Looking To Downgrade To 2000

**af3** · 07-31-2008, 06:13 AM

Is there anything I should know about Windows 2000?

I have used it but, what won't run in Windows 2000 that will in XP? It seems to me that it is usually junk software that is so primative that it was written for only one version of Windows, software affiliated with Microsoft in some way, or addons designed only for Windows XP by Microsoft.

I did install Virtual PC last night, and load my copy of 2000 into it and installed a few of my "mission critical" applications without any difficulty.

Anyway, please let me know about any major comprimise between the two versions of Windows.

**af3** · 08-01-2008, 06:57 AM

This section must be dead, or people hate me.

Inactive · 08-01-2008, 07:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by af3

This section must be dead, or people hate me.

i'd like to think neither is the case.

you can probably do a search of the software you plan to install and see minimum requirements/compatibilities. i know newer versions of quicktime player and CS3 will not install on win2k. other than that i've had no problems with games and other high end software packages. i've been using wink2 for many years now and i never saw the need for XP.

**koala** · 08-01-2008, 07:05 AM

Can you be more specific about the software you want to run? 2000 will run most XP programs. I stopped using it about a year ago, but had no problem with any XP apps except a few games that were XP-only.

If you're using VirtualPC, VirtualBox or any other VM software, then there should be no compatibility problems at all for 2000 software.

**af3** · 08-01-2008, 07:20 AM

What games were XP only?

The applications I depend upon were tested and ran fine. I was just curious about what frameworks, runtimes, components, or hardware types would not be supported by this version of Windows.

Perhaps XP added some revolutionary feature that I take for granted?

I know Wireless Zero Configuration is not available, but it is easy to manualy configure my PC to work with my network.

I have downgraded, but still would like to know what to expect...

**djaburg** · 08-01-2008, 06:35 PM

I'd miss system restore, but I typically only use that on customer systems that load some goofy software from the web. I've got many clients running 2000 Pro and they have no issues with it, in fact it's been extremely stable overall compared to just about any OS, except Linux.

**af3** · 12-05-2008, 07:30 AM

Okay, since my last post I have tried downloading and integrating my SATA drivers into a Windows 2000 SP4 CD, but upon first boot, I get a BSOD. Something similar to "Unmountable boot volume"

Would only integrating text mode SATA drivers for my controller and not the regular drivers have caused this problem? If so, I shall give it another try!

Inactive · 12-05-2008, 09:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by af3

tried downloading and integrating my SATA drivers into a Windows 2000 SP4 CD

i'm not sure i know what you mean by this. what you should have done was load the SATA drivers at the initial setup stage of windows, by pressing F6 when asked if you want to install any third party drivers.

**af3** · 12-05-2008, 09:30 AM

I used nLite to integrate the drivers that I downloaded from Dell's site into my Windows 2000 CD image before I burned it which proved successful to an extent, but upon first boot I experienced the dreaded "blue screen of death" and proceeded to reinstall Windows XP. Such a disappointment!

I suspect the problem is my only integrating the text mode drivers and not the… whatever-you-call-em normal Windows drivers.

Inactive · 12-05-2008, 12:36 PM

i have used the F6 option before on other people's pc's to install an OS with relative success (i.e. i was trying to do a repair install on a cloned HD from a pata to a sata, but i had to format in the finish up. the OS ran okay then). sorry i cannot help with the method you've attempted.

**blah789** · 12-05-2008, 03:54 PM

Answering original question (I only realized after typing the post that original post was from august, but whatever)

For some of these you may have to have SP3 or SP4.

Windows 2000 requires you do a registry tweak to enable recognizing drives over 128GB (you need SP3 too). (tweak is slipstreamable into bootable CD)
Windows 2000 doesn't enable DMA mode on CD drives on the secondary IDE channel - default is PIO, you have to set it manually.
Windows 2000 doesn't support SATA natively (but neither does XP), you have to press F6 at boot time and provide the drivers on a floppy if you have a SATA drive.

Windows 2000 doesn't have firewall, data execution prevention, system restore, msconfig, remote assistance (you can run a client on 2000 and help someone on xp though), movie maker, built-in CD burning, a built-in image browser, error reporting, or activation (woohoo!). The last version version of DirectX is 9.0c from august 2008. Last version of IE is 6 SP1. Last version of WMP is 9. Used to be able to play VC-1 videos, but apparently Microsoft must have blocked it in a patch at some point. Last version of Virtual PC (as host) is 2004 SP1. Newest version of VirtualBox won't run on it (a pity). Last version of Office is 2003. I think last version of .net framework is 2 SP1. Nero 9 and Yahoo Messenger 9 won't run on it (last version of Yahoo Messenger is 8). Windows Live Messenger prob won't run on it either (I think last version may have been MSN Messenger 7). Microsoft won't let you install the last version of Windows Defender for Windows 2000 (says demo expired or something like that).

