So, I'm upgrading to Windows XP...

[SkiManiac]

And was wondering what to expect, is it better then ME? "Millenium Edition" Do I have to save anything files before the huge upgrade or by the end of it they'll still be there?

I just ran the Windows XP Update Adviser and they told me some of my files won't work, so I'm taking it I'm going to have to install them over, no biggie just had a few questioins for those of you that like it.

Edit: Thanks for moving this, didn't notice there was a "Computer Talk" forum, sorry about the trouble. :)

[Nick]

Good luck. Hope the install goes smoooothly. If we don't hear from you for a while, we'll just assume it didn't. :)

<still using a fully corrupted Win98se> Ka-ching!

[SkiManiac]

Hey hey, no problem Nick. :)

Sometime over the weekened we're going to pick it up, it should be cool, and windows 98 rocks I've heard. Some people have told me that "Me" stands for Malfunction Edition, I'm just about this close to agree with 'em on it.

[marko]

I had so many problems upgrading to Windows ME when I tried it a long time ago, that I had to put 98 back on.

Now I have XP Pro on my computers, no problems at all. Of course it is slow cause I have a really slow machine, but never crashes, and I love the account setup to share the machine between multiple users. I did a new install, so I guess it wasn't really an upgrade.

[Nick]

Regarding computers, I used to be considered somewhat of a "power user", whatever that means, but since I've retired, like my bladder, I just want the damn thing to work! You wouldn't believe this POS laptop I've been using, probably since you got your first bike.

[ERSanders]

A quick bit of advice:

When you go from Windows ME (Malevolent Edition) to XP and get a list of programs that will not run in the XP enivronment, MAKE SURE you uninstall them BEFORE you change over. Once you are in the XP environment those program files become useless and cannot be run for future removal. So you are stuck with a bunch of junk on your HDD that you can never get rid of (except in DOS and Regedit).

Once in XP you will never look back to ME except to wonder why they left Windows 98SE!

[Chris Freeland]

Any os is better then ME :D .Good luck, XP is a good os. I started out with 98 on my old 500mhz Dell, upgraded to 2000Pro student version which became unstable after the 120 day free use period, rather then re-install 2000 Pro I upgraded to XP Home. 2000 Pro was faster and had some tools that XP Home does not have which I did not use at home anyway, however XP works with all of my wife and daughters games that 2000 Pro would not. Now if only I could afford a new PC with XP Home Media Edition ;).

[TNGTony]

XP is absolutely the most stable OS I've EVER used since DOS 6.22 :)

During the install to XP, it will tell you if your computer has any components that are not compatible with XP. I had a modem that XP claimed would not work well at the time. I quit out of the install and got that card's latest flash ROM upgrade and after that XP didn't complain.

You will never look back at WinME (or Win98 SP3 :)).

See ya
Tony

[dfergie]

I upgraded from ME to XP pro a year ago, my sys crashed at least 4 times a day with ME. I cannot remember the last time it crashed with XP pro. I purchased another sys 3 months ago that had XP home on it, the XP pro is a much better program.

[SkiManiac]

Awesome guys! Thanks for the advice, also I have one small question for you, I want to save some stuff from Me and do an upgrade to XP, when I pop the CD in and the upgrade is over will I still have my files from Me on an XP os?

And is their an option that says, Upgrade or Install? If so, what's the difference?

Thanks allot guys, it's helping me out allot. :D

[MAllen]

XP is WAY better that ME!!! If you can and you have all your data and software available (data backed up and software disks), a much better alternative would be to do a clean install. I.e. boot to the XP CD and delete existing partition and then let XP recreate the partition and format the hard drive NTFS instead of FAT. Trust me you much happier in the long run. It will take a little more time (maybe as an upgrade if you switch from FAT to NTFS is VERY lengthy) but it would be better than an upgrade. As soon as you get the system running and connected to the internet, do a Windows Update. I have been running XP for about a year and a half and I manage over 130 PC's running XP and 14 servers running WIN 2000 server or WIN 2003 server, and I am extremely happy with XP.

