I just installed Windows XP on my PC this weekend, and may I say that my PC is running smoother than it ever has, and a lot faster, too. Sure, I probably compromised my right to privacy, but I'm willing to give a little if it means my PC will stop crashing all the time. I've had it on for like six hours now and I haven't experience a problem. Before, I was getting these constant and weird hangups on my PC (a Systemax 1.3 GHz Athalon w/ 256 Megs of RAM, FWIW). My PC was previously running ME, and the guy at Staples suggested this as a fix, and so far it works great. The only problem is that it is incompatible with the ME versions of Nero, Easy CD creator and Power DVD, but I think you can do all the stuff you can do in those programs with the new media player (at least, so far so good).
I've also had a lot of good luck with Windows XP... Mind you, I got it for free from Microsoft because I work in retail, but it's damn nice. And it's stable. And themes have so much more you can do with them. [Sure, sure, download Windowblinds, you say to the person w/o XP.... but XP has the ability now!]
---=---:---=--- [Look up a line] Wow, that belt looks like crap... I'll take it and carry it around for years and see if people can take it away from me... What? What was that? You mean even THIS belt doesn't matter! What? I'm insulted! Get away from me you... you... defiler!
It's just like Bill Gates to design Windows ME knowing that it'll crash your computer twenty times every day...
And then come out with Windows XP, which he swears won't do that... “but, but, but, you have to give up your right to privacy. And you can only install it so many times before it won't do it anymore.”
Fuck Bill Gates. I can't believe the government is letting him get away with some of the shit he does.
“Bow-wow-wow, yippee-yo-yippee-yay, Oil of Olay all day, every day!”
I'm dual-booting ME and XP right now because my burner stuff is kind of weird under XP ( I think I have the ASPI all fuxored ). I initially hated it, but dammit, having the picture viewer built in was nice - I don't have to run a stupid ACDSee clone any longer.
My upgrade from ME to XP was pretty smooth, and everything works great...except CD burning, which I have lost the ability to do altogether.
I had Easy CD Creator 4, which I purchased in 2001, apparently just before Version 5 came out (and that was after checking for info on updates coming so I wouldn't get screwed). Well, Roxio told everybody who didn't have version 5 to go to hell (the letter I got back was about a step short of literally doing that when I complained) and I swore off Roxio. I'm looking at possible replacements, probably Click n' Burn or Nero, if I can find enough info on which will do what I want them to do...
Now, XP has a burn function built into Explorer. It functions as advertised and shows it's completed the file transfer, but what it burns to my CD-R's and CD-RW's is jibberish. You can see on the disc something is there, but it won't show in Explorer on this PC or my work laptop (which is on Win98). In fact, in "Properties" on XP, the disc is supposedly blank. But in 98, "Properties" on the disk shows file space is used but no file is acknowledged.
I have a burner too... I'm going to have to go home now and see if that is still working as advertised... I figured I'd just go pick up a new copy of the Nero software, or (as I'm told by XP whenever I click on the Icon for burning) reinstall the original burning software.
But, I can still watch DVDs. And I haven't had any other major problems.
I've been running Windows 2000 for close to a year now (I think...) and I've got nothing but praise. I went from 98 to ME with no noticeable improvement, but sweet, sweet Windows 2000 is a veritable computing Rock of Gibraltar. The Rock of Microsoft, perhaps.
I've heard mixed reports. I only know females who have done it though. One HATED it. It was the reverse of Hogan's situation. She thought all the guys were pathetic.