The latest versions of QuickTime and Real Player don't run on it (but QT 7.1.6 (which has a few security holes) and RP 10 do). (I just use VLC for most of my QT or VC-1 needs.)
I don't play games much, but Age of Empires 3 demo won't run on 2000. Obviously DirectX 10 games won't run on it.

Support for home networking, setting up a connection, and wireless may be spottier. (in particular doesn't have native PPPoE driver - get RASPPPoE instead) (also no home network or wireless wizard in control panel)

User-interface-wise, Windows 2000 doesn't have cleartype, themes (the fisher price interface), nor the common tasks bar on the left. It does have the annoying video or audio preview (which you can turn off if you want), and it previews web pages (very unsafe - dunno why Microsoft never patched this). Doesn't have fast user switching (does anyone really use this?)

Windows 2000 still is my favorite OS.

**af3** · 12-08-2008, 07:47 AM

Thank you so much blah789!!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by blah789

Windows 2000 doesn't have firewall, data execution prevention, system restore, msconfig, remote assistance (you can run a client on 2000 and help someone on xp though), movie maker, built-in CD burning, a built-in image browser, error reporting, or activation (woohoo!).

Yay, stuff I have either replaced or don't use!

Quote:

Originally Posted by blah789

There's a couple more things to check. First make sure your BIOS is up-to-date to support large hard drives. Second you should have Windows XP SP2 or later or Windows 2000 SP3 or later (with a registry tweak to enable 48-bit LBA*) to be able to recognize hard drives over 128GB. Other than that when you boot up, just check in your BIOS to see the new drive is recognized to its full size, and if it looks ok, then you're good to go.

* The "official" page for the tweak:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/305098
More automated way to check for and apply the tweak:
http://www.48bitlba.com/enablebiglbatool.htm

Thanks!

hitech · 12-08-2008, 08:43 AM

you can have msconfig in 2000 if you copy from xp/windows/pchealth/helpctr/binaries and put it in 2000/winnt/system32.

**af3** · 12-08-2008, 09:05 AM

Many things from XP seem to work in 2k... maybe I will make a pack of missing stuff for myself and include it as an unattended installer...

Another thing that is missing is tskill.exe

07-31-2008, 06:13 AM	#1 (permalink)
af3 TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: USA Posts: 1,173 OS: XP32, the gaming OS. My System	Looking To Downgrade To 2000 Is there anything I should know about Windows 2000? I have used it but, what won't run in Windows 2000 that will in XP? It seems to me that it is usually junk software that is so primative that it was written for only one version of Windows, software affiliated with Microsoft in some way, or addons designed only for Windows XP by Microsoft. I did install Virtual PC last night, and load my copy of 2000 into it and installed a few of my "mission critical" applications without any difficulty. Anyway, please let me know about any major comprimise between the two versions of Windows.

08-01-2008, 06:57 AM	#2 (permalink)
af3 TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: USA Posts: 1,173 OS: XP32, the gaming OS. My System	Re: Looking To Downgrade To 2000 This section must be dead, or people hate me.

08-01-2008, 07:05 AM	#4 (permalink)
koala Moderator Hardware Team Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: UK Posts: 12,299 OS: XP/7/Ubuntu My System	Re: Looking To Downgrade To 2000 Can you be more specific about the software you want to run? 2000 will run most XP programs. I stopped using it about a year ago, but had no problem with any XP apps except a few games that were XP-only. If you're using VirtualPC, VirtualBox or any other VM software, then there should be no compatibility problems at all for 2000 software. __________________ New members: Subscribe to your thread (Thread Tools) to receive an instant email notification when you get a reply. TSF Folding@Home Team 85015 - details here

08-01-2008, 07:20 AM	#5 (permalink)
af3 TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: USA Posts: 1,173 OS: XP32, the gaming OS. My System	Re: Looking To Downgrade To 2000 What games were XP only? The applications I depend upon were tested and ran fine. I was just curious about what frameworks, runtimes, components, or hardware types would not be supported by this version of Windows. Perhaps XP added some revolutionary feature that I take for granted? I know Wireless Zero Configuration is not available, but it is easy to manualy configure my PC to work with my network. I have downgraded, but still would like to know what to expect... Last edited by af3; 08-01-2008 at 07:24 AM.

08-01-2008, 06:35 PM	#6 (permalink)
djaburg TSF Enthusiast Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 1,312 OS: XP SP3/Vista/7 Server 2K/2K3/2K8	Re: Looking To Downgrade To 2000 I'd miss system restore, but I typically only use that on customer systems that load some goofy software from the web. I've got many clients running 2000 Pro and they have no issues with it, in fact it's been extremely stable overall compared to just about any OS, except Linux. __________________ Computers make it easier to do a lot of things, but most of the things they make it easier to do don't need to be done. The inherent vice of capitalism is the uneven division of blessings, while the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal division of misery.

