Windows XP Constructive Criticism

[pmistry 0]

I am really starting to dislike Windows XP. I've been running the Professional edition for about a month or so, and its starting to get to me. The integrated ZIP support is highly annoying. I tried the trick to unregister the ZIPFLDRS [or something].DLL trick but still when I click a ZIP file or try to open up the properties page for it, I get near 100 % CPU use and a long delay before it comes up. I use Winrar 2.9 Final for my archiving purposes, forget WinZIP and I dislike WinACE.

 

With the same setup in Windows 2000 I got faster gameplay with Quake 3, 80 FPS to 68 FPS, Same setup, and everything else. I have a 750 Athlon with 512 megs of RAM and GeForce 2, and 7200 RPM hard disk with latest 23.11, but also tried 21.81, 21.83, 21.85, and a bunch of others. Maybe my PC is getting a bit old, but others report great performance on P3-500 or Celeron systems with 256 megs of RAM.

 

The new interface is getting to me so I switched back to classic view with the classic start menu. I tried to go back to the bubbly interface but I just couldn't do it. I am afraid in future revisions MS may get rid of the classic menu/look. I hope not.

 

I hope hard disk companies get on the ball and update their boot disks to support NTFS partitions so that I can use Maxtor's MaxBlast directly with NTFS. I had trouble getting rid of an NTFS partition so I ams sticking with FAT32, but really for my use I see no real advantage in using NTFS.

 

Working around the OS seems sluggish, I don't know why, things load quickly enough but still the mouse and other things just don't "feel" right to me. Take that for what its worth.

 

My only gripe is that companies may ditch support for 2000 in favour of XP, mostly game companies. But I hope that XP support will backwardly work with 2000.

 

What are some of your thoughts, praises, and criticisms of WinXP vs Win2k vs Win9x/ME?????

[EddiE314 0]

i use Winrar 2.9 also, i have never had any problem with intrgrated Zip functionality, after installing Winrar i set up the file associations and everything's fine, the only thing that bugs me is the search feature, it proves to be too damned slow, i can't figure out how to revert to the one that was in Windows 2000.

[Four and Twenty 0]

never tried win2k on my current setup but xp runs fast as hell.

 

no 100% zipfile useage don't know what the deal is with that.

[clutch 1]

I get faster performance in Q3, and haven't had any issues with XP Pro. I still like Win2K though, and I feel that support will be around for a while to come since most companies have planned Win2K/AD deployments *this* year, and because of that will probably not fiddle with XP much.

[Palos 0]

I use XP Home OEM, and I have no problems with .zip files. It also runs very nice, the only problem I get is sometimes when I exit Counter-Strike (OGL mode), the desktop freezes (with 21.83 dets). I have no VIA 4in1s installed, no patches except whatever Windows Update recommended me.

 

Did any of you tried and tested the built-in firewalling? I use Norton Personal FW 2002, but you know how it is: if the feature is already built-in, I hate to use something extra. How does the built-in FW compare to other products (port stealthing & scanning, ping sweeps or SYN floods/attacks). I use mIRC quite a lot, plus the usual ICQ/MSN messengers...having a DSL flatrate puts me at risk much more than the occasional "dial-up". I keep my IP for 24 hours at a time, so that's plenty of time for sniffing me around

[JP- 0]

I went back to 2000 after using XP (the full professional version) after about a week of use. It just feels so sluggish and my fps was down in everything. Also explorer.exe actually crashed which it has never ever done in my history of using win2000 on this system, i wasnt impressed. Also, its had this same problem since i started using XP back in RC1 where the screen will just go totally grey, and i will find an instance of explorer (either files or internet) which no name and until you close that down then the screen remains grey. Very annoying. The most annoying thing about this is that i actually paid for Xp, im paying for an OS im not even using.

 

I realise its a new OS but i mean come on, its not like its that different from 2000.

 

Service pack please

[clutch 1]

Quote:

Did any of you tried and tested the built-in firewalling? I use Norton Personal FW 2002, but you know how it is: if the feature is already built-in, I hate to use something extra. How does the built-in FW compare to other products (port stealthing & scanning, ping sweeps or SYN floods/attacks).

I use outboard firewalls myself, since my systems tend to be networked and I can just run everything through a server (ISA Server in my case) or a simple router using NAT.

[rgodart 0]

I've been using xp for 4 months but i went back to win2k now. Too many things in xp that i don't like:

 

1. The new interface, was nice in the beginning, got boring in the end, but ok, that's not the reason i switched back to win2k, it could easliy be put back to classic desktop.

 

2. WINDOWS XP IS BLOATED!! I don't need all that crap M$ put in it: cd-burning crap that has to be disabled to make nero start faster, msn messenger that loads up all the time, msn messenger, movie maker crap, system restore that never work right (it usually messes up the system more than i fixes it), shared folders,...

 

3. Msn messenger that keeps popping up when loading windows or outlook express (ok it could be disabled but then again, i use msn messenger every now and then, so i like it to be in the tray when i really need it, not all the time tho).

 

4. error reporting. There's a bug that makes an error reporting window appear after every bootup. Then after a few weeks it goes away, and then reappears...

