XP will benefit more from an increase in RAM as opposed to an increase in processor speed (if you have to choose between one or the other).

As far as upgrading existing systems, it is not always cost effective to just upgrade components as opposed to buying the latest technology. With that said, you get a lot more bang for your buck if you buy a few notches down from the absolute fastest hardware available.

Regarding Windows OS versions, they have all been a substantial improvement when compared to previous versions. Windows 2000 is still a considered a very good, stable OS, even with XP out. I remember when early runtime Windows allowed you to overlap application windows over each other! Imagine, Clock overlapping Calendar, which was overlapping Notepad and Calculator! It was cool until you realized that those were the only Windows applications commercially available at the time! :think:

This is the main interface for Windows 1.0. Nice, isn't it!

 

[Okiewan]

I was trying to remember the first version of Windows, seems like it was just plain ole "Windows". I snagged a copy as soon as it was available... seems like a LONG time ago.

 

[Hucker]

If you want something reasonably stable (I know stable and Microsoft should never be used in the same sentence) I'd go with Win2KPro. I've used it for a while and its pretty decent. Has alot of support out of the box and it no different than your Win98 (the way the GUI is setup). The only thing you'd need to do is install Service Pack3, and run the Windows Update to make sure you've got all the latest security fixes...