More XP questions.

[Don Henthorn Smithville, TX]

Continuing the thread from yesterday. Why is it that my sound card installation problems will go away with the XP OS? I have held off getting the new OS because of the things I have heard about incompatibilty with older programs and devices. I accept your assurances that the problems aren't that great.
I have heard that one should go for XP Pro because the home addition lacks many of the benefits of the new system.
I have also heard that many are finding that the upgrades from 98 are often hard to get working. Some have had to invest in the whole program to get it right.
As you can see, I am a worry wort when it comes to things computer oriented.







:confused: :confused:

[Jim Becker]

I do agree that WinXP Pro is the better OS, but WinXP Home Edition is fine for most folks that don't have a lot of networking needs. Pro offers more security, too.

Regarding the "upgrade"...my recommendation is to back up all your data (twice...) and then do a fresh install after a reformat of your hard-drive. Be sure you have your original Windows media available, however, as the process will ask you for it. I've always found "any" upgrades to be marginally succesful, and even less so if there were any problems prior to the change in OS. This should also help insure that you don't have any problems with hardware recognition from stray DLLs and drivers, etc., that may be lurking on your hard drive. But remember to Read the Fantastic Manual (RTFM) before you do anything!

[Don Henthorn Smithville, TX]

Originally posted by Jim Becker
[

Regarding the "upgrade"...my recommendation is to back up all your data (twice...) and then do a fresh install after a reformat of your hard-drive. Be sure you have your original Windows media available, however, as the process will ask you for it. I've always found "any" upgrades to be marginally succesful, and even less so if there were any problems prior to the change in OS. This should also help insure that you don't have any problems with hardware recognition from stray DLLs and drivers, etc., that may be lurking on your hard drive. But remember to Read the Fantastic Manual (RTFM) before you do anything! [/B]

I have my Win 98SE disk, but I'm not sire the shop used it when they did the rebuild. A couple of times I have been asked to insert a disk with specific number designation and when I used my disk it wouldn't take it. As a sidelight it seems I am always getting the message that a certain dll file is missing and am asked to put the driver disk in the drive. Of course I have installation disks not driver disks and the installation disks never seem to have the dll file it is asking for. Bummer!!!

[Ken Salisbury]

I went from Win 98 to Win ME (which really gave me fits) then I upgraded to XP Home for somewhere in the neighborhood of $90. It was the best computer move I ever made. XP was a cinch to install and the features, etc are outstanding. It has most of the standard hardware drivers already in it. For instance I didn't have to load my scanner software, printer software or digital camera software. Just plugged them up -- XP reconized them and I was off and running. I will never regret the decision to go to XP home.

[Charlie Stein]

Hi Ken,
I just got a new computer and it has XP Prow in it, are you saying I do not need a new driver for my Intell camera to work with this os ????.
From
C-B- Woodpecker Shop
Charlie

[Ken Salisbury]

Hi Ken,
I just got a new computer and it has XP Prow in it, are you saying I do not need a new driver for my Intell camera to work with this os ????.

Charles,

I don't know if XP has the driver/software for that camera or not. Plug it in a port and see if XP reconizes it.

[Byron Trantham]

Hi Ken,
I just got a new computer and it has XP Prow in it, are you saying I do not need a new driver for my Intell camera to work with this os ????.

Chalres, If the OS doesn't recognize your camera, go to the web site for your camera and I'll bet they have the driver for it. Good luck.

Byron

[Andrew Field]

First off, any decent camera connected to XP won't need special software or drivers. It should look like another hard drive. If you want to do special things like use the PC to control the camera and take pictures then you will need other drivers and such.

My choice was to get an external reader, I actually have 2. My main reader is a firewire Compact FlashII reader which is VERY fast. I just pop the card out of the camera and place it in the reader then work with my pictures. My second reader is a cheap USB reader that takes all types of cards. I keep it in my camera bag and can plug it into most windows machines and use it to access my CF card.

[keith zimmerman]

I bought my Dell last August and it had ME installed on it. I bought their upgrade to XPHome and kept putting off installing it because I was fearful of the ramifications. The harddrive on my system failed this past Spring and I had to reinstall my OS. After formatting the new harddrive and installing ME barebones, I installed the upgrade to XPHome. It went flawlessly. With the upgrade, I kept the FAT32 files system so ALL of my backed up files and applications installed and work perfectly. XP is a very good OS, but I never had any problems with ME either.

Both my digital cameras hook into XP with no problems and show up as my E: drive.

BTW, I upgraded from 95B to ME on my other machine using the same process and it also worked flawlessly.

my $.02

keithz