Hell froze over.

[John Corliss]

I have caved in after four years of holding out and have installed XP.
It really sucks, big time. However, I'm still going to stick it out and
beat it into submission.

As a result of this change, I have two questions:

1. Which version of the K-Lite codec pack does everybody recommend?
(Although I've always prefered the Coda codec pack, my experience has
been that it doesn't work as well in XP)

2. Crap.... I forgot. The last two days have fried my brain.

--
Regards from John Corliss
I don't reply to trolls and other such idiots. No adware, cdware,
commercial software, crippleware, demoware, nagware, PROmotionware,
shareware, spyware, time-limited software, trialware, viruses or warez
please.

 

[John Corliss]

I have caved in after four years of holding out and have installed XP.
It really sucks, big time. However, I'm still going to stick it out and
beat it into submission.

As a result of this change, I have two questions:

1. Which version of the K-Lite codec pack does everybody recommend?
(Although I've always prefered the Coda codec pack, my experience has
been that it doesn't work as well in XP)

2. Crap.... I forgot. The last two days have fried my brain.

Egad... now I remember. Some people in here have remarked that XXCopy:


http://www.xxcopy.com


doesn't work very well at cloning hard drives in XP. Would anybody care
to elaborate? It always worked perfectly in Millennium Edition.

--
Regards from John Corliss
I don't reply to trolls and other such idiots. No adware, cdware,
commercial software, crippleware, demoware, nagware, PROmotionware,
shareware, spyware, time-limited software, trialware, viruses or warez
please.

 

[Mario Alvares]

I have caved in after four years of holding out and have installed XP.
It really sucks, big time. However, I'm still going to stick it out and
beat it into submission.

As a result of this change, I have two questions:

1. Which version of the K-Lite codec pack does everybody recommend?
(Although I've always prefered the Coda codec pack, my experience has
been that it doesn't work as well in XP)

2. Crap.... I forgot. The last two days have fried my brain.

XP's not that bad, sure beats Windows ME
What specifically "sucks big time" for you ?

 

[Jim]

Egad... now I remember. Some people in here have remarked that XXCopy:


http://www.xxcopy.com


doesn't work very well at cloning hard drives in XP. Would anybody care
to elaborate? It always worked perfectly in Millennium Edition.

Try something called XXCLONE from the same folks.

-Jim

 

[mike555]

I have caved in after four years of holding out and have installed XP.
It really sucks, big time. However, I'm still going to stick it out and
beat it into submission.

--- snip ---

==== if you haven't already , setting the start menu and file folders
to the " classic " view helps it suck less .............. BTW ,I got
the K-lite mega pac ====

 

[mike555]

=== I use xxclone (on XP) , but you might not want to have it write to
the MBR, instead just ad a second line to your boot.ini ............
this is what mine looks like:

[Boot Loader]
timeout=5
Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[Operating Systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home
Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="XXCLONE: Windows (Cloned
Volume) [d:0,p:2] \WINDOWS" /fastdetect

 

[Mark Warner]

I have caved in after four years of holding out and have installed XP.
It really sucks, big time.

I made the switch from 98 to 2K three years ago, and still use 2K as my
main OS. I have loaded XP on an older backup machine and use it on my
laptop. The jump (from 9x to XP) is gonna be a big one, and the default
XP installation is a PITA, but it can be wrestled into submission. I
have found XP Home to be much more irritating than Pro, but that is
usually in the default configuration on a clueless client's home
machine. XP has far superior driver support, networking support, and
wireless capabilities, and the NTFS file system is much more stable and
secure.

 

[El Gee]

I have caved in after four years of holding out and have installed XP.
It really sucks, big time. However, I'm still going to stick it out
and beat it into submission.

As a result of this change, I have two questions:

1. Which version of the K-Lite codec pack does everybody recommend?
(Although I've always prefered the Coda codec pack, my experience has
been that it doesn't work as well in XP)

2. Crap.... I forgot. The last two days have fried my brain.

I told myself I would never install XP, but I got tired os security
issues with Win98SE and the crashes on the newest WinME install. I got
a bargin priced ($35) copy (legally) of XP and found that after you get
rid of the Playskool theme and go back to the classic look, it is nice,
Much better than any other Windows OS. I still like Linux, but I can
live with XP.

I am wondering what you found so bad about it. The darn thing is pretty
rock solid on good hardware.

