Windows XP

Bruce Wutzke · From: Marion, Iowa

Anybody running this yet? I decided to do a dual boot (on 2 separate hard drives) and keep Windows98. Good thing I did because some of my stuff is not compatable yet with XP and the drivers are forthcoming. So to use my HP 932 or HP scanner, I have to use
'98. I can see that when its all done, I beleive I'll like just fine. Also, my Norton AV 2001 is no good on XP. I have to go get 2002 it looks like. Its been fun so far.

Jack Stoner · From: Kansas City, MO

Bruce, I ran the Microsoft update wizard on my system and there were several software items that were listed as incompatible or a new version would be needed. It didn't show anything for my HP scanner/printer combo so maybe I'll be OK with that. It did show my Norton AV 2001 as being incompatible and will need the new version, as you have found with McAfee.

Where did you get the XP at? I thought the release date was later this month?

Chip Fossa · From: Monson, MA, USA (deceased)

Bruce,
I have an HP 4100 flat-bed scanner that works fine with my older Gateway PC [Windows 98], but it will not run, even with drivers
I have downloaded from HP's website, and with at least 2 upgrade CD's they sent me, on a newer HP Pavilion PC that came thru with Windows ME.
I don't have XP, but I've got my own compatability problems with ME and the scanner.
And both are made by HP.

So I'm running both PC's now and I'm trying to get them 'networked'. I have a router and
PC switch and you are supposed to be able to share 1 printer. This doesn't work yet, and
going online with the Gateway doesn't work,
either. I've had a friend help me out with setting up this networking, but he hasn't been able to do much with it over the phone
and says he needs to come to my place to set it up.
The point of all this, is it's really irksome. Setting up all this peripheral stuff shouldn't be this hard.
FWIW, Chip

Bobby Lee · From: Cloverdale, California, USA

Is there any advantage to running Windows XP? I like Millennium on my home computer, and Windows 2000 Pro at the office. I don't see any incentive to "upgrade".

------------------

Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs
Sierra Session 12 (E9), Williams 400X (E7, D6), Sierra Olympic 12 (F Diatonic)
Sierra Laptop 8 (D13), Fender Stringmaster (E13, A6)

Craig Allen · From: BEREA, KENTUCKY, USA

Well Bruce, I've been running XP Pro., RC2 now for about a month.
I gotta tell ya that i like it.........
I can also tell ya that it didn't like my modem, nor does it like Adaptec EZ CD Creator.
Since I am on DSL, I blew off the modem thing, but I had to jump threw hoops to get a burning program that it liked !!!
I am running an older Muzteck Scanner, and when I did the compatability thing, it said it didn't like it, either. But, I loaded it, and it works just fine.

I have learned that drivers designed for Windows 2000 work, since XP is based on Win 2000. So, try that.

Dave Alfstad · From: Indianola, IA USA

Bruce,
What is involved in running 2 operating systems? I am asking this for a friend of mine. He just got a new computer that came with XP and all the problems mentioned in this post seem to be happening to him too. He was asking me if he could run 2 OS's and I said "yes, but I don't know anything about doing it." How do you switch between the two, and are there any problems that 2 OS's can cause that he would need to be aware of? He would want to run Windows XP and 98.
Thanks for the info,
Dave Alfstad

Bruce Wutzke · From: Marion, Iowa

Well, I've ran in to some more drivers that will 'be out soon'. My compact flash, smart media, and sony memory stick readers.
CD Creator says it will be out soon with the new 5.1 for XP.
Bob, one of the reasons I went to this: it has the remote assistance capability, like
'Timbuktu' at work. You can get with anybody who has this (and internet access).
Dave, I did the dual boot the easy way I guess. I have two hard drives and cleaned one off for XP and left '98 on the other.
When I boot, I can choose the one I want or after 30 seconds (?) it goes to XP by default.
I really think I'm going to like it but its going to be a lot more involved than the upgrades Windows has had in the past.
Some new software and a whole lotta new drivers.
I did read a review before I got it saying that the XP upgrade would probably give more trouble than a clean installation.
Not sure I could've held together for the upgrade!

Gary Pederson · From: Van Nuys, Ca.

I understand that long file names are not supported by BIAB v10 in XP or 2000. This would really bug me since BIAB is my favorite app & I have lots & lots of BIAB files.

