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Erwin's Pages Central > Articles > General Software> Dark side of Windows XP

Screwing you over, Gates style

I installed Windows XP Professional for a couple of reasons. Let's begin right away. First, although it was relatively stable, I was getting bored bigtime from Windows 98 and it's boring grey windows and buttons. Once I saw the flashy and colourful blueish design from XP, both on screenshots and through WindowBlinds skins, I fell in love with XP (oh god I fell in love with one of Bill's kids. That would make him my... noooo). Also, being a webdesigner and radical gamer, I wanted to be able to multitask and taskswitching between more than 5 programs without the dreaded blue screen. I also hated the annual "Format C:", and wanted to get rid of that once and for all. Because Windows 2000 had poor compatibility and gaming perfomance, I went for Windows XP. The Professional edition assured multi-processor and faster operation so I chose that version.

From the beginning on, I was pleasantly surprised. I was amazed by the professionalism with which Windows installed. After copying temp install files Windows XP automatically enables multi-booting: you can proceed with the installation of XP, or go to your old Windows OS. When you proceed with install, you'll enter a pseudo-dos environment where XP will ask which partition you want to use. I first tried another one than my C: (F:) because I was still a bit sceptical. After that, Windows XP takes it home. A meezly 20 mintues later, XP started perfectly, with all my previous drivers installed and everything working. Everything seemed just too good to be true.
But after a week of operation without any crashes (not a single one), I decided to delete that F: install and to install it on my C: drive. I wanted to uninstall Windows XP "the clean way" by going to "Remove/Install programs" (as directed by the otherwise superb XP helpfile) but strangely I couldn't find this option. Aww heck, I went to my old Windows 98SE and manually deleted the Windows XP folder in F:. Mistake number one. Result is that the multi-boot agent still showed that deleted Windows XP, of course resulting in an error when you'd select it. But since this didn't effect my system in an aggresive way, I didn't care that much. So, I began another Windows XP install from Windows 98SE. Remark: I did notice Windows 98 getting unstabler after my first Windows XP install. From then on I was starting to suspect foul play, but I wanted to cut Microsoft some slack.
On the second install, I wanted a real clean XP install, cuz I was fed up by Win98 and the first XP install left a real good impression. So, at install, I decided to go for partition C:. Windows XP setup warned about the other OS (98) possibly going unstable, but still in the XP high, I ignored it. Mistake number two. When XP started for the first time, multi-boot didn't show a trace of Windows 98. Hm. No panic. I can still reboot using my trusted old bootdisk. NOT. Somehow, when I wanted to start Windows 98, Himem.sys was malfunctioning (it wasn't missing). Damn. Guess I have to hope Windows XP Professional can survive on it's own.

After another week on that lone Windows XP install, I was even more impressed about Windows XP. Internet access (both my cable and modem) worked perfectly. I could also perfectly surf, mail and even upload epc. Gaming and 3D performance, something I feared being obsolete to Win98SE, was even better under XP (!!). My score in 3D Mark 2001 jumped from 2800 to 3000 (which is a super score for a GF2MX). A friend of mine with a similar configuration (Athlon 1.2, GF2MX) barely got 2000 in Windows 2000 after installing a Blue Orb on his GF2MX card. Remark though: his GF2MX card's mem is all screwed up: it can only goto 150 mhz (which is lower than my STANDARD setting, now my clock/mem setting is at 210/221).
In short, gaming performance was great. The general ease of use, smoothness and stability were features that actually were reality, and not a cheap marketing trick. Windows XP is fast, reliable and stable. Really. There were some compatability problems though. Playstation emulators (the recently departed Bleem! and the long-dead Connectix Virtual Game Station) didn't work and games like Need For Speed 3 didn't start. The Compatability Wizard didn't work either. But I could live with these minor errors, since everything else worked perfectly and fast.

