Conceived under the name Windows NT 5.0 but renamed the "sexier" Windows 2000 and now given the even gaudier nickname Win 2K, this operating system is primarily for businesses, but has made a few inroads into the home PC (read Win 9x/ME) market as well. 4 versions are available: Professional -- the only version of use to individual users -- Server, Advanced Server, and Datacenter Server. Go to www.sunbelt-software.com/w2k_family.htm for more info on the various flavors and requirements. Microsoft's game plan is pretty plain: phase out the 9x line (the last member is Windows Millennium, released in summer 2000) and eventually combine the user-friendliness and flexibility of the 9x line with the stability, security, and strict program management of NT in one operating system, Windows XP. This, of course, has happened. Microsoft proclaimed Win 2000 as its flagship operating system for about six months, then started hyping Win XP and "forgot" about Win 2K. (Ironically, Win 98 took much of Win 2000's initial market due to Win 2000's failure to appear on vendor shelves, its need for hefty hardware, and the numerous apps that choke on the various flavors of NT but like Win 9x just fine.) Like Win 98 and ME, Win 2K will not run on 386 computers. It also chokes on older 16-bit apps and older hardware (visit www.microsoft.com/hcl/default.asp for a list of compatible hardware). What it will do is support Plug 'n' Play, upgrade easily from Win 98, and use MSIE as a tightly integrated part of its shell. It also sports a strong directory architecture that makes it much easier to manage workstations, apps, and entire networks. Disk management has been improved, and Win 2000 supports FAT32 as well as the Iomega Zip drive format. It seems generally much easier to use than earlier NT versions. Best of all, it seems to be almost crash-proof. But don't get too attached; Microsoft is abandoning official support for Win 2K after early 2003. A lot of 2K users are angry with the decision to drop support for the system so quickly, but as usual, Microsoft seems to be less than concerned with the needs of its users.

Unless you're a business user, particularly a medium-to-large corporate user, the 9x versions of Windows will serve your needs better than Win 2000. Some businesses are migrating to Win XP, or sticking with their older versions of NT. Many other business users are still perfectly happy running Win NT's major competitor, Novell NetWare, and have no inclination to change over to Win 2000. Competition from an unlikely source challenged Win 2000's placement in the business world: Linux, the Unix-derived OS, has found a home in many corporations and small businesses (and new support from Intel, which has reworked its newer chips to support Linux). On the bright side, Win 2000 was crafted to run on the new 64-bit Alpha chip designed by Digital and now owned by Intel and Compaq.

If you are considering Win 2K for your home or small business computer(s), be prepared to give up some system resources: if you don't have 128MB RAM, at least 4GB of free hard disk space, and a 300MHz or faster CPU, don't bother with it. It isn't exactly self-explanatory, either, so office users who have trouble using Win 9x will really get headaches trying to make Win 2000 perform. Win 2K upgraders, check out the article at www.microsoft.com/windows2000/upgrade/default.asp for some tips on painless (huh) upgrading, and for more general info, check these sites out: www.zdnet.com/windows2000/ and www.2000training.com/. And check Microsoft's Web site for info on Win 2K bugs -- a crop of the little buggers has already been uncovered, and more are undoubtedly waiting for discovery. Users of NT 4, Iomega Zip and Jaz drives, and even older versions of Windows whose BIOS doesn't support ACPI have reported problems.

Corporate users did not flock in droves to the Win 2000 OS, and home users, particularly amateurs who don't get a kick out of reconfiguring drive partitions or exploring the ins and outs of hardware installation, are better served by Win 9x/ME or even XP. Certainly non-techie users feel more comfortable with Win 9x/ME, while owners of PCs with less-than-166MHz chips can't get much mileage out of Win 2000. In fact, the base hardware platform for Win 2000 is a minimum of a P166MHz-based system with 32MB of RAM, while Windows magazine recommended 128MB of RAM and a faster Pentium II at the bare minimum. If your PC doesn't handle NT 4, it definitely won't handle Win 2000. You also might be interested in knowing that Microsoft is busily denying reports that there are over 63,000 known flaws in Win 2K. Or should I say, not quite denying these reports. Installing Win 2K yourself? Get help from content.techweb.com/winmag/windows/guides/win2000/. You're going to need help; the Win 2K installation process is reported to be a fiendishly difficult one, with red flags constantly being thrown by the system due to its failure to recognize various hardware configurations, along with its relative lack of hardware drivers and compatibility problems with older products. Find out what's compatible and what isn't at www.ntcompatible.com, and download a partial compatibilty patch at www.microsoft.com/windows2000/
downloads.deployment/appcompat/. An analysis tool from Microsoft can tell you how well your hardware and software will fare under Win 2K; it's free from www.microsoft.com/windows2000/
downloads.deployment/readiness.