[SkiManiac]

Okay, now I don't know what you mean by softwear back up, I have all of the stuff that came with our computer, such as all the softwear that's downloaded on it now, I've stored it so basicly I'll just install them once the upgrade or if I choose to do it the other way, is done.

And what about the internet, will those savings be saved automaticly?

One more question!! How do I save all of my data unto a CD Rom? I have a Burner but how would I go about saving all of it?

Thanks!!

[gcutler]

Before the upgrade look for patches for as much of the hardware or software as you can find, better safe than sorry. For example I was a mighty old HP scanner and XP did not come with the driver but since I had downloaded it earlier I just had to install it to get everything working.

The big thing is when you are done with the upgrade, open the hardware Device Manager, and look for any yellow "!" or Red "X". hunt down those drivers asap. If some of them are "System Devices", you may need to goto your motherboard vendor (or PC maker) to get those drivers. You may want to take note of exact model #s of devices so if any problems occur you know where to go to get drivers.

[Mark Holtz]

While Windows 95/98 were perfectly good OSes, the problem is that Microsoft is forcing obsolence on these products. 95 is no longer supported by Microsoft, while 98 is on it's way out. (Microsoft will no longer cerify drivers for Windows 98). On the other hand, Microsoft is removing some of the "legacy" code that was present in Me and earlier for compatibility.

XP appears to be the path to go if you are building a new box. You will need to make some adjustments, as you will NOT like the default layout of both the main menu and control panel. You are best off making a fresh install instead of migrating your programs from earlier versions.

One feature that is built into XP that required an external program before was that you can set up your clock so that it obtains the correct time from a Internet time server once a week. Also, I encourage you to get the XP Powertoys (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp). Not only is there a XP version of TweakUI, but there is an Alt-Tab replacement that will display a mini-screen shot of the selected window and a command prompt here add-in. THere is also a XP Powertoys Funpack (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/experiences/downloads/create_powertoy.asp) that I have to try that will switch the backgrounds automatically.

[gcutler]

While Windows 95/98 were perfectly good OSes, the problem is that Microsoft is forcing obsolence on these products. 95 is no longer supported by Microsoft, while 98 is on it's way out. (Microsoft will no longer cerify drivers for Windows 98). On the other hand, Microsoft is removing some of the "legacy" code that was present in Me and earlier for compatibility.

Although MS claims that the removal of the "Legacy" code (The Legacy Code that would allow me to play DOS based game "Steel Panthers" without an DOS emulator program) is what makes 2000 and XP more stable. I can't verify that being a NON-Programmer, but i'll take their word. And since I can keep 2000 or XP running for weeks at a time, where as 95/98/ME, 6 days was the longest I had run it without requiring a reboot to get stability.

[Mike123abc]

I have found WinXP can run many programs that ME/98 could not unless in Dos mode. It has a better DOS in a window emulator than 98/ME had.

[gcutler]

I have found WinXP can run many programs that ME/98 could not unless in Dos mode. It has a better DOS in a window emulator than 98/ME had.

The issue must be related to direct Hardware access, 2000 or XP will not allow direct hardware access anymore. Chances are your old DOS apps were trying to access HW in 95/98/ME and freak out the system. Your apps in 2000 or XP must try to access the hardware layer and fail and just continue on its way.

But I have some apps that ran perfectly in 95/98 (never tried them on ME) and just will not run on 2000 or XP. Now that may have been part of the reason I needed to reboot 95/98 every 2-3 days on average was the playing of these games and their access to the Hardware layer were not very friendly. Some apps require a totally 3rd party DOS emulator that will take some of those game app calls and translate them into 2000 or XP compatible function. And even then some DOS apps will not play right.