--
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
El Gee // www.mistergeek.com <><
Know Christ, Know Peace - No Christ, No Peace
Remove .yourhat to reply
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

[Ivan Tisljar]

1. Which version of the K-Lite codec pack does everybody recommend?
(Although I've always prefered the Coda codec pack, my experience has
been that it doesn't work as well in XP)

DON'T USE codec packs. They only crap out your system. Install only
what is necesary for watching video, and that's ffdshow directshow
filter, which decodes all mpeg4 video, and ac3 audio.

http://ffdshow.sourceforge.net/tikiwiki/tiki-index.php?page=Getting+ffdshow

Additional codecs can be added, if necesary.

Ivan.

--

"Ego autem quia veritatem dico non creditis mihi."
visit me/posjetite me @ http://hlloyge.cjb.net/
-=delete _system_ to mail me=-

Foobar is not active ;-)

 

[jmatt]

Hang in there John, XP is fantastic once you get used to it, super
stable, any hicups, a reboot & it repairs itself.

Make sure you get SP2 straight away, it has a lot of security
improvements.
Download sp2 from one of these.
http://www.softwarepatch.com/windows/xpsp2.html
http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=846

"Egad... now I remember. Some people in here have remarked that
XXCopy:"
It does work, but he has an XP version as mentioned, that version has a
GUI.

Print this & have in your face, in case you need it. No use trying to
remember where you put it.

System Restore, I have had good results using this way or Safe Mode,
different to Last Known Good Configuration in Safe Mode.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/getstarted/ballew_03may19.mspx
System Restore is accessed the following way:

1. It's a good practice to shut down all other applications before
using System Restore, as it requires a full-system reboot to complete
the installation. Connecting to the internet is not required, however.
So shut all applications. Then click "Start."

2. Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore.
Then the program will load.
Here's a screen shot of the program-entry
screen:http://www.techbuilder.org/recipes/60402485

Or,

If System Restore doesn't work in Normal Mode, it might work in Safe
Mode.
Toggle F8 or Press Ctrl ( depends on your comp ) during bootup ( just
before, verifying DMI pool, message comes on )
Select Safe Mode.
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2001060608000039
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315222&Product=winxp
http://www.whtvcable.com/virusremoval .htm
http://www.techbuilder.org/recipes/60402485
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/getstarted/ballew_03may19.mspx

 

[Art]

Egad... now I remember. Some people in here have remarked that XXCopy:


http://www.xxcopy.com


doesn't work very well at cloning hard drives in XP. Would anybody care
to elaborate? It always worked perfectly in Millennium Edition.

You can use the free version of XXCLONE. It creates a bootable cloned
backup drive.

My method of Restoring from backup is to reset the BIOS to try to boot
first from HDD1 which is the backup drive .... which the system then
does. My main drive, HDD0, then becomes drive E: instead of C:

So I can then Restore from C: (HDD1) to E: (HDD0)

Works very well for me. BTW, another indispensible util is ERUNT
for backing up and restoring the registry. It also includes a registy
optimizer.

Art

http://home.epix.net/~artnpeg

 

[CharlieDontSurf]

I have caved in after four years of holding out and have installed XP.
It really sucks, big time. However, I'm still going to stick it out and
beat it into submission.

Heh. You made the leap, congratulations. I've understood your
reservations, but once you've whacked it into shape, you might be
surprised at how much you actually like it. No more fretting about GDI
and User heaps getting maxed. Apps may crash now and then, but BSODs
will be extraordinarily rare (the 2 times I've seen them in 4 years were
caused by hardware failure, a drive and a CPU). Uptime in months, no
more rebooting before starting something important "just in case". It's
MS's first consumer level release that's actually a set-it-and-forget-it
OS, so if you do it right, further tinkering will be mostly by choice
and not necessity.

I hate the default configuration too -- the balloon animals GUI, the
resource-pig file indexing, the distant cousin of MS Paperclip, Windows
Messenger (KILL, KILL, KILL!) -- but for once, the bulk of beating the
OS into submission is done at installation and not a neverending drama.

Good luck to you!

 

[Roger Hunt]

I have caved in after four years of holding out and have installed XP.
It really sucks, big time. However, I'm still going to stick it out and
beat it into submission.

As a result of this change, I have two questions:

1. Which version of the K-Lite codec pack does everybody recommend?
(Although I've always prefered the Coda codec pack, my experience has
been that it doesn't work as well in XP)

I tried the K-Lite pack and it did a superb job of screwing things up,
and buggering any recording from my Win-TV card (W98se & XPsp2).
Now I just use the DIVX pack from http://www.divxmovies.com/codec/
and things work again, after re-installing the fesking operating
systems. (Bah!)

