Best OS for a "junk" machine?

I am about to give away a few machines to a few folks who have had little to no experience with using computers. The specs are quite low end: Duron/Pentium III 800Mhz with around 512MB and a Geforce 2 card

I have several options as to what OS i can put on them, but i am not sure what the most maintenance free OS would be in terms of support. The machines will be in use at least an hour from where i live, and i am the tech support on them.

Windows 2000
Windows XP

The machines will basically be used for sending e-mail and browing a bit - nothing more serious than that to start with.

Any tips for "lockdown" mode etc so that the user does not fubar the entire machine two hours into use?
Software "must haves" etc would be great to hear as well.

Personally, if it was me: XP. It is meant as a home-user machine and likely good for gaming and web browsing. Win2K is stable but so is XP at this point (IMO).

Normally on those systems I turn off a lot of the systems that Microsoft believes is required for smooth system operations and are in reality just resource hogs.

http://www.ss64.com/ntsyntax/services.html


Above is a list of default services between XP and 2000. I would look through and figure out which ones you do not need. There is an abundance of guides out there for optimizing XP by disabling services.

My system is much slower (567MHz 192mb RAM) and runs WinXP pretty well, I do everything any other computer does (minus gaming, plus paitence.)

XP: there'll be better support generally.

I concurr...XP

More user friendly...and with 512 mB RAM should be fine for the use you describe

MLF

I'd say XP, but with themes disabled. Themes tend to bog down the slower systems slightly (though, to be honest, I don't know how much it'd affect a 800 mHz system). I'd also install the nVidia drivers for the graphics card rather than rely on the stock XP drivers. A good IE alternative (Opera or Firefox), a good antivirus (I'd recommend NOD32 if the people are willing to pay a subscription). I would personally uninstall Outlook Express, though that really depends on personal preference. Of course, completely patch the box and disable services that aren't really needed.

Cheers,
cgkanchi

Those specs are just fine for, say, relatives who check their e-mail for photos of their grandkids, etc. (My folks only recently moved up from a 400mhz 256mb clunker...).

If you put on XP, do disable the themes. In fact, right-click on "My Computer", click "Properties", go to the "Advanced" tab, and under the "Performance" area click "Settings".

Use "Adjust for best performance", and "OK" all the way back out. Viola, themes disabled as well as lots of small eye-candy effects which could sap resources.

P.S.: Under the "Advanced" tab I mentioned, change the settings for "Error Reporting" to Disable-but-notify. It's actually less crashy that way. And from any window when browsing disk contents, go to Tools->Folder Options, "View" tab, and tick "Launch folder windows in a seperate process" for additional stability.

Another thing, if you use XP or something with fast-user switching... Make at least two accounts. One normal account, one Admin account. I usually make the admin account have a wallpaper saying "DO NOT USE THIS ACCOUNT EXCEPT FOR..." Teach them to use the non-admin account for all day-to-day work.

set the account with Guest permissions

IE in Kiosk Mode-http://support.microsoft.com/kb/154780

I think "Guest" might be a bit too harsh--you'll get more complaints of "it won't let me do X" than it's worth.

Good ideas. I'll take those suggestions to heart.

I do not think any of them will be installing much software by themselves either to begin with as both have barely seen a PC in action.

take the delete key off the keyboard they use :p

Well, I generally use WIN98SE.............but not on kit as modern as you describe :D

I would go Win 2000................. it is nice and stable and possibly cheaper than XP?

:D

The first machine has been delivered, but since the box is surrounded by concrete, net access is spotty to say the least. I am currently teaching the user how to use a mouse and keyboard so there is quite a way to go before the user will be thinking about apps and speed:)
An ISP is coming over later to check things out and when the net connection is fixed, the real teaching will begin:)

Hah!

That is why I like Windows98SE............. you can harden it to suit yourself, and it does not open very much by default ;)

I like Win2000 because it is stable and does the job with far less resource requirements than XP.

You do seem to be talking a stand alone scenario here?

Yeah, its for this machine :) I usually hand out the "crap" hardware to people who do not have computers but they usually know what to do with them too. This time, i got a few people that have no clue.

I ended up with Windows 2000 for that machine though in the end as XP really did not like the motherboard i think.

My opinion is XP
I had experiance i used xp alot on several types of machines
you need a 198mb min to run well

This is an XP box and is currently using about 520Mb of RAM.................I generally wouldn't like to put XP on anything less than 512Mb. My experience is that all Windows versions are more susceptible to available RAM amounts than processor speed.

Windows XP is rather like Win ME, it likes more RAM than NT4 or Win2000. They will work pretty well on 256 or 384Mb.

Another problem with XP is it sometimes won't play nice with old equipment and peripherals.

I know the minimum recommendation is 128MB and a 233MHz processor, but that does not give a particularly good experience, particularly if the user has had something like Win98SE on decent kit beforehand.

Windows XP is a very good operating system, so I don't like giving it to people on kit that does not show it as such;)

Windows 3.1

mjk that is not as silly as it sounds, if you have very old kit. I have some retail copies of Win 3.11 for workgroups. For a low end 80486 or higher end 80386 it will run very stable. Lower specs than that and you would have to use DOS.

I have seen an 80286 used to control a FAX machine and in the past, old 386s to control software licences (one step up from the dongle :D)

Of course you could never use it on the internet, as most ISPs won't support anything less than Win98SE these days.

:)

I would also probably adjust the display interface a little. Make the mouse point larger at least. Have just gone through something similar and one of the main problems these user had was locating the mouse point. Also the double click was a little tricky at first, I changed it to single click until they get a little more used to things.

Hope this helps

hmmm... nlite them? http://www.nliteos.com/


That's a fun way to lock a pc down. Remove parts of the OS that you normally can't. Makes for a small footprint OS too