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Do you recommend Windows NT and Windows 2000?
If you are a large organization, with a very large network, where network security within the organization is important, then YES.
But for the rest of us, NO.
Before Windows 2000, most small to medium-sized enterprises (SME's) were perfectly happy with Windows 95 or Windows 98.
This probably means you. If you had a server on your network, it may have been Windows NT, but that was left to the propeller-heads to maintain. All the computers that were used by real people were probably Windows 95 or 98.
Then Microsoft launched Windows 2000. Despite this simply being the next version of Windows NT (for propeller-heads), they decided to call it a name that sounds like it's the next
version of Windows 98. Well, it isn't.
Windows 2000, just like Windows NT before it, is designed for large corporate networks. They both have a very high level of security, which is ideal for those environments, where
almost anyone could gain access to potentially sensitive information. It is this very security, however, which limits what can be done with those operating systems. Maintaining them can be a full-time job!
Moreover, neither Windows NT nor Windows 2000 have the full graphical and multimedia capabilities of Windows 98. They're just not designed that way.
Also, Windows 95, 98 and now, Windows ME, are hybrid operating systems. They have some 16-bit code in them, and some 32-bit code. This is great, because it means they'll
happily run 16-bit programs and 32-bit programs. The best of both worlds!
Windows NT and Windows 2000 are true, 32-bit only operating systems. This means that they have to try real hard to run 16-bit programs (like Professional Investigator v3), and
while it will work most of the time, there will be some problems.
So far, we know of two problems when running Professional Investigator v3 on Windows NT and Windows 2000:
- If you try to mail-merge with Professional Investigator and Microsoft Word you may experience various errors. We have a fix for this.
Click here to see more information.
- In Windows 2000 (only) you are likely to see an error saying, 'PI_MAIN has caused an access violation in WOW32.DLL...' whenever you try to Minimize, Restore or Close
Professional Investigator.
We have a fix for this, too. Click here to see more information.
In short, we don't think that Windows NT or Windows 2000 are best suited to most business environments. They're too restrictive, less
functional, and can cause problems with 16-bit programs like Professional Investigator v3.
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