Windows 2000?

[192]

In a fit of enthusiasm I bought the Win 2000 Beta 3. Does anyone know how compatible current software and games are with this OS is? Would I be advised to load it on to a spare HDD to play with it?
Thanks for your attention.
Ron
P2 450, 128 Mb RAM, Chaintech 6BTM, 2x IBM Deskstar HDDs.

[SteveC]

Hi Ron!
I have win2k b3 on my PC at work as it's main (and only) OS. It's struggling a bit in 64mb, so I'll take it off, but I will say that it is more stable than win9x and WinNT4. I have had very few problems with software - but many games are not happy with the matrox cards (which I assume you have) cos the drivers are nowhere near finished.

------------------
Cheers,
Steve
It's Only A Graphics Card!
(But a damn good 'un!)

[Hunsow]

Except for the built in pinball I didn't get any game to work. Other software seems to work fine though.

[diatribe]

Have had Win2000 B3 installed for two months now (still no crash!!) on my K6-2@400 and G200. Got Unreal to work in software rendering mode. It wasn't playable because it ran around 10fps in 640x480. But considering the earlystate of the drivers Win2000 looks promesing as a gameplatform...

[Buuri]

I installed it on the NT4 and what really pleased me that it asked no questions at all but took all the configuration from the old NT. Installation was as easy as it could be.

I have 192MB on my machine and it's smoother than 98 and no crashes at all. Some beta features are there like the taskbar clock is in 12hrs mode while you can set in it 24hrs mode. But that's cosmetic.

Games won't work tho, but I still have 98 for them..


B

[SteveC]

Well, win2k had been running beautifully no crashes and so on, but this morning, it all went horribly wrong, and I couldn't get it to boot, even in safe mode. Now, I'm back to good trusty old winNT4 with SP5.

------------------
Cheers,
Steve
It's Only A Graphics Card!
(But a damn good 'un!)

[DarkSyd]

Steve,
Was the disk defragger running when you left the machine last night? I had the same thing happen to me after trying out the built in defragger. Took my entire C:\ drive with it.
I guess that's why they call it beta

[SteveC]

No - I was using it, and I had IE and a few programs hang on me... irritaded I hit the power button. From then on, it would not boot.
BTW, NT4 is SO much faster than win2k under 64mb!!

------------------
Cheers,
Steve
It's Only A Graphics Card!
(But a damn good 'un!)

[192]

Hi each of you,
Thanks for the replies. I won't install Win 2000 over 98. Some more questions. Can I install Win 2000 on a FAT 32 drive? Does the install allow a dual booting system Win98 or 2000?
By the way, of course I'm using a Matrox card (G200 16Mb). I also intend to buy a G400 Max just as soon as it becomes available. Speaking of which, is the 5.13 Matrox driver a unified driver for both the G200 and G400? It appears to be so.
Ron.
"I see everything twice"

[Buuri]

Yes you can. Yes it does.
I'm not sure, but Matrox swears that new drivers will be released for G400 when the mass shipping starts so don't worry about that.


B

[pnkflyd51]

.

[This message has been edited by pnkflyd51 (edited 07-09-99).]

[pnkflyd51]

someone on top of me wrote:

> sure, but Matrox swears that new drivers
> will be released for G400 when the mass
> shipping starts [of Win2K] so don't worry
> about that.

Translation: worry like hell!

[that guy]

I've got the latest official build, and suprise!, drivers aren't at the level MS promised for this release. Basically, very little works, and the little that is working is pretty spotty. At the rate things are going, and if MS sticks to the Oct. 6 ship date, we'll get to beta test drivers from every OEM. Isn't that wonderful? Couldn't you just fall out of your chair with suprise that beta code will ship in the final release?

[DN]

192:

For games, you better stick with 98 for now. Although Win2000 had DX7, but the current games in the market will still treat the OS as NT. And a lot of games don't run on NT. So, not much games you can play on Win2000.

[LAMFDTK]

Anyone that thinks W2K is a gaming platform is in for a real Treat!

<A HREF="http://members.xoom.com/Trainwrecker">Trainwrecker:computer addicts</A>