Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Somewhere
Posts: 2894

Personally, I use the "Focus" theme for XP.
Clean, elegant, and I like how I can choose black, green, blue, or red for highlight colors (all with grey/silver as the primary) ... so I can match my theme to my wallpaper

ThemeXP has it somewhere. It's a nice theme, you might want to check it out.

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Registered: Sep 2001
Location: Z'ha'dum
Posts: 1402

yeah, silver is good. I prefer classic but the classic bars with XP icons don't match.

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Registered: Sep 2001
Location: Z'ha'dum
Posts: 1402

yeah, silver is good. I prefer classic but the classic bars with XP icons don't match.

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"If you go to Z'ha'dum you will die"
-Kosh
(natives of Z'ha'dum may ignore this)

For all the rest of you.... don't come here.

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Somewhere
Posts: 2894

Another option, and one I tend to install for friends of mine if they ask about "what's with that stupid green start button?" is a skin where the silver theme is modified slightly; the start button is silver tone and the close button (the x in a window) is silver too (it's red, usually.)

It's a subtle difference, but a lot of people like it.

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Somewhere
Posts: 2894

Another option, and one I tend to install for friends of mine if they ask about "what's with that stupid green start button?" is a skin where the silver theme is modified slightly; the start button is silver tone and the close button (the x in a window) is silver too (it's red, usually.)

It's a subtle difference, but a lot of people like it.

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Registered: Sep 2001
Location: Northam, W.A. Australia
Posts: 235

I've been using XP and .NET related OSs for over a year and I've never really been bothered by either the green Start button or the red Close button and after using it for so long, I fail to see where others problems with it stem from either. Luna is no less functional than the old GUI (in fact, its a little more functional now that MS have done something useful with the panes in all the folder windows) and requires just as much "retraining" to get into the groove as other versions of Windows. Windows 3.1 used to have chunky buttons too but everyone seems to forget that when making the same complaint about XP. The only thing that I can see is that since it looks so different, people are afraid to take the plunge. I went in to XP (with all the same reservations, mind you) determined to give the thing a go and here I am a year later still using XP and still using Luna. Why does everyone have such a big problem with it?

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"Don't stop, baby, dreamin'"
"Don't stop, baby, lovin'"
"Don't stop, babe, believin'"
Wasurenaide...
"Don't stop, baby, dreamin'"
"Don't stop, baby, lovin'"
"Don't stop, babe, believin'"
...Watashi ga iru koto o.
Itsudatte soba ni iru yo.

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Registered: Sep 2001
Location: Northam, W.A. Australia
Posts: 235

I've been using XP and .NET related OSs for over a year and I've never really been bothered by either the green Start button or the red Close button and after using it for so long, I fail to see where others problems with it stem from either. Luna is no less functional than the old GUI (in fact, its a little more functional now that MS have done something useful with the panes in all the folder windows) and requires just as much "retraining" to get into the groove as other versions of Windows. Windows 3.1 used to have chunky buttons too but everyone seems to forget that when making the same complaint about XP. The only thing that I can see is that since it looks so different, people are afraid to take the plunge. I went in to XP (with all the same reservations, mind you) determined to give the thing a go and here I am a year later still using XP and still using Luna. Why does everyone have such a big problem with it?

__________________
"Don't stop, baby, dreamin'"
"Don't stop, baby, lovin'"
"Don't stop, babe, believin'"
Wasurenaide...
"Don't stop, baby, dreamin'"
"Don't stop, baby, lovin'"
"Don't stop, babe, believin'"
...Watashi ga iru koto o.
Itsudatte soba ni iru yo.

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Registered: Jun 2002
Location: West Sussex, England
Posts: 85

In response to the original question of this thread, check your user priveleges. To run FS2 (or any game, for that matter), you are best off as an admin. It can be run as a 'Power User' (which is what I do) and I haven't patched it.
Win98 is faster than WinXP. The benchmarks do not agree with that, I have taken some using 3DMark 2001 SE (I don't have them on me, I am at college), but I-War 2 can have its detail levels turned further up on Win98 than it can on WinXP for the same obvious performance. WinXP is better than Win98 in one cruical way - stability. I-War 2 would crash every 2 hours in Win98 and has never crashed once in WinXP.
However, none of these beat the king of stability - Linux. I run Mandrake 8.1 alongside 98-SE and XP Pro. Even if a program stops responding completely (in a situation that would have killed any Microsoft product), you can use XKill to stop it with no adverse effects, or even start a different program and use that.
Long Live the Penguins! (now if only Linux would see my CD drives.)

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Registered: Jun 2002
Location:
Posts: 76

In response to the original question of this thread, check your user priveleges. To run FS2 (or any game, for that matter), you are best off as an admin. It can be run as a 'Power User' (which is what I do) and I haven't patched it.
Win98 is faster than WinXP. The benchmarks do not agree with that, I have taken some using 3DMark 2001 SE (I don't have them on me, I am at college), but I-War 2 can have its detail levels turned further up on Win98 than it can on WinXP for the same obvious performance. WinXP is better than Win98 in one cruical way - stability. I-War 2 would crash every 2 hours in Win98 and has never crashed once in WinXP.
However, none of these beat the king of stability - Linux. I run Mandrake 8.1 alongside 98-SE and XP Pro. Even if a program stops responding completely (in a situation that would have killed any Microsoft product), you can use XKill to stop it with no adverse effects, or even start a different program and use that.
Long Live the Penguins! (now if only Linux would see my CD drives.)

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Somewhere
Posts: 2894

Yeah, you know me, I love gaming on Linux. Almost as cool as gaming on a Mac.