[waydwolf]

And some of you no doubt think of yourselves as power users...

http://www.dbstalk.com/images/smiles2/kgo_059.gif

I don't think so.

I manage to bring Windows XP screeching to a halt on an average of once a day, every day.

Between Trillian, Sygate Personal Firewall, Norton Anti-Virus, and Internet Explorer, I have the makings of the recipee for system failure.

Add on IE's Java mishandling and we're getting closer.

Let Kazaa Lite run overnight and you're almost there.

Now run TMPGEnc and VirtualDub and Windows Media Player at the same times with ffdshow and TFM Audio Filter and you're pushing dangerously close to collapse.

Starting up my printer driver kills it. Kaboom!

http://www.dbstalk.com/images/smiles2/uglyhammer.gif

Various combinations of software on my machine can kill it easy. Nevermind trying to get Nero Burning ROM to work without taking down XP all by itself. Even memory managers don't help.

[TNGTony]

Well, there is one MAJOR issue that I've pretty much forgotten:

Windows XP, Creative (Rockwell Chipset) Soundcards, and GEForce2 video cards DO NOT PLAY WELL TOGETHER!!!

It won't make the computer crash, but it makes the sound coming from the computer something akin to a scratchy 78. :D Especially of you have a DVD with low audio. There is absolutely NO fix to this other than replacing one of the components. None of the three companies has any interest is fixing this.

On another note Currently I am running Zone Alarm and TPF Firewalls, Norton System Monitor and Anti-Virus, Weather Bug and Pop-Up stopper in the background. I generally run MSIE, MSOE and MS Front Page simultaneously and usually have Real One audio or WinAmp playing at the same time. Never a problem. Once in a while I also run a video clip on Windows Media Player never stopping the other streams. Then at the same time I may use WS FTP to upload the web pages on the EKB. Never even a hitch! Once in a while when I load one of the huge web pages into Front Page, THAT POS program will crash. But it never takes anything else with it. I consider that pretty darned stable!

See ya
Tony

[Mike123abc]

Another feature of XP is that you can go to the program executable, bring up properties and set what OS it needs. For example you can set Windows95 and when XP runs it, it runs it like it was in windows95. I have been able to get many old programs to work by setting windows95.

[SkiManiac]

Well, I just upgraded last evening, saved all the files and didn't have to burn a thing, the only problem I had was with Norton Anti Virus at the begining, so as bad as I am I used the good ol' delete key and wiped that right out, I might install in later but it really doesn't do anything but mess my system up and I'm not a download hog either... :lol:

Thanks for helping me out on this guys, the upgrade went smoothly and I owe it all to you.

[gcutler]

Another feature of XP is that you can go to the program executable, bring up properties and set what OS it needs. For example you can set Windows95 and when XP runs it, it runs it like it was in windows95. I have been able to get many old programs to work by setting windows95.

Again that depends on the program, the more it wants to access the hardware directly, the less chance the program will ever work, no matter what you do to XP or 2000. So people have to be aware that some programs (the older the better the chance) will have to go away. You figure that most of these programs are over 10 years old (any program windows 3.0 based or higher, either has been upgraded or can run pretty well within XP).

But to be honest, getting 10 years out of software (without upgrading) is probably more than the provider intended. If there is an upgrade path, they should take it.

What is cool is that even some games that barely run in XP have been abandoned by their original producers and taken over by hobbyists for free. Steel Panthers 1 has literally been reprogrammed into a Win95/98/ME/2000/XP based application and works great and is FREE. So it behooves someone to look for the upgrades, they may have to spend some money but may save alot of time, or may be pleasantly suprised. But I'm now waiting for Steel Panthers 2 to be "upgraded"

[Mark Holtz]

One nice space-saving feature.... you can now save the wallpaper for XP in both JPEG as well as BMP format.

[Nick]

One nice space-saving feature.... you can now save the wallpaper for XP in both JPEG as well as BMP format.What a clever idea. :rolleyes: What took them so long?