Questionnaire

Um, I better get my "hands" on a cable modem first. Here in the sticks, i'm stuck with a 56k connect. Should only take me 4-5 days to d/l beta 2. I'm stuck with beta 2416 for the moment. Never tried to play a DVD in WMP though.....

Thank god Jdulmage hasn't worked his way in here yet, lol Anyway, sorry to hear you go through so much trouble with WinMe, Brian. I wouldn't tolerate that much hassle either! From the info ive gathered about WinMe from its release, many people report having troubles with the *upgrade/promo* version of WinMe. Is it possible that WinMe just doesn't upgrade good or their's a bug in the *upgrade/promo* CD? Ive only done clean installs with the full version and as far as stability goes in WinMe, I personally have zero problems with crashes and lockups. The only compadibility problem's ive encountered are: 1) TV capture on the ATI All In Wonder didn't work. (probably fixed by now, its been awhile since ive run that card) 2) A certain make (cant rememember the exact model) of a Hewlett Packard inkjet printer not working. Thats it! No lockups, crashes or any other awkward stability problems. (but I still wouldn't say it's any better/worse then 98se and definitely not worth paying for if you allready have 98se) Normaly I do a clean install every 60 days to wipe the system clean, but ive been lazy here lately and have so much fud installed on my WinMe system that i'm suprized I don't have any stability/speed loss problems. Heck, I even have old DX 6.1 SDK with a bunch of debuggers runnin for a project I was working on, on this system! Stay away from the promo version of WinME!! It's evil!!! Quote: <font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Another thing that irritated me was that stupid movie maker-which I have no use for and could not uninstall. Microsoft sure has some balls to force stuff on that you cant uninstall.</font> I 100% agree! It's the same bull with XP All that bogus crap should be user choice on the initial install of the OS or uninstallable at a later time

Ive been runnin XP here for awhile now, and for the most part like it alot but think the following should be addressed: 1) Make programs like Windows Movie Maker user selectable during the intitail OS install and un-installable at a later time if the user no longer wants or needs to use it. All components should be user selectable during the initial install or un-installable afterwards if it's no longer wanted or needed. 2) Finally let Direct X be un-installable and/or be able to step back to a previous version if for some strange reason a DX upgrade messes up a system for whatever reason saving the person from having to do a complete re-install of the OS (I see this happening to people all over the net). 3) I like the fact that msconfig is in there unlike in win2K. A big plus for easily disabling startup FUD that some programs like to put in there slowing down the system (cough, realplayer, cough). I'd also like to see a basic resource meter along with msconfig like in Win9x to see what percentage startup FUD might be eating. 4) Make personall edition support dual CPU or drop personall edition all together, because if games and more apps are to start supporting dual cpu, the developers might not want to waste their time coding for it if the general population only has an OS that supports single cpu. Lets make dual cpu support a standard. 5) Make system restore have more advanced settings because when enabled and in use, it slows down system intensive apps (mainly 3d) to much leaving people like myself with no other choice but to disable it. I don't mind it writing to the HD while doing less system intensive stuff like browsing the net or what not, but my idea is simply to allow the user to have system restore be able to be set to not run during user selected apps/games/etc that you don't want it to. The user could simply select the exe/app or what have ya in the system restore advanced settings which would temporally disable it until the user selected app(s) where shut down. Just a few of my ideas........ The Questionnaire [This message has been edited by Questionnaire (edited 01 March 2001).]

My absolute slowest system I currently own is a PIII running at 1050Mhz on WinMe, no patches and ive never had this problem occur, ever.

Quote: <font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Cardinal: Haru. you seem like an ignorant 'weak user' as opposed to a power user. Anyone who has tried to get something decent from ME has suffered freezes, desktop dumps, bsod etc etc. It sucks. 98se was better for games. ME is a resource hog for such a crap OS. If you can call it that. It is in my opinion, as bad as 95.</font> Aahh, newbies. Mabye learn how to correctly install an OS then becuase I can fire up my PIV system up to 1700MHz+, frag away at UT, edit photos, make custom objects for games in 3dmax, update my website all day long and not have a single crash in WinMe. And as for 'weak users' vs 'power users'- just beat my 10,127 WinMe 3dmark score in Win2k and then tell me about 'weak users' vs 'power users'. And as for a "resource" hog- Mabye if you had just the slightest clue on how to tune the OS to give back resources after closing down programs: After not being rebooted all day. Nuff said.

