Windows 2000 Compatibility Tests

The Internet Connection Sharing feature allows more than one PC on a home network to share a single Internet connection -- even with a modem.

Product tested: Windows 2000 Professional (build 2195 + compatibility update)
From: Microsoft. Released Feb. 17, 2000.
Price: Upgrade: about C$290; full version: about $429.

Looking for a few good reasons to upgrade to Windows 2000? We've been testing the compatibility with a wide array of hardware and software here at PC Buyer's Guide and the verdict is generally good, as this report attests.

We've also been testing some of the advanced features of Windows 2000 Professional, such as Internet Connection sharing that can allow a single modem connection to the Internet to be shared among two or more computers with surprisingly good results. (This feature is also available in Windows 98 Second Edition and Windows Millennium Edition.) The only snag was the fact that, after the upgrade, one of our dial-up connection shortcuts had transmuted into a link to a virtual private network dialer, which reported an error when accessed. Creating a new dial-up account and deleting the shortcut to the VPN connection solved the problem. An image of the Internet Connection Sharing dialog is shown to the right.

We took the plunge with some of our production machines here at PC Buyer's Guide and installed the golden master of Windows 2000. Compatibility with most of our hardware and software was good, although a few applications (listed below) broke, and some hardware components needed new drivers.

Applications not working or having problems after the upgrade:

• 3D Stereo Image Factory
• Adaptec Direct CD versions prior to 3.01 ("cannot attach to driver CDUDF.SYS".) An update is now available for DirectCD 3.0 / Easy CD Creator Deluxe 4.0 customers.
• Adaptec Easy CD Creator 3.5c (Adaptec's website has info on Win2000 compatibility of Adaptec CD-R apps.)
• Basilisk II - no Ethernet support (fixed by build 115 or newer.)
• CDRWIN 3.7 ("could not load ASPI manager")
• Dragon NaturallySpeaking 3.0 (version 4.01 works)
• FutureMark MultimediaMark99
• FutureMark 3DMark 99 (3DMark2000 works)
• Microsoft Office 2000 Start Menu options for New Office Document and Open Office Document (require reinstallation; individual apps still work, when accessed from Programs menu or when documents are launched.)
• Microsoft PhotoDraw 2000 (!?)
• PCFriendly DVD player (fixed by installing a Windows 98 WDM driver for our system's Encore Dxr2 DVD decoder card)
• Steinberg Clean 1.0 (error: "no ASPI available." Fixed by Adaptec upgrade, noted above.)
• Steinberg Cubase VST 3.7
• Viscape Superscape
• ZD 3D WinBench 99 - ("couldn't find test collections")

Games not working or having problems after the upgrade:
Although most 3-D accelerated games worked after the upgrade thanks to Windows 2000's much improved support for DirectX and Direct3D, a few didn't run, complaining that the 3D graphics driver didn't initialize correctly. These included:

• DethKarz
• Driver
• Hot Chix 'n' Gear Stix
• Natural Fawn Killers
• Powerslide
• Quake 3, although a reinstall should fix it.
• S.C.A.R.S.
• Star Wars Rogue Squadron
• Wing Commander Prophecy

Hardware or hardware drivers not working as expected after the upgrade:

• ATI DVD Player 6.0 (ATI has now released Windows 2000 drivers for their Rage 128/128 Pro, All-In-Wonder 128, and All-In-Wonder 128 Pro. There is also a beta Multimedia Center for Windows 2000 available here. )
• ATI CD Audio (now available)
• ATI TV Player  (now available)
• Canon BJC 5100 printer (now available)
• Creative Labs Encore PC-DVD decoder card (fixed by installing a Windows 98 WDM driver and reinstalling the player app.)
• 3Com HomeConnect USB Cam (the "VidCap" Video Capture software still worked, though)
• Diamond Monster Sound MX300 control panel (sound still worked, though)
• Microsoft IntelliPoint driver (MS Intellimouse with scrolling wheel still worked, though)

Disclaimer: it may be possible to get some of the apps listed here as not working to run, either via updates or workarounds. We will update this list as fixes are discovered. Contact us if you know of a solution or version that works. The vast majority of applications and games on our test systems continued to function normally (without, of course, the crashes that "normally" accompany the regular use of Windows 98.)

Some email messages lost -- sort of.
After an installation that lasted about 50 minutes, the upgraded system still had all our installed programs and data, although we seemed to have lost some (but not all) of our old email messages that had been stored in local folders -- presumably a side effect of our tests of IE 5.5 prior to the Windows 2000 upgrade, which reverted our browser back to IE 5.01. Fortunately, the .DBX files that contained the old messages were still on the system -- they just weren't visible by default. It is prudent to back up your email messages and addresses prior to any upgrade - heck, you really should back up your whole system to be on the safe side. Fortunately, our upgrade from Windows 98 (or 98SE) was otherwise seamless.

Hardware
Our Diamond MX300 sound card, ATI All in Wonder 128 graphics card, Rockwell 56K modem, D-Link Ethernet adapter, Adaptec SCSI card, USB-based HP ScanJet 5200C and other components still worked as hoped. (We were initially pleased to see that the All in Wonder 128 still displayed and captured video without even requiring a new driver download; however, deeper investigation revealed several other features of the ATI Multimedia Center were no longer working, at least until the above-mentioned update was installed.)

Software titles working correctly after the upgrade:

Working Games

• Carnivores 2
• Descent Freespace
• Falcon 4
• Grand Theft Auto (Windows version)
• Grand Touring
• Grim Fandango (an apparently harmless error message appears)
• G-Police
• Monopoly Deluxe
• Monster Truck Madness
• Revolt (minor display problems)
• Rollcage
• SIN
• Test Drive 5
• Star Wars Episode 1 Pod Racer
• Twisted Metal 2

Working Applications

• ATI CD Audio Player
• ATI Video Editor
• ATI Video CD Player
• Automap Streets
• A Zillion Kajillion Rhymes & Cliches
• BizPlanBuilder
• Business Plan Pro
• Bulletproof FTP
• DesignExpress for Neato
• Dramatica Pro 4.0
• Dreamweaver
• ecBuilder Pro 4.x
• GIF Construction Set
• Internet Explorer
• FirstClass
• FlashPath (driver for solid state floppy disk module)
• FrontPage 2000
• HP PrecisionScan
• McAfee AntiVirus 4.x (the Win9x version was replaced with an NT version automatically)
• MDK Performance test for Windows 95 (graphics benchmark)
• MediaFace
• MyFlix MPEG editor
• Nero 4.0.8.3
• Netscape Communicator 4.7
• NfoDiz 5.0
• NovaDisk SE
• Stream Anywhere
• Stuffit Expander 5.0
• T.A.G. editor
• WinZip
• WS-FTP

Working Emulators

• Basilisk II (build 115)
• PacifiST
• WinUAE
• WinSTon

Working Graphics Apps

• 3D Home Architect
• 3D Studio Max 2.5
• 3D Studio Max 3.1
• All Adobe titles
• All Metacreations titles
• Amorphium
• Aura
• Caligari trueSpace 4
• CorelXara 2
• Digital Fusion 1.1
• FreeHand 8
• Hash Animation Master 98
• Hollywood FX
• Hollywood Plus DVD decoder (with beta drivers from www.sigmadesigns.com)
• "Ideas in Motion" OpenGL demo
• LifeForms
• LightWave 5.6
• Polytrans
• QuarkXPress 4.0
• QuickTime Pro 4.1
• Universe (Diard Software)
• World Construction Set 3.0
• Xing MPEG encoder

Working Music & Audio Apps

• AudioGrabber
• Audioactive Production Studio
• Acid 1.0 and Acid Pro 2.0
• Cool Edit Pro
• Koan Pro 32-bit
• MPEG Layer-3 Producer
• MusicEase Professional
• RealProducer G2
• ReBirth 2.0
• Sound Forge 4.5
• WaveLab 3
• WinAmp

Although, as reported here recently, we managed to trash one installation by installing an unsupported device driver, our other Win2K systems have been rock solid so far. We recommend Windows 2000 for business users looking for a more reliable version of Windows, not those primarily interested in games, multimedia, or esoteric hardware add-ons. In those cases, Windows 98 is still your best bet.

For Further Reading

• 11/04/99  Windows 2000 - an orientation guide.
• 05/17/99  Windows 2000 Setup - installation tips.
• 05/15/99  Windows 2000 beta 3 - hardware compatibility info
• 04/22/99  Windows 2000 software compatibility listings
• 09/18/99  Windows 2000 RC2 - Details on what's new in RC2.
• 01/04/00  What's Weak in Win2K - problems and what to do about them.
• 12/10/99  Windows 2000 Server - Setup info and deployment stats.
• 02/17/00  Windows 2000 critical update (note the date of this patch's release!) New.
• 02/18/00  Windows 2000 compatibility update New.

http://www.ntcompatible.cjb.net/ - Windows 2000 compatibility reports and workarounds. Updated.

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