Reasons to upgrade or not to upgrade to Win 2K, shamelessly purloined from PC World and probably now more applicable to Windows XP:

• You're suffering too many crashes, freezes, and unexplained conflicts under your Win 9x system;
• You want better log-in and file-access security than Win 9x offers;
• You've used Win NT4 on your laptop and are sick of it;
• You use Win NT4 or Win 95 on a desktop system with DVD, USB, and/or other devices that your OS doesn't support well;
• You have a business machine running an early version of Win 95 (without FAT32 or USB support), you're considering upgrading to Win 98, but you want more features.

• $219 is more than you're willing to shell out for what, candidly, are modest improvements over Win 9x;
• Your PC doesn't have at least 64MB of RAM and a fast Pentium or Athlon processor;
• Critical programs on your machine aren't supported by Win 2K;
• You find the system stability and security features of Win 9x satisfactory, and you use your machine primarily for games and/or typical home usage; in that case you should stick with 9x;
• Your PC manufacturer doesn't provide Win 2K BIOS upgrades.

Notes of further interest: Microsoft has released two Service Packs for Win 2K, and has just released a third and final one. The first one weighs in at a strapping 60 MB+, and contains lots of setup bug fixes, as well as corrections for access violation errors, memory leaks, stop errors, and security holes. Also, the bugs covered with the various "hot fixes" are patched here, also. Go to windowsupdate.microsoft.com/ to download the beastie, and find out more about SP1 at www.winsupersite.com/reviews.win2k_sp1.asp. And, those upgrading to Win 2K should uninstall MSIE 5.5 before installing Win 2K. Having MSIE 5.5 on your system when you install Win 2K causes "version skew" in some key update files. For more info, go to support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q256/3/40.asp. The second Service Pack was released without a lot of fanfare in May 2002; it's a smaller (10 MB) download, and is focused mainly on upgrading security encryption to 128-bit. The third and last Service Pack is out as of summer 2002. After that, Microsoft will "retire" the system in favor of focusing entirely on Win XP. Support for NT 4 has already been discontinued, and support for 2K will only continue through the first part of 2003. After that, if you have questions about your 2K system, Microsoft will charge you for the answers. Warning: bug reports about SP3 are already hitting the airwaves. Keep up to date at www.labmice.net/articles/win2000sp3.htm.

Most power users prefer the NTFS partitioning system for Win 2K/XP over the older, less efficient FAT32, not only because NTFS is very stable and handles large hard drives better than FAT32, but also because there are other features for Windows 2K/XP machines that make NTFS more desirable, like file compression and encryption. The NTFS file system can read anything from the FAT32 file system, but not vice versa, which means that you can convert from FAT32 to NTFS and still retrieve old files from other Windows 98 partitions. If you'd like to use the heightened features and stability of NTFS, then you can convert FAT32 to NTFS on a Windows 2K/XP system easily enough. To convert a FAT32 partition to NTFS just go to a command prompt by clicking Start, Run, and typing CMD. From there type CONVERT C:\ FS:NTFS and hit Enter. Make sure to replace C:\ with the drive letter of the drive you want to convert if needed. All that is left is a reboot, after which the operating system will check the drive and run the conversion, leaving you with an NTFS drive. Although you shouldn't lose any data, you should still back up the partition or drive you are choosing to convert.

Useless Information Department: If you care about the dozens of Microsoft product codenames, go to noeld.com/softdev.htm and scroll down a bit. Did you know that Win 2K's first Service Pack is codenamed "Asteroid?" Or that Windows CE 3 is called "Rapier?" OK, well, it's there if you want it.