Win2K vs XP; are used resources vastly different?

[LeftCoast]

Hi all,

I'm going to be working on an older Emachine this weekend, and wondering which OS to recommend (2K or XP). The owner is clueless, but we did ascertain on the phone she's running WinME, with a whopping 64mb ram(Her first question was,"Is that a lot?"). I'm planning on adding 256mb ram, and not sure on recommendations for the OS (perhaps I shouldn't throw that "clueless" term around so haughtily!). Is XP that much of a memory hog, as compared to 2K?

Also, is there a way to export(like you do with favorites) her Windows saved passwords, so I can add them to her new OS? Would simply exporting cookies do the trick? This isn't as critical, but is causing her some stress...

Thanks in advance...

[VHockey86]

XP comes enabled by default with a few more services. It also has a little more memory usage with themes, aka "eye candy" but really not all that much.

Basically XP needs an absolute minimum of 128... altough it wont run anything at all.
Ive seen windows 2000 on some systems with 96.. but it couldnt really run much either.

For a home user, definately go with XP. 2000 will have no benefits for her at all even considering the RAM issue. Not to mention I think XP is still cheaper.

XP Home with 256MB of ram for a computer illiterate will be just fine. Just make sure you save yourself the time now, and put automatic updates on, and use spyware blaster + spybot immunize to help prevent spyware buildup. Firefox wouldnt be a bad idea either (just delete the internet explorer icons and she wont have a choice =)

[MDS]

If she isn't very computer literate you safest bet would be to stick with winME as much as I dislike it or possible win98. I have win2kpro running on all my systems except one which is XP pro and it's a laptop. I prefer win2kpro over XP and all of it's wizards and extra eye candy and not needed services.

[John Prophet]

id go with XP but id strip it down as much as I could by turning off the unneeded services...go here http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm and run "services.msc" and follow his "safe" column (except I leave system restore on)

that frees up lots of resources.

also turn off the eye candy...right click My computer, properties, advanced,performance...uncheck most of the "eye candy" stuff like sliding menus etc etc...I do leave on shadows under menus etc cuz I think it looks better.

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Win2k IMO is not at ALL for newbys....it is for businesses...not very newb friendly.

[PresterJohn]

i would agree with what two of the earlier posters said and leave ME on the system. if she just uses the machine for internet/word processing/etc add a stick of 128 (very cheap nowdays) or 256mb of ram and that should hold 'em for another 1-2 yrs.

if you keep in mind that you can buy a 2.x p4 or celeron w/256mb ram for under $300 it really doesn't make much sense to spend $$$ for a new OS when you can get a complete desktop replacement with extras (xp, larger hd, etc) for a little bit more.

[John Prophet]

Id probably say keep ME also....add some ram

do a fresh install, get it running good, drivers etc

add adaware, spybot and tell her how to use em

maybe use ghost to make a restore disk