Microsoft eases switch to XP

zdnet.com. ^ | February 25, 2003

[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."

[Darth Hillary]

Try De-Fragmenting your HD. Also clear any Cache you have in IE, Next try a couple of little programs 1) Ad-Aware, and 2) SpyBot search and destroy. It is very easy to un-intentionally install SpyWare with many share-ware programs.

I have made quite a few PC's run essentially as fast as they ran new by using these simple techniques.

[bribriagain]

I have not been able to run games like Mech Warrior on XP, my son had similar problems with XP.

[kjam22]

I've got a year old machine with 512 ram and a 1.7 processor. Running windows 98. I use a ad-aware and a firewall. I have to reboot about every 2 days or the internet I.E. grinds to a halt. Any ideas?

[ECM]

I remember the days when my computer would boot up in two shakes of a lamb's tail...

Now it resembles bloated pig wallowing to the trough...

Ah, Microsoft...

[AdA$tra]

The biggest reason is all the intrusive junk they loaded it with...

I purchase hundreds of Dells for the firm I work for. The first thing I do is to clean off all the un-needed item ALL PC's come with. HP, IBM, Compaq and all the others have tons of "junk" on them as well. As far a Windows messenger is concerned, go to START: RUN: and paste this into the command line:

RunDll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %windir%\INF\msmsgs.inf,BLC.Remove

[Gorzaloon]

RunDll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %windir%\INF\msmsgs.inf,BLC.Remove

Thanks, I had gotten rid of it quickly that way, by finding the instructions on the Web. I actually did not feel like running the computer till I did.

The fact that made it not appear on the "Remove Programs" list in the control panel is sufficient prima facie evidence to me that their intentions were adverse.

This little act of greed converted me from a Microsoft defender into an enemy.

The Dell "Service.exe" that was hidden from the task manager did likewise:

Never another Dell in this house, and never another WXP here, ever.

[jammer]

Your link is to, basically, an advertising overview--why should I use XP, etc. I am sure the compatibility center is buried in the sludge, but could you please link that URL? Or is it obvious and I'm just missing it?

[gura]

This is why all _real_ operating systems put the swap in it's own partition.

[Abcdefg]

Win2K

[AdA$tra]

I have to reboot about every 2 days or the internet I.E. grinds to a halt. Any ideas?

As an IT professional I recomend that you reboot every couple of days.....LOL. Actually the best practice is to reboot at least once daily, although my 1.8Gz machine running W2k runs for weeks at a time. It is also is a very clean Dell Dimension running zero factory junk, as I scratched it on day one and rebuilt it. This PC is a 2.0Gz Dell Inspiron laptop running XP so it get rebooted every time I move to another client site. I cleaned it of factory junk on day one as well.

[jammer]

And for one other big reason, if I may be so bold to add to your post: XP phones home to MS. Nope, no way, for me. That's why they call it a personal computer.

[Campion]

As you say, the system is "young", but the drive has many many hard miles on it and the "rot" has built up.

Let's be clear, though: the drive is not the problem. If the drive were the problem, all the reformats in the world would not fix it. The problem is the OS managing the drive.

I have never heard of a Linux system with this sort of "creeping death" syndrome. It's a Microsoft problem.

[Mr_Magoo]

It is caused by Double secret hidden files eating up your resources.

[ShadowAce]

Actually the best practice is to reboot at least once daily, although my 1.8Gz machine running W2k runs for weeks at a time.

That works for Windows machines--My linux box has beenup for almost 81 full days and still going strong. The only reason it's 81 days and not longer is I put in a IPSec kernel in it then and had to reboot to the new kernel.

[Mannaggia l'America]

switch to an OS that requires a firewall (yet has been sold as the most secure OS to date)

This is certainly not a "requirement" peculiar to Windows. I wouldn't run any OS without a firewall (if connected to the Internet).

[MissTargets]

My 2 year old Dell was upgraded to XP from ME this past weeknd.
So far it's been great. I have had no problems, running Dungeon Seige from it.

[AdA$tra]

Never another Dell in this house, and never another WXP here, ever.

That is silly. ANY named brand factory PC has tons of crap on it, Dell or not. I am sold on Dells for lots of reasons. One of the biggest is that they use "off the shelf" components that are easily replaced. They also ship replacement parts overnight. Even if I order something as late at 1600 hours, I often have it in my hands at 0800 the next day. They have some of the most innovative machines out there. We currently buy the Optiplex SX-260 fanless PC's that have a CPU that measures 10"x10"x3" and bolts under a shelf or desktop.

[Quilla]

Checked out your link. WOW! They need to be put on double secret probation.

[dennisw]

BTTTTTTTTTT

[snooker]

I didn't mean to imply the hd needs replacing. It's the software that rots. when I said put in a new disk and start over, I meant to preserve the original disk so you could go back.

If your back-up scheme is rigorous enough and you feel comfy with re-formatting the disk, then go for it.

Usually takes a few months for the rot to get you.

Make sure you have an ups with shutdown software on the system, power glitches can be the source of the rot.

But hey it's windows, and it's cheap right.

If were me I would switch to the penguin. Especially for heavy use apps. I use RH8. Data and programs are kept in separate partitions and you can re-load/update the entire OS if you want to, without touching the data. You can also reload the apps and leave the OS and data alone. Much more user friendly. Doesn't rot. The penguin also has a journaling fs to rollback any bad errors.

snooker