Installing Windows 2000

[Drizzt]

Hi all!
I need some help...


I have to reinstall my OS, 'cause it's just a bit I do not do it and it's became a little unstable.
Was thinking about going to Win2K (now Win98SE), but I dunno if I will have problems.

So, the questions:
1) Is Win2k fully hardware compatible? Or there are configuration that are known for not working?

2) Is Win2k fully game compatible? I use PC 50% for programming (and I'm sure Win2k can be used for this) and 50% for playing...
I do not want to install a secondary OS just for that!

3) Is there something I should download before starting to install?
Documents, patches?


Thanks All!

[Paddy]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">1) Is Win2k fully hardware compatible? Or there are configuration that are known for not working?</font>

Make sure that all of your hardware is on their compatibility list. I couldn't find a link on thier site, but try reading the product documentation. Here.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">2) Is Win2k fully game compatible? I use PC 50% for programming (and I'm sure Win2k can be used for this) and 50% for playing...
I do not want to install a secondary OS just for that!</font>

Most games will work... specific examples would be helpful

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">3) Is there something I should download before starting to install?
Documents, patches?</font>

Service Pack 2


Try reading the product documentation at mocrosoft. Here.

[JLP]

All harware is compatible with Windows 2000. You just go to hompeages of manufacturers for your hardware and see if they have drivers for Windows 2000. If they have them then you are OK.

Well all of my games work on Windows 2000 and some of them are quite old. If you only have newer games they should work just fine.

Yup SP2 is a must have. You also should download drivers for all your hardware-

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Live long and prosper!

[fds]

SP2 is a recommended, but not a required update. You can live without it if you don't want to wait until your download finishes or whatever.

Having the w2k release of DX8 handy is more important and useful.

Hardware vendors claiming to have Windows 2000 drivers sadly does not always mean that they are reliable as well. List your hardware here and we might be able to tell you what to expect.

[Drizzt]

Thanks for the infos...

Here we go with the hardware list:

Via Apollo KT133

Farstone Virtual Drive (wich is software, but it's the mos important thing for me)

Creative Sounblaster Live (I know of various problems...)

Hauppage WinTVGO (declared compatible from Hauppage)

Logitech Wingman Force

Logitech Cordless Desktop Pro

Matrox G400 (soon to became a G550)


And the games...uhmm...none of too old. The oldest of mine is Diablo, I suppose...

[xortam]

Check for hardware compatibility at http://www.microsoft.com/hcl .

[omegaRED]

Check http://www.ntcompatible.com (thanks go to Rags for this)

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Seth, are you ok ?
I`m peachy, Kate. The world is my oyster.

[Pace]

Well, G400 will be nice.

SBLive will be ok with standard Win2k drivers, Liveware a little more dodgy, especially with VIA and VIA SMP.

The Wingman should be fine, and keyboard too - but you might not be able to use fancy features on them (I don't know, just speculating).

Also, how much RAM do you have? 128MB is a minimum for Win2k (effectively). If you plan to run CounterStrike/Team Arena, you'd better be looking at 256MB, or more. Same goes for Photoshop/Dreamweaver etc.

Regards,

Paul.

[Drizzt]

396 megs, for now. I hope it's sufficient...

[fds]

I don't know about Virtual Drive but you might want to try <a href="http://www.daemon-tools.com/main800.htm">Daemon Tools</a>. Don't let the terrible, amateurish web page discourage you -- the software itself is of really high quality and works very well under Windows 2000.

[Drizzt]

Ok, then...

IT'S DRIVER TIME!!!