Windows 2000 software

Product: Windows 2000 Professional and Server
Version: Build 2195 (final)
Summary: The following programs were tested.

No Problems Noted

• 3DLabs' OpenGL demos
•  3DRad 2.3 games development environment
• 3D Studio MAX 2.5
• 3D Studio MAX 3.1
• 4D Paint 1.0 and 1.6
• Acadia Infuse
•  Adobe After Effects 4.0
• Adobe After Effects 4.1
• Adobe Dimensions 3.0
• Adobe Acrobat 3.0
•  Adobe Acrobat 4.0
• Adobe Acrobat Reader
• Adobe Illustrator 8.0
• Adobe Illustrator 9
•  Adobe PageMaker 6.5
•  Adobe Photoshop 5.0
•  Adobe Photoshop 5.5
• Adobe Premiere 5.1
• Adobe Streamline 4.0
• Aladdin Expander 2.0
•  Allaire Homesite 2.5
• Alesis Sound Bridge
• Animatek World Builder 2.1
• AVI Maker
• Band in a Box for Windows
• Breeze Designer 2.0
• CakeWalk Express Gold
• Caligari trueSpace 4.2
• Circle Elements
• CorelDraw 9
• Crystal Flying Fonts
• Cyclonix Vocoder
• Descent 2
• Diamond Cut Audio Restoration Tools
• Digital Fusion 1.1
• Dinosaur Hunter
• Disk Copy Fast
• FirstClass Intranet Client 5.02
• GIF Construction Set
• Graphic Workshop
• HP PrecisionScan
• Internet 3D Space Builder
• Internet Explorer 5; Outlook Express 5 *
• Macromedia Dreamweaver
• Macromedia Fontographer 4.1
• Macromedia FreeHand 8
• Macromedia xRes 3
• Magix Music Maker Professional
• Map This
• Maya 2.5
• Maya 3.0
• Metacreations Bryce 4
• Metacreations Detailer
• Metacreations Expression
• Metacreations Headline Studio 1.0
• Metacreations Infini-D 4.1.1
• Metacreations Painter 5.0
• Metacreations Poser 3.0
• Metacreations Ray Dream Studio 5
• Metacreations Soap
• Microsoft Chat (AKA "Comic Chat")
• Microsoft Flash 4.0 (screen capture)
• Microsoft Front Page 98 and 2000  *
• Microsoft Office 97: Word 97, Excel 97, PowerPoint 97 Access 97.  *
• Microsoft Office 2000  *
• MorphInk
• MYOB Accounting
• NetObjects Fusion 2.0
• Newtek Aura
• Newtek LightWave 5.6 Problem: "Can't enable Direct3D on this system." Open GL works normally.
• Newtek LightWave 6
• Norton Antivirus 2000
• Norton Internet Security 2.0
• Pocket PC ActiveSync software
• QDesign MPEG audio codec
• Quadrasynth Editor
• QuarkXPress 4.0
• QuickTime 4 (despite a warning message when Windows 200 detects it during Setup.)  *
• RealAudio Encoder
• Scriptware for Windows
• Sseyo Koan Pro
• Steinberg Rebirth RB-338
• Steinberg Recycle
• Steinberg WaveLab 2.0
• Telos AudioActive Production System Pro
• The Drumz Wizard
• Ulead MediaStudio Pro 5.2
• Ulead Morph Studio
• Unisyn
• Vitec MPEG Maker
• WinAmp 2.10
• WinRAR95
• WinZip 7
• WS_FTP
• You Don't Know Jack

Apps marked * required full reinstallation to work after a "clean" upgrade.

Some Problems Application anomalies are noted in red.

• 3D Mark99: application says it needs DirectX 6 (which Windows 2000 includes)
•  Adaptec Easy CD Creator 3.5:  a workaround is posted at http://webcheckup.adaptec.com/ecdc-win2k/
• CDRWin:  Says ASPI manager not installed.
• Darktree Textures 1.0:  Crashes.
• Direct CD: Versions prior to 3.01 were not Windows 2000 compatible.
• LucasArts' Star Wars Racer: video anomalies when advanced options (shadows, glows, etc.) are turned on.
• Metacreations Kai's Power Goo: Displays horizontal bands instead of "goo" effect.
• Microsoft Flight Simulator:  Can't play video at startup. Says "compressor not available." Rest of game works well, though.
• MultimediaMark 99:  Requires Windows 95 or 98.
• Panasonic MPEG-1 Coder: Can't connect to capture driver. Plays videos more smoothly than Win2K's Media Player, though.
• SAI's Format UDF (Win9x version):  Says ASPI manager not installed (SCSI devices show up in My Computer, however). Requires Windows 2000 version (US$80)
• Steinberg Cubase VST: won't install.
• VAZ - Cannot initialize DirectSound.
• WindowBlinds - Installs in Taskbar, but Configuration program "Apply" function has no effect.
• Star Trek Earth Force game - Installer doesn't run

Installing the latest ASPI32 driver from Adaptec solves some ASPI problems.

Some apps, such as Boland/Inprise Delphi 4.0 and C++ Builder 4.0 will not install under Windows 2000. Install under NT4 and then upgrade to Win2000.

Tip: If you are attempting to run a self-extracting "InstallShield" archive and encounter the message "the decompression of %s failed, there may not be enough space in the temp directory," open a DOS box and type "SET" to see where the TEMP variable is pointing to on your system. On ours, it was in "Documents and Settings>Our Name>Local Settings>Temp."

For Further Reading:
www.ntgamepalace.iscool.net has another list of Windows 2000 compatible applications we won't duplicate here.
More more info on Windows 2000, see the Operating Systems index of this site
betanews.com has a number of tips on how to get sound cards running under Windows 2000, in their Win2000 section.

ZD Net:

• Win 2000 Beta 3 running late
• Microsoft partners to charge for Windows 2000 Beta 3
• Pushing Win 2000 deployment - more info on Beta 3
• The Windows 2000 conundrum

Infoworld:
beta testing Windows 2000

Other sources:

• Paul Thurrott's WinInfo Windows news and information (an excellent site)
• www.betanews.com
• Microsoft's "Windows 2000 Ready" page
• Microsoft.com: Windows 2000 training, upgrades and features.
• IBM's Plans & Programs for Microsoft Windows 2000

More like this . . .

How many search commands do you have in your PC?

How many search commands do you have in your PC? asked Bill Gates during his keynote introduction at Forum 2000, where he unveiled a set of next...

Linux News

2003 Aug. 7: Noted at News.com: This week, KooBox.com started selling what it calls the first complete Linux computer. US$449 gets you a 1.2 GHz...

A Mac OS X Overview

Server and Client At the 1999 Worldwide Developers Conference, Steve Jobs, Apple's interim CEO, and Avie Tevanian, Apple's senior vice president of...

Editorial: MS World Domination Scorecard

Microsoft is often accused of -- and has been convicted of -- anticompetitive behavior in the technology marketplace. In this article, I'll look at...

Windows Server 2003

Introduction Microsoft's next server platform is known as Windows Server 2003. It will be offered in both 32-bit and 64-bit editions, designed for...

Alternative GUIs for Windows XP

As we've noted in our earlier features on Alternative Graphical User Interface (GUI) options for Windows PCs, there are a number of products that can...

Codename: Whistler

Codename: Whistler This preview examines the feature-set in the Professional version of Windows XP, code-named "Whistler." There were...