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WTF is Microsoft doing here?? Are they trying to force people to "upgrade" to Windows XP??
This is double bad because XP will soon become obsolete since MS will be releasing Vista in the near future. Are they trying to make people do an unnecessary "upgrade" of Windows just so they can play a game?
Windows XP is complete crap!!! It requires at least double the resources from every application and there is no benefit...
For example, When I install Windows XP Pro as a custom install totally stripped of all network and unecessary components, it uses 84MB of RAM. When I install my video card and sound card, it is up to 134MB of RAM (no other software and just drivers, no video/sound software).
For Windows 2000, when I do a full install, it uses 53MB of RAM. When I install my sound card and video card, it uses 64MB of RAM. That is a difference of about 70MB of RAM!!!
OK, I am sure you are thinking wow, 70MB of RAM, that is nothing since I have 2GB of Ram..., but try running some resource intensive software like anti virus or a Game, or 3D app like Maya or Cinema 4D.
In Windows XP Pro, Maya need over 400MB of RAM just to launch!!! In Windows 2000 it only needs about 175MB. Cinema 4D needs over 200MB for Windows XP Pro and about 120 for Windows 2000.
Symantec Antivirus Corporate Edition 10.0 needs 24MB of RAM to run on Windows 2000, on Windows XP, I never got it to run properly. It used up 100% of my CPU and the RAM usage climbed to over 250MB!!!! I had to downgrade to version 9.02 which uses about 32MB of RAM on Windows XP (and only 12MB of RAM on Windows 2000).
I never check how much games take up in either, but I would imagine the same to be true. However, when I run games on my old PC (700MHz, 384MB RAM), I can run games that require 1.2GHz & 512MB of RAM very smoothly with Windows 2000, but they crash or do not even install on Windows XP... What this suggests is that games will require less RAM and CPU power to be able to run at similar settings on a Windows XP system!!
I think this is complete BS!!! Windows 2000 is in my opinion the best Windows OS released and the most stable. Sure, it does not come packed with thousands of drivers, millions of useless components, and tons of eye candy, but it is as simple to use as XP and has, as far as I can see, the exact same features/power.
For those of you that want to play this game that do not have Windows XP and do not want to shell out $200, you can try installing using command prompt.
Navigate to your CD/DVD drive and type in "setup /a" and press enter. This should launch the installer and you will be able to install the game in Windows 2000. This type of installation does not care about your OS.
All you need is to make sure that your DirectX is upto date and that you have the latest MSXML.
Here is how to access command prompt:
-Go to Start=>Run
-Type "cmd" and press enter. This opens command prompt
-Now navigate to your CD/DVD by typing "x:" and pressing enter. "x" is the letter of your drive, for example "d:", "e:", etc...
-Type in "setup /a". This will launch the installer.
-Now follow the wizard!!!
If you already have Windows XP, then this will not matter to you, but for those that have Windows 2000, this will save lots of money and frustration of formatting, installing Windows, getting drivers, installing software, etc... Also, Windows 2000 Pro can be found for around $60, so it is a better upgrade from 95/98/ME than Windows XP since you get pretty much an equal product at 1/3 the price. This way, you can save money for getting a better Video Card, RAM, etc... so that you actaully get a benefit from your money.
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