OT: Operating System Upgrade
 

Given the gargantuan limitations of Windows ME, I'm going to ditch it and install a new OS.

Given the intent of Mr.Gates and his ilk to stop supporting Win2K as soon as possible, and the fact that Photoshop CS2 needs it, the "upgrade" will unfortunately be XP:Pro. I've been learning to deal with XP on another machine, and since SP2 it's been tolerable, so I'll manage.

Now the last time I did this was from 95 to ME. They both run on DOS so there was no problem just installing the new one over the old one. Now since XP has no DOS in it, will I be able to do the same thing? Just throw in the CD and spend an hour at it?

Any help/advice/warnings appreciated. (Other than "Oh my god, don't go to XP - it sucks!" I'll just ignore that.)

[img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Dagger.gif[/img][img]/threads/images/Graemlins/icon42.gif[/img]

Re: OT: Operating System Upgrade
 

You could go with Linux... who needs Photoshop when you have the GIMP? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: OT: Operating System Upgrade
 

The GIMP or a GIMP. That is an imporant distinction.

XP can boot and install from the CD, I did it no problem. The dual booting support was amazingly simple, but then I did have a new hard drive to put XP on. Unless your short of space or want to do clever rights access stuff I wouldn't put NTFS on, even then the space saving appears to be pretty small in the scheme of things. The disadvantage of NTFS is that almost nothing can read an NTFS drive without pissing around.

Finally you may want to run the file and transfer wizard before nuking ME. It does roughly what it says on the tin and is good at getting my documents, start menu, IE favourties etc. On the other hand as you'll need to re-install most software and may not use IE it could be a total waste of time.

Just my 1.4 trillion Turkish Lira. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: OT: Operating System Upgrade
 

I do use I.E. and would of course run the wizard. I hadn't thought about having to re-install everything. Gag. The registry values installed for ME would make a whole buncha crap not work anymore in XP. I sicken just thinking of it.

Ah well, can't stand in the way of "progress." I've got nothing better to do over the next coupla weeks than reinstall software that I find not working, right? Gag.

Would purchasing an upgrade CD (not usually advised, I know) lessen some of the impact and self-upgrade some things like Office 2000, etc.?

Re: OT: Operating System Upgrade
 

I would:

1. Copy off all your important files to a CD or USB memory stick

2. Write down all your components from Device Manager and get the XP drivers downloaded a CD or Memory stick

3. Completely wipe the hard drive as part of the XP install and reinstall all applications.

Everything just runs better when its all minty fresh http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: OT: Operating System Upgrade
 

Considering the size of this system, I would rather have GT shove his Red Hot Firepoker Cannon up my arse than wipe these two hard drives.

Re: OT: Operating System Upgrade
 

Don't worry about reinstalling all your stuff. I upgraded to SP2 only to find I had to reset all my programs after SP2 installed itself and erased all my settings. Thanks http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/mad.gif Gates!!!

Just do what Iron Giant recommends (on CD or DVD if you can) and remember that "CHANGE IS GOOD" and the longer you procrastinate, the longer it will take you to get up and running.

Re: OT: Operating System Upgrade
 

Note:
You don't have to wipe all the drives.

Only the particular partition of the particular drive you're going to be installing to.
You can move all the generic files you want to keep to the other drive for safekeeping.

Re: OT: Operating System Upgrade
 

I wouldn’t upgrade, way too many limitations. What I would do is buy another drive and then do a dual boot. That way you get the best of both worlds. You can still run your legacy software on 9x. As for files, not apps, you’ll be able to access them from XP.

Re: OT: Operating System Upgrade
 

Interesting idea...

Someone once posted the method for creating a dual-boot system, but IIRC, doesn't XP have to be on FIRST? Anyone have a link where I can read up on that?

Re: OT: Operating System Upgrade
 

Pretty sure it works fine in win2k. But really, why do you need more than Photoshop 7 or so? CS and CS2 add very little, if anything, and have very hefty price tags... Not that 7 really added much over 6 in the first place...

Unless you need to fiddle with customized CMYK (I think that was the abbreviation) printer settings, The GIMP does everything Photoshop does.

The NT line boot loader is fine with dual boot setups. The 9x line boot loader is the one that does not do this. You have to install 9x first, then NT (win2k, XP). If you also want Linux, it is a good idea to install it last and use Grub as your boot loader.

Also, if you are installing XP on a new drive or somesuch, make sure to create a 6 GB partition for just XP and the paging file. Install all programs on a second partition. Then, move critical settings folders such as My Documents and Program Files onto the data partition with TweakUI (available on microsoft.com under XP power toys, or some other random locations for the pre-XP version of TweakUI). Export a nice, clean version of the registry after installing your programs to use in the future. This way, when windows decides it is time to implode, you can just format the windows partition and reinstall, losing no real data. In fact, you can do this as a preventative measure every 4 to 6 months to keep it running smoothly.

Re: OT: Operating System Upgrade
 

I would recommend against reformatting your XP partition on a regular basis, lest Microsoft's anti-piracy measures thing you're making a lot of unusual installs http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: OT: Operating System Upgrade
 

Meh, just find a crack to disable that. XP doesn't really _need_ to phone home. This is one of the reasons why XP is such a bad piece of software...

Re: OT: Operating System Upgrade
 

Well I had an ME partition, plugged in a new hard disk stuck XP on that and it just dual booted like a dream. Of course I then had a string of unconnected hardware problems that buggered the entire system, but that is the joy of owning a PC.

Still, like a beaten wife, I still come back and don't get a new machien, thinking that this time it has changed and will work properly.

Re: OT: Operating System Upgrade
 

Uh, sorry, but that's just a tad bit over my head. Not a lot, but a tad. But thanks Fyron, I'll give it a go and teach myself.

Further OT: Does anyone know of an upper echelon graphics card that does dualhead? My Matrox G550 is great, but is starting to hang on some stuff.

Re: OT: Operating System Upgrade
 

Hi, I too am using Windows ME and I'm also considering upgrading to XP at some point.

Question: What is the difference between XP Home Edition and XP Professional Edition? From what I hear, I have this vague impression that Home Edition isn't very good and Professional Edition is the way to go. But I don't know specifically why Professional is better. What does Professional have that Home Edition does not? The computer is used at home with only one person using it, and it will mainly be for games, internet, and word processing. Is XP Professional worth buying?

Re: OT: Operating System Upgrade
 

If you can find XP Pro for a small amount more than XP Home, I'd suggest you get Pro. But if all you can find is a $100 difference, XP Home will suffice. Here are some sites that compare the two:

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase...p_home_pro.asp

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/h...choosing2.mspx

Turin:

The paging file is what windows calls its virtual memory file. It resides on the drive partion where windows is installed by default, so you do not need to worry about it.

TweakUI for XP is available on the http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/d...]XP Power Toys. In one of the tabs there is an option to change the location of system folders. This is handy for being able to not have to lose your documents, pictures, and installed programs when you need to reformat windows partition and reinstall it. You would want to copy folders such as Program Files to the data partition, then use TweakUI to change the location to the data partition, reboot, and delete the orginal Program Files folder on the windows drive.

Go to run command (windows key + r, or in start menu) and type in regedit. This opens the registry editor, which you can use to export a copy of your registry to a file, and later import your registry from a file. This is useful to do after a clean install of windows and the programs and games you usually use. When you need to reformat and reinstall windows, you can just import this archived registry and have most of your system back up to par in no time (when combined with moving critical files to the data partition).

Re: OT: Operating System Upgrade
 

For me, Home hasn't been bad at all. But presumably if you're a more "advanced" user, Pro would be for you...I think?

Re: OT: Operating System Upgrade
 

The difference between Pro and Home?

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/06/03/xp_hack/

about two bytes apparently. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

I've been on Home and it ain't bad, a few things have run faster, a few slower. And I can now play with Google Earth and various other toys that only work on 2k or XP. Probably worth it overall.

Re: OT: Operating System Upgrade
 

One thing I found out is that Home won't let you set advanced permissions like Pro will, such as "only certain users can access certain directories"... you're basically stuck with kiddie Limited accounts and godlike Administrator accounts http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif
Either that or I just forgot where to look for that setting... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: OT: Operating System Upgrade
 

My biggest swoop on the learning curve for XP was that I couldn't find anything anymore. Having spent years with 9x systems and knowing where every single network setting could be found was very comfortable. I opened up XP for the first time and said "What the hell is this? Apple?"

And now with SP2 the networking stuff for wireless has changed again. Eee-gad.

T

Re: OT: Operating System Upgrade
 

It's all in the regestry key settings. XP home can do anything that pro does.

Re: OT: Operating System Upgrade
 

Care to enlighten us? Point us in the right direction?

Re: OT: Operating System Upgrade
 

Ummmmmm.....No... But it shouldn't be too hard to figure out on your own.

2K is even better, you can regedit it right into 2K server.

Re: OT: Operating System Upgrade
 

Thanks for the answers! It looks like XP Home Edition is good enough for me, so like you said, I'll only get Professional if the price isn't much different. I'll probably do that when I get a new computer. My current computer is 800 MHz AMD and I think I'll get something faster within the next several months, in time for when SEV comes out. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

I'm running Windows ME right now and it doesn't crash too often, maybe couple of times a week as long as I'm careful. One of the annoying things however is that I cannot switch between SEIV and any other program during the AI's turn. If I use ALT-TAB it crashes and have to reboot. Also for some games if I quit, start a game, quit and so on several times it gets slower and slower and eventually it just unexpectedly quits the program and doesn't run anymore. I periodically have to shut down and restart.

I'm considering getting a notebook computer, maybe an IBM Thinkpad for my next machine. It will be useful to get something that's portable.

Re: OT: Operating System Upgrade
 

That is because the whole win 9x line has really bad memory management. Old blocks are not always cleared properly when programs exit, which leads to high levels of instability.

Re: OT: Operating System Upgrade
 

High levels of instability lead to BSOD and OS melt downs.

Re: OT: Operating System Upgrade
 

BSOD and OS melt downs lead to Linux or Mac.

(Let's see how far we can take this! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif )

Re: OT: Operating System Upgrade
 

Linux and Mac lead to the dumbing down of world consciusness and an alien overthrow of the status quo...

... aw damn... I pimped it.

Re: OT: Operating System Upgrade
 

/me whaps Turin.

Re: OT: Operating System Upgrade
 

Well, Macs are very nice. Many years ago, they were ahead of PC's in many ways. The first computer I bought was a Mac. So was my second. That was a long time ago, in the DOS / Windows 3.1 days. Today I wouldn't buy a Mac and I don't know many people who still use them. They're still very nice machines, though.

Re: OT: Operating System Upgrade
 

Please do elaborate. I understand Linus Torvalds, Alan Cox, Marcelo Tosatti and David Weinehall are aliens to many nations (though they are not from the same nation) but why does that matter? Do you consider software developers in your nation to be more important? Is Microsofts share of the software market helpful to you in anyway?

Re: OT: Operating System Upgrade
 

[Joke]
Macs are only used by artist and journalists, who are clearly all leftist 5th columnists. Linux, with it's thrice damned 'open source' ideals could never be thought of by an all-american capitalist as it is so very communist. Thus the use of Macs or Linux will lead to the triumph of global communism, which will kill us all. All of us do you hear?! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/eek.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/stupid.gif
[/Joke]