basilisk4's Full Review: Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional Full Version f...
Windows 2000 Professional Final Edition
Introduction
I remember the day when I used Microsoft Windows for the first time. To say the least, I was entirely unimpressed. In fact, I went to great lengths to avoid using the Windows interface whenever I could, favoring the older, more familiar, and more sensible confines of MS-DOS. Of course, this was Windows 3.1, just Microsoft's second major attempt at this kind of operating system, so this should come as no big surprise.
Over the years, however, Microsoft released other versions of Windows which, while they were much better than the previous versions, had so many bugs in them that you wondered how the earlier versions ever worked at all. Yet the majority of computer users were using Windows in at least some capacity within a short period of time after Microsoft released its earliest versions of Windows, if for no other reason than the fact that it had basically replaced the previous standard, MS-DOS. After years and years of using Windows 95 and Windows 98, Windows 2000 Professional Final Edition is just what the doctor ordered.
The release of Windows 2000 Professional was surrounded by a modest amount of hype, especially in comparison to some of the earlier versions of Windows. Nonetheless, it was heralded as being the fusion of Windows 98 and NT 4.0, bringing both beauty and accessibility to the table. Many 95 and 98 users balked, thinking this new operating system might be too complicated; NT users scoffed, saying it might not be stable enough.
To the delight of many who have made the switch over to Windows 2000, however, it seems to be surprisingly close to as good as Microsoft would have us believe it is. Rather than simply repairing some of the lingering bugs in Windows 98 and releasing a new version (that's basically what Windows Me is), Microsoft took a relatively stable operating system in Windows NT, improved upon it, and made it look pretty. The result was Windows 2000, and it probably is one of the best operating systems out there right now.
Stability
What Windows NT 4.0 offered in the way of stability, especially with the proper service packs and security updates installed, Windows 2000 has only improved upon. For any former Windows 95/98 users who have often wanted to smash their computer screen after receiving yet another fatal error, this is a whole new ballgame. At a recent job where I was a network administrator, we had very few problems after switching all of the computers over from NT 4.0 SP5. In fact, over the course of four months or so with about ten or twelve different machines, the only problems I can recall having had were extremely minor in nature. Freezes and fatal errors were basically unheard of, and the machines really seemed to run at their optimal performance levels.
Appearance
Windows 98 users will find the interface very familiar, as not a whole lot has changed. There are some nice looking additions which are relatively inconsequential in nature, such as the fading-in transition feature on menus and such. (By the way, this feature can be turned off from the Control Panel if it bugs you; one of my bosses really, really disliked it, and whined about it all the time, so I thought I'd let you all know.) The interface is, in general, a little bit cleaner and nicer looking than in Windows 98, and it's much cleaner than that of Windows NT. The icons have been touched up and are more detailed than they were in prior versions. One somewhat annoying change is the fact Windows will automatically "hide" some of the items on the Start Menu as it sees fit, forcing you to click on an arrow at the bottom to see the other items. This can be somewhat annoying, but really doesn't amount to much. Other than a few other insignificant things like those, there's not much to speak of.
Upgrading to Windows 2000
Rather than going into the problems and concerns you might encounter in attempting to upgrade from Windows 98 or NT to
Windows 2000 Professional, I'm going to be somewhat succinct. First and foremost, anyone looking to undertake this upgrade should obtain and run the Windows 2000 Readiness Analyzer Program. This can be downloaded for free from the Microsoft site (http://www.microsoft.com/), so you have no excuses. Basically, when you run this program, it will spend several minutes analyzing all of the various software and hardware installed on and within your computer. After this process has been completed, you will be presented with a list of possible incompatibilities. In other words, the program will tell you which particular programs or pieces of hardware may not work properly with Windows 2000. Many such items will not work properly with Windows 2000 right away for the simple reason that the software or drivers associated with the hardware need to be changed to a version which is compatible with the new operating system. If you don't bother to run this program on your system before attempting to install Windows 2000, I have no sympathy for any incompatibility issues you may have afterwards.
As most Epinions users who have installed Windows 2000 Professional on their machines have reported, installation takes just about 45 minutes to an hour to complete. I have installed Windows 2000 at least fifteen times on as many different machines, and the installation time has been about the same. This is absolutely phenomenal when compared to the ordeal that was installing previous versions of Windows. If you are upgrading from Windows NT to 2000, you can basically leave it alone after a few minutes, and it will complete the installation without any additional information from you until the very last few stages of the installation. Upgrading from Windows 98 requires more active participation, and may also require more time to complete.
In fact, my recommendation is that if you are currently using Windows 98 and wish to upgrade to Windows 2000, don't. I don't mean that you shouldn't install Windows 2000 on your machine, but I think that you should choose to format your entire hard drive and then do a clean install, rather than simply upgrading. If you have a CD burner, ZIP drive, some other mass storage device, or access to a large amount of space on a network, I would recommend that you first copy all of your important files (not programs) over, and then format your hard drive and install Windows 2000. Windows NT users will most likely find the upgrade much easier, although formatting your hard drive and starting from scratch when installing a new operating system is never a bad idea.
The Bad
Unfortunately, no operating system is completely without bugs or other undesirable aspects. While Windows 2000 Professional doesn't seem to have many bugs, I have found a couple. The one which immediately comes to mind is a holdover from NT 4.0, and can be truly annoying. Without going into too much detail, it seems that under certain circumstances, using Microsoft Word in conjunction with a remote printer on the network on a Windows 2000 machine causes the Windows print spooler to go into some sort of endless loop. This quickly takes up virtually all of the computer's resources (i.e., the Task Manager displays the CPU usage rate to be at or around 100%), and it continues until the computer is restarted.
The only way that I or the other network administrators with whom I've worked have found to avoid this problem entirely has been to disable the print spooler on the offending machine. This does prevent the problem from occurring at all, because the print spooler never does anything at all, but it has a nasty side effect in that it basically prevents people from printing from that machine. Obviously, this is far from a perfect solution, but I haven't been able to find a better one. In fact, when I last checked, I wasn't even able to find any mention of this sort of problem anywhere on Microsoft's support site.
Like I said before, this particular bug seems to be just about exactly the same as one which existed in the last version of Windows NT. As a result, many former NT administrators may already be acquainted with this bug, and some may even have an idea of how to avoid it. The good news is that this particular bug won't affect most home users, since it only seems to occur when there is a networked printer involved. I've never run into this problem while using a machine which has a printer directly connected to it.
Other than that particular bug, I haven't really come across any major negatives with respect to Windows 2000 Professional Final Edition. This is by far the most bug-free operating system Microsoft has ever released, and it hasn't presented me with any real problems at all. At around $180-300, depending on upgrade or full version, it's a tad expensive, but I think it's worth it.
Is Windows 2000 Right for Me?
I can't answer that question. I know that seems somewhat anti-climactic, but it's true; only you know know what your true computing needs are. If stability is very important to you, then Windows 2000 Professional is a great choice. If you care more about ease of use, then Windows Me may be a better choice for you. Overall, though, I would recommend Windows 2000 to just about anyone. Like I said above, the problems I've run into have been extremely few and far between, and there hasn't been much of anything I've wished I could do but haven't been able to. Do some research, and find out if this operating system will meet your computing needs; if it does, I believe it is an excellent choice.
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