What after XP?

[Rob Morley]

There was never anything wrong with 2k, other than Microsoft not
continuing to support it.

The only reason XP was created was to bugger up the system with hand
holding "features" and security holes.

2k was the best OS Microsoft has ever put out.

XP was big and buggy because it was the first NT-based OS intended for
home use, so it was supposed to be idiot-proof and all-singing
all-dancing. I was quite happy with NT4SP6a and the IE4 Explorer
update until loads of newer software wouldn't run on it, and MS stopped
issuing security patches.

 

[Rob Morley]

That was the era of bargain basement cheap crap components from dodgy
white vans at computer fairs.
I wouldn't be surprised if a fair chunk of the issues were as a
result of using dire hardware.

Me never really gave me any major issues and didn't seem worse than
98se

I've only used it on one machine that I recall, because it was the
only installation CD I could find at the time. It didn't ever seem to
have any problems, although it didn't get a lot of use.

 

[Martin Racette]

Do not forget one major thing when you will install Windows 7. You will no
longer able to receive/send any e-mail, newsgroups directly in Windows, nor
will you be able to manage pictures/video, you will not be able to either
create/edit your own movie/DVD

To do all of that you will need to find somewhere, and hope that the program
will install/work in Windows , and then you will have to learn an entire new
interface that might take some time to get us to, and that will probably not
even be supported after you got the software

I my opignon, Windows 7 is a major downgrade compare to Vista.

I am running Vista 64 since it got out, and I never had any problem, and it
was and still is much more stable than XP

 

[Roger Hunt]

Apart from pre sp2 lacking in even the most basic security...

XP sp1 did come with a firewall but it was well hidden.

 

[Conor]

Do not forget one major thing when you will install Windows 7. You will no
longer able to receive/send any e-mail, newsgroups directly in Windows, nor
will you be able to manage pictures/video, you will not be able to either
create/edit your own movie/DVD
Wrong.

To do all of that you will need to find somewhere, and hope that the program
will install/work in Windows , and then you will have to learn an entire new
interface that might take some time to get us to, and that will probably not
even be supported after you got the software

You mean like using Windows Live Mail, Photo Gallery and Movie Maker,
all of which have been available for Vista for 2 years?

Christ, you don't half talk some bollox.

 

[Martin Racette]

I do not know if you read the information, but all the LIVE stuff, keeps
everything somewhere online, and not on you computer, and as for Windows
Live Mail, it does not do even half of what Windows Mail does, and it does
not access newsgroup properly and on top of that you can not even keep a
copy of something that might be useful on you HDD

I wonder why would anybody put or keep anything that is personal anywhere
else but on their computer (online), that is the worse thing that could
happen, especially with all those hackers that just want to get to your
online stuff

 

[harikeo]

I do not know if you read the information, but all the LIVE stuff, keeps
everything somewhere online, and not on you computer, and as for Windows
Live Mail, it does not do even half of what Windows Mail does, and it
does not access newsgroup properly and on top of that you can not even
keep a copy of something that might be useful on you HDD

You can keep what you want from Mail Live by saving it to your HDD. It
may not do 'half' of what Windows Mail does but e-mail can be saved as
EML or HTML and news posts can be saved as NWS or TXT.

I wonder why would anybody put or keep anything that is personal
anywhere else but on their computer (online), that is the worse thing
that could happen, especially with all those hackers that just want to
get to your online stuff

It's on servers before you open any application to access it so what you
say doesn't make sense (unless I'm missing something). Where do you
think it's stored before you 'download' it?

Mail Live stores data in
"C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail"

 

[Conor]

I do not know if you read the information, but all the LIVE stuff, keeps
everything somewhere online, and not on you computer,

Rubbish. If you've a POP3 account, it saves it on the computer.

and as for Windows
Live Mail, it does not do even half of what Windows Mail does,

It does more.

and it does
not access newsgroup properly and on top of that you can not even keep a
copy of something that might be useful on you HDD

Yes it does and yes you can.

