A Few Good Words About Windows XP

[JD]

I see a surprising amount of "Windows bashing" in these groups, so I'd like
to offer my own perspective:
I've used Windows XP since August, 2003.
I had some "Windows Has Recovered From a Serious Error" messages.
The problem was traced to a bad video driver update--the "rollback" feature
worked flawlessly.
On another occasion I caused some problems by messing around with Services.
This time System Restore came to my rescue without a hitch.
I run Norton Internet Security and Norton Anti-virus and receive regular
virus definition updates without any hitches.
I run the Windows Firewall on top of Norton's firewall, with no problems.
I check the Event Logs regularly and never see anything amiss.
I've installed ALL of the critical updates as soon as they were
released--without any problems.
After I hit the power on button, Desktop and all icons are in place in 25
seconds. All applications leap to the screen.
When I hit the Turn Off Computer button, the system shuts off in 12 seconds.
I use Outlook Express as my mail and news reader. I keep the folders
compacted on a regular basis, and never have any problems with it.
I do only the routine maintenance procedures: clear the browser cache and
Temp folders and run Defrag once a week.
I might add that I used Windows 98SE (after a clean install) for five years
and NEVER had a freeze, crash, or any other OS problems.
I had very rare gpfs, but each time it was WAOL that had caused the problem.
If Windows XP is more stable than 98, I expect troublefree computing for
years to come.

 

[Crafty Outlaw]

Congratulations.

But why on earth are you running Windows Firewall and Norton's firewall?

Dan

 

[mark7]

The so called bashing, as you put it, doesn't seem strange to me in light of the
complexity of the operating system and the humongous number of fixes, options,
patches, quick fixes, critical updates, or whatever they want to call them, to fix,
patch, and update the system because of flaws, security loopholes, problems,
conflicts between patches, etc. I believe that there were about 300 fixes necessary
in Service Pack 1, and another big service pack is in the works. The reality of the
situation is that if one is proficient in computers, as you are, they can maintain
and operate XP with only minor problems. Those who are not proficient have
all kinds of problems. I'm trying to maintain several PCs for friends who are not
very knowledgeable on the required maintenance of XP, and it keeps me jumping.
The up side is that I learned what I know from lurking in this newsgroup since
it's inception, and Win98 groups before that, and fortunately, most of the problems
one faces in XP are well covered here by the gurus and mvps, so it's a simple
matter, if one has the time, to learn how to maintain and repair XP. I'm retired
and have the time, my friends who work do not. Those who charge to repair
XP, and I understand they charge in the vicinity of $100 and hour, are
understandably quite pleased that it's complexity and problems provide them
with a nice source of income. I suspect that there are about a million people
like me, who know a little bit, and are willing to help friends for no charge. If I
had about 50 billion dollars to my name, I'd cough up a little bit for all of those
who offer support in this newsgroup, for they take a huge load off of MS.

 

[JD]

First, I read in an FAQ at the Symantec site that there are no conflicts
between the system firewall and Norton's, the only caveat being to run
Norton first and then the Windows firewall on top.
Before enabling the system firewall I was plagued by "security" pop-ups
(like every 10 minutes), which I had to manually clear. That doesn't happen
any more.

 

[Crafty Outlaw]

Interesting. I have no experience with Norton, but I thought any
decent third party firewall could block the Windows Messenger
ports. Maybe you just missed the necessary configuration to do
this with Norton. Seems like a lot of overhead to me. But hey,
if it's working for you, go with it, I guess.

I use Sygate's firewall for outgoing traffic, and I'm networked with
a router, so I never had to figure out to block pop-ups with Sygate.
Although, while diagnosing a network problem, I did have my system
in the router's DMZ (negates the router's firewall), and even though
I was deluged with port scans, I never received a Windows Messenger
pop-up. Guess I just wasn't exposed long enough.

Thanks for responding, JD. Hope things continue to run well for you.
Dan

 

[JD]

These are not Windows Messenger popups but "security alerts" from Norton. I
never found a way to get Norton to stop notifying me every time there was a
blocked attempt at intrusion, so now I assume that the system firewall is
blocking them before they get to the Norton firewall.
As to "overhead," I have OE only running as I type, and the Task Manager
shows 29 processes running, CPU Usage at 0%, and Commit Charge 159M/1249M
(though I don't know what that means).

 

[Crafty Outlaw]

My apologies. I just assumed they were messenger pop-ups.
I'm surprised that there isn't a way to suppress the Norton
pop-ups. Have you tried any of the firewall newsgroups?
"comp.security.firewalls" is one I subscribe to.

