Changing to 2000-Pro and scared _hitless!

[Guest]

I've been convinced, by those in the know, that my small business systems would run better and be more stable running Win2000-Pro vs. Win98SE. I've read, and read, and read, etc........and come up with the following.

 

Win2000Pro is the way to go, it's stable, secure, powerful and easy to work with. It's also quirky, problematic, a memory burner; and, depending on who you talk to, it's compatible or incompatible with every piece of hardware and/or software ever made.

 

In short, I'm very confused and would appreciate any leads to articles, books, etc....where I can get definitive info on the problems I will encounter.

[Down8 0]

Well, you've found one: www.NTCompatible.com

Go ahead and read through the FAQs from the front page, and most people will help you here in the forums.

 

Of course, I try to check the Win2K help files before looking elsewhere - that saves me from asking the sill questions.

 

-bZj

[Brian Frank 0]

While Win2k does require a heftier memory requirement, it manages it much better. On my test machine with Win2k and ME, ME after boot up has around half of all the memory to work with; Win2k after bootup still has at least 2/3's of the total ram to work with still. The 9x line is not as good handling memory.

Win2k IS finicky about hardware, but that CAN be a good thing, especially if you have a bad component. But if you're swapping mobos, you will be lucky if you can boot into Windows--but you should ALWAYS do a reformat when you go to a new mobo.

I have found that the only times Win2k has froze up on me have been when Ive overclocked too high.

There will be some software that absolutely will not work. It just depends on the software. Ive found that if the software will run under 98 AND NT4, it runs under Win2k.

People who say Win2k sucks may not have had experience and just read something bad about it. Any OS will have problems, understand that, and one OS might not be the right one for two different people.

If you have a Radeon card, I'll tell you right up front: the Radeon Win2k drivers suck.

A lot of the hardware suffers more from bad drivers than anything else. Win2k wasnt intended to be a gaming or home OS--thats what Win9x was for.

Another thing you need to be aware of is that Win2k automatically sets up the IRQs, regardless of the BIOS settings. This is normal to see most of your hardware on one IRQ, so dont panic. I have at least 9 things on the same IRQ and things run great.

Do not try to run Win2k on 64 MB of ram--it is way too slow to do anything. Have at least 128 or better. Ideally you should have 256 if you are going to do some heavy duty gaming(Quake, Half-Life, Unreal Tournament,etc.).

If you have DOS programs, you MAY be able to get them to work, but you also may not. Ive heard about a way to get them to work, but I havent care enough about dos to get things running.

Also, if you have apps that won run under Win2k, there is a compatability app on the Win2k cd, and you still may be able to get the software to run.

Ive found Win2k to be very good to me.

Win2k also has very good networking and it can be setup during the installation.

Check MS compatable hardware list for starters, and also check the NT compatible hardware section to see about other hardware too.

[oldspice 0]

you can actually do more than 1 thing at a time on Win2k without getting a blue screen of death..definately blows away Win98 in regard to multitasking.You can do multiple tasks without feeling like your carrying a guerilla on your back.Try Win2k on 1 machine for a month and then go back to 98 and you will trash 98

[SnapperOne 0]

Hey, guys........thanks for the suggestions and time; I will give Win2K a try on one machine and see what happens. There is one nagging question, however.

 

If Win2K is so much better than Win98SE, why do there seem to be as many requests for help, problem notifications, etc.......on this site as there are on the SysOpt site for Win98SE?

[Napalm 0]

I don't know the exact reason, but ... my guess is a) this site (www.ntcompatible.com) is more popular then the other site (or at least the forums) or 2) Win2k is way more powerful, way more features to get to know and take care of. Therefore, many people who have moved to win2k from win9x (like me) don't know how to use some of the new stuff (or stuff originaly in NT 4)

[Busby 0]

I feel the majority of the problems that are being asked are from people like you that are just switching from 9x to 2k and are "newbies". I love Win2k and the only OSes that might ever be loaded on my computer again are XP and Linux.

[SnapperOne 0]

Busby.......everybody's a "newbie" at some point in time. Nonetheless, if, as I continue to hear from "seniors", Win2K is that easy to use.........why all the posts with problems? Even though I am most likely going to switch to Win2k-Pro, it still doesn't seem like MS has made a transparent OS.

[Shrink 0]

As was pointed out, ntcompatible probably gets more traffic than sysopt.com. Additionally, when Win2k gets messed up, it is often REALLY messed up and harder to troubleshoot. It is a more stable OS than Win9x but there is a great deal more complexity to it, so there are more things to tweak. Additionally, the OS is really only a couple years old and a lot of companies are still lagging on releasing mature drivers. On the other hand, the Win9x kernel is 6 years old and companies have had a longer time to work out the bugs and develop drivers.

 

All that aside, if you have a fairly generic system (not on the bleeding edge technology-wise) you are likely to have a more stable Win2k install than if you have Win9x installed.

 

 

 

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Shrink

 

92% of the things we worry about don't happen - but the other 8% DO!

