OT: Windows 2000

Does anyone know where I can buy a Win 2000 license? We have a cell analyzer that requires it on the computer that runs the instrument.

Thanks,

Tony

Ebay would be the best bet to get a genuine copy. I wouldn't suggest the computer to be online as support has ended for that product and security vulnerabilities have not been patched. I would suggest to install and run win 2000 under a Virtual Machine.

Nowhere official, it's been dead for years. Do it in a VM and isolate that VM from the outside world if it's a machine connected to the internet. I'd recommend using Windows 8 as the host as it has client Hyper-V to host the VM which is a lot more secure than previous "XP Mode" incarnations.
First be sure that your software won't run in compatibilty mode tho as that would save you a lot of hassle.

Disclaimer: work for Microsoft, views not necessarily those of my employer etc etc.

Thanks very much. If I can find it I'll put it on a VM.

OK another question. Are there compatible components (e.g., from NewEgg) still available for Win 2000? I don't think SATA was even available when Win 2000 came out, was it? It would be great if I could put together a much faster computer in a smaller box to use with this instrument.

It depends on the hypervisor you use. A hyper-visor doesn't use actual drivers to install an operating system it uses synthetic drivers. you will have to find a hyper visor that supports win 2000 then you will be good to do. Off the top of my head I think VMWare, VirturalBox and Hyper-V (The Older Hyper-V 2.0 Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V) supports windows 2000...
A little caution on what was suggested by Landwomble but Im not entirely sure if the Hyper-V role in Windows 8 supports windows 2000. I believe Windows 8 uses Hyper-V 3.0 and that lacks support of synthetic drivers for Windows 2000. The older Hyper-V 2.0 (as found in Server 2008 R2) supports Windows 2000.

Tony-S wrote in post #16924940
OK another question. Are there compatible components (e.g., from NewEgg) still available for Win 2000? I don't think SATA was even available when Win 2000 came out, was it? It would be great if I could put together a much faster computer in a smaller box to use with this instrument.

That's a good question, and the answer is very likely No.

Now running it in a Vmware VM, it doesn't matter, because older compatible hardware will be emulated. You'll have a 10% or so overhead, but it should run MUCH faster on a new system running a VM, thanon an old P4 with an IDE 66 harddrive with 128MB of SDRAM.

Are you 100% sure it will not run on XP? That has very wide hardware support and very close compatibility with Windows 2000. (Windows XP was Windows 5.1, Windows 2000 5.0). You can generally get Windows 2000 drivers to work on XP 32 bit, but not the other way around. XP is no longer supported, too, but at least has had patches up until very recently.

I just spent a couple of hours trying to get the Win 2000 VM to recognize the instrument (they are connected by ethernet port). Despite having a "good" IP address and subnet mask on the computer, they do not see one another. I found a 2004 Dell laptop that I'm going to try next. It would be nice to have it on the VM, but I'm not sure how to get around the problem with the software not seeing the instrument. Of course, the company that makes the instrument won't troubleshoot a VM.

I'll have to track down an XP machine to see if that's better.

XP would still be my preference if it works.

If you'd like to troubleshoot the 2000 anymore, I would make sure the VM is using it's own dedicated NIC and not sharing the main host computer's single NIC as is typical. If you share, it has to do some funky NAT firewalling and virtual routing that is probably not going to let devices connect directly to it. With a dedicated adapter and no firewall enabled (on host windows or VM), you should have no problems.

Thanks Taylor. I have a Mac Mini (1.66 gHz Core Duo/2 GB RAM) that I installed XP Pro SP2 on last night. I'll see if I can install the instrument's software today and if so, see if it sees the instrument. Hopefully, that will do it. I'd still like the VM if possible since it's one less computer that's plugged in (the VM machine is a quad-core i5 Mac Mini).

I use to have it and a key saved as an ISO. Heck I still have win98 saved as a zip file. it's 98MB. geez the OS systems have increased in size! I'll have to pull out my old discs and see if I can find it for you.

I would suggest running the Windows 2000 on an older machine with the older hardware and keeping it from connecting to the internet. That would be the best way to make sure the device you have is working properly without any conflicts with newer hardware.

Yeah, it's slower but it should work and if you don't have the hardware you can probably find an older machine on Craigslist or at a local pawn shop for $25 - $50... with a monitor...

OK, I was able to ping the instrument from Win 2000 (subnet was off in the third spot) but I still can't get the software to recognize the instrument from the VM. I can also ping it from Win XP on the Mac Mini under bootcamp, but of course the software won't install on XP, only 2000. Ugh. Old computer, here I come...

Tony-S wrote in post #16940411
Ugh. Old computer, here I come...

That would probably be your best bet.

Ok I'm having the same problem with the dell laptop with win2000. That tells me the VM is probably going to work. Hopefully the company's tech can get me past this problem cheaply.