New Wine, Old Bottle: Windows XP on a K6-2/400 We Sample Microsoft's Ultimate OS on a Not-So-Ultimate PC Eric Grevstad
Mon 10/1/01 -- First impressions can be lasting ones; that's why most people dress nicely for job interviews or take showers before blind dates. But impressions can be skewed by circumstances -- a fat salary offer for a job you don't really want, a romantic restaurant and dim lights on a date.
That's why, planning our first installation of Microsoft Windows XP, we decided not to use the brand-new, fully loaded 2GHz Pentium 4 desktop in the internet.com test lab. Instead, we dusted off an early-1999 home PC we'd already retired in favor of a newer model.
Officially, the new version of Windows requires a 300MHz or faster processor, 128MB of memory (even Microsoft has gone from saying 64MB is fine to "64MB minimum supported"), 1.5GB of hard disk space, an SVGA (800 by 600) or higher resolution video setup, and a CD-ROM or DVD drive; Internet and/or network connections are "strongly recommended."
Unofficially, you've probably heard gossip that any PC released before 2000 lacks the muscle for Microsoft's new operating system -- and indeed, knowing that Win XP is based on the industrial-strength Windows 2000, no reasonable judge would expect it to run on an old Cyrix MediaGX starter PC or 386SX laptop. But we thought we'd try a reality-check road test on an aging but still Word- and Excel-worthy system -- one that falls within Microsoft's posted minimums, but is miles away from its manufacturer's list of recent "Windows XP Ready PCs."
That system was a Compaq Presario 5240 -- a Windows 98 minitower with a 400MHz AMD K6-2 (Intel Pentium II equivalent) processor. We'd long ago upgraded it from 64MB to 128MB of SDRAM, but left its 10GB hard disk, CD-ROM drive, ATI Rage Pro 2X AGP graphics accelerator, and other components untouched. We dug it out of the attic, popped in the official, released-to-manufacturing "gold code" Windows XP Home Edition CD, and took notes.
One-Hour Makeover
Along with offering to install the OS, the Windows XP CD-ROM's startup menu lists a "Check compatibility" option that uses the Win XP Upgrade Advisor to generate a report on your PC's suitability. (Since it doesn't make much sense to buy Win XP just to learn your system doesn't measure up, you can also get the Upgrade Advisor from Microsoft's Web site -- although it's a hefty 32MB download -- or a quicker checkup from the PC Pitstop site.)
We were wondering if our Presario's LS-120 (remember those relatively rare, combo 1.44MB/proprietary 120MB floppy drives?) would stymie XP, but it was recognized correctly -- although the speedup utility used for caching LS-120 files on the hard disk was incompatible. So were the Easy Access Buttons utility for the Compaq keyboard's audio volume, CD play, and program-launching keys; the Yamaha sound synthesizer's control panel and CD player; and Microsoft Exchange Inbox ("Consider using Microsoft Outlook Express instead").
The Advisor also reported that a new driver would be required for the Compaq's Rockwell data/fax modem, and that the bundled BitWare fax software was incompatible (Win XP has its own fax component, though it didn't install it by default; we were told to use Control Panel's Add/Remove Programs and Add/Remove Windows Components menu).
Encouraged by these results, we told Windows XP to go ahead with a New (rather than Upgrade) installation, overwriting the old \Windows folder. Within a couple of minutes, we'd clicked our agreement to Microsoft's licensing terms, entered the 25-character product key from the CD sleeve, skipped the opportunity to install to a different drive letter or partition, and sat back to watch the show.
