Best WINDOWS Operating System

[Kestrel]

Given the difficulties that ER -- and apparently other AX groups -- are having running AXWare (our Timing & Scoring software) on PCs with Windows XP, I thought I'd ask the experts on this board for their advice:

• Which recent Windows Operating System do you think is the most bulletproof, and why?

I am going to strongly suggest to the Equipe Rapide Board of Directors that we load a different/better/more AXWare compatible OS on one of our laptops, and see if this solves our continuing issues. By the way, AXWare is a 16bit program, and some have theorized that it doesn't want to play well with XP's architecture. I can't say...



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PS: I don't want to hear/read about Linux, Unix, MVS, or Mom's Best OS. This is a discussion on keeping Mr. Gates rich... I mean, about which recent Windows Operating system is the most bulletproof. I'll have a hard enough time convincing the ER Board to try something besides XP, and besides I can't support those operating systems. Of course, if you are committing to be at every ER event (AX, BoD Meeting, etc), so that you can support that off-brand OS... well, that might be a different -- and welcomed -- story!

[Titus]

You will most likely see the same issues in 2000 that you see in XP, as XP came from the NT/2000 branch of the tree. I personally was very pleased with ME. I ran it for 4 years before getting a new PC with XP on it, and I don't recall it ever crashing. I had been through 95, 95B, 98, NT4 and 98B before that, and never really felt like I had a stable system until ME. 2000 and XP seem just as stable, but may have 16bit issues.
YRMV

[channelmaniac]

My Compaq laptop came with ME and everytime I tried to upgrade DirectX it would crash big time.

Win2K has been extremely stable for me. I leave my home PC running for months without rebooting.

RJ

[Titus]

This COULD help:

How to Troubleshoot 16-Bit Windows Programs in Windows XP
Article ID : 314495
Last Review : January 10, 2002
Revision : 1.0
This article was previously published under Q314495
For a Microsoft Microsoft Windows 2000 version of this article, see 103656.

SUMMARY
Many different 16-bit programs designed to run under Microsoft Windows 3.1 have been tested with Windows XP. When you troubleshoot a 16-bit Windows-based program that is not working properly under Windows XP, consider the following items:
• If possible, verify that the program works correctly under Microsoft Windows 3.0 and Windows 3.1.
• Note that if the program requires a virtual device driver (VxD), it will not work properly under Windows XP.
• Ensure that a default printer has been selected in Control Panel. Some programs (such as Microsoft Word version 2.0 for Windows) do not function properly under Windows XP unless a default printer has been selected. Some older 16-bit programs require that you select a printer within the options of the program.
• Make sure that any dynamic link libraries (DLLs) used by the program are both current and locatable by the program (either on the system path or explicitly defined within the program or working directory).
• Make sure that the default items contained in the Config.nt and Autoexec.nt files are present and in the proper order.

In Windows XP, Config.nt contains the following commands by default: dos=high, umb
device=%SystemRoot%\system32\himem.sys
files=40

Autoexec.nt contains the following commands by default: @echo off
lh %SystemRoot%\system32\mscdexnt.exe
lh %SystemRoot%\system32\redir
lh %SystemRoot%\system32\dosx
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 P330 T3


• Any environment variables required by the Windows-based program should be located in the Autoexec.nt file; if they are, Windows will use them appropriately.

Note that if any changes are made to variables related to the Windows 3.0 or Windows 3.1 subsystem (Wowexec.exe), you may have to restart the computer for these changes to be implemented.
• Determine whether Windows has been installed as a stand-alone operating system or as an upgrade of a previous Windows 3.0 or Windows 3.1 installation. If it is an upgrade, information from the Win.ini and/or System.ini files may have not been correctly copied into the Windows Registry database.

To resolve this issue, you may have to either migrate these settings again or reinstall the program that is not working.

For help with migrating program information into the Windows Registry, query on the following reference words in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
migrate and Win.ini
• Run the program in a separate memory space. To do this, edit the icon or shortcut properties: On the General tab, click the Advanced button, and then click to select the appropriate check box.

[altiain]

I have two computers running ME at home, and both crash/lockup/go on vacation rather regularly. You mean they aren't supposed to do that?

[ccage]

I see the talk of 16-bit apps; Is the software you're trying to run under XP an old Win 3.1 app? (Or is it an old DOS app?)

Chuck

[Kestrel]

I see the talk of 16-bit apps; Is the software you're trying to run under XP an old Win 3.1 app? (Or is it an old DOS app?)

Chuck

I'm not sure. It's not a DOS application, since you don't have to "window out" to a DOS environment to run it.

The software is AXWare, written by a guy down in Houston (or Austin), specifically for timing and scoring AX events. All the local AX groups run it as far as I know -- SCCA, ER, NTS2KOC. I'd assume the Porsche and BMW folks run it as well.

I'm guessing that the application was originally written for DOS, but has been upgraded/revised to run in Windows. The SCCA doesn't seem to have the same number of issues that ER has with the software, but apparently other groups do (note General Default's comment in another thread). ER has some pretty skilled "PC people" (I'm not counting myself as one of them ), but I'm going to forward Titus's advice to them to see if that will resolve the problem.

Thanks boyz!

[tailchaser]

The problems ER is having are hardware related and are due to a misconfiguration in Windows. The Windows print spooler is failing to start on boot.

[Kestrel]

Thanks tc. We thought about that, but actually we could print to the laser printer... right up until we started messing around with AXWare's settings to try and get the dot matrix printer to print the time slips. In other words, the Print Spooler error only "reared it's ugly head" after we screwed around with stuff. Then we got that error when we booted up.

Dennis R. tells us he did a fresh install of everything on the Compaq laptop -- all operating system files, all software -- and checked it's operation out at home. He says everything worked fine... Anyway, my guess is he'll re-re-re-re-install everything, and we'll try again at event #2. But what I'm hoping to have is our second PC loaded with another operating system (and AXWare) as a backup... just in case.

[Tool]

Windows ME stands for, windows must erase.. The first time I installed ME on a PC I put the latest Novell client on it and it messed it up..

Never used it again..

I perfer Windows 2000 the best, but I use XP at work now because with the release of Windows server 2003 the adminpak tools now work on XP..

I miss good old DOS, cant beat the command prompt when you want to get stuff done, thats one of the reasons I run a mac at home..

[Majik]

Windows ME stands for, windows must erase.. The first time I installed ME on a PC I put the latest Novell client on it and it messed it up..

Never used it again..

I perfer Windows 2000 the best, but I use XP at work now because with the release of Windows server 2003 the adminpak tools now work on XP..

I miss good old DOS, cant beat the command prompt when you want to get stuff done, thats one of the reasons I run a mac at home..

Wow, back from the dead huh? I thought I had read all of that before.

[Tool]

Geez what did I say.. are we in china or something where there is no freedom..

[channelmaniac]

Nah, you just brought an old post back from the dead...