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Upgrading to Windows XP for MIDI Sequencer Heads

Upgrading from 98se to XP

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This article was written when windows XP came out

by Rich the Tweak

Windows XP offers a promise of a fast, stable, multimedia computer.  Having installed XP on my main machine, going through the compatibility issues with great older software and hardware I think I am ready to at least talk about it.  Should you upgrade?  What do you stand to gain?  What might you lose?  That's the point of this article.

Should you upgrade?

My answer is simple.  Yes!  The real question is When should you upgrade.  I originally urged people to wait till driver issues got sorted out.  I can now say with confidence that there is no reason to wait any longer.  Manufacturers that intend to update their products have done so. I doubt the situation becomes much better. New software products are coming in XP compatible and now the tide has, as predicted changed.  Some new products are not Win 98se compatible.  Many PC studios, big and small, have already made the switch, and the overall consensus is that WinXP is a great improvement to 98se.

XP Home or XP professional?  A tough call it was for me and Microsoft wasn't particularly helpful on this one.  I decided to go pro, for one main reason.  Dual processor support when these motherboards become more available.  It won't be more than a few months before we start seeing dual processor motherboards designed for multi-media.  The power advantages of this is pretty incredible to contemplate now.  There's other cool bells too--Remote administration, i.e., calling up your desktop from your laptop, could be very helpful.  But the main thing is not to close off the future if you decide you want the power of a dual cpu machine down the road. 

 

The major gains: 

  • The biggest gain is entirely subjective.  XP feels different than win98se.  It has a softer, less hyped, more esthetic feel which is good for a creative artist of any camp.  The way the windows look, the sounds, the menus, the backgrounds all have a feeling of quality, roundness, and flexibility.  After a few days on XP, going back to 98 is a drag with its sharper corners and cruder design. 
  • XP boots faster--way faster, than win98.  Programs load faster.  There is less downtime.  Yes the claims are true.  There is also a feeling of heightened stability.  I am more likely to try things I would never do on Win 98, like load 5 or 6 applications at once.  When I do have a crash in my audio applications, I no longer have to reboot.  I simply run the application again.  Crashes that take the entire system down are rare.  I have run XP 24/7 for months without a reboot except for when installing software.  Under 98se I was lucky to get through a single day without a crash. 
  • Faster operation of processes.  Just about everything you can imagine is enhanced, from disk loading, file management, audio processing.  Programs that used to take a minute to load come up in seconds.  Saving big files is faster, and the web is much faster.
  • A much more detailed way to troubleshoot.  When things go wrong there are a multitude of tools to tell you exactly where and what caused your system to choke.  There's a great task monitor that accurately charts your cpu and memory usage, and a plethora of logs that are easily accessible that monitor your system status.  There's also a great feature called "system restore" which lets you go back to a point when your system was stable, in case you really mess things up. It has already saved me, and it works quite well.
  • Better file organization.  You can set up your folders in many different ways.  You can view a list of files, not only by name and type, but by artist, cd track, and more that pertains to the musician.  Graphic artists will like being able to display thumbnails of their pics right in the folder window at an enlarged size. 
  • There's quite a few little niceties for artists.  The windows media player is great.  You will not need to update your real audio player as the WMP blows it out of the water.  If you have a large sample library on your PC, you will find it much easier to organize

     

    The major drawbacks: 

    • Not all your older hardware and software is going to work.  The XP platform will not let you install programs whose drivers compromise the integrity of the system.  While this will cause problems in the short run, in the long run it will force programmers to use methods that will enhance the stability and usability of the OS. 
    • Don't think you are going to be able to upgrade from w98 in an hour, or 3, or 30.  If you have a lot of programs on your computer, consider spending about a week to upgrade and tune your new OS.  Make sure your audio card is XP compatible.  If it is not, expect it to work poorly, if it all. Upgrading to XP may require other upgrades to your system, not only audio cards, but video as well.  Don't expect this to be easy, but be thankful when it is.
    • MIDI interfacing:  Lots of USB interfaces do not have XP drivers yet. If you have to use a USB interface, check the status of it's drivers.  I'm sure this will be sorted out soon, but for now, its a troublesome area.
    • My major problem is that XP will not recognize my trusty, old MidiQuest 8 port se 128 channel midi interface.  XP will not load the old win95 driver, no matter what I do.  There are no new drivers from Opcode and they tell me that none are coming.  I am orphaned on that one.

     

    Steps to consider before upgrading:

    Consider your existing hardware drivers.  If you have to replace $2,000 worth of hardware to run XP, then you might consider whether the upgrade is worth it for you.  The two critical items are your soundcard and midi interface.  Before you purchase an upgrade, make a list of your hardware that requires computer drivers and see if they are win 2000/XP compatible.  If they do not specifically say they are compatible, chances are they will not work on XP.  Often you can get away with using Win2000 drivers on the XP OS, but that is not true with win98/ME drivers.  So check out your manufacturers websites and look for driver updates.  If the updates are still "in development" you should consider waiting.

    Dual Booting.  If you have lots of stuff that only works in win98se then you might consider the dual boot installation.  Here you have the choice at bootup to run Win98se or Win XP.  To do this, you need to install XP in a different partition than 98se.  So if you boot 98 on your C:\ drive, you might boot XP on your D:\ drive.  I advise creating a "new installation" of XP and reinstalling all your applications on the new partition.  You're going to need a lot of disk space to do it this way, as your applications will now be installed twice on your machine, and it takes more time, but you'll be starting off clean and XP won't mess with your old win98 applications. 

    The Wave of the future?  There is no doubt in my mind that XP is a hit.  I predict it will rapidly replace W98se as the OS of choice for musicians and graphic artists.  So if you are serious about staying contemporary with your system, its not a matter of "if" you will upgrade, but when you will take the plunge.  With a bit of advance planning on your part the transition will be painless and awesome.