Windows 2000 PRO [W2KP] is a wonderful operating system! I am finally convinced.

Right now, you wouldn't believe how many programs I have running at the same time, rock solid, some using very early software drivers. Just check the list:

- 10 Getright [www.getright.com] windows, downloading stuff via a cable modem @ 700 kbps.

- Dreamweaver 3 [www.macromedia.com], where I am editing this update.

- 2 software robots that are downloading all the ZIPs from certain websites.

- Outlook 2000 [www.microsoft.com], that I use as an e-mail client and electronic agenda.

- VidCon32 software, for video capture, via a Pinnacle PCTV board [www.pinnaclesys.com]. This software is running on an hardware that is yet NOT supported on Windows 2000. Pinnacle promised drivers for February 2000, but they never arrived. Current PCTV drivers are version 3.5, but some european dealers can sell you a version 4.0 CDROM, which is said to be a big improvement. VidCon32 is recording CNN International, on one of my HDs, and it dropped zero frames until now, compressing with Intel Indeo 5.1, configured for "quick compress" + 75% quality + QCIF resolution.

- Paint Shop Pro 6.02 [www.jasc.com] for 2D image editing.

- Windows Explorer, because I really need it :)

- Volume Control, because Creative Labs is yet to release Windows 2000 drivers for the SB LIVE! sound card. The "basic" drivers provided with Windows, don't exploit any EAX feature and have slight quality problems, when you try fine adjustments of analogue inputs' gain.

- Task Manager [comes with Windows 2000 Pro], that keeps tracing processor occupancy and memory requirements graphs.

And more...

W2KP is absolutely superb on memory management. I still have 300 MB oh physical memory available! Plus you will NOT find the memory leaks that were so common on Windows 9x, causing strange, non-linear, resources' consumption

But don't you think that having Windows 2000 running this great was easy...

Installation was too hard: I had to uninstall my Adaptec AHA2940U2W SCSI controller, because the PnP detection code just hanged right there, all the time :(

When W2KP finally booted-up, I did a shutdown, inserted the Adaptec, and got it running with no more fights.

Then, there were unexpected software problems: page_fault_in_nonpaged_address, unexpected_kernel_mode_trap, bad_pool_caller and some other horrible, never supposed to happen, crashes. These crashes were fixed by disabling all "bios caches" at the motherboard's setup, and going for an overall more secure configuration. However, I am firmly convinced that they only happened, because my W2KP was / is running with two unsupported devices [SB LIVE! + PCTV] and one beta supported device [NVIDIA GEFORCE 256 DDR].

A fast note about your motherboards' "bios caches": disabling them all is [probably] not only safer, but also faster. Current hardware, like VGA cards, provides faster memory than your PC133 DIMMs... [who would cache the bios, if such options were on]

Ok, now that W2K is stable, how about games on it? The straight answer is: games will run just fine, as long as you have HIGH PERFORMANCE hardware. Anything shorter than a P3@500 + 256 MB RAM + GeForce 256 is a "forget about it" scenario, at least if you demand high frame rates.

I am running a P600B + 512 MB RAM + GeForce 256 DDR. Of course many other details of your hardware will make a difference, but these ones are of top importance.

I also run over 120 GB of HD space, but I only have two games installed: GP Legends and Flight Simulator 2000. I am an hardcore gamer, but I had to uninstall all the other games I had, after computer problems caused by a stupid ASUS motherboard - read the 01 March 2000 update.

GP Legends runs on Open GL acceleration and software mode. It doesn't run on Glide / 3DFX, despite 3DFX Windows 2000 beta drivers. On my PC, I get an average of 30 frames per second @ 800 x 600, with full details for everything, except for the rear view mirrors [zero details for those :)]. Sound is great!, even better [louder! and more "real"] than with Windows 9x' SB LIVE! full Liveware support.

This means that GP Legends is very playable, but image quality is lower than with the 3DFX's Glide API.

Flight Simulator 2000 is a different story. This game is much more intense on the [unsupported] sound card, that also includes a joystick port. Sometimes, the joystick is not read quick enough and there is a feedback lag. Graphically, the game is superb, but this time you really must boot to Windows 9x, because it is very annoying to end up with an unresponsive joystick, after some minutes of flying.

I conclude saying that Windows 2000 is a very viable gaming platform, as long as you have the right hardware. For now, we must wait for official software drivers, for all the hardware, then some true comparisons will be possible.