 

PIII 650@850

BE6-II Mobo with 384 mb PC133 ram

40GB WD Caviar, 20 gig Quantum KX, 8 gig Quantum CR

SBlive Value

All In Wonder Radeon

... and a bunch of USB Stuff

Windows 2000 Pro SP1

[DeadCats 0]

Boy, I'll echo that. Win2KPro is extremely stable and runs all my stuff well. Better on this old PII 333 than Win98SE or WinME.

 

But when it blows up, it really blows up. I'm still re-installing applications from having to do a re-format and re-install of the OS and programs from some weird combination of software/hardware failure that gave me the good old BSOD. First time ever, on this machine, and somewhat scary.

 

B-U-T, what OS did I go back with? You betcha, Win2K.

 

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"Being married to a programmer is like owning a cat. You talk to it but you're never really sure it hears you, much less comprehends what you say." -DeadCats, 1999

"Talking to DeadCats is like talking to a dead cat." -MrsDeadCats, 2001

[oldspice 0]

NTCompatible.com will probably be able to solve all of your problems or give you a straight answer. This is the most informative and knowledgeable forum and database anywhere in the world in regards to Win2000. The people here are very helpful and knowledgeable, even if it appears that the boards can get a bit nasty at times

[Vampyr 0]

Reasons you see so many help requests for win2k are a)Home users who want Win2K to do all the nice multimedia stuff Win9x could do (DVD, Games, etc.) b)Its more complex and therefore harder to set some apps and settings. c)Like said above, When Win2K goes boom it goes boom good!

 

If your going to upgrade your business to Win2K I'd wait. WinXP will be coming out soon. M$ claims it to be just as stable as Win2K every was but with more compatibility. Feel free to email me or ICQ me at 19901838 if you have any more questions.

[Vampyr 0]

Also, If your small business runs a custom made P.O.S.S. (Point Of Sale System) make sure it runs flawlessly in a NT based environment, and if certain patches and/or upgrades need to be obtained from the manufacturer.

[SnapperOne 0]

Vampyr.....thanks for the offer, but what's an ICQ and 19901838? Remember, while I'm not wet behind the ears with PC's, I still just plug along with the fingers of one hand crossed for good luck.

[DeadCats 0]

Quote:

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by SnapperOne:
...what's an ICQ and 19901838? Remember, while I'm not wet behind the ears with PC's, I still just plug along with the fingers of one hand crossed for good luck.</font>

Well, you can learn that way, I suppose. I did, and probably most of the people here. However, if I were at your level of learning, and especially for a business, I'd sure want to have someone handy to tweak and troubleshoot my system. And I don't mean your friend or family member, the "computer expert." A serious Win2K problem could shut your business down for a day or two.

A well setup and tweaked Win2K is a real joy. But when she is bad, she is very, very bad.

All that aside, it would be well worth investing in some good literature (the kind that weigh 20 lbs an edition...the Unleased series I consider excellent). And some good hands-on classroom experience if you can find anything in your area that addresses what you'll need to learn.

It'll probably boil down to you being your entire IS department, but you can handle it if you're willing to really learn WinNT Systems, and that includes your hardware as well as the software. It's not going to be something you setup once and forget about it.

Good luck. You've got one heck of an education ahead of you, if you're willing to take it on.

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"Being married to a programmer is like owning a cat. You talk to it but you're never really sure it hears you, much less comprehends what you say." -DeadCats, 1999
"Talking to DeadCats is like talking to a dead cat." -MrsDeadCats, 2001

[Cardinal 0]

Jesus I don't think the guy wants to become an NT buff, I think he merely is interested in swapping over the OS from which his business runs. It's not as complex as many make out. Anyone can install W2k, getting it to do what you want is another thing. It's all trial and error. Windows 2000 is a big step forward in compatibility from Windows NT 4.0. I don't think you should consider holding off for Windows XP. That will no doubt, like any Microsoft OS when it is released, have many bugs that will take time to be ironed out. Not only that but it will use the same kernel as win2k so it won't be that amazingly different. Easier to use sure, but Win2k is amazingly solid. Anyway, I definitely recommend ditching any Operating system with a '9' in it Or ME for matter.

[SnapperOne 0]

Yo, Deadcats........never afraid to learn something new. As with most "bridges I jump off of", however, I try and check out where the biggest rocks are first. That's why I'm "talking" to you guys. Thanks for the concern; just like DOS, 3.x, and 9x, books are on the "To Buy" list.

 

Cardinal..........you hit it on the head!

[DavidJonesIGI 0]

In my experience, so long as you don't have some offbeat Russian graphics card, Windows 2000 will likely support you hardware right out of the box, and if not, you can usually download a driver in a few minutes from te manufacturers website. It's not as hard to use or scary as people coming from 9x tend to think, the hardest part for most of them is getting your head round accounts and privileges.

[CrazyKillerMan 0]

When I took the plunge to from 98SE to Win2k, I made sure I had a conlusive list of all the drivers that I would need (printer, video card,etc...) then I came here and checked all my Applications, games, and hardware all here at NTcompatible. Then i got everything installed, everything worked very well, instalation was easy and setup was also easy. I'd recommend getting the newest updates though...as these will improve compatibilty and performance. After getting everything set up, there was a TON of stuff to tweak...so I joined the forum.

 

Good luck