WindowsXP

Virgil57 · Post by **Virgil57** » Wed Jul 10, 2002 10:26 am

I am building a new computer and I am not sure what OS to run. I'm going to run WinXP Pro or Home. I just can't decide which one. I have been using 98SE forever, so I really haven't paid much attention to XP. I have heard complaints about security issues with Home and this computer will end up on a network at school. Any help would be great!

Bloodstalker · Post by **Bloodstalker** » Wed Jul 10, 2002 4:11 pm

I have been running XP pro forever now, and like it very much. everything seems to run smooth, and I don't have any confflicts with any hardware. I haven't used the home version, but have heard that it has some issues with certain hardware.

So, I can't reccomend the home version, but I can't down it either. All I can say is that the pro version works great.,

SatanSongi · Post by **SatanSongi** » Wed Jul 10, 2002 5:55 pm

Im running XP home. I have no problems but there are a few bugs ive noticed (like if you goto start menu and 'Connect To' before the computer is totally finished starting that menu stays there no matter what until you restart). And you need a LOT of RAM and a fast computer to run it smoothly. Sometimes it lags up and stuff but overall its pretty good. And its really pretty

HighLordDave · Post by **HighLordDave** » Thu Jul 11, 2002 2:06 pm

I have heard that there are a fair number of compatibility and driver issues with XP Home Edition. We have XP Professional here at work at it's been very stable, but the system overhead is a lot more than it is for 98SE, so unless you have a newer machine with lots of horsepower and RAM, XP runs some benchmarks slower than 98SE.

For a long time, I've said that I will be dragged kicking and screaming away from 98SE. I don't need many of the security and network features that make NT/2000/XP attractive to businesses, and 98SE has been very stable for me. So I am in no rush to shell out $300 for XP Professional when I don't need it.

Mr Sleep · Post by **Mr Sleep** » Thu Jul 11, 2002 3:43 pm

I don't know that much about XP but the machine we configured it on recently was very prone to crashes and bugs, Win2000 however runs without any problems and half the compatibility problems.

Demis · Post by **Demis** » Thu Jul 11, 2002 6:04 pm

After using XP pro for some time now, i finally decide to go back to win2k. Win XP are very good and stable but they just use too much resourses IMO, and that's the only reason i'll change since my pc is getting older day by day

. But since you are building a new computer, XP pro sounds fine.

thantor3 · Post by **thantor3** » Tue Jul 16, 2002 8:29 pm

I have my system set up to dual boot Win98 SE and WinXP Home. As was my previous experience, Win 98 SE crashes often and continues to do so when I use it. It is really a pain despite having 1GB of CAS2.0 RAM and an Athalon 2000+ CPU.

WinXP Home is more stable, but the one time it went down was a nightmare. For one, the Task Manager was unable to shut down the offending program (this has happened more than once with XP but it rarely happened in Win98). I didn't realize that neither Norton SystemWorks or Ontrack SystemSuite could make a rescue disc for XP. (I later found a way to do this at Microsoft's support site, but I understand the WinXP CD is bootable, so it may not be necessary). Further, SystemSuite's Disk Fixer module will not work with the NTFS file system. XP does not have Scan Disk -- to access a similar error checking function, you have to go to My Computer, click on Properties, then click on the drive, then choose Tools, and then do error checking. Of course, it was impossible to get to this -- while I was able to finally get the system to boot, none of the icons or start menu was available. The guy who built my system said the only option was to bring the computer back to him so he could fix it and then ghost my configuration onto a CD to use as a type of rescue disk. Fortunately, I was able to solve this problem in another fashion.

In summary, I like XP, feel it is more stable and user friendly in some ways than Win 98, but when it goes bad it feels to me like you have less in the way of options for addressing that than I did in Win 98. Oh, and you really do need a ton of RAM and buff CPU if you are thinking of running XP.

Mr Sleep · Post by **Mr Sleep** » Tue Jul 23, 2002 6:07 am

Reference anyone who is interested, check out this Anandtech FAQ

Virgil57 · Post by **Virgil57** » Tue Jul 23, 2002 10:48 am

Thanks for the help! I'm going to do a little more research, but at least I have a better feel for what it going on between XP/Home.