At the end of that week, my harddrives began clogging up. D,E,F and G all only had 100 mb left and what's worse, my system's partition C was completely full (30 mb left). You can imagine that system's operations, especially under a complex OS like Windows XP, began to become really problematic. So I decided to use that old CD-RW of mine for some archiving. I installed good old ahead Nero Burning Rom and started a new compilation. "Communications failure at Sony CDR140X on I:". Hm. gotta be a bad cd. So I popped in a new one. Same error message. Ok, time for plan B. NTI CD-Maker. Installed it. Launched it. "Error at address --shoot me I can't remember--, possibly error on cdr or cdr drive". Huh? Time for another cdr package. Roxio (the software division of Adaptec) Easy CD Creator. This really was my last hope. On their site I saw multiple references to Windows XP and even an XP patch for earlier Easy CD versions. I thought:"I'm home free". I installed it. Launched it. "Couldn't initialize drive". F**k. Then I installed that XP patch. Still nothing. I began to panic. Easy Erwin. Easy Erwin. It's only 2300 and you still need to print that assignment. So I wisely decided to print my documents. Okay, let's start fondeling.

After an hour of driver searching (few manufacturers post XP drivers), I visited the Windows newsgroups. Apparently I was not alone. Many XP users had problems with their cdrw's not only Sony's but also HP's and even Plextors. They all reported the same cross-cdrw software communication problem. They pointed out that Windows XP seems to identify cdrw's like normal cd drives, and indeed, in "My Computer" drive I: read: "Sony CDR140X, CD/DVD Drive". Strange thing is that XP saw the drive with the correct model designation but wrong function.
Then someone at the newsgroups told that the problem might lie in a Windows update. You see, with XP it's even easier to upgrade your OS with Microsoft certified packages throuw Windows Update. I remember installing a CD Burner fix (these patches are called "hotfixes"). The poster said that Microsoft integrated a "Lite" version of Roxio's (!!) CD Creator software. This would involve that Windows XP ships with an integrated version of "DirectCD", so you can store files on cds. The fix would disable this feature. Unfortunately, this fix would screw up the system and would permanently disable cdr functions. So, I decided to uninstall this hotfix, which should be perfectly possible. SHOULD. When I try to install, I get an error message (one of the few). Nooo. It seems thus that Windows XP can't write cds... And because it was 0100, my hd's were full and my old Windows was unaccessable,...you get the picture. I went for a daring move. Re-install Windows XP. I took precautions though, and moved all that I could to the already crammed D,E,F and G drives. By the way, Desktop and Documents are stored in another folder than your system folder. So with that and a few downloads, I made certain I wouldn't lose any vital data. 3 years of Windows 95 and 98 tought me that :-).

But this is just when the pain started. To get to the source, I need to go back three years. Michelle at my feet, the baby's cry cut short, and my Beretta...oops, wrong article ^-^. Anyway, during the installation process, Windows XP Setup would reboot,over and over again. I was beginning to see it was hopeless. I grabbed my bootdisk, and entered "deltree winxp". After a true torture for my hd I rebooted. "Boot.ini encountered an error." And then my system rebooted. Damn. Then I tried to delete every file in the root of C: that might adhere to any Windows XP presence (boot.ini, etc.) Rebooted. Same message. Grrr.

I lost. One of the things I wanted to avoid, the inevitable Format C:, seemed my only solace. Luckily I safeguarded my most valuable programs, documents and files. "Format C:. Are your sure? Yes/No. YES". After 20 minutes, the surgery was over. And so was Windows XP image in my eyes. I have installed a back-up Windows 98 on my D: partition, (after cleaning up a bit), quickly written some 5 cds, and installed Windows XP on C: To date, I'm slowly restoring faith into XP, which I still believe is the best Microsoft Os ever. Some days ago though, I got painful reminder it still remains a Bill-ridden product. I installed NVMax to overclock my GF2MX to their nominal 210/221 rate. But I accidentally set the memory on 241. Result: Scrambled screen. I rebooted in the hope the changes weren't permanent. Wrong. I rebooted agin, but now in Safe mode, as Administrator. There, I searched the register (very similar to Win98) for the clock and memory settings (like in Windows 98) but I discovered Windows XP's registry is far larger and more complicated. And what's more no sign of settings. Dammit. I don't want to format again. I tried to restart using a different user (I created another one with administrator rights) and rejoice: no overclock settings! So I transferred the Desktop and Documents from my first user profile to the current.

EP sez:

And so we reach the conclusion of this gruesome saga. Windows XP (codenamed Whistler or Windows NT 5.1, Win2000 was NT 5) is the next step in Microsoft's line of home-user operating systems and is by far the fastest, most reliable and most stable. Neat design, features, solid performance and stability make windows XP (Professional Edition certainly) the OS of choice on new pcs. Windows XP remains a Microsoft product though so beware...Eternal vigilance is advised. Because Windows XP can screw you over. Bigtime.

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