Oh, wait...

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Somewhere
Posts: 2894

Yeah, you know me, I love gaming on Linux. Almost as cool as gaming on a Mac.

Oh, wait...

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Registered: May 2001
Location: Israel
Posts: 144

hahahaha

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Registered: Sep 2001
Location: Northam, W.A. Australia
Posts: 235

quote:

---

Originally posted by Alphakiller
Yeah, you know me, I love gaming on Linux. Almost as cool as gaming on a Mac.

Oh, wait...

---

__________________
"Don't stop, baby, dreamin'"
"Don't stop, baby, lovin'"
"Don't stop, babe, believin'"
Wasurenaide...
"Don't stop, baby, dreamin'"
"Don't stop, baby, lovin'"
"Don't stop, babe, believin'"
...Watashi ga iru koto o.
Itsudatte soba ni iru yo.

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Registered: Sep 2001
Location: Northam, W.A. Australia
Posts: 235

quote:

---

Originally posted by Alphakiller
Yeah, you know me, I love gaming on Linux. Almost as cool as gaming on a Mac.

Oh, wait...

---

__________________
"Don't stop, baby, dreamin'"
"Don't stop, baby, lovin'"
"Don't stop, babe, believin'"
Wasurenaide...
"Don't stop, baby, dreamin'"
"Don't stop, baby, lovin'"
"Don't stop, babe, believin'"
...Watashi ga iru koto o.
Itsudatte soba ni iru yo.

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Registered: Nov 2002
Location: Southampton, England
Posts: 31

The reason why I won't be upgrading to XP is simple. Cost £90. Benefits questionable. Other costs: minus lots of HD space.

Win 98 might be crap, but it is the devil I know.

Don't you just love the Blue Screen Of Death?

Anyone here remember the old Acorn RISC OS? Had the functionality of Windows 98 in 1992. The good old days, before MS really got its claws in.

Oops, started to rant. I shall go and have a cup of coffee to calm down.

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Registered: Nov 2002
Location: Southampton, England
Posts: 31

The reason why I won't be upgrading to XP is simple. Cost £90. Benefits questionable. Other costs: minus lots of HD space.

Win 98 might be crap, but it is the devil I know.

Don't you just love the Blue Screen Of Death?

Anyone here remember the old Acorn RISC OS? Had the functionality of Windows 98 in 1992. The good old days, before MS really got its claws in.

Oops, started to rant. I shall go and have a cup of coffee to calm down.

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Registered: Sep 2001
Location: Z'ha'dum
Posts: 1402

My turn...

Now i am having probs. Every time i start FS2 it says

"you must allow setup to gonfigure your video card for you before you can play this game.

To do this 1.click setup from the menu 2. click on the video tab 3. push 'detect available cards' 4. select video mode 5.finally, click OK."

I have done this over and over but it still won't start. I installed the patch and tried a re-install.
help.

__________________
"If you go to Z'ha'dum you will die"
-Kosh
(natives of Z'ha'dum may ignore this)

For all the rest of you.... don't come here.

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Registered: Sep 2001
Location: Z'ha'dum
Posts: 1402

My turn...

Now i am having probs. Every time i start FS2 it says

"you must allow setup to gonfigure your video card for you before you can play this game.

To do this 1.click setup from the menu 2. click on the video tab 3. push 'detect available cards' 4. select video mode 5.finally, click OK."

I have done this over and over but it still won't start. I installed the patch and tried a re-install.
help.

__________________
"If you go to Z'ha'dum you will die"
-Kosh
(natives of Z'ha'dum may ignore this)

For all the rest of you.... don't come here.

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Registered: Sep 2001
Location: Northam, W.A. Australia
Posts: 235

quote:

---

Originally posted by Cuttenslise
The reason why I won't be upgrading to XP is simple. Cost £90. Benefits questionable. Other costs: minus lots of HD space.

Win 98 might be crap, but it is the devil I know.

---

Not only did I not pay a cent for my copy of XP (although it must be said that XP is the first MS product that I've ever considered, even briefly, paying for) I was able to recover 2Gb of hard disk space by installing XP: I go rid of my my Win98 partition

quote:

---

Don't you just love the Blue Screen Of Death?

---

heh, I hardly ever see it nowadays I've forgotten what it looks like

__________________
"Don't stop, baby, dreamin'"
"Don't stop, baby, lovin'"
"Don't stop, babe, believin'"
Wasurenaide...
"Don't stop, baby, dreamin'"
"Don't stop, baby, lovin'"
"Don't stop, babe, believin'"
...Watashi ga iru koto o.
Itsudatte soba ni iru yo.

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Registered: Sep 2001
Location: Northam, W.A. Australia
Posts: 235

quote:

---

Originally posted by Cuttenslise
The reason why I won't be upgrading to XP is simple. Cost £90. Benefits questionable. Other costs: minus lots of HD space.

Win 98 might be crap, but it is the devil I know.

---

Not only did I not pay a cent for my copy of XP (although it must be said that XP is the first MS product that I've ever considered, even briefly, paying for) I was able to recover 2Gb of hard disk space by installing XP: I go rid of my my Win98 partition

quote:

---

Don't you just love the Blue Screen Of Death?

---

heh, I hardly ever see it nowadays I've forgotten what it looks like

__________________
"Don't stop, baby, dreamin'"
"Don't stop, baby, lovin'"
"Don't stop, babe, believin'"
Wasurenaide...
"Don't stop, baby, dreamin'"
"Don't stop, baby, lovin'"
"Don't stop, babe, believin'"
...Watashi ga iru koto o.
Itsudatte soba ni iru yo.

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