Going to start college this summer. Now that I have my student ID, I was thinking of finally upgrading from Win 98 to Win XP Pro. I can get a great price for the Academic version of the program either through my school or online. Is there anything missing from the Academic version that I should know about? Are there any "catches"? Thanks!

my sig left me for an Honorary Guru...

No catches, except that I can't fathom why you'd want XP pro unless you're running a VIA chipset and you need the recovery feature for VIA bugs...

<font color=blue>Watts mean squat if you don't have quality!</font color=blue>

So...your feeling is what? That I should stick with XP Home or 98 or some other OS?

my sig left me for an Honorary Guru...

Unless you're having a specific problem that you're certain XP will fix, I'd stick with 98SE. If you have the earlier first edition, I'd just borrow the SE updates from someone else.

<font color=blue>Watts mean squat if you don't have quality!</font color=blue>

for allaround power purposes, what XP vsn is best??

Pro

<font color=blue>Watts mean squat if you don't have quality!</font color=blue>

I guess the specific problem would be to do away with the constant need to reboot in Win 98SE. I have to reset the computer about once every day or so. This is just days after a clean reinstall. My understanding is that XP is much more stable.

my sig left me for an Honorary Guru...

Why do you need to reboot?

I've found that by simply adding a good memory manager program to 98SE, it was stable for weeks! But I doubt that memory leaks are causing you to reboot after only a day, 2-3 days would be typical, 4-5 if you have a lot of RAM.



<font color=blue>Watts mean squat if you don't have quality!</font color=blue>

Upgrade to WinXP Pro and you won't have that problem. Crashman insists that he can get 98se stable but I've never seen it done. WinXP Pro is very stable.

<font color=green>Everyone should be like the Dutch. They're perfect.</font color=green>

I've been into computers for three and a half years now, but I'm only a novice home user, not studying to be a tech or anything. Just recently, thanks to a nice income tax refund, I purchased a new tower running Win XP Pro. I really didn't want to move to XP, cause I've spent allot of time learning the in's and out's of Win98se, and I wasn't having any particular problems with 98, and so I didn't see the need to move to XP, but that's all that's available on newer manufactured systems. I must say that I'm really impressed with Windows XP! Everything runs so much smoother, and I haven't had a single crash or lockup in the 5 months I've been running this new system running XP Pro. One thing, though, your gonna need more RAM to run XP, but I definitely recommend the upgrade. Sorry, I've never heard of an academic version, but go with XP Pro! Why get half the OS when you can get the whole shebang!

So...what is considered a good memory manager? I've gotten pretty comfortable running 98SE, use 384mb of PC100, control my swap file usage with RAM (1.5 to 1),have conservativeswapfileusage=1 entered in SYS.INI under the 386 folder, have file system properties set as Network server and use Norton's Speed Disk to place what swap file I will need on the outside of my 2nd HD. I too was thinking of upgrading to XP, but like others, have gotten fairly competent at making 98 behave.I also use Norton's Ghost to generate a complete backup on a hidden parition, with redundant backup on CD, so I kinda feel like my setup is bulletproof.Why would I need XP's restore feature? Been wondering about going to XP, but don't really see the need.

A man is just about as happy as he makes up his mind to be. Abe Lincoln

I don’t know about you, but I’m a power user. I’ve run VMware Workstation, a few IE open, a mail program, and IM program, Winamp 3, Word, download stuff, search threw out my computer, install a programs, had paint shop pro open. I can do all this and more, and I doubt Win9x could come close.

WinXP Built like a Rock.


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When you feel that reality does not suit you, live a fantasy life.