Gary

Jack Stoner · From: Kansas City, MO

I did some more testing on my PC for WinXP. Microsoft has a "qualifier" program that will scan the hardware and software and provide a list of problems or potentials. In my case the hardware is fine.

I only have three s/w products that do not support XP and only one, Ring Central Fax program is a concern. If I upgrade I'll have to find another Fax program.

Incompatible apps are Norton 2000/2001 products and I would have to upgrade my Norton Antivirus

Bruce mentioned Easy CD Creator 5, but the Microsoft qualtifier only listed that program (and Zone Alarm) as requiring reinstallation after XP is installed.

Comment on dual boot. I've seem some issues come up with dual OS systems that a s/w appl will run on one OS and not the other because it wasn't "installed" or "registered" with both systems. Some programs must be "installed" and/or "registered" with the OS or they will not work. e.g. if you have WIN95 and WIN98 installed as dual boot Operating Systems and a program is installed on the WIN95 system it *MAY* not work when the WIN98 OS is started. This is something to keep in mind with dual boot systems.

Dave Boothroyd · From: Staffordshire Moorlands

Just to cheer you up further, you may find that some soundcards won't work either.
Over the summer, the kind gentlemen in our IT department upgraded the PCs in a room that we use for sequencing and sound editing- it was 98, now its 2000.
When we came to start the new term, Logic would not run, Cubasis AV would not run and Soundforge would not run. We managed to get hold of a copy of Sonar from Cakewalk on the grounds that we are applying to become a Sonar Training Centre, and that would run audio but not MIDI. After a lot of messing about and some expensive consultation, it turned out that the version of the Soudblaster card that was in these PCs would not take orders from Win2000, so the nice IT people had to buy us a complete set of new soundcards.
Here's why we have 23 new cards.
We have 20 computers in Room 410, so we thought we'd better order 21 cards, so we have a spare one.
The order went to IT, who thought we should have a spare one, so they ordered 22.
The order went to Finance for approval who ordered 23 so we would have one spare.
So we have 23!
The supplier did not have the ones we wanted so had to send us the upgraded 5.1 surround version.
Guess who has a new soundcard at home?
Cheers
Dave

[This message was edited by Dave Boothroyd on 09 October 2001 at 06:17 AM.]

Jack Stoner · From: Kansas City, MO

I have an old SoundBlaster AWE64 (ISA Bus) and it was not listed as an incompatible hardware device. I also have a SB Live MP3+ 5.1 and it causes conflict problems with my CD burner (the burner hangs when attempting a burn). Someday I'll have to reinstall it and try and fix whatever conflict there is between the two, as the SB Live board has some features that I want.

Win NT/2K is a different animal, although Microsoft is working towards a "one operating system" and the XP is another step in that direction. NT/2K requires hardware and software designed for those systems or they won't work. A lot of "home users" upgraded their WIN98 to WIN2K, thinking it was an upgrade to WIN98, and found out everything they had was incompatible - and drivers were not available for many devices.

Don Walters · From: Saskatchewan Canada

Funny, my experience with Win2k Pro has been excellent. I have it installed on both of my home office computers. Neither machine has ever crashed in a year of use! Installation of Windows itself went flawlessly and all programs I've ever installed work just fine. All hardware was detected accurately including the SCSI controller for my CD burner. The only type of software I never install are games. Otherwise, I've installed all the standard stuff that most people use (MS Office 97, etc).
I also see no need to "upgrade" to XP anytime soon.

Pehaps I should add that my computers are very generic since I put them together from components myself

[This message was edited by Don Walters on 14 October 2001 at 10:08 PM.]

Jack Stoner · From: Kansas City, MO

Don, obviously all of your hardware and drivers were "NT compliant". But that is not the case with many "home" systems. You only have to look at the PC makers support forums to see the problems or requests for drivers for devices. And, many of the PC makers do not even support NT for their "home" or "consumer" model PC's. I've seen comments on the Compaq Presario support forum that "Your model is not certified for NT and Compaq does not support NT for your model" and the customer is basically on their own to try and find drivers, if they can.

Where I used to work, they went from a Win 3.11/WIN95/Novell environment to a NT client server and NT workstation environment. All of the workstations had to be replaced to support NT, along with the new servers. (That was a big contract since the workstation portion of the contract called for up to 55,000 workstations).

Don Walters · From: Saskatchewan Canada

I didn't intend to leave the impression that everyone should rush out and make the change to Win2k! But if you have the hardware, I believe it's the best Windows version.

