Microsoft eases switch to XP

zdnet.com. ^ | February 25, 2003

[MeekOneGOP]

Microsoft eases switch to XP
CNET News.com
February 25, 2003, 4:57 AM PT
URL: http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-985825.html

Microsoft, hoping to drive greater adoption of its Windows XP operating system, will on Tuesday unveil a new central Web site with revamped tools to help IT administrators make the switch.

The new Desktop Center site includes an updated version of the Windows XP Application Compatibility Toolkit, a set of tools Microsoft devised to assess whether current applications of businesses will work under Windows XP Professional, Microsoft's latest operating system for corporate customers.

Rogers Weed, corporate vice president of Windows product management at Microsoft, said the tool usually helps IT administrators determine that they need to make minimal changes to their existing software roster to run XP.

"A lot of people don't realize that XP is significantly more compatible (with existing applications)," Weed said. "In general, organizations will find 95 percent or more of their apps are fine."

The Desktop Center site also has multiple tools for dealing with the 5 percent of applications that don't make the cut. "We find there are some generic fixes that can address a broad class of the problems we see, and there are tools in the kit to help apply those," Weed said.

Paul DeGroot, an analyst for research firm Directions on Microsoft, said software compatibility has been a minor issue in the tepid pace of corporate adoption of Windows XP.

"XP runs a lot of stuff that Windows 2000 didn't," he said. "There are particular applications you come across where compatibility is an issue, but I don't think it's a show-stopper for Windows XP."

Hardware compatibility has been much more of a factor, DeGroot said. Windows XP requires significantly more memory and other resources than Windows 2000, and many businesses are trying to stretch PC upgrades they made three years ago in anticipation of Y2K. "Large customers hate to go and shake things up on the desktop," he said. "If people are working fine with Windows 2000, they're going to leave them be," said DeGroot.

The Desktop Center site also includes a new version of Microsoft's Baseline Security Analyzer, a tool that checks corporate desktops for the presence of current software updates and patches and for configuration errors that could pose risks.

"We keep investing in tools and information to help customers with deployment," Weed said. "We feel really good about the business case for upgrading to Windows XP, and we want to give customers tools that help them see those advantages."

[Quilla]

Just yesterday we received a 'virtual memory minimun to low' error for the first time. I increased the memory paging file to no avail. Rebooting regularly has not helped though. The computer is eight months old with 1.3GHz / 60GB / 128MB. Thanks!

[ShadowAce]

Speaking of memory leaks, is there software to diagnose this pesky and common irritation?

Unfortunately, none that I am aware of.

Sounds like a great OSS project to start for someone who knows what they are going... :)

[PatriotGames]

and my wife's wierd obsession with WordStar.

ROTFL

I'M NOT ALONE! As long as you and your wife are around I don't feel isolated!

My wife is a First Choice junkie! The version that was written in 1985! I have to keep a 2 gig partition on her machine so that she can still run DOS!

[dyed_in_the_wool]

This tool came out BEFORE XP was released.
It is, however, far from reliable.
XP is no great shakes. For all of the headaches and aggravation, I'm just going to get a Mac for the wife and digital production, keep the 98 for games and move any server tasks to Linux.
If I wanted to do it all on once machine, I'd be caught between Linux and Mac, since I really don't care for MicroSoft teaming up with Hollywood to decide whether I should be allowed to have on my machine what I have on my machine.
Maybe if they could get MS Money to work properly on Windows, I'd feel differently. Barring that...

[ShadowAce]

going==doing

[dyed_in_the_wool]

Had the same problem with MS Money.
Took them 2 hours to diagnose and they had the error in the wrong OS section.
Sure, you can trust them.

[snooker]

Probably need to re-install the whole thing, including the OS. I think the technical name for the problem is rot. It usually manifests itself in the behavior you report. Usually due to the program or OS getting corrupted and leaving behind a bad memory leak or some other problem. Sometimes Norton system doctor can fix it, sometimes not.

Run norton, if it doesn't fix it, rebuild the whole system with a blank hd. What I often do is just replace the disk with a fresh one and re-build. Then the original disk is there in case more problems arise. Especially if it is some serious program being used, like you have. Safest way to go.

Not a joke, BTW.

snooker.

[Gorzaloon]

Shouldn't have gotten a Dell, Dude. When you buy a computer with a pre-installed operationg system, you're geting a crippled OSAnyone who can spare a couple of extra bucks should get their machine custom built locally by someone who's been doing it for a while, and someone who can help with glitches.

Yeah, the worst part of the story is that my brother owns a computer store, and has been custom building them for years. He was busy and I did not want to bother him!

I'm an @ssh@le. I stand publicly revealed.

(Kicking self, over and over...)

[ShadowAce]

Sounds like sensible advice.

[Quilla]

Reformat the hard drive - I'm afraid I'm familiar with the process. I can easily copy critical date via the network and then reinstall OS and engineering software. But it's really a shame this operation has to be performed on such a 'young' computer. Sheesh, I hate this stuff.

Many, many thanks.

[Billy_bob_bob]

It has been my experience that when you run heavy duty software on a PC (CAD-CAM, Photoshop, etc.) you can pretty much expect to have to re-format the hard drive every six months or so. As you say, the system is "young", but the drive has many many hard miles on it and the "rot" has built up. Give it a good scrubbing with a formatting and it should be good as new.

[js1138]

as each day goes by, the performance gets slower and slower.

I've seen that in a Gateway PC. It was fixed by reformatting and reinstalling the OS. I don't know what causes it but I have a theory based on experience with my sister's PC. It could be "soft" errors on the hard drive, causing multiple retries. the data is eventually read correctly, but performance tanks. You could get the disk manufacturer's repair program, which re-does the low-level format and maps out the bad spots, but in a professional setting, I'd replace the drive.

[js1138]

By the way (lawyere feel free to chime in) I think it is perfectly legal and ethical to pay for XP and install Win 2000, even a "borrowed" copy. I know many instances where corporations have opted to keep a previous version of software for standardization.

[Space Wrangler]

I'm running Win 2K, and will not be switching anytime soon. It works perfectly, is stable, easy to firewall, and readily accepts all of my hardware. No XP for me.

[Darksheare]

How about duplicate data that the beastie keeps looking at?
(Kinda like duplicate files under Windows 95... Windoze kinda liked to try and flip between the two.. making the system grind to a halt eventually.)

[Abcdefg]

My limited understanding of programming, memory leaks are caused by applications and not the operating system. MS created "managed code" in the .NET development languages to handle that very problem. Has something to do with "garbage collection" I think.
My company had some progammers contracted to develop some custom software and they came up with some stuff that had bad memory leaks and would crash the system after about an hour or two.

[bmwcyle]

I have XP on 3 home machines and it runs well. After buying Windows 98 (crap on dish), I skipped the ME junk O/S and I have to have 2000 on my office maching (configure it right and it will work). I like XP and have found few problems. My fourth home machine has Redhat 7.2 on it.

[NY.SS-Bar9]

FXP

[Billy_bob_bob]

You are entirely correct. I wasn't clear enough in my reply, the physical hard drive is fine, it should work for years if it is a decent brand. The problem has to do with the way the OS deals with managing data on the drive. For some reason it tends to start "gumming up", I can't get more technical that that, it just gets slower and slower, the disk grinds and grinds away on jobs that used to take a minute and now take ten. And, from what I can tell, it IS unique to the Windows world.