Windows 2000 has
been the talk of the operating system circles for almost a year
now. At first, it was supposed to be Windows NT 6.0.
Then, some say after Linux caught on, they upped it to Windows NT
5.0, and renamed it, Windows 2000. It’s still based on the NT
4.0 code, which we all know as the more stable, but less flexible
cousin to Windows 98. Microsoft fixed some of the major issues
that prevented home users from using Windows NT, but some are still
unfixed.
Installation
Remember when Windows 98 came out?
One of the biggest plus points was that installation was a breeze.
Make a few choices at the beginning and you could just about walk
away and let the thing install itself. Well, Win2000 continues this
tradition.
I was pleasantly
surprised at how easy Win2000 is to
install. I tried both a fresh install and an upgrade from Windows
98. Both were a breeze. When you start the procedure, you make a few
choices, plug in the typical cryptic product key, then it tells you
what to expect, then you’re off. Like Win98, it does all of the
hardware detection and reboots automatically so that you only have
to hit "Next" and wait for awhile.
If you wish to install Win2000 to a
separate partition and dual boot, its pretty easy. It can be a trick
to find where to tell Windows you want to do this, but once found
(under Advanced Options), it is very easy to set-up a dual OS
system.
There are still issues with hardware
being compatible with this new OS. On a check of my software, I
found most of it to work, although I had to change some things for a
Hauppage WinTV card and had to move my USB printer over to parallel
port, since Lexmark doesn’t yet support USB printing in Windows
2000. There may be other issues for your particular system, so I
recommend, if you have separate hard drive, installing Win2000 on a
separate drive and setting up all drivers to be sure they work. Only
when you know what to expect with your hardware
should you take the plunge and upgrade Win98.
You can see the Hardware
Compatibility List here.
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