What Windows do you like?

[pegian]

Hello team,

I too use windows as I am an avid gamer and most of my client workstations at work are windows 98/me/2000/xp. If I had to pick a favorite, then I would choose Windows 2000 Pro. It does everything that I need it to do, and it does not look like a Clown Car (Windows xp.) I know there are a lot of people out there that like Windows xp better, and that's fine with me. Xp and 2000 are both built very similar, so I guess it's just which looks better and what you are doing in particular.

My preffered OS choices are listed as:
Windows 2000 - PC
Red Hat Linux - PC
OS X - Apple
Gentoo Linux - PC
Windows XP - PC

and then the rest fit somewhere way below that don't even bother using them.

Pegian

[Beerknurd]

I have XP Home. I imagine the Pro version would be better though. Windows 2000 only had a Server and Pro edition..... "I think"

[em99010pepe]

I have XP Pro and I hate it.

[BC]

I have a question for you guys.....

I was just reading a VERY VERY VERY disturbing post on another web site.

I have typically 50 processes (about 300 threads) running on this machine at once.... This includes Norton FW 2004, McAfee Vscan 8, and my own SMTP server. The ATI Radeon and Audigy also has a few processes & threads up of their own.

What's the trick? I require some 40 minutes to process a WU on Predictor using this overclocked A64 3200+. Yet someone with an Athlon XP 2600+ claims he can do the WUs in roughly 9-12 minutes elapsed time (but 60% more CPU time though)..

What's wrong? "Where have all the cycles gone? " What did I forget to tweak? What did I forget to get rid of after the loadup? ..... or is simply touching the keyboard and waking up the display THAT much of a load on the machine???

This other person is either lieing through his teeth or I am seriously messed up here. What's the deal? Can I compare a particular benchmark w/ someone to see what's wrong?

Can anyone give me a place to start, or is the key simply to create a 'bare bones number cruncher' versus a fully functional system?

I've watched the interrupts / context switches.... I am running (using Perforance meter) some 1500-2000 context switches per sec (is the scheduler freq settable like Linux?), ... If I let things sit just a few seconds and watch.... page faults fall to 60-80/sec, data flushes 0.5 and quickly to 0; and cache misses are almost non-existant (aka... Copy Read Hits % = 0) for 30-40 seconds at a clip. Is there a tool that can tell me where all the overhead time is going? Or why the the context switches are so high?

The only thing I can think of is that I am running the dual LCD's at 1280x1024x32 as a single screen.. Since that now goes through the CPU and driver... is it THAT 'expensive' to run?


I know you don't expect this out of me. Heck, were this linux/unix... i would find it in a blink and fix it... but windows is NOT my forte and I challenge the credibility of the claim. Who's the Guru???

** EDIT **

Ok,, kick the dummy..... the program 'Process switch 1.0' (which manages process priorities pushed the context switch rate up ... i killed it and the switch rate dropped to 150/sec instantly. Anyone know of a way to manage process priorities without such expense?

Sorry hour is late here... it's 1250 UTC (5:50am local)... If you will forgive my delay, I will post a full list when I get to work (around 2000 UTC)


** END EDIT **

BC.

[BC]

I have XP Pro and I hate it.

I didn't like XP Pro until I made it look like win 2k... now i have win/2k back (look feel), but faster (even before I changed CPUs)

What don't you like... I know SOME things... just not the deep stuff like I just posted above.



BC

[em99010pepe]

Can you make a list of the tasks your are running? Could it be a Virus?
I have 23 tasks running in my 2200+.

[BC]

I have been told (correct me please if wrong) that
Windows Server 2003 is what SHOULD have been Windows XP Server but simply wasn't ready because of all the bugs...


True or false???


PS: I've got XP Pro64 SP1 Beta here... it is a good 2-3x faster than regular XP Pro, but no network driver yet, so it's useless to me.

BC

[em99010pepe]

I don't know.

I used for many years WIN98SE and when I moved to XP was like moving to a new country, probably because my 2200+ has a big and strange problem that hasn't been solved since i had it.

I can't record a CD in 16x. It is true! When using Nero burning software I get a transfer speed of 2,4 MB/s and with my AMD 1,1 GHZ i get 30 MB/s.

I found that speed would increase up to 50MB/s if I run ECC2 project in background. Strange?

[BC]

I don't know.

I used for many years WIN98SE and when I moved to XP was like moving to a new country, probably because my 2200+ has a big and strange problem that hasn't been solved since i had it.

I can't record a CD in 16x. It is true! When using Nero burning software I get a transfer speed of 2,4 MB/s and with my AMD 1,1 GHZ i get 30 MB/s.

I found that speed would increase up to 50MB/s if I run ECC2 project in background. Strange?

Email me privately about Nero... They are down the street from me... I can handle it with them, but i have a solid idea what is wrong.. just need more info. Start with version and which plugins / which modules and what drives and media. My first thought is a buffer problem and the driver. WinXP handles devices differently than 98.

Nero will burn for me at any speed and read any speed... I do use an 80 wire cable, not 40. We will talk of versions, etc. I have everything here.

Again, we can solve this quick and easy privately and post the results.

BC



BC

[BC]

Can you make a list of the tasks your are running? Could it be a Virus?
I have 23 tasks running in my 2200+.

no known virus... last virus was 2+ years ago when i switched to Mcafee... Norton had failed to catch it.


AHQTBU - audigy
ati2evxx.exe - radeon (driver side)
ati2evxx.exe - radeon (client side)
atiptaxx.exe - radeon
boinc_gui.exe
ccapp.exe - Norton FW 2004
ccevtmgr.exe
ccproxy.exe
ccsetmgr.exe
csrss.exe
dllhost.exe
dllhost.exe
eax.exe - audigy
explorer - (desktop)
gearsec.exe (Norton)
Ghost~2.exe (ghost service)
iexplore.exe - this window
inetinfo.exe
lsass.exe
mcagent - mcafee vscan 8
mcshield - mcafee
mcvsrte.exe - mcafee
mcvsshld.exe - mcafee
mediadet.exe - win xp (can't turn off)
mfoldB110 - predictor
mmtask - music match (known bug - being fixed)
mspmspsv.exe - unknown - assume XP service
OSDmenu - audigy
Outlook.exe
point32 - intellipoint 5
rcenter - audigy
rcman - audigy
services.exe
smss.exe
sndsrvc.exe - symantec (norton)
spoolsv - spooler (not sure why running all the time)
svchost ( 5 copies ) .... all disappear when SMTP server shuts down.
symlcsvc.exe - norton/symantec
System
system idle process
taskmgr (getting this listing)
tcpsvcs.exe (system service)
type32 (have ms wireless elite keyboard )
vssvc - (unknown service)
winlogin.exe - (don't know why this runs)

FYI... my other machine has 27 processes... but only a 9000 pro and net card... no services, no nothing... it's a cruncher.

current process count = 49 (including task mgr), 9871 handles, 463 threads

kernel = 89112 total, 41036 pages, 48004 non-pages.

phys mem -= 1571568, avail = 1092780 system cache = 7841116

commit charge = 246168, limit = 5615888, peak = 433444


That help?

BC