MS France confirmed SP3

[xgsound]

Originally posted by: asadasif
I regularly defragment (Disk Keeper 9) and clear my HDD and registry (Iolo Sys Mech). Effective for sometime but then it starts going downhill..... it would probably be solved soon when I get a new rig............

It takes a lot to keep xp functional with 128 Mb, but even then it's so slow it's painful even with afresh install and no A/V or firewall yet. The change between 128 MB and 256 Mb is dramatic. I've got a PIII 500Mhz that's very usable with 256 Mb. A new rig will be much better of course, but if you get a shot at compatible 256 Mb memory for cheap get it. You'll have a very usable machine for many of the basics on that PIII 700.


Jim

 

[imported_Phil]

Originally posted by: xgsound

Originally posted by: asadasif
I regularly defragment (Disk Keeper 9) and clear my HDD and registry (Iolo Sys Mech). Effective for sometime but then it starts going downhill..... it would probably be solved soon when I get a new rig............

It takes a lot to keep xp functional with 128 Mb, but even then it's so slow it's painful even with afresh install and no A/V or firewall yet. The change between 128 MB and 256 Mb is dramatic. I've got a PIII 500Mhz that's very usable with 256 Mb. A new rig will be much better of course, but if you get a shot at compatible 256 Mb memory for cheap get it. You'll have a very usable machine for many of the basics on that PIII 700.


Jim

:thumbsup: Good advice 🙂

I have a Celeron 400MHz machine at home, with 320MB RAM, and it runs Server 2003 (6month evaluation) perfectly, as well as XP.

With enough RAM and a decent hard disk, old machines are still amazingly usable.

 

[nweaver]

Originally posted by: asadasif
I was interested in Linux at one point in time but the learning curve sort of put me off. Please don't start extrolling the virtues of Linux and comparing it with Windows. It's a very combustible topic, so to speak. I have read about it plenty in articles and on this forum. I even have it available at my uni PC's (Red Hat 7 or 8, probably 8) but I am just not cut out for Linux. It's all a matter of personal ease and comfort.

I am holding off on upgrading my RAM in favor of getting a new AMD 64 3200+ rig soon, so the problems will be rectified.

Has anyone tried this 'Windows XP SP3 Preview Pack #2...'?

wow, that's like a linux guy saying "I tried windows 95 when it came out, and it sucked, so windows must suck"

anyway, maybe the "crapcleaner" and stuff is part of the problem. I never use reg scrubbers or 3rd party defrags, and I get a lot more then 6 months out of an install. I've never trusted those reg cleaners...

 

[Seeruk]

Ill keep the topic relatively OT with a 'dont download that BS sp3 and install it unless you are under medication and dont care!!'

And for the off topic part..... seriously I uninstall and install 2,3,4 or more applications every single day on WinXP and most of those are betas - yet I dont reinstall any more often than 18 months or so unless I get a whole swathe of new hardware.

Most of the deteriation over time is down to laziness in maintenance and especially with those driver upgrades 😉

Seriously nothing screws up a system more than failing to COMPLETELY uninstall old drivers before installing the new ones. Most people I know just install over the top of the old ones and then come whining to me when their graphics performance 'suddenly dips'

 

[firewall]

Originally posted by: Phil

Originally posted by: xgsound

Originally posted by: asadasif
I regularly defragment (Disk Keeper 9) and clear my HDD and registry (Iolo Sys Mech). Effective for sometime but then it starts going downhill..... it would probably be solved soon when I get a new rig............

It takes a lot to keep xp functional with 128 Mb, but even then it's so slow it's painful even with afresh install and no A/V or firewall yet. The change between 128 MB and 256 Mb is dramatic. I've got a PIII 500Mhz that's very usable with 256 Mb. A new rig will be much better of course, but if you get a shot at compatible 256 Mb memory for cheap get it. You'll have a very usable machine for many of the basics on that PIII 700.


Jim

:thumbsup: Good advice 🙂

I have a Celeron 400MHz machine at home, with 320MB RAM, and it runs Server 2003 (6month evaluation) perfectly, as well as XP.

With enough RAM and a decent hard disk, old machines are still amazingly usable.

I have seen a very old (200~300MHz) gateway pc being used with 128MB RAM and Windows server 2003.