I love XP!

[Panama Red]

Got some new parts in yesterday for my daughter's new rig. Here was the original thread
http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.p...threadid=92868

It's amazing how easy it is to add new hardware to XP. I ordered a USB/Fireware PCI card w/ 3.5" front mount access module and added a game port to the rear. Plugged in my old Dazzle Flash Media reader to a rear usb, and added a 5 port switch so she can run both her desktop and laptop on our home network. Did all the hardware, started the system and XP found everything, installed all the drivers, and declared them ready for use. Best part is, everything works! Can't imagine how much messin' around would have been involved with 98se

[pillainp]

I concur. I was running this system (with a P3 and SDRAM) on Win98 for the longest time, till I wised up and installed 2K then XP.

98 would crib about drivers all the time and refuse to install half the ones I gave it.

When I shifted to XP, it was like the system had come home. Every single piece of hardware was detected and installed without a single hitch, and updating drivers is a breeze too.

This kind of smoothness is what I was dreaming of when I ran 98.

[ktkendall]

I agree it sure was a breeze when I went to xp and did a clean install. I had all my disks ready and did not need any of them. No looking back. I'm getting to the point now when asked to look at a problem and I see win98, I cringe..

[pillainp]

What's Windows 98?

[gmw]

Don't you think anyone who ever suffered through Win98 and ESPECIALLY WinME should get a free copy of XP? That's far better than the ridiculous pittance I'm supposed to get from my membership in the class action suit.

XP is better. It's what we should have gotten a long time ago.

[toomyg]

It's nice to see a happy post about windows XP for a change!!!!!!!!!!!

[DragonNOA1]

Change takes time. I'm glad it's here now. I still think there is a little "bloat" in XP. I can tell from 98 to XP, it is slight, but it is there. I have a feeling that there will be even more in Longhorn.

[pillainp]

I for one would rather have a safe system with a little bloat than a crasher with none.

[toomyg]

bloat=muscle


maybe??

[pillainp]

That cool new interface and the new tools and functions have to take up a little space, right?

[toomyg]

The better it looks the more space it will take is how it works 99% of thr time

[DragonNOA1]

It shouldn't when I have it in classic view. XP comes with bloat as default. There are so many tweaks I have done over the last year to my XP install that I don't want to reinstall because there will be a lot of tweaking that I'll have to do over. And that's only if I can remember all the tweaks.

And still XP has funny little stuff that 98 never had problems with. And what about XP doing everything for you? I felt like I had more control with 98. Like what about disk cache in XP (ie. network server in 98). I don't know. All in all Xp is better than 98, I'll give ya that.

[bailey]

ya man
I love it too
very easy to set up a home network with it too.
its almost a plug in play setup

[glc]

You know - Win2K is pretty decent about finding stuff and installing drivers too as long as your bios has a decent ACPI implementation. I personally don't mind giving up *some* of this whizbang automation to get a much leaner OS that doesn't bark at me every time I try to manually configure things to my tastes and desires. ME is just an XP wannabe with all the limitations of a 16 bit OS, I can't stand it. I can deal with 98, it takes a lot longer for me to forget stuff than a lot of people. 95 is definitely reminding me of the old days though, plug and play is very primitive - but so were the plug and play bioses from that era.

You haven't torn your hair out till you have tried installing plug and play hardware in a Windows 3.1 or NT box - that's like trying to herd cats. I spent 3 days once trying to install a plug and play modem and a plug and play sound card into a 3.1 box a few years ago - absolutely nothing would get them both working - it was one or the other. I gave up and put an external modem on it.

[Red]

Originally posted by glc You haven't torn your hair out till you have tried installing plug and play hardware in a Windows 3.1 or NT box - that's like trying to herd cats. I spent 3 days once trying to install a plug and play modem and a plug and play sound card into a 3.1 box a few years ago - absolutely nothing would get them both working - it was one or the other. I gave up and put an external modem on it.

[showing my age]
Heck, just think back to the days before the very idea of PnP was around... setting up a modem then was quite the chore. If you could even access a BBS you were ahead of the curve.
[/showing my age]

This new fangled XP is grrrrrreat!

[morriswindgate]

While a lot of people bash MS, I think that they got it at least 80% right with XP. THe one thing that they could improve on, is to get rid of all the so called services that nobody uses or needs, not to mention that most of these lend themselves to security flaws.
XP is both a breeze to set-up and to trouble-shoot. I have one machine at home that was loaded two years ago and has never needed any type of re-install, unlike 98 where a re-install was at least a one year task.
If anybody out there is still using 98 or ME, the next upgrade you spend money on should be a copy of XP.

[glc]

Setting up a modem in DOS was a piece of cake - hook it to the com port, install Procomm, and BBS away!

[Strider]

I use to run a BBS (actually I ran several BBS) in dos, I still remember the modem commands (I ran a two line BBS) and still pretty good with dos to this day. I remember editing the autoexec.bat and config.sys files a lot because of changes that I constantly did with my BBS Hardware, talk about plug & pray (err..mean play).

However, I do like Windows XP and Windows 2000 makes life much easier when adding hardware.

[JTH]

I was extremely impressed with XP's stability. My last two PC's were Win 98 and Win ME respectively and they really don't begin to compare. I have used XP for about a year now and it hasn't crashed even ONCE and that's a fact. Pity I couldn't say the same about my ME rig!!

[mb26]

Personally i have had a lot more crashes with XP, and find it v. bloated. as for PnP i dont think its hard to install a driver on win9x if u have the right one.

things i like about it are the 'tiles' instead of smaller icons, and how it looks better.. um and the thing that hides system tray icons + the grouping. it can also make programs transparent which is about the only thing it can do above 98/me.

i dont like how it tries to control everything, like CD burning.. it feels as though u have less control (reminds me of when u buy a scanner or something and it comes with loads of free software.. but its 10x worse than what u already have). i think people tend to have less crashes on their XP machines than older ones because the computer is better.

XP has so many security flaws also.. ever tried connecting it to broadband after a clean install? i have and i got MS Blast.
If something goes wrong in XP, if its simple, it usually tends to fix itself. but if its not then it will be a *major* pain.

if u use something like windowblinds on Win2K theres not much noticeable difference.

[DragonNOA1]

So I guess you recommend 98 & 2K over XP?

[Nelreem]

I have had so many more problems with XP than I ever had with 98. I dont need security, i just need something that functions. XP shuts down my computer when im on the internet, and wont let me install programs.

[bailey]

Originally posted by Nelreem I have had so many more problems with XP than I ever had with 98. I dont need security, i just need something that functions. XP shuts down my computer when im on the internet, and wont let me install programs.

then you have a hardware problem, not a software problem

[Nelreem]

what kind of hardware problem? i know my modem is broken, but my windows installer problem wont let me install my new modem

[colecifer]

I like XP a lot, i don't have the automation problem at all. I don't remember what i changed but i never get asked to do anything. I remember when i first got it though it was always asking if it wanted to clean up the destop icons, or defrag, or do a disk clean up, or do windows update. Now i command it all. Even if all that still happened, i still prefer XP over 98

[AlwaysUp]

Given a little patience and willingness to accept a different look and feel, I find it hard that anyone still uses 98 as a primary system. Don't get me wrong. I still maintain 2 98 boxes because they have software written for that era, but XP is by far the best product to date from Microsoft. My 2 cents.