Re: Sorry to have to ask this.

Tech-Archive recommends: Fix windows errors by optimizing your registry

Thanks for your input.

Yes, I've worked on computers running XP and once I show the owner how I can make the Start Menu "Classic" styled as well as organize it better, they never go back to the "Stock XP" version. I also agree that the "eye candy" (AKA "Fisher-Price" toy look) is ugly as sin. I always get rid of that first off and remove any color gradient scheme in the appearances settings. Themes and "animations" as well as that horrible and unnecessary initial menu delay (easily removed via TweakUI) are also among the first things I get rid of. Small icons in the Start Menu make less scrolling necessary too.

Shortcut text backgrounds bother me and I always disable them in M.E. via an old program called "See Thru Icon Captions". Heck, I even auto hide the task bar and remove the (IMO useless) "Quick Launch" toolbar!

By the time I get done torturing XP into submission, visually it will be exactly like the copy of ME that I'm currently running.

Over time, Windows has accumulated as much makeup as a cheap tart IMO. I always scrub it with a bar of fels-naptha soap and a course brush before I'll have anything to do with it.

YMMV.

R. McCarty wrote: 
One thing to prepare for is the User Interface change. XP uses a very
different Graphic User Interface from earlier OS releases. Associated
with that are a lot of "Eye Candy" or appearance enhancements. They
are OK, but I still use the Windows Classic Theme and disable all the
enhancements. Also, XP has a different style Start Menu. You may
want to use it for a few days and see if it fits your needs. If need be you
can toggle everything back to a more familiar 9X/ME/2000 look.

John Corliss wrote:

Thanks for replying, Jim.

I'm going to be using this computer at home, and nobody else will be getting on it. I intend to rig it so as to not have to log in. At any rate, I won't be needing to assign access rights for anything, so it sounds like my inclination to want to stick with FAT32 is a good one.

The reason I'm not excited is because I really don't look forward to figuring out how to tweak this version into submission. I have to go through that with every new version of Windows. Each time, it gets harder and harder. I hear that Windows Messenger is very difficult to get rid of in XP for instance. I don't do instant messaging and won't want it on my system.

As far as ME being stable or not, the only real problem I ever had with it was trying to run an version of a (non-MS) program that was intended for use with Windows 3.11. It locked up often.

Other than that, I currently have ME totally beaten into submission. Beaten and COWED!!!

80)>

Jim wrote:

For most users, it is ok to stick with FAT32.  The advantage of using
NTFS is that you are able to set access rights for files and folders,
which you cannot do with FAT32.

In my opinion, if you're just going to be using this machine for your
own personal use, and with XP Home, sticking with FAT32 is just fine.

And be excited about XP, it (and other NT based Windows OS's) is MUCH
MUCH more stable than Windows ME.


--
Regards from John Corliss
.

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