Keep listening to Jack, folks. The man knows whereof he speaks!

Bruce Hamilton · From: Vancouver BC Canada

I have been trying to run the upgrade advisor and it crashs just before it finishes! I even tried running it in safe mode but without any luck. My system components are all less than a year old and I am running Windows 98 Original. This does not give me a good feeling towards buying XP.
Anybody else have the same experience?

Jack Stoner · From: Kansas City, MO

I've run the upgrade advisor several times (I upgraded some hardware after initially running it so I had to run it again). No problems. I have an older Compaq Presario (350Mhz PII), upgraded to WIN ME and it's not dying on me.

I know it's a long download, but you may want to try and download it again, and then try it. One other thing, make sure any printers, scanners, etc are turned on when you run it to make sure it picks them up and gives the correct info.

Since it's a Microsoft "marketing tool" I'm sure it's setup to run on practically anything.

Rich Paton · From: Santa Maria, CA.,

They can take my W98SE when they pry it from my cold, dead hard drive!
From what I've read, there have been far less problems with this on clean installs than with upgading from another version.
An excellent goldmine of info on all whinedoze (versions W95 and newer, that is) is Windows Annoyances: http://www.annoyances.org/
This is the "Desert Island" site on taming & using Windows. I've been to dozens. Any others that are good have links here.
There is a version flow chart, "Windows Roadmap", addressing the various Windows versions' lineage and dirivations. Go to "Getting Started", then "Windows Roadmap".
There are excellent sections on annoyances & relief by use (networking, apps, clutter, improving performance, 3rd party applications problems, etc.) and very informed, well-behaved forums, one each dedicated to: Windows XP, Windows Me, Windows 2000, Windows 98, and Windows 95.
Also available are freeware utilities (for 95 & 98, don't miss the O'Reilly Utilies Suite). Two other apps I got from there which I use are "Old Menu Mode" (to get the mouse to do what ~I~ want it to do, and not stick to & follow scroll bars &menus), and "IE OFF" (Neuters the intrinsic software linkage between Windows and IE). Remember when MS emphatically insisted could not do that, or neither would work? I guess they just missed a minor detail somewhere, since this 113 KB freeware app does it, and absolutely painlessly.
Anyhow, check it out. If I had not found this site soon after getting W95FE (First Edition) in 1996, I would be typing this on a MAC, or still stumbling through some glassy-eyed all-nighters, setting up the necessary HDD directories...in order to START installing LINUX.
I feel certain that by the time I cannot milk another keystroke out of 98SE, It will be a LINUX distribution or some other OS that I go to (OS/2(000), etc?). Following the Wxx bloatware trends, by 2010 you'll probably need a minimum 100 Gbyte HDD and a terabyte of BS Ram just to install the new "Windows Juggernaut NT".
I don't want to go there, too crowded for me.

[This message was edited by Rich Paton on 21 October 2001 at 08:25 PM.]

Bruce Hamilton · From: Vancouver BC Canada

I went out and bought XP on the weekend and had the same problem I was having with the uprgrade advisor. This basically left me in the position that I could not install it as an upgrade. After working with Microsoft support for two hours I gave up and decided to boot with the cd and do a clean install on my second hard drive. This has actually worked out quite well. I have yet to find anything(hardware or software) on my system that dosen't work with XP. In addition I still have Win98 in case I do find something that has problems.
So far I quite like it.

Mike Dennis · From: Stevens Point WI.

It has some bugs right now, wait for the updated version.

This system is designed for today's high speed systems, it will work on some older systems... but not with the gusto that was intended.

If your running Pentiem IV with atleast 512 mb of SDRAM.

I read alot of pros and cons on this one... mainly cons. This may be another example of Microsoft trying to dominate the market.
Ther are some anti trust concerns... especially with software packaging and registartation issues.

And it may come with some spy bugs...

spying on your activities on the net
mainly for commercial reasons.

i'dwait on this one.

Me is fine for me.

later

Larry Beck · From: Pierre, SD

There has been a sub-theme running through this thread on dual boot so I'm gonna muddy that pond a bit.
Another option to dual boot (IMHO a better option) is running other operating systems in virtual machines. That way you can instantly swith OS's just like you were switching programs. No rebooting! I'd use the most stable operating system as the base and the others as VM's.
VMware makes the one I use. $300 or so retail.

[This message was edited by Larry Beck on 03 November 2001 at 05:37 PM.]

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