Posted on 02/25/2003 8:13:03 AM PST by MeekOneGOP
Microsoft eases switch to XP
CNET News.com
February 25, 2003, 4:57 AM PT
URL: http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-985825.html
Microsoft, hoping to drive greater adoption of its Windows XP operating system, will on Tuesday unveil a new central Web site with revamped tools to help IT administrators make the switch.
The new Desktop Center site includes an updated version of the Windows XP Application Compatibility Toolkit, a set of tools Microsoft devised to assess whether current applications of businesses will work under Windows XP Professional, Microsoft's latest operating system for corporate customers.
Rogers Weed, corporate vice president of Windows product management at Microsoft, said the tool usually helps IT administrators determine that they need to make minimal changes to their existing software roster to run XP.
"A lot of people don't realize that XP is significantly more compatible (with existing applications)," Weed said. "In general, organizations will find 95 percent or more of their apps are fine."
The Desktop Center site also has multiple tools for dealing with the 5 percent of applications that don't make the cut. "We find there are some generic fixes that can address a broad class of the problems we see, and there are tools in the kit to help apply those," Weed said.
Paul DeGroot, an analyst for research firm Directions on Microsoft, said software compatibility has been a minor issue in the tepid pace of corporate adoption of Windows XP.
"XP runs a lot of stuff that Windows 2000 didn't," he said. "There are particular applications you come across where compatibility is an issue, but I don't think it's a show-stopper for Windows XP."
Hardware compatibility has been much more of a factor, DeGroot said. Windows XP requires significantly more memory and other resources than Windows 2000, and many businesses are trying to stretch PC upgrades they made three years ago in anticipation of Y2K. "Large customers hate to go and shake things up on the desktop," he said. "If people are working fine with Windows 2000, they're going to leave them be," said DeGroot.
The Desktop Center site also includes a new version of Microsoft's Baseline Security Analyzer, a tool that checks corporate desktops for the presence of current software updates and patches and for configuration errors that could pose risks.
"We keep investing in tools and information to help customers with deployment," Weed said. "We feel really good about the business case for upgrading to Windows XP, and we want to give customers tools that help them see those advantages."
It is better in many ways, such as a faster bootup, etc, and being more stable than 98.
But that said, when I bought my new Dell last summer, it was only offered with XP. The video card, etc. required XP drivers. I would have preferred Win2000.
I regret having bought the machine under those circumstances, and had I thought more and faster, would have told Dell to keep it.
The biggest reason is all the intrusive junk they loaded it with, like the perpetual hard sell for Microsoft Messenger (Which they had made very difficult to remove at the time.) If you have a router and/or firewall take a good look at what it is doing and you will freak. The Windows Media Player cheerfully offers to keep track of a lot of things, and is always looking for mysterious upgrades. Dell's hidden "support.exe" was hammering at the firewall at :37 past the hour constantly.
While it might be a good replacement for Win98, it has no benefits other than a terrible amount of bloat over the similarly NT-based Windows 2000.
So, I dunno. It felt it was like having a cocaine addict as a house guest- Entertaining, but you had to constantly count the silverware! :-)
As in all consumer things, your mileage may vary.
Example: Microsoft Photodraw 2000 will not run in Windows XP.
Their own program?
I didn't purchase this program with a limited life span attached to it.
What are they doing about it Nothing!!!!!!!
Much more stable than any other MS operating system I've used. I keep a third PC running Windows 98 to preserve compatibility with some children's games, a scanner and my wife's wierd obsession with WordStar.
Windows XP made networking the three computers an absolute piece of cake. Share drives, printers, easy to set access, etc. My favorite add-on for Windows is PowerDrawers from Dyanmic Karma. Couldn't live without it.
Anyone who can spare a couple of extra bucks should get their machine custom built locally by someone who's been doing it for a while, and someone who can help with glitches.
Yeah.
Try to replace it with Win2000 or switch Operating Systems.
:]
Great subject.
Speaking of memory leaks, is there software to diagnose this pesky and common irritation?
At work we run dozens of Autocad stations and the performance hits due to what I suspect are memory leaks is monumental.
No thanks to NT4, too, I suspect.
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