Did you do a clean install? Did you let Windows convert your drive to NTFS? A clean install is the least problematic method of upgrading, since any time bombs waiting to go off are removed when you reformat your drive. This requires considerabley more time and effort, but in then end you will have the fewest problems going this route. I routinely (about once a year or so) back up all my files, reformat my drive and reinstall Windows, as well as all my programs and settings. There are also various disk-imaging utilities that can make this process easier. I just finished such an operation, in fact, and I am working on imaging my newly-restored setup to DVD, once I get it all the way I want it.
If you switched to NTFS from FAT16 or FAT32, you may have problems with certain programs which require direct disk access, but are not designed to read NTFS volumes, such as some antivirus and disk management software. NTFS is much more efficient, however, so if at all possible, you should use it.
I’m solidly a Mac user, but I end up doing all my friends’ IT support, and because of that I welcome XP; made it a lot easier for me. I’ve encountered few problems with XP that couldn’t be attributed by my own Mac tendencies and PEBKAC.*
I’ve had XP for over a year now and have had only one BSOD. I got it from a site that streams oddball videos. I had the same problem from the same site when I had ME.
I had nothing but problems with XP because my brother-in-law, sister, and nephews were computer morons who constantly had nothing but Id10T errors. I was their “tech support.”
Now I’ve had XP at work for a year, I like it, but not as much as ME (mainly due to familiarity.) If my box at home could handle XP, I’d give it a shot, but XP tells me my box can’t handle it.
My $.02, DESK
I am still runing Win 98. Everytime I start up, it says “Your virus program is more than 64 months old. You might consider upgrading.” It hasn’t, however, given me too many issues. It has never crashed (completely) and I only have had one virus, despite some minor issues here in there. Like the other day when I realized it had not been preforming regular updates of the registry, as it was told to do, for well over a year and a half. Oh, and there was also the incident recently where it randomly deleted the (16mb) graphics card adapter, so I had to find a driver online and manually install.
I’ve been using XP for about a year now - it came with the new desktop, and the new laptop, and then they upgraded us at work just a month or two ago.
Finally, a PC OS that doesn’t crash. No BSoD’s at all with XP.
So yeah, it’s better than its predecessors by a mile, but all I’ve wanted for the past decade has been an OS with less advanced functionality, and more reliability. And I know I’ve been far from the only one.
There’s been a market for reliability. It’s gone unfilled for a long time. Think MS’ monopoly position might’ve had something to do with that?
Unfortunately, some of us like to not over-pay for software/hareware combos and do like to be able to buy software/games from anyplace. Some of us prefer to use common sense and updates in exchange for idiot-proof, but limited, software.Seriously, rjung, I appreciate your contributions to the boards, but the Jobs/Gates arguments gets old. Both have advantages and disadvantages
I did that with Win 98, and have no difficulty at work with business PCs that don’t require Win XP Pro to be registered, but how does a reinstall work at home? Do you have to call Microsoft and get re-registered?
No, I have Win XP Pro on a CD slipstreamed with SP1. It did the online activation thing with no problem. IIRC, you can do that five (?) times before you have to re-register it, as long as you’ve made no major hardware changes. Something like that, anyway. The details escape me - it’s been a while since I read up on it, back when I first installed XP.
I would rate XP as “acceptable” but there are some things I am definately not thrilled with.
The activation crap really, REALLY, gets on my nerves, and I’m not someone who is anti-microsoft. The online activation didn’t work for me, so I had to enter the damned four thousand f-ing digit super secret code into the phone and then enter the four thousand f-ing digit super secret code the phone gave me back into the computer. So far I’ve only had to reformat my disk once, and it did activate the 2nd time ok, but just the idea that I have to get microsoft involved just to format a disk really pisses me off. If I could find another operating system that would run the software I need to run I would switch just because of that.
The compatibility modes didn’t do diddly for me. Microsoft doesn’t place enough emphasis on backwards compatibility (IMHO). Out of all of my existing software that I had when I upgraded to XP, I had the rather curious result that everything made by microsoft worked, and everything not made by microsoft didn’t. (YMMV)
On the other hand, there are some things they did right (again, IMHO).
The stability is pretty good. Windows 2000 is essentially the same OS under the hood, so XP isn’t better than win2k in that regard, but both win2k and XP are good and stable.
The system restore actually works and is a good thing.
I’m using XP Home on my 600 mhz pIII laptop with 128 mb of RAM, 6gb hard drive and it works fine, although it’s primarily just a net-surfing machine. Is your home machine much older than that?
This isn’t an official warning, rjung, but it is something to which you need to pay attention. This thread wasn’t designed for your drive-bys adding to the OS religious war. If you have something solid and interesting to add to the XP discussion, please feel free to do so; if you’re just planning on throwing in yet another one-line criticism accompanied by that annoying smilie you have trailing most snide comments you make, don’t bother.
I ran Windows XP Pro on a 450 MHz AMD K6-II. It didn’t run lickity-split, but it ran!
Ok, it walked. Occassionally it crawled. But it walked and crawled steadily, only crashing when my RAM died.
Anyway, now that I have XP on decent hardware (2.6 Ghz Pentium 4, 1 GB of RAM) it not only runs lickity-split, but it’s very stable. As I type this, my computer has been running continuously for 3 weeks, 5 days, 8 hours, and 25 minutes. The only adverse effect is that when I have more than about a dozen windows open (which I end up doing at least once daily), the little up/down arrows don’t appear on the taskbar. I can still click on them to page up and down to the next taskbar, but they don’t appear correctly.
Oh, and of course the activation thing sucks ass. But other than that, I’ve no complaints.
Window XP and I are seperated with little chance of a reconciliation. I moved into an iBook about a year ago and living there just seems to magnify the yuk I have to deal with on XP. Specifically, rot.
I support XP professionally. For a living even. I know what to look for and how to diagnose stuff. So why is it easier to just wipe and reinstall fresh every 8- 12 months or so? Why, on top of the OS, do you NEED a virus scanner, spyware scanner, firewall, and monthly reboots for hotfixes?
I’ve been on this bus for a decade or so now and am tired if Microsoft saying ‘Do this this way because we think it’s best…oh, sorry, redo everything THIS way, it’s REALLY what we meant to say the first time.’ I’ve seen it with COM. COM+, DCOM, .Net, and it looks like more of the same with Longhorn/vista…if they ever manage to ship it.
Meh. The best I can say about Microsoft is that they keep a roof over my head.
Seriously, rjung, I appreciate your contributions to the boards, but the Jobs/Gates arguments gets old. Both have advantages and disadvantages