 

[Michael Stevens]

I see a surprising amount of "Windows bashing" in these groups, so
I'd like to offer my own perspective:
I've used Windows XP since August, 2003.
I had some "Windows Has Recovered From a Serious Error" messages.
The problem was traced to a bad video driver update--the "rollback"
feature worked flawlessly.
On another occasion I caused some problems by messing around with
Services. This time System Restore came to my rescue without a hitch.
I run Norton Internet Security and Norton Anti-virus and receive
regular virus definition updates without any hitches.
I run the Windows Firewall on top of Norton's firewall, with no
problems.
I check the Event Logs regularly and never see anything amiss.
I've installed ALL of the critical updates as soon as they were
released--without any problems.
After I hit the power on button, Desktop and all icons are in place
in 25 seconds. All applications leap to the screen.
When I hit the Turn Off Computer button, the system shuts off in 12
seconds. I use Outlook Express as my mail and news reader. I keep the
folders compacted on a regular basis, and never have any problems
with it.
I do only the routine maintenance procedures: clear the browser cache
and Temp folders and run Defrag once a week.
I might add that I used Windows 98SE (after a clean install) for five
years and NEVER had a freeze, crash, or any other OS problems.
I had very rare gpfs, but each time it was WAOL that had caused the
problem. If Windows XP is more stable than 98, I expect troublefree
computing for years to come.

Most people only access these newsgroups when they are experiencing a
problem and for most users, this is a very helpless feeling. They also for
the most part find the newsgroups through the Help and Support console and
their first experience using newsgroups is by the web based format. They
post a question and then can't figure out how to find the answer using the
awful web format. Makes a person very angry and the posts get pretty ugly.
LOL
Not many people without problems make posts to support newsgroups, also the
reason you see so many sick people in a doctors office.
--

Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
(e-mail address removed)
http://michaelstevenstech.com
For a better newsgroup experience. Setup a newsreader.
http://michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm

 

[Midnight]

I also fix friends computer and help in a few of these newsgroups when I get
the chance. Most of the time peoples problems come from them not
understanding the basics of how windows works. People install incorrect
versions of programs or start messing with registry tricks or vbs scripts
that other friends have given them and they cause problems. Also nowadays
almost anybody can update a Win98 computer to WindowsXP with just a few
mouse clicks but lets be honest here a reformat and clean install is the
only way to start if you're switching from a 9x system to XP (or any NT
based system). I have asked people who have upgraded either over the top or
clean install if they have upgraded their drivers and you can see their eyes
glaze over as they say "drivers what are drivers". I'm sure a lot of you
will have come across this and similar problems. I'm not saying XP is
flawless because it isn't but when you consider the vast array of software
and hardware XP is supposed to work with I think it works extremely well. If
people follow a few basic rules and don't mess with things they don't
understand then their computers should be stable. Even then nothing can make
up for a proper backup routine and relying on System Restore to get you out
of all problems is a disaster waiting to happen. System Restore is great
when it works and is a great first line of defence but having one full image
and incremental backups is best. Stored on either a second hard drive or
DVDs or both.

I have to agree that having two firewalls is overkill but if it works for
you and you are happy then I'm not going to tell you to change anything. One
properly configured firewall should be all you need. I personally use
ZoneAlarm Pro but I guess we all have our favourites.

Midnight

 

[rck]

I used Norton for a short time. There was a choice in the setup to
suppress notifications. I stopped using it because it always listed an error
in the setup saying I must configure the system so it could check e-mail.
However, there was no way that Norton would check e-mail with Win XP and OE.
So I went with McAfee and now everything works ok. My own humble opinion,
Norton doesn't have it together yet.

Bob

 

[rck]

Yeah, but the bottom line is, if we had any other appliance in our home that
worked as bad as a PC with Windows OS, we'd have thrown it out long ago.
Somehow we accept bad computing as "normal" and we live with it. We post on
the newsgroups, we ask co-workers if they found a fix for this or that, we
ask friends or tell them how we solved the latest security glitch. The PC is
still a tinkerer's game, designed for the geek. It isn't plug and play.
Everytime we turn it on, it's another adventure. I'll agree XP is the most
stable Windows OS yet, and that's a sad commentary on the state of the PC
and Windows OS.

Bob

 

[rck]

How right you are. In the old days of DOS we had a 400 page manual that came
with the software. It explained everything in detail and one could
understand their OS and how to troubleshoot. Today we get buggy software
with no instructions. How can one possibly understand how the system works
when the seller won't tell us? Oh, yes, that useless online help. Search and
search and maybe if you're lucky you stumble on a bit here and there. Most
of learning Windows is trial and error. Thank goodness for the newsgroups.

Bob

 

[Steve Nielsen]

A little friendly advice Mark7,

Try to use paragraphs - it's really tedious to read what you have to say
this way.

BTW, I agree - the more parts in a system the more there is to get broken.

Thanks
Steve