Home or Pro XP?

[Fred H]

Thanks AnrewDV
I’ll keep in mind your advices.

The Win2K driver does not support the hardware codec.

Vid Tools 2.04 (Leaked) works for me in W98 AND W2K (HW MJPEG), but in W98SE, of some unknown reason the PD 5.41 sometimes jumps from PAL to NTSC. It happens most in MSP6.0 VidEd or sometimes playing mpegs. I am forced to manualy reset the DualHead DVDMax to PAL. (???)

Fred H
SM6JNA

[Frank Marshall]

link to comparison table

To answer your original question AndrewDV, there's a table at

https://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/howtobuy/choosing2.asp

that lists the features of WinXP Pro alongside those of WinXP Home Edition, highlighting what's omitted from the latter.

Cheers.

[Snake-Eyes]

Finally got my copy of the OEM WinXP Pro

I was skeptical about this OS, since I've also been using WinME and Win2K, and expected WinXP's overall performance to be much like Win2K's, with a bunch of fluff added. I have to say that I've been pleasantly surprised, but as always, YMMV.

First off, due to my paranoia, I reformatted my RAID0 array (2x60 GB IBMs, after backing up my important data, of course). Then I created 4 partitions, 3 x 20 GB, and 1 60GB (video capture) partition. I installed Windows ME first, on the C partition, and installed all the apps I normally use, as well as UT. I then proceeded to do the same with Win2K on the second partition. So far everything was running pretty much as it had in the past. There were many more crashes in WinME than Win2K, but there were more incompatibilities between my software and hardware under Win2K.

As an interesting aside, XP does read and recognize my T-Bird processor as well as it's current clock speed. This is known because in one of my Device Manager tabs it is listed- AMD Athlon Processor, 1.55Ghz, 256MB of RAM (so it also sees the memory and lists the actual physical amount installed, which btw is soon changing to 512, as soon as Crucial gets mine out anyway ).

ACPI- I have had zilch in the way of problems with ACPI this time around. I have to say that this is most likely due to the hardware I have than the OSes themselved. WinME still doesn't like 'sleeping', but both Win2K and WinXP are fine as-is, using the ACPI kernal. However, I am able to switch back and forth between ACPI and Standard PC easily, simply allowing the OS to detect and install hardware at each change (at least in 2K, since I didn't try this one in XP, seeing as the drivers appear nearly identical). This hasn't caused any problems that I've seen (though I did do a complete format and reinstall a few days after that test, which was prior to my purchase on WinXP Pro, and primarily due to problems with Roxio's EZCD Creator Platinum 5.0, which I touch on a bit later in this post).

Next I installed WinXP on the third partition, and other than some minor software and hardware issues (the hardware ones have since ALL been settled), it worked better than I expected. There were fewer hardware / driver issues with XP than 2K. For instance, While it took forever (try many install/uninstall/reinstall cycles of software/drivers) to get ANY CDR/RW authoring software to recognize my firewire burner in 2k, XP allowed some to see it immediately. However, certain other authoring software still wasn't seeing the drive at all under either OS (even though both OSes were showing it as at least a CD drive in the Device Manager. More digging, this time around the web, dug up a post by someone about installing the Adaptec ASPI layer (ASPI isn't included in either of the NT based OSes). This didn't work either. So I dug some more. Another user suggested taking the ASPI thing one step further- downloading the wnaspi32.dll file from ahead's ftp server (creators of the Nero burning software, which btw, had NO problems seeing the burner in the first place). Then replace the Adaptec system file of the same name with the new ahead file. After this was done, everything was working. This was an improvement under XP for one reason- I have a Sony memory stick reader that has weird driver glitches in 2k (using drivers supplied by Sony), which had absolutely NO problems in XP (using drivers included in the OS, despite Sony's claim of no support for the device whatsoever in XP).

Software was a slightly different story. I'd say both OSes break about even in that area- some games refuse to run under 2k, or crash, stutter, etc. All of these I've tested so far have no problems with XP. On the other hand, MusicMatch Jukebox 6.x, the latest version, which seems to run fine for me in 2k, won't even load without crashing in XP. Not that it's a big issue, since I already have a fully licensed copy of Sonic Foundry Siren Jukebox 2.0c (yes, it's a LEGAL license, heh), which works fine in all of my OSes. Also, while Roxio's EZCD Creator Platinum 5.0 works in 2K using the latest patches (um, this is one of those that took several repeated attempts at installing/uninstalling before it recognized the drive, despite supposed native support of this burner), until yesterday there was no support for XP. I now have this working in XP too, since Roxio did finally release an installation update for the software. However, by all indications, there is no way to take advantage of the fixes in the latest patch releases (which were installed in both 9x/ME/2K just fine), only the original 5.0 from the CD and the conversion update program on Roxio's site. Roxio's site indicates that the latest patch won't install in XP. So there's another minor strike (not that I've yet experienced any of the issues that the patches address anyway, but you never know..). Games are extra smooth. So far I haven't seen the dreaded refresh rate problems that everyone else has. Other than the fact that there's no Optimal refresh rate setting (defaulting to 60hz of the bat), once I manually chose 75hz for my refresh, it's maintained that in both the desktop AND in games. So far so good.