Well this is one lame-ASS message board you guys have here Well, I'll re-register a new name everytime I hit 20 posts, ok? I just re-registered and await my new password for my new name. Back to zero posts every 20 Happy now?????????? The Questionnaire [This message has been edited by Questionnaire (edited 02 March 2001).]

Because I was under the impression that people from MS might be reading forums (especialy XP topic forums) to gather the most feedback from people using it or ideas people had about it, so they could apply to it, what people want in it. Or am I just fooling myself hehe I upgraded to the newest version of direct x, oooppss, my graphics are all messed up now, oh, XP now lets you un-install DX and re-install a earlier version without totaly re-intalling the whole OS and having to set everything back up the way it was until there's updated drivers availible for your VGA! XP saves the day! WOOOOHOOO! The Questionnaire

>>"Let me be blunt: Everytime MS comes out with the latest and greatest OS, the system requirements become heftier and that is unacceptable. Just because you can load up your board to 1.5GB of ram and have a 1.5GHz P4, doesn't mean that the OS your running has to be so bloated that it hinders the true performance of the system."<< Exactly! Like I said before, I don't want my 1600MHz system feeling like a damn 800 after all the money and tweaking I put into it! *Sigh* Atleast one person sees it the way it realy is! I thought technology was supposed to get more efficient instead of less? Same reason why the Voodoo 5 never did well and the Geforce did, mwaahhahahahahaa! The Questionnaire

>>"As for benchmarks and speed why are you benchmarking a beta OS??"<< Because people keep saying it's as fast as Win9x in games, RIGHT NOW IN THE BETA FORM!! And i'm just clearly givin my POV from a hardcore gamers aspect, not someone who's comparing barbie dolls to hercules! So that why im benching the beta! Stop saying it's as fast in games, and i'll stop benching it! The Questionnaire [This message has been edited by Questionnaire (edited 01 March 2001).]

Well, i'm not a official bug tester like you, just a critique and have no idea where to send my feedback to. The Questionnaire [This message has been edited by Questionnaire (edited 01 March 2001).]

Haha, so what do you exactly mean by that, James? Should of I just sent them to MS, or does my personal ideas just plain suck The Questionnaire

Oh... So thats why people complain about Win9x being so unstable....They're still running the beta of it. The Questionnaire

You guys must not know how to install a OS right, because I can O/C my PIV to 1600MHz++, warm it back up and play some QIII, UT, browse then net, play with my website, all while listening to some MP3's and not have a single crash all day on WinMe. As far as XP is concerned, I get lockups just sittin there doing nothing on my O/Ced systems, less stable then WinMe from this POV. The Questionnaire [This message has been edited by Questionnaire (edited 01 March 2001).]

>>"Maybe, a lot of people have 1G processors and they don't notice the poor performance of Whistler. Just wanted to see if I'm alone in this thinking..."<< Well, in my two fastest systems, one with a PIII @ 1050MHz and the other, a PIV @ 1600MHz I can clearly say that the slower performance is noticable, even on a fast system. >>"As for gaming whistler is designed for it with DX 8 integrated into it and games like FreeCell and Minesweeper and Spades in it where do you get off saying it sucks for gaming! Hell I even scored a 1million in pinball last night"<< Now the truth comes out with the guys here that claim Xp is as fast as WinMe in games. Look at WTF their playing for god sakes! Well of course you're not gonna see the performance hit playing little baby games! How about firing up QIII at 1600x1200 with maxxed out graphics settings? Still as fast as Win98/Me?? I don't want my farkin 1600MHz cpu feeling like god damn a 800 after all the tweaking I did!! Um, I think i'll stick with the fast stuff. >>"My biggest gripe about Whistler/WinXP is the way MS wants to move it to a total net based/subscription based OS. Since the computer is mine, I SHOULD BE THE ONE WHO DECIDES HOW I WILL USE IT. I dont want MS patching up things automatically."<< Hhhhmm... Every day I read something else that turns me away from XP. >>"I also dont like the fact that MS forced the movie maker program down our throats."<< 100% Agreed! You should be able to select the EXACT components you want during the install! Which now reminds me, how many people complain about not being able to uninstall direct x and/or go back to a previous generation of direct x? How many people complain about the latest versions of Media Player? They get bulkier, slower loading, etc.etc. The very reason why I use Winamp over it! And about all this NET intergration crap, is everyone expected to be on the NET?? What about the people without a NET connection?? What will they do?? The Questionnaire [This message has been edited by Questionnaire (edited 01 March 2001).]

