i set out to get a rock solid, fast, reliable and safe computer, good enough for the daily tasks ... without spending a fortune on hard or software. here is what i got. test computer (about 4 years old): siemens-fujitsu cpu: intel pentium 4 @ 1.60 GHz ram: 2 x 256 mb sdram pc133 hdd: maxtor 80 gb ata, 7200 rpm LG DVD RW, LG CD-RW video: nVidia riva tnt2 32 MB onboard LAN & ac'97 audio operating system TinyXP rev. 04 (based on windows xp pro sp2) installed software productivity: openoffice.org photo filtre xNview foxit reader internet related: ie 6 firefox plugins: maacromedia flash/shockwave, noscript, flashblock JRE 1.5 upd. 6 miranda IM multimedia: k-lite codec pack foobar 2000 GOM player Power DVD 6 OEM Exact Audio Copy LAME encoder NERO Burning ROM 6 OEM DVD Shrink Avi2DVD system tools: PageDefrag autoruns Power Defrag GUI & contig RegSeeker 1.5.x task explorer total commander 6.55 security: commodo firewall 2.x ... and as an eye candy i installed VTP 5.5 don't ask me for d/l links for those programs, they can be found with search engines! software licenses: all above programs are freeware (guaranteed spy/adware free), except nero and powerdvd which came as oem versions with one of the optical drives, if you don't have those, Deepburner is a free fully featured burning software and GOM player is playing dvds like a charme. total commander is shareware and only being used here because i can't do without it, commodo firewall requires free activation. (warning: posession and use of dvd shrink is illegal in the US of A) about TinyXP rev. 04: This revised edition of TinyXP combines the small size of older versions, but with almost all of the functionality of later versions. This is primarily a fast gaming OS. There are no Microsoft games in this edition. There are no third party programs included in this edition. You are however still able to open zip files, they will have a normal yellow folder but with a zip. There are no languages left apart from US English. The keyboard layout is United Kingdom, system locale and timezone are also set for the UK. This can be changed in Regional and Language Options in Control Panel - all "keyboard layouts" are left in. There are no networking command line tools - this increases security dramatically. It is important to note that TinyXP started out as a gaming OS that you can surf the net with, and use most programs with it. It ended up revised to the point that you might as well use normal XP. This however was always because it fully supported networking when it didn't need to for the purpose it was meant for - home use. In this edition, netstat.exe and other command line networking tools and a few more networking type features are now removed, TinyXP is back again to a very small footprint (365Mb), a very fast install (7 minutes) and uses far less RAM than Rev03 did - about 20Mb less. This edition has Internet Explorer included, (not just the core but the whole explorer). It also includes the DHCP service, Wireless LAN drivers and is still compatible with "Microsoft Office" and supports printers, joysticks, firewire etc. Performance Info: Operating System RAM Memory Usage = 45Mb (± 5Mb) WINDOWS Folder = 366.2Mb Running Processes on First Install = 14 Install Time for Windows = 7 Minutes Custom Added Features: eXPerience Spectrum Wallpaper Integrated Service Pack 2 (WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU.exe) Registry Tweaks For Performance/Gaming/Internet Windows Media Center 2005 Beta Version Theme (Royale) Integrated Critical and Recommended Post SP2 Hotfixes (Windows Updates) up to 28th March 2006 legal stuff: TinyXP works as an unattended installation CD with a pre-set license. don't forget to change the license key to your legitimate windows xp pro key! to do that, follow the instructions given on this website: http://www.petri.co.il/change_the_s... or use the 'Magical Jelly Bean', download here: http://www.magicaljellybean.com/key... now that let's see how this is working out in practical terms. the computer is really nothing special, just some old box off the shelve, no overclocking or hi-end components (probably something one can pick up at a yard sale for less than $100 :-). only the hard drive is a later purchase. the installation took a bit longer as described in the 'manual', about 9 minutes. there are only very few services running, i also turned off the wireless zero config service, since i don't need it and the nvidia driver helper service. next i disabled nero filter check, powerdvd remote, java update scheduler, the Longhorn clock/calendar (that comes with VTP), the openoffice speed launcher and the nvidia wizard using 'autoruns'. all what's left in auto start now is the firewall. what we have now is indeed a blistering fast computer loaded with all essentials needed for daily use. boot time beyond the post screen: 12 seconds and all is loaded, computer restarts in 32 seconds. 75 mb out of a total 512 mb system memory is in use after a fresh start (the firewall is using about 20 mb of the 75 mb). that leaves us with system resources in abundance. after the installation a created a drive image using ghost 8.3 with high compression, it turned out to be just 520 MB in size. i have this computer now running since 6 weeks and use it every day. no hickups or crashes. it's still going as fast as it did on day 1. occasional scans with HJT and F-Prot for DOS (from a boot disk) havent turned any threads ... every thing is hunky dory. it's truly a joy to work with! as you may have noticed there is no anti virus installed, i can do without ... can you? if the answer is no, then go for something reliable that is also easy on your system resources (like AVG free, AntiVir PE or if you want to spend some money, then get nod32, kapersky, f-prot or symantec anti-virus 10 'corporate edition', no, i don't mean norton anti virus :-). and if you want to use a different firewall, that's ok, zonealarm, keerio or outpost are certainly good products too, i choose comodo because i wanted to test it on this computer ... it hasn't failed me yet. networking funtcionality is certainly good enough for home use, file and printer sharing is working fine. now i'm not really a gamer (except the odd trip into diablo's world :-) so i can't really tell about gaming performance, but it should be as good as it gets given the system specification. after thousands of fresh xp re-installations, using all tweaks known to man, post-intsallation xplite tuning included, i have never seen anything so small and yet fully functional and fast performing like TinyXP. kudos to the makers! so if you think of buying a new computer because your old one is performing dead slow, think again. Today's subliminal thought is: 'Calm down ... it's only ones and zeros.' icq 10183575

I got about 1/3 through this epistle to the believers at CN. But no, I don't think my PIII is too slow. ===================================== If at first you don't succeed, you're about average. M2

FYI, M2 ... also have it running on a dell dimension xps 600 p3. all the above applies here as well ... ofc it's not as fast as the p4 and the hdd spinning only at 5400 rpm. still it's pretty cool performace for a p3 :-) it's dual booting and tinyXP comes up faster than the regular win98 installtion which is used here as well but i have been chosing the p4 as it has a rather common specification. Today's subliminal thought is: 'Calm down ... it's only ones and zeros.' icq 10183575

here are 2 screenshots for ya from the p3 as i'm working on it at the moment. http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/... http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/... Today's subliminal thought is: 'Calm down ... it's only ones and zeros.' icq 10183575

That's a linear post mattie... Quote: Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity! The anagram of computervitals is pivotal rectums...

Shouldn't this post be in the 'Autobiography' section? Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie!'... till you can find a rock

You better re-enable the 'Java Updater'. Your 3 updates behind and at possible risk of a 'Vundo' infection.