XP Pro ----> 2000 Professional?

[AgaBoogaBoo]

I'm considering switching to 2000 Pro from my current XP Pro installation and wanted your input on that.

Why am I switching?
- 2000 Pro is a bit more lightweight, less graphical stuff everywhere
- networking support is good, my integrated intel wireless card has its own program for usage so I don't need the default XP stuff

I'm wondering what I might be losing, my usage is pretty simple, consists of: Outlook/Word/Excel/Powerpoint, IE/Firefox, Winamp, Trillian, Counter Strike Source.

Any thoughts if I'd be making a mistake in any way?

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Incase it matters or helps put things in context, I'm on a laptop - Dell Latitude D620.

One question: Will USB ease of use change at all for things like flash drives?

 

[Shawn]

Why bother? Unless you are going to format anyway I'd just stick with XP. Win2k and XP are essentially the same. Win2k isn't much faster than XP and XP actually boots faster than 2k. You can disable themes in XP and have it look like 2k anyway.

One of the things that annoyed me going back to 2k from XP was that the task manager doesn't show the date if you stretch it out like XP does. It also only displays the status bar icons in 4bit (16 colors). There were other annoyances too that I can't remember right now, but nothing major.

If you do decide to go back to 2k most everything that works with XP should work with 2k, except for some M$ stuff like WMP11 and IE7.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Ah, dang, IE7 doesn't work with 2k? I guess I shouldn't bother, but I planned on formatting soon anyway.

I think I'll just stick with XP Pro in this case, thanks for the reply.

 

[spherrod]

I don't see any reason to go back to 2k from XP on your laptop. If the graphical stuff worries you then just run the classic theme. You can also deactivate the XP wireless support and use the manufacturer's s/w.

 

[Aberforth]

Originally posted by: AgaBoogaBoo

Why am I switching?
- 2000 Pro is a bit more lightweight, less graphical stuff everywhere
- networking support is good, my integrated intel wireless card has its own program for usage so I don't need the default XP stuff



Windows XP uses optimized Windows 2000 code for desktop. You can switch to XP Classic view if you want

 

[Rottie]

I can see w2k Pro is the most stable OS I ever have experience than XP XP caused too many messed up. for 2006 I had to clean install XP like 5 times and once this year. w2k does not.

 

[spherrod]

Originally posted by: Rottie
I can see w2k Pro is the most stable OS I ever have experience than XP XP caused too many messed up. for 2006 I had to clean install XP like 5 times and once this year. w2k does not.

That's an unfortunate experience. I can't think of any reason to install W2K instead of XP unless the hardware is quite old.

 

[Schadenfroh]

You can disable the bulk of XP "features" and graphics to make it look and feel almost identical to Windows 2000.

Right click My Computer >> Advanced >> Performance Settings >> adjust for best performance

I prefer the Windows 2000 UI and thus I tweaked XP to look like it.

 

[Evander]

More and more new software gradually will not work on 2000. MS Office 2007 is a big one. Sometimes the software requirements for XP/Vista are said to be legitimate, other times they are artificial, for example you can install a program on XP then copy it's directory onto 2k and it will work fine, or you can alter the installation file to check for a different version of Windows so that it will install. In these cases it is suggested that the software maker didn't test or doesn't want to provide tech support for Win2k, so they just slap Xp/Vista on as the requirements. Microsoft Windows Defender is an example.
Too bad about that crap, I use Windows 2000 on my 800mhz laptop

 

[stash]

2000 is essentially end-of-life. It is still in extended support, but you won't be seeing anything new for it.

 

[corkyg]

I go along with the consensus - stay with XP Pro and use classic views and menus. I find that really stable and reliable - have never had to do a clean install in almost 3 years now. That's what good, regular system maintenance does. W2K is yesterday's news - and somewhat hardware unfriendly as well. Don't downgrade.

 

[13black]

Right click your My Computer Icon and select properties. Go to the advanced tab and select the settings button for Performance. Now select "adjust for best performance" and click apply. Visually it will look like you are running win 2k, and it will be faster.