12-05-2008, 07:30 AM	#7 (permalink)
af3 TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: USA Posts: 1,173 OS: XP32, the gaming OS. My System	Re: Looking To Downgrade To 2000 Okay, since my last post I have tried downloading and integrating my SATA drivers into a Windows 2000 SP4 CD, but upon first boot, I get a BSOD. Something similar to "Unmountable boot volume" Would only integrating text mode SATA drivers for my controller and not the regular drivers have caused this problem? If so, I shall give it another try!

12-05-2008, 09:30 AM	#9 (permalink)
af3 TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: USA Posts: 1,173 OS: XP32, the gaming OS. My System	Re: Looking To Downgrade To 2000 I used nLite to integrate the drivers that I downloaded from Dell's site into my Windows 2000 CD image before I burned it which proved successful to an extent, but upon first boot I experienced the dreaded "blue screen of death" and proceeded to reinstall Windows XP. Such a disappointment! I suspect the problem is my only integrating the text mode drivers and not the… whatever-you-call-em normal Windows drivers.

12-05-2008, 12:36 PM	#10 (permalink)
Inactive Registered User Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 1,704 OS: ~	Re: Looking To Downgrade To 2000 i have used the F6 option before on other people's pc's to install an OS with relative success (i.e. i was trying to do a repair install on a cloned HD from a pata to a sata, but i had to format in the finish up. the OS ran okay then). sorry i cannot help with the method you've attempted. __________________ "it takes two to lie, one to lie and one to listen" Homer Last edited by Inactive; 12-05-2008 at 12:37 PM. Reason: syntax

12-05-2008, 03:54 PM	#11 (permalink)
blah789 TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 2,261 OS: Windows 2000 SP4 and Windows XP SP3	Re: Looking To Downgrade To 2000 Answering original question (I only realized after typing the post that original post was from august, but whatever) For some of these you may have to have SP3 or SP4. Windows 2000 requires you do a registry tweak to enable recognizing drives over 128GB (you need SP3 too). (tweak is slipstreamable into bootable CD) Windows 2000 doesn't enable DMA mode on CD drives on the secondary IDE channel - default is PIO, you have to set it manually. Windows 2000 doesn't support SATA natively (but neither does XP), you have to press F6 at boot time and provide the drivers on a floppy if you have a SATA drive. Windows 2000 doesn't have firewall, data execution prevention, system restore, msconfig, remote assistance (you can run a client on 2000 and help someone on xp though), movie maker, built-in CD burning, a built-in image browser, error reporting, or activation (woohoo!). The last version version of DirectX is 9.0c from august 2008. Last version of IE is 6 SP1. Last version of WMP is 9. Used to be able to play VC-1 videos, but apparently Microsoft must have blocked it in a patch at some point. Last version of Virtual PC (as host) is 2004 SP1. Newest version of VirtualBox won't run on it (a pity). Last version of Office is 2003. I think last version of .net framework is 2 SP1. Nero 9 and Yahoo Messenger 9 won't run on it (last version of Yahoo Messenger is 8). Windows Live Messenger prob won't run on it either (I think last version may have been MSN Messenger 7). Microsoft won't let you install the last version of Windows Defender for Windows 2000 (says demo expired or something like that). The latest versions of QuickTime and Real Player don't run on it (but QT 7.1.6 (which has a few security holes) and RP 10 do). (I just use VLC for most of my QT or VC-1 needs.) I don't play games much, but Age of Empires 3 demo won't run on 2000. Obviously DirectX 10 games won't run on it. Support for home networking, setting up a connection, and wireless may be spottier. (in particular doesn't have native PPPoE driver - get RASPPPoE instead) (also no home network or wireless wizard in control panel) User-interface-wise, Windows 2000 doesn't have cleartype, themes (the fisher price interface), nor the common tasks bar on the left. It does have the annoying video or audio preview (which you can turn off if you want), and it previews web pages (very unsafe - dunno why Microsoft never patched this). Doesn't have fast user switching (does anyone really use this?) Windows 2000 still is my favorite OS.

12-08-2008, 08:43 AM	#13 (permalink)
hitech Tech Hardware Team Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Kansas Posts: 612 OS: Windows	Re: Looking To Downgrade To 2000 you can have msconfig in 2000 if you copy from xp/windows/pchealth/helpctr/binaries and put it in 2000/winnt/system32. __________________

12-08-2008, 09:05 AM	#14 (permalink)
af3 TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: USA Posts: 1,173 OS: XP32, the gaming OS. My System	Re: Looking To Downgrade To 2000 Many things from XP seem to work in 2k... maybe I will make a pack of missing stuff for myself and include it as an unattended installer... Another thing that is missing is tskill.exe