Can I Use It? - Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional

LouieTheOSPerson

Welcome to another ep.. forum-i-sode of Can I Use It? With your host... LouieTheOSPerson!

Today's Version: Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional SP4.
Latest Version: Microsoft Windows 10 Build 16170 RS3.

Another WinBoards user, asked if we could install and try Microsoft Windows 2000.

Installation:



You can see, that you have the DOS installation interface like in Windows ME/XP, which isn't exactly user-friendly looking. However, all you have to do is agree to the license agreement that everyone reads, yes... everyone, then choose what partition you install Windows on and then format the drive.



You have to choose your system preferences such as time zone, computer name, passwords and network settings, soon you have to wait for Windows to finish installing.



Welcome to the Windows desktop!

Ease to Use (Fail)
No Errors (Pass)
No Extra Steps (Pass)

Pass![/color



Going Online:



Surprisingly, IE5 seems to only be slightly worse than IE6 or IE7 believe it or not, and it is faster. Mozilla Firefox is able to download, with no problems.



Firefox works almost flawlessly here, with most websites loading fully or in a basic HTML version. I'm using 10.0.1.2 ESR but some say Firefox 12 works on 2000.

Connecting to the Internet (Pass)
Internet Explorer (Pass)
Mozilla Firefox (Pass)

Overall Pass!



Mail



Google Mail runs in Basic HTML mode in Firefox, which has some limitations.



However, Outlook Express works just fine here, being able to send and receive e-mails, unlike in XP where we could only receive e-mails.

Send/Receive (Pass)
Google Mail (Fail)
Outlook Express (Fail)



Media Streaming:



YouTube works perfectly, with no flaws whatsoever, in Firefox of course because in IE5, Youtube refuses to load.



Spotify application does not install and you get no web player either, even with Flash installed, just like in XP.



Windows Media Guide, shut down in June and only gives us an ad for Groove Music, Microsoft's way of charging you for music, which you get for free with Spotify. The only good thing about Groove is that you can get background music on Xbox One.

Video Streaming (Pass)
Music Streaming (Fail)
Radio Streaming (Fail)

Fail!



Office:



Google Docs claims to not support Firefox 10 ESR but it clearly works.



Surprisingly, OpenOffice doesn't want to load however I know Office 97 and 2000 can load here, successfully.


Editing Files (Fail, can't do it on OpenOffice)
Google Docs (Pass)
OpenOffice (Fail)

Fail!

In conclusion, Windows 2000 works surprisingly well for it's age, just don't use IE, use the ESR of Firefox. You can perform basic tasks such as Mail and watching Video and some light office work on an old office application but that is as far as you are going to get. Remember, Windows 2000 is 17 years old, which is ancient in computer years so given that it can even connect to the internet and show web pages decently, even in another browser is pretty good.

IE is Evil!!!

When it is fully updated Windows 2000 is surprisingly stable and works like a charm. With Blackwingcat's kernel extender and the ACL, it is capable of running software designed for XP.

BigCJ

Now this is a legitimate test. Instead of half-broken betas, this one shows a setup someone might actually use.

On that ease of install thing, all versions of NT were like that. Firefox is a good browser, and it's pretty cool that an older version works as well as it does. Running Gmail in basic mode is alright too, I do it all the time just because I like the simplified no-nonsense look. For streaming music, have you tried Pandora? Office 2003 works perfectly fine under Win2k, so your office suite is taken care of right there.

Overall, Windows 2000 is a great OS. I even keep Professional loaded on the computer I use to store my backups. Although I never go on the internet with it, I can edit documents, compress files with WinRAR, and play all my media files with the help of a codec pack. Good to know it could still do just about everything web-related if necessary.

LouieTheOSPerson

BigCJ wrote:

Now this is a legitimate test. Instead of half-broken betas, this one shows a setup someone might actually use.

On that ease of install thing, all versions of NT were like that. Firefox is a good browser, and it's pretty cool that an older version works as well as it does. Running Gmail in basic mode is alright too, I do it all the time just because I like the simplified no-nonsense look. For streaming music, have you tried Pandora? Office 2003 works perfectly fine under Win2k, so your office suite is taken care of right there.

Overall, Windows 2000 is a great OS. I even keep Professional loaded on the computer I use to store my backups. Although I never go on the internet with it, I can edit documents, compress files with WinRAR, and play all my media files with the help of a codec pack. Good to know it could still do just about everything web-related if necessary.

Is Pandora a free or paid service? If it is free, I will try it on an older OS! I won't try it on my host since I have a Spotify Premium subscription anyway. I know, Windows 2000 is still very functional even today. I would just avoid going online with it, like you said, since most of the big software companies no longer support 2000 which means it is more vulnerable to newer and more advanced attacks which nobody likes! :thumbdown:

BigCJ

Yes, basic Pandora is free, with premium subscriptions available. If I had to use nothing but an old box, I'd put it behind a firewall, find the most up-to-date AV for it and go to as few sites as possible to try to avoid being attacked.

Bry89

LouieTheOSPerson wrote:

I would just avoid going online with it, like you said, since most of the big software companies no longer support 2000 which means it is more vulnerable to newer and more advanced attacks which nobody likes! :thumbdown:

To be fair, I don't think any of these threats out there would even work on it. They're more interested in attacking and exploiting XP and now Vista. Also, Avast 8 has support for Win2000 as someone else here told me about so you can use that to protect yourself, should you be concerned about anything.

LouieTheOSPerson

Good point, I would get that hackers would want to attack XP (11% of computers running the OS), but why Vista (0.73% of computers running the OS). I wouldn't attack 2000 or Vista but Windows 7 since over 50% of computers still run it, even if it is 7 years old, 8 in October. (Yes, I remember OS birthdays aswell as people birthdays. )