Interface- At first I HATED the XP shell interface. It's almost cartoony, and kind of reminds me of what I'd design if I were trying to make my OS easier for children (large buttons, frames, rounded corners, fade in/out of windows, mouse shadows, etc..). I guess I'm just too used to the original ME/2K shell. As time goes on, I have begun to see the usefulness of many of the choices that were made in the XP shell though. For instance, I DO like that my most frequently used programs are always right in the first layer of the start menu. No more hunting the start list for their entry to launch them. I would like to see a compromise between the two shells of some sort- say most of the old layout with the area for frequently used programs retained, but I haven't found anything like that yet. On the other hand, at least there's still the option to choose between the old interface and the new. And each is pretty configurable, within the limits of the design used for them. I will say that disabling the new gimmicks and restoring the older interface seems to speed things up slightly in the shell. Otherwise there's no real difference. So in this area it's really a matter of to each his own, unless you're using older hardware, which might not be so nice with the extra slowdowns involved with the new shell interface.

Networking. Here is one area I really, REALLY like with XP. With Windows ME and with Windows 2K, I had to manually set up my TCP/IP stack, and then install the NetBEUI protocol, then UNBIND all services from TCP/IP, instead binding them to NetBEUI (the latter isn't routable, so it doesn't expose my shared hardware and drives to the net in general, just to my LAN). At first things were confusing in WinXP. There literally IS no NetBEUI (other than a hidden folder containing it in XTRAS on the CD, which I ignored for the time being, since I was interested in how MS could hype this OS for home networking without offering it). After installing the OS and setting up my general TCP/IP settings, I had to instruct it not to use my firewire cards (2 of em) as network adapters (this happens in WinME also, but not in 2K). Then I was able to immediately get onto the internet through my router using DHCP. I then saw the 'Set Up a Home or Small Office Network' wizard. So I ran it, answered the questions it asked, including allowing it to create a floppy containing a configuration wizard for use on my other machine(s). I was really intrigued at this point, since my other PC is still running only WinME (my wife uses that one). I ran the wizard on it, and was asked the same sort of questions that my own machine originally asked, and I answered those too. It installed some stuff (drivers and such), and I was prompted to reboot. After all of this completed, both machines saw each other in the same workgroup, and all shares on both machines were visible, including my printers (I have a laserjet on mine, my wife has our HP 950C). Needless to say this was much easier and worked much better than either of my other OSes had been. For one thing, it seems that occasionally there's a glitch in WinME that causes one or another of my machines not to show in the workgroup, despite being found there when I do a search. Likewise my printers had a habit of 'disappearing' in the middle of print jobs. This occurred whether my own system was in Win2K or in WinME. This has not happened at all since I used the WinXP wizard. Further, while I had to specify to add the network printer on my machine after sharing it out on my wife's when using the older OSes, WinXP made it immediately available. Again, this worked this way on both ends (ie.- the WinME box got immediate access to my shared printer too, without a need for me to hunt it down and map it).

Capture wise- I find the built in video capture to be acceptable for basic things. However, I will be using my other software to do the more advanced editing and conversions for my DV footage. In any case, the capabilities built into XP still greater than what is included with the other two, including the MovieMaker program, where there appear to be more capture quality options available, including the ability to capture my DV footage to AVI using the DV codec now, rather than saving it immediately to the cruddy Windows Media format. No biggie to me either way, except when I wish to shoot a quick scene to send to a friend or family member by e-mail.

continued next post..

[Snake-Eyes]

continued from above..

Back to CD authoring, quickly, then my final wrap-up for now. There is supposedly some very basic CD writing capability included in XP. The nature of it is said to be drag-and-drop to the burner, backup style. There is no other support mentioned anywhere that I've seen, and I haven't tried what is available. I most likely won't be trying it either, since I burn ISOs (no comment ), create full CD backups, burn audio CD compilations, create video CDs, back up video into DivX format to CD, etc. (This last is I guess, possible using the built in capability, but I could care less. It's also said to be less efficient than normal authoring software by users who HAVE tried it, so..)

For the time being anyway, I'll stick to the triple boot solution, as I watch for any potential shortcomings among the three. At the moment XP has really impressed me as a true blend of the compatibility, hardware support, and overall performance (give or take a very small percentage, depending on the task) of WinME crossed with the stability of Win2K (actually, Win2K has hard locked on me once since this last install, while XP has not).

Sorry for the length of these posts. I hope somebody at leasts finds them informative and/or useful though.

If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask. I'll try to answer as well as possible. Also, if you'd like a more immediate answer, you can PM me using ICQ (my ICQ number is in my profile).

[kidspot]

Just my two cents worth on the XP debate. I have been using the beta for several months now and have been impressed with it's stability. I've rebooted about once each week. Seems to get rid of the excesses that win9X used to hold onto after every program. I have not run Win2K. I upgraded from win98SE. The major drawbacks I've found with XP are the lack of drivers for specialty items (like card readers, scanners, etc..) but it does have a very large array of built in drivers.

My biggest problem has been my innability to use my G400TV with it.

Another downside has been all the "extras" XP includes. While they are often helpful, they also seem to make the OS a little sluggish - it boots quicker, but responds slower than WIN98 did for me. I'm running 900mhz thunderbird with 7200rpm drives and 512 MB of memory.

The new GUI took a little getting used too (just like win95) but now that I've used it a bit I really like it and don't want to go back to the old one. I've found it much more flexible than previous versions.

My greatest joy in using it was not having to keep my file sizes under 4 gb. I loved creating a single video clip that was 6 gb in size. No work-arounds needed.

Well so much for my 2 cents worth. . .