The fix is so simple that you're not even gonna believe it! Just wait for the final to come out! lol, j/k Ok, in my version changing "PaintDesktopVerion" in the reg doesn't seem to work in the XP beta. But this does (in my version which is 2416, waiting for beta 2). Right click on desktop>Arrange Icons By>Lock Web Items on Desktop. This should work but makes the icons look ugly... eeww. Also, to remove the "comments" links from the nav bars: (from the faq) Open regedit.exe go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop change "LameButtonEnabled" to 0 remove the text from "LameButtonText" Restart Windows XP There, have fun with your beta. The Questionnaire

I'm not saying the support for games won't be there, just the raw speed of Win9x/Me. And as for console's, heh, now don't go trying to sell me an X-Box now Oh, and btw, have you ever compared TV resolution to 1600x1200??? The Questionnaire

I don't think it will be worth upgrading to XP from Win9x/Me for hardcore gamers, period. But if anyone wants to compare framerates/3dmark scores to my O/C'd 1.7GHz PIV - WinMe system, im game. But other than that, if you're not into raw speed and little baby toys that slow down your system, then you'll love it for sure. The Questionnaire BTW, i'm runnin XP right now on this system [This message has been edited by Questionnaire (edited 26 February 2001).]

Quote: <font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Down8: And, that's why even with the backing of DoomIII and the GeForce3, gamers will still stick to PCs. Well, that and the the 00 entry price.</font> The Geforce 3 is comming out on the MAC first The Questionnaire

For what it's worth- I couldn't get 2416 to install on a Gigabyte GA-6BXD dual cpu server series motherboard until I flashed in the newest, beta bios. It would hang during the setup everytime regardless the video card. Anyone try up[censored] their bios? The Questionnaire

Hhhmmmm... I say they drop that idea because it's only gonna *encourage* the use of hacks/cracks by legitimate users (kinda like legit users of 3DMax cracking their copies so they didn't have to deal with those hardware-lock dongle's messing up their systems) And since i'm on the subject, I also read that even pirated mp3's and the like wont play on WinXP regardless of the playback software. Now I wonder, if this realy happens with the final, whats the difference between the illegal copyrighted mp3 that someone posted on the net and the one I encoded from my own personal CD collection? How would it know the difference?(just saying if this was to be true) As impressed with WinXp as I am, i'd realy hate to be missing out on it just because it wont let me play around with swaping/changing system configs or playing my own personal mp3 collection that was encoded from CD's that I own. I realy hate to sound negative, but I just hope they find a better way without alienating the very customers they depend on. Because in the end- this is only gonna hurt the legitimate users The Questionnaire

Thank you MSGuy!

What about this then? http://www.arstechnica.com/wankerdesk/01q1/wpa-1.html http://www.microsoft.com/PressPass/press/2001/Feb01/02-02ProdActPR.asp The Questionnaire

Cool, glad to hear it's doin good! Now my only beef with it is- I hear the final is gonna have a very strict anti-piracy/activation do-hicky. I hear that if you're a system tweaker (like me) and change and swap components like video cards and motherboards often, you're more then likely to be in a world of shit (literally speeking, hehe). If you break the hardware ID tolerance, you'll be stuck with a non-functional system until you call microsoft and sort out the problem. Well, if this is true, hope they're prepaired to recieve many calls a week from me I can only pray this is only a rumor I heard......... The Questionnaire [This message has been edited by Questionnaire (edited 22 February 2001).]

The spelling errors where done intentionally, DUH!

My version (2416) automatically installed the SBLive drivers - but no AudioHQ or Mixer. I never tried to install the rest of the SBLive's programs. Mabye just use windows mixer to adjust the audio levels. But the audio on my end works right with no-problemo's. Try and uninstall the card and then let windows install the drivers. Just a thought.....good luck!