 

5. a problem that i had 2 times. after booting windows i didn't get an interace, but just black. The only things i could see were the icons, all the rest was black, like the theme wasn't applied right...Windows got unusable, unfixable, i really tried everything believe me, nothing helped, i had to reinstall (that's when i decided to go back to win2k).

 

Maybe after the first service pack comes out i might go back to winxp, but for now i' m very happy with win2k.

[Brian Frank 0]

My opinion on what is wrong with XP:

-Autoplay "feature" waaaay to integrated to a nauseating level

-DVD Playing requires a 3rd party decoder, WTF is MS trying to do by even advertising that XP can play DVD's anyway?

-The new start menu

-Movie maker should be burned at the stake

-What happened to optional components?

-MS forgot about the Windows vets when they worked on XP.

[pmistry 0]

Yeah I agree what the heck happened to "OPTIONAL COMPONENTS"

 

I dislike the integrated CD Burning. I use Nero, its more functional.

 

I dislike MSN Explorer, complete and utter bloatware. I uninstalled it, but I should have had the option to not install it in the first place. AND it should have been with a menu similar to 9x/NT4 setup.

 

I dislike Windows Media Player 8, I hate it, its big and ugly, and consumes resources. I like Winamp for my audio, and video I like the old Media Player.

 

I don't need Windows Movie Maker, and Imaging, Address Book, and Netmeeting. But there is no way to get rid of them easily from the Add/Remove applet.

 

I HATE Windows Messenger, its crap, and loads everytime up on startup. Had to disable it, but again I shouldn't have to have it at the beginning. Opens itself after launching OE.

 

I like Internet Explorer but I have no USE for Outlook Express. I know most people use Outlook Express but I hate it, I use a Web based service so OE is just extra crap for no reason.

 

I agree that the autoplay feature is way overdone.

 

I hate integrated ZIP support.

 

Also I dislike the FACT that you need 2 administrator's. I only want 1 account on the damn PC.

[Brian Frank 0]

I use OE since I can block people without having to make a rule.

 

And, death to Windows Messenger!

[JP- 0]

I like messenger so it doesnt bother me that its always there. I do hate the autorun thing and the zip thing though

[pmistry 0]

Here are a couple of things I like with Windows XP:

 

1. The integration of the MS Knowledge Base in Help. That is freaking useful.

 

2. Compatibility with some 9x exclusive games, like Need For Speed: High Stakes, too bad my game performance went down a tad.

 

3. Support for VIA chipsets out of the box is nice. But I needed the PCI Latency Patch to fix the lag problems with my mouse and graphics.

 

4. The classic interface is upgraded, with a start menu icon, and high color icons can now be used in the taskbar/system tray.

[pimpin_228 0]

Xp is a nice operating system.i really don't think it's xp that is all the problems.i really think hardware and drivers mainly

[JP- 0]

You gotta say though that overall its alot better than 95/98/98se/ME and anyone moving from these will get a much better OS.

[pmistry 0]

Yes I can. XP is better in terms of design over 9x. But 9x had less baggage included with them and more options to uninstall components. But this due to MS being more aggressive. XP is better than NT4 as well. I liked 9x more than NT4, NT4 was for too limiting for me, but those that ran pure business applications, NT4 was good. Its just that lack of FAT32, Full DirectX, USB/Firewire, poor DMA, made NT4 less appealing.

 

XP vs 2000: 2000 was better for me, for others the opposite is true, for some they are the same.

[JP- 0]

2000 is the absolute best OS i have ever used.

[Atreyu 0]

here here!

[sapiens74 0]

Xp hands down, does better with hardware, nad is way more intuitive then windows 2000

[DosFreak 2]

I wouldn't say 9x was better than NT4. NT4 is better at some things that 9x wasn't. For instance back in 97 I was dual-booting with 95 & NT4 Server. I used 9x for gaming and NT4 Server for Internet usage. Obviously 9x couldn't fix my uses for net while NT4 did the job nicely.

[pmistry 0]

Yep, thats I why said that NT4 was decent if your needs were heavy computing. Back then I played more games and only used Excel, Word, Publisher, and Filemaker Pro, so 9x was more than enough. I did dual NT4 with Windows 95 for a long time. I was interested in this whole NT thing and fiddled with it a lot back then. After that I moved to Windows 98 and used it only for awhile, then went to 2000/98 dual and then 2000/ME dual. Now running XP/98 dual, just need the DOS right now, so 98 is in.

[Catdog02 0]

Personally I haven't got anything good to say about XP. This is clearly an operating system aimed at the "Mum and Dad's market - first computer" genre.

 

Too many un-necessary compulsory components, hideous abuse of system resourse (almost as bad as Me's). Its too cute looking, and worst of all, the amount of information is willingly sends out over the internet is scary.

[pmistry 0]

Yeah I understand what you mean. Lately the Search function is fricking pissing me off. I wish I default it back to the original one in 9x/2k, you know where you type a file name in, I hate answering these dumb questions. And that dumb dog looks so gay, sorry but I had to say it, I got rid of him right away. Something about those eyes.

[Brian Frank 0]

Very well put pmistry and catdog02. Short and sweet.

[pmistry 0]

I have gone back to Windows 2000 now, just finished reinstalling this morning. I will try XP again when SP1 is out. But things are running really smooth under 2000 right now, and I forgot how great it feels.