SC

To install W2K you need the product key which is five blocks of five numbers/letters.

I'm surprised that Mozilla does not work with MoneyAM. I've briefly used a mozilla derivative on a Linux system and it worked fine.

Optimist, thanks. I have a sticker that says DS/N DE -07P600 - 41350 - 3AF - then 4 more numbers (don't want to broadcast the lot!) Does this sound likely? It doesn't to me. I have W2K on a machine at work and will check that number.

SC, some W2000 installation discs don't need a product key since it is already incorporated on the disc. I guess that is likely for an OEM Dell disc. Not sure there is any way of telling until you try to use it and it asks you for a key or hopefully doesn't. Even if you do need a key however there are plenty on the web. Here's one: RM233-2PRQQ-FR4RH-JP89H-46QYB .

Thanks Kayak. Will have a go. If it doesn't work then I'll have to install W98 again. Would it be better to install over W98 or fresh install? Thanks.

I'd do a completely fresh installation SC, reformat and everything. Post above updated.

Thanks :-)

SC

If you reformat then always choose NTFS file system.

Thanks again.

SAW

Comdirect does work with SP2. Read their notes when you log in. There is a page error but I successfully (computerwise anyway) managed to deal albeit I had to log out after 1 transaction and then log back in. As they always say
"We're working on it"

Seymour, Moneyam works fine for me under Mozilla, I had to bully it a bit to start with but got there in the end. (very sorry but I havn't a clue what I did to make it work!!!)

Neil

SC,
And I think there are some verions of Dell OEM W2K that wont install on some other (non Dell) PC's I think it came up here a few months ago, I wasnt convinced but when we checked it turned out to be true.

If I remember properly if you use a disk with a Corporate version (which is what Kayak is referring to I think) it wont even prompt for a number.

Strongly agree with Optimist re usisng NTFS, one point re NTFS that some dont understand, when using this file system it is much less critical to defragmant your disk frequently, the files system will still fragment but the performance will not degrade anything like as much as with FAT and FAT32. So weekly defrags are not needed, I tend to do a defrag only about every 2-3 months with NTFS. Remember fragmentation problems are worse when the disk is very full and if you are creating and deleting a lot of files, but with NTFS (and other high performance file systems) and a disk with a resaonable amount of free space the performance will not be badly affected by reasonable fragmentation.

This is a Dell laptop and Dell version of W2K. We'll see. Going to have to do it this coming weekend but trying to assemble all my information beforehand. This is a disk that says "for distribution with a new Dell PC only".

Guys, you are the best. I've trawled the web for info and none of it is as comprehensive and helpful as you are.

Neil / Robber - thanks. I suspect my problem is that I'm still running Microsoft java. Must download Sun Java now.

Seymour, I can confirm what Spaceman says about the Dell OEM discs. My crude understanding is that they look for a key in the BIOS which identifies the PC as a Dell, if it doesnt find the key it will not proceed with the install.

On reflection I think you may be heading down the right path with your java version.

Neil

I'm about to re-install RegscrubXP after my SP2 problems. Any other good register clean up tools anyone could recommend?
Do you think it's worth doing at all? I honestly never notice any definate improvement to my system speeds after register clean ups.
I also use Fix-IT Utilities which also does a register de-frag as well as a register clean up. I wonder why the 2 programs spot different register problems?

7th floor, most of these reg scrubbers look for losts links and references to things that are not there any more, the defraggers are in my view a bit of a con as fragmentation of the registry isnt much of a problem.

My view is that you should not scrub or defrag your registry unless you have a good reason to do so, and most people are unlikely to have a good reason to do so !

The registry is critical to the correct operation of windows and should not be messed with unless you are clear what you are doing and you are prepared to accept the consequences of messing it up.

Spaceman

I understand what you're saying. It just peeves me that, for example, when I load a zip file or jpeg, for example, and then delete them, they appear in Fix-Its list of register 'problems'. ..... registry entry refers to the missing file xxx.zip. etc.

Surely, after a number of months, these spurious entries will slow the system dowm?

I always backup the registry before touching it.

Tried mozzila and everything else antone got any more ideas about wots goin on with my comdirect.thanks

7th Floor

I suggest that the example that you give is a good reason not to use a registry scrubber. It is only a history entry which will take up a few bytes and then probrably only when the program is loaded.

I suspect that what realy slows the system down is the entries in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT and the entries in the other hives that refer to them. The more complicated the program that you install the more of these entries that you get and sometimes they are not removed by the uninstal program.

It would take a very clever program to sort that out.

I think the best thing to do is every couple of years, buy a bigger/faster disk and spend a couple of days doing a clean install with only the programs that you really want.

7fl, yes your right but I dont think the 'slow down' is really noticeable, my worry is that the consequences of mucking up the registry are far worse. If you happy with what your doing thats fine, I would be happy but a lot of users would be very unhappy with a messed up registry.

I guess I'm being a little naive (my wife says it is my only redeaming feature) in believing what the wrapper says on these utility programs.