windows 2000

I'm going to buy a new pc in a few weeks Core 2 Quad 6600 and as the machine to be replaced has Windows XP OEM I will need to buy a new OS.

As I still have an old Windows 2000 disk I was considering installing 2000 rather than Xp.

The machine will be part of a small Office network ( 5 desktops + 2 laptops) and used priamrily for work - Office programs, Internet, scanning etc ie no games.

Are there any 2000 users who could make an argument for 2000 v XP ? any major issues re Firefox, IE7..... ?

any thoughts, comments, suggestions welcome

 

I have Win2k SP4 on my desktop and have no reason to change.

My Laptop came with WinXP. I run many of the same programs -including Opera and Deep Freeze - on both, and don't notice any difference.


----
rich

 

Thanks Rmus - good to hear about DeepFreeze. When Windows 2000 was first
released I was really impressed. I only moved on to Xp (which I am very happy with by the way) out of the upgrade habit. I think I will blow the dust of 2000
and give it a go.

 

I am on Xp now, but recently installed 2k for a quick look for old time sake. I was impressed with it's speed and snappiness in general compared to Xp. Most apps run on 2k as well, with a few exceptions. I don't think you can do IE7 on 2k, but certainly any of the other browsers will work fine on it. So for your purposes 2k should work out nicely..

 

After i've bought a new dual-core machine last year, I "upgraded" finally from Win2k to XP mainly because of some minor but annoying reasons:

I like to play games sometimes an therefore the machine included an ATI X1950 XTX Graphics card. It seems to be that ATI doesn't provide the latest drivers for Win2k anymore. However, i got some issues here. So, you should thake into account, that there may possibly no support for some of your new hardware under Win2k.

(A collegue of mine bought recently a Fujitsu-Siemens Laptop, which came with Windows Vista. He had several problems when he tried to install XP. Some hardware inside, including the harddrive required Vista drivers. He finally found a solution, but it took quite some time and internet search)

Maybe i don't remember right, but i had some problems with the TFT and Win2k too. Clear type tuning is only available for XP (am i right?)....

So, you should check that your hardware is still supported.

As a side note, if your old machine is finally discarded you will still have the XP license and the XP CD. Then it should be legal to install XP on your new machine.

 

Thanks for comments on drivers etc. I will install and see.

Yes I do have the original CD and license BUT I have been told that as an OEM Product Microsoft will reject activation on new hardware.

 

They cannot reject. What if, when you had to change your mainboard on your old machine?

All what you need to have is the Win XP CD, the COA-Sticker and the small booklet "First Steps". This qualifies you to have a full license. In doubt do the activation via phone call. Insist, that you had to change your mainboard...

 

IE7 is only available for Windows XP SP2.
A basic install of Windows 2000 requires:
- SP4
- Update Rollup for SP4
- IE6 SP1
- DX 9.0c (Nov 07)
- WMP 9
- Hotfixes since the Update Rollup was released.

 

With this processor , I'd recommend you get the newest possible - Windows Vista . Don't get back in the time with unsupported Windows 2000 (2000 is not supported by MS and will for sure be discontinued by all vendors in the next 1 or max 2 years and will become just like 9x ; almost nothing 21 century works on Win 9x) .

Perhaps you have read many negative comments about Windows Vista (So have I) . But it is something new and different (generally people don't like changes) . It'll take some days/weeks until you get used to it but I do believe you'll like it just like me

 

I missed this early. I don't think that Windows 2000 will recognize your new quad-core:
Wikipedia

 

Thanks - I hadn't even thought about that.

 

Windows 2000 will fly on a bit dated machine (512 MB of RAM, 1+ GHz processor), so if you have a PC like this, you could install W2000 on it and transfer the XP license to your new rig.

 

Yep, it really does fly, that's pretty much my setup here, 512ram, 1gig cpu. I alternate between 2k and Xp, but 2k does perform much better on this hardware...

 

ACK! Go with Vista and use the 64-Bit architecture. If you will not be playing games you can use Vista-Ultimate. I have it here and I´m happy with it.

 

Good ol' 2000...still my favorite MS OS.

Win2K works great with dual-cores but I never got it to recognize a quad-core.