Pros: Incredibly stable, excellent HCL