I wonder why would anybody put or keep anything that is personal anywhere
else but on their computer (online), that is the worse thing that could
happen, especially with all those hackers that just want to get to your
online stuff

ROFLMAO. You really don't have a clue.

 

[gaz]

XP sp1 did come with a firewall but it was well hidden.

And turned off by default. WTF???? Who thought, uhm, lets go to the trouble
of designing a basic firewall, and then turning it off and hiding the option
deep into the network settings dialogue.

Gaz

 

[gaz]

There was never anything wrong with 2k, other than Microsoft not
continuing to support it.

I would suggest the failure to make backups of the registry by default to be
a pretty severe design fault. A feature present in every version of windows
since 98 until current day, except W2K.

The only reason XP was created was to bugger up the system with hand
holding "features" and security holes.

2k was the best OS Microsoft has ever put out.

As long as you never got a corrupt registry.

Gaz

 

[Roger Hunt]

And turned off by default. WTF???? Who thought, uhm, lets go to the trouble
of designing a basic firewall, and then turning it off and hiding the option
deep into the network settings dialogue.

I think this sort of thing is commonly known as an Easter Egg.

 

[Roger Hunt]

... because if someone can't find it or couldn't find a
better firewall to suit their needs, they're probably not
able to effectively use it which creates support costs for
MS or the OEMs.

I am highly in favor of darn near everything being turned
off by default. Way too much crap running on windows as it
is, an OS is supposed to be a means to run apps not MS
taking control of your system.

I'll agree with that all right. I used to use Atguard, but it does not
play well with XP sp2/3, unfortunately.

 

[gaz]

... because if someone can't find it or couldn't find a
better firewall to suit their needs, they're probably not
able to effectively use it which creates support costs for
MS or the OEMs.

I am highly in favor of darn near everything being turned
off by default. Way too much crap running on windows as it
is, an OS is supposed to be a means to run apps not MS
taking control of your system.

An OS has to be reasonably safe out of the box. Most people now hide behind
a nat firewall, so it isnt as much of an issue. But, try doing a recovery of
an old xp system, with firewall turned off, with a direct connection to the
net. It takes less then ten minutes for the machine to be infested from the
net!

Gaz

 

[gaz]

..

If you want registry backups you can make them. Plenty of
automated utilities did so, but it's a bit beside the point
that there is no reason to make them.

Corrupt registry is a very common event throughout all windows. On w2k
however, it necessitates a reinstall, while on xp, its a ten minute job to
fix.
Its all very well saying utilities exist that can do that for you, this can
be useful, as it gives you something to talk about with the average user as
you reinstall their windows.

Gaz

 

[Conor]

Corrupt registry is a very common event throughout all windows.

Not experienced it in at least 10 years.

 

[Jaimie Vandenbergh]

Actually, I never run the XP firewall and have never ever
been infected from that. 10 minues? How about several
years? Let's just shun the myths, ok?

I've never tried dialup with an XP system, but got exactly this with
an NT4sp6 box with modem Internet. Well, I say exactly - the actual
infection and box shutdown due to it being a really badly programmed
worm that killed IPC happened within max 50 seconds of connection to
the Net. The machine was initially set to autoconnect, and would
sometimes start shutting down before the desktop had finished loading.

An OS doesn't need to be safe out of the box, it only needs
to be able to run applications.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Twaddle. An OS can't run applications if it's not safe.

Cheers - Jaimie

 

[GSV Three Minds in a Can]

Not experienced it in at least 10 years.

Me neither, but then I don't use cheapo memory and dodgy disks. It is
true that the Windows registry files are a real PITA if they get
corrupted, and early on the backup / restore scenarios were pitiful
(backup as a side effect of running system backup on 'system files', and
restore by manually fiddling with the repair console). However it wasn't
a common problem. Corrupt boot.ini or MBR or whatever was just as
prevalent on flaky systems.

 

[Roger Hunt]

Not experienced it in at least 10 years.

If the word "registry" were replaced by "Government" ..?