2. Crap.... I forgot. The last two days have fried my brain.

Sorry, don't have enough experience of XXCopy to say.

 

[Conor]

XP's not that bad, sure beats Windows ME
What specifically "sucks big time" for you ?

The fact he can install his favourite Open Source software with a
single click instead of a multitude of CLI commands. He also no longer
has to compile software or kernels. He can also find a plethora of
drivers. Everything "just works" together, i.e he can cut'n'paste
seamlessly from one app to another. And his fonts don't suck. And his
ATI graphics card works properly.

 

[John Fitzsimons]

I have caved in after four years of holding out and have installed XP.
It really sucks, big time. However, I'm still going to stick it out and
beat it into submission.

< snip >

John, I seem to remember that you have removable racks for your hard
drive(s). If you have extra rack(s), in other computers, then you
might consider installing XP as a FAT32 system. It will make moving
files to/from the other computer(s) easier.

Knowing how paranoid you (we ?) are you may be using an old computer
for stuff that you want to do without having an internet (potential)
vulnerability.

Regards, John.

--
****************************************************
,-._|\ (A.C.F FAQ) http://clients.net2000.com.au/~johnf/faq.html
/ Oz \ John Fitzsimons - Melbourne, Australia.
\_,--.x/ http://www.vicnet.net.au/~johnf/welcome.htm
v http://clients.net2000.com.au/~johnf/

 

[John Fitzsimons]

=== I use xxclone (on XP) , but you might not want to have it write to
the MBR, instead just ad a second line to your boot.ini ............
this is what mine looks like:

[Boot Loader]
timeout=5
Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[Operating Systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home
Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="XXCLONE: Windows (Cloned
Volume) [d:0,p:2] \WINDOWS" /fastdetect

Very interesting. Thank you for sharing that with us Mike.

Regards, John.

 

[John Corliss]

XP's not that bad, sure beats Windows ME
What specifically "sucks big time" for you ?

Well, I don't want to discuss Windows in this group. Suffice it to say
that I had to compromise too much in the way of lost features and older
programs that no longer work. However, I must admit that it does have a
few good points. I'm sure that as time goes by I'll become more used to it.

--
Regards from John Corliss
I don't reply to trolls and other such idiots. No adware, cdware,
commercial software, crippleware, demoware, nagware, PROmotionware,
shareware, spyware, time-limited software, trialware, viruses or warez
please.

 

[John Corliss]

--- snip ---

==== if you haven't already , setting the start menu and file folders
to the " classic " view helps it suck less .............. BTW ,I got
the K-lite mega pac ====

Mike555,
Thanks for replying. However, which version did you get? There are
four versions:
1. basic
2. standard
3. full
4. mega

http://www.codecguide.com/about_kl.htm

--
Regards from John Corliss
I don't reply to trolls and other such idiots. No adware, cdware,
commercial software, crippleware, demoware, nagware, PROmotionware,
shareware, spyware, time-limited software, trialware, viruses or warez
please.

 

[John Corliss]

I made the switch from 98 to 2K three years ago, and still use 2K as my
main OS. I have loaded XP on an older backup machine and use it on my
laptop. The jump (from 9x to XP) is gonna be a big one, and the default
XP installation is a PITA, but it can be wrestled into submission. I
have found XP Home to be much more irritating than Pro, but that is
usually in the default configuration on a clueless client's home
machine. XP has far superior driver support, networking support, and
wireless capabilities, and the NTFS file system is much more stable and
secure.

I installed the (freeware) XP Taskswitch Powertoy and now alt-tabbing is
problematic. There's no way to uninstall it either, from what I can tell.

--
Regards from John Corliss
I don't reply to trolls and other such idiots. No adware, cdware,
commercial software, crippleware, demoware, nagware, PROmotionware,
shareware, spyware, time-limited software, trialware, viruses or warez
please.

 

[=?ISO-8859-1?Q?=BBQ=AB?=]

The fact he can install his favourite Open Source software with a
single click instead of a multitude of CLI commands. He also no
longer has to compile software or kernels. He can also find a
plethora of drivers. Everything "just works" together, i.e he can
cut'n'paste seamlessly from one app to another. And his fonts
don't suck. And his ATI graphics card works properly.

Wow. I skipped WinME, and now I'm glad I did. It sounds like it
was tough to use. Maybe that's why Linux made some gains during the
ME era -- it's a lot easier to use than that.