It seems that ME has a negative reputation on this web site. I have had no problems.Can 2000 pro. be installed easily? Will it cost $200-300? I priced it at Best Buy.It seems this OS is recommended. Thanks
I run Win2K and would recommend it as an OS for trading. Very stable, and reliable. Only thing better is Linux. ME is a joke.
It seems that ME has a negative reputation on this web site. I have had no problems. If you have had no problems, I strongly suggest sticking with your present setup. Can 2000 pro. be installed easily? IMO, it's recommended to get Windows 2000 Pro already preinstalled. Otherwise you could be plagued with driver and other problems in the installation. Clearly, the consensus is that 2000 Pro is the superior product. I bought a system with Windows ME preinstalled, but quickly gave up trying to install 2000 Pro. ME has served my modest purposes well (866MHz PIII, 256 MB, dual monitor Compaq Presario 5000 trading WatcherPlus (VPN) remotely with Nextrend Trader Plus, and the usual internet and other applications), but this also came with plenty of tinkering and trial and error. My next system, however, will use a more stable and professional OS. ME is a joke. - Babak 2000 Pro could be a nightmare.
My suggestion like everyone else is to run windows 2000, preferable on a brand new machine. However if this is not an option, the next best thing would to completely format your existing hard drive and then install a fresh version of windows 2000 on it. Upgrading to windows 2000 from win9x doesn't guarantee a rock-steady platform.
Yes, W2k is better for trading. W2K is a 'business class' OS whereas W98/ME is a 'consumer class' OS. If you want to dependably run several programs at once without crashing or slowing down, then W2K will allow this. W2K also makes much better use of available RAM. If you day trade you need to concentrate on the market and minimize problems/distractions with your platform - you can eliminate a lot of potential problems by using W2K. On the other hand, if you are swing trading, then continuous up-time is not as critical and ME may be OK. Installing W2K is not like installing other programs. You may have to download and install drivers. You may have to check for hardware compatibility (modems, NICs, etc.) On the homepage of this site there is a link to the "Workstation Guide" which nicely addresses your questions. There is a lot of other good info there too.
Anyone running ME for trading needs their head examined. ME is for women and children. Get WIN 2001 or NT...forget about "98". Geeeeez. Get with the program!!!
As I've already stated, ME serves my purposes well. That may make me a woman or child in need of psychiatric help, but you, tradeRX, will always remain the "Board Idiot".
ME has worked well for me.I have ME, factory installed ,with an Athlon chip, 128mb and a TNT32 graphics card. My normal setup is 6 streaming graphs, 3 browswers, and 4 spreadsheets all running (overlapped) on a single monitor. I've been running this for a month, 8 hrs/day, every day, and haven't had a freeze-up or slowdown.
tom_p, i also am using ME - fine to start with, then started playing up in good old windows fashion. Reinstalled ME from the CAB files, and it's ok. Would like to go to 2000, but from what I read, you CANNOT upgrade from ME to 2000 (you can from win98 or 95 ...chuckle chuckle). Would need to format hard drive and clean install..... in other words don't do it (only sane way would be with ParitionIt or similair so you could have both systems installed and boot into whichever works!) If it ain't broke don't fix it...... stick with ME for now as i intend to, then when i start taking money out of this market (when) i'll buy a new PC with 2000pro installed - and definitely not XP! coops
I strongly recommend win2000 over WinME/Win98. First of all, Win2000 is very stable in high load situations, while WinME/Win98 isn't. Secondly, Win2000 has significantly better performance for operations involving disk and network access. I have measured a difference of 5x for a disk-intensive program (a compile of a large C++ program) of Win2000 vs. Win98