Never let it be said....

from WinCustomize Forums
Never let it be said that I'm not a fair man.
Never let it be said that I didn't give WinXP a chance, 2 in fact, but I just don't like it. After endless tweaking to get everything working with XP, the one thing that I can't get working is 3DS Max. So, after my original rant, I installed XP RC2, and I stand by my opinion that XP doesn't offer me anything that 2k doesn't already offer with more stability. It's the little things, like certain websites crashing IE, the endless hours of tweaking trying to get programs running, the countless little bugs and niggles. I think after this little adventure, I'm done with XP for quite some time, it simply isn't as good as 2k, and I have my doubts as to whether it ever will be.
6,756 views 12 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
each to their own

ive tried 2k and XP, and find xp far more stable, hasnt crashed once in over two months. I cant comment and the programs you have used because I havent tried em on XP.

One final point, XP is a beta, in other words, its still buggy, wait till the final is out then try it
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I prefer XP, it feels more polished and remote desktop is very nice.
SoundPackager - Customize the Windows sound scheme
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
What verison of 3DS Max? I have XP RC2 and Max 3.1 Just installed Max and it appears to be fine. Using OpenGL for graphics.

I have some minor problems (XP refused to recognise the rear channel on my SBLive until I reinstalled Liveware 4 times) but overall I have been very happy with XP so far. It improved the quality of my WinTV and seems to have fixed some issues I was having with my ADSL modem. Paintshop Pro would crash when using WinTV at the same time and does not do that anymore so my experience has been very postive. That being fixed is one reason I will be buying XP when it is released. I had installed it over my Win98 installation just to take a look but now I find it more pleasant to stay in XP.
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
that reminds me, did u do a clean install AJ? if not reformat and then stick it on, upgrading tends to mess things up
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
AJC: Which websites crash WXP's IE6?
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
That's a good point about ADSL stability. I got stuck with a USB DSL modem after the jack on my router-type modem got ripped out by a couple of overzealous kittens. The USB modem worked in Win2k, after some major wrangling, but it took forever for the software to load on a fresh boot, and even longer to actually authenticate my connection each time (and often would say it connected when it actually didn't).

In WinXP, my total boot time from button-press to ready-desktop is just over 30 seconds, and that includes my DSL connection manager and conectoid software being loaded and connected, and me typing in my profile password. And all this on a lowly PII 400 on an old Seattle I BX440 motherboard.

Between boot times, multiple simeltaneous logins, the graphical polish, and the vast compatibility improvements, I'm sticking with XP.

Oh, and one of the girls I attended the OfficeXP launch with got her WinXP installed last night, and was having problems getting some of her stuff to work (mostly migrating settings from an old install of Win98). We actually made use of the Remote Assistance feature. Man, what a godsend for peer-based support! I know NT had something remotely similar, but this was just damn easy to use, and ever so helpful.
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
How does Remote Assistance work?
Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Takrus: www.discreet.com and www.nvidia.com in particular just froze the browser.

PJPowell: It is 3DS Max R4, the problem isn't in the software itself, but it uses the C-Dilla licensing system from macrovision, which is not compatible with XP, so the software refuses to acknowledge that it's licensed.

I know XP is still just a Release Candidate (which is very different from a beta, in beta they're still expecting bugs, in an RC they're actually proposing sending that version off as the release), but it's incredibly buggy, unstable and quirky for me, won't run all the software I want and a lot of things needed real tweaking to get to work at all. I really don't know how anyone could say that XP is better for compatibility than 2K, I've never had a problem running anything on 2K, and XP was just a nightmare for nearly everything I tried to install. It's certainly not more polished, and as for the remote desktop, I'm already using VNC anyway.

Cheers,

AJ.
Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Ah. Yes I read a newsgroup posting about that issue this morning. I guess this is one time it's good not to be on the 'bleeding edge'.

By the way both of those pages worked fine here.
Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top
No problems here, either, using both of those sites.
Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Yeah, I didn't have any problems initially, it was just after installing a bunch of stuff, nothing unusual, it started acting really odd, here's a list of what I installed and the ease of installation:

Photoshop 6.01 (No problems)
Alias Wavefront Maya 4 (No problems)
Gamespy Arcade (Have to disable DirectSound in options, or crashes on game launch)
Max Payne (No problems after severe tweaking and rebooting a few times)
Counter Strike (No problems after severe tweaking and rebooting a few times)
3DS Max R4 (License management system wouldn't run)
Paint Shop Pro 5 (The last decent version of this great program, no problems)
OD (No problems)
Flash 5 (No problems)
Freehand 10 (No problems)
ACDSee 3.1 (No problems)
MS Visual Studio 6 (No problems)

Hope that the couple of tips in there help people that may be having problems with any of these pieces of software.
Reply #12 from WinCustomize Forums Top
AJC: Did you try any of the handy compatibility modes in file properties? Often times that will get these programs going.

I can honestly say I've had virtually no problems with compatibility and I'm a bit of a software geek (though not much of a game player).

The only two problems I can think of was ACDSee 3.1 was crashing badly in RC1. I uninstalled it and then re-installed it and then it worked fine, so that wasn't really a WXP issue. And Logitech's MouseWare wouldn't install until I put the setup program in Windows 2000 compatibility mode. I understand the latest version just out fixes that, though I haven't tried it.

I can't think of any other real problems with incompatibilities, though I could be forgetting something.