OT: Don't Buy XP Home

SpaceBadger · #1 January 16th, 2006, 03:52 AM

Hi, y'all. I just dropped back in this evening to search for an old thread w/ some comments by Fyron about fine-tuning XP, and here y'all are talking about it right now. Whaddyaknow?

So far I've taken the approach that PvK and SJ espouse above, sticking w/ Win98SE on all of my machines because it does what I need it to do and I've seen no reason to move to XP. Except that now my boys have a couple of games that need XP to run, plus they have some Christmas money that they'd like for me to use to put XP on their machines, so I guess the time has come.

So it looks like I should buy XP Pro (and I think that is what Fyron had recommended before, in that old thread I was coming here to re-read), but are there different variations of that? Seems like last time I checked TigerDirect they had several different XP Pro packages listed. I've also been told that I should get the "corporate" version of XP Pro because that doesn't do all of the "phone home" crap, but have not had much luck on finding out where to get this.

Also, where is a good place to buy it from? Any recommendations on that?

Also, Fyron, I think you mentioned before doing a lot of fine-tuning to XP Pro to make it work a lot better than it would right out of the box; can you point me to any good site or FAQ w/ instructions/suggestions on that fine-tuning?

And regarding this WMF exploit, would it be useful to just remove the file associations that go with that extension, so that if you run across one it wouldn't open/display? Or would IE try to display it anyway, thereby running the embedded virus?

Fyron · #2 January 16th, 2006, 05:34 AM

Space Badger! Now that's a name I haven't seen in a while.

You can only legitimately get a corporate version if you are in a corporation that has purchased a volume licensing scheme. Or maybe a school or other big organization. You won't find it for single license sale legally anywhere.

I believe there is a patch out for the WMF exploit.

I lost my links to optimization sites on dead hdd. Someone else will have to post something.

SpaceBadger · #3 January 16th, 2006, 12:27 PM

Howdy, Fyron. Thanks for the info. I'll hunt a bit more for that old thread and link it from here if I find it; I think you gave a few site links in that thread.

I haven't played any Space Empires online since Kwok's Aldan Galaxy game folded, and my boys got interested in other games, so I only play the occasional solo game against the AI nowadays. I was glad to see I still have an account on this board, since it has probably been over a year since I logged in here.

Anybody still playing SEIV, or have y'all moved on to SEV now? I haven't bought that yet, since I was still getting good enjoyment out of SEIV but not really playing it much.

SpaceBadger · #4 January 16th, 2006, 01:02 PM

Oops, browsing some other threads I see that SEV still hasn't been released yet, so I guess that is another reason that I haven't bought it. *g*

Captain Kwok · #5 January 16th, 2006, 01:02 PM

Actually, Space Empires V is not out yet... perhaps later this year.

narf poit chez BOOM · #6 January 16th, 2006, 02:52 PM

New people coming in...Old people coming back (Hi Badger)...

[Singing]It's beginning to feel a lot like Space Empires Five...[/Singing]

SpaceBadger · #7 January 16th, 2006, 03:47 PM

Hey, Narf. Any ETA on SEV, or is it just "when it's done"?

Captain Kwok · #8 January 16th, 2006, 04:45 PM

The ETA is when it's done. February used to be a date mentioned, but that's very unlikely.