Why Migrate to Windows 2000 or XP

Windows 95 has been a comfortable work environment for many users for years now.  Why should we upgrade to Windows 2000 / Windows XP?
 

Microsoft is Dropping All Support for Windows 95

Microsoft has replaced Windows 95 with several upgrades: 95 OSR2, Windows 98 and Windows ME, and now Windows XP.  They now refuse to fix remaining bugs and newly found security flaws in 95.
 

New Hardware Doesn't Work with Windows 95

Many new computers, graphics cards and peripherals (printers, cameras, etc.) don't work with Windows 95.  It is becoming increasingly difficult to find replacement and new hardware which can continue with 95.  In some cases, we have to buy outdated and inferior devices if we wish to maintain 95 compatibility.
 

Improved Reliability

Windows 2000 and Windows XP don't crash as frequently as Windows 95.  And when an application like Netscape or Internet Explorer crash on a 2000 or XP computer, it doesn't crash the whole computer.  With 95, the crash of one application meant the entire system would likely need a reboot.
 

Improved Speed

Windows 2000 and XP require much faster computers, so of course you would expect them to be faster than 95 on old hardware.  But that's not all - Windows 2000 and XP log in faster than 95 on similar hardware.  Microsoft claims your applications will also run faster, benchmark programs to test this claim seem to have a better chance of repeating that result when the study is being financed by Microsoft.
 

New OS Features

Windows XP adds several new and useful features.

Remote assistance is possible for problem resolution.  Your local consulting desk can connect to your computer and see the same symptoms you are seeing, all without anyone having to leave their desks.

XP also includes network based video conferencing using inexpensive set-top video cameras.

Windows 2000 and XP also include new features for rolling out centralized software.  These features allow us to be more flexible with software rollouts on Nexus than we were with Waterloo Polaris.
 

New Software

Today's software is increasingly dropping support for older versions of Windows like 95.  Microsoft has added many new features which programmers are happy to use in their programs.  And also the programmers are less likely to test on 95 now that it is an unsupported operating system.
 
 
Editted Dec 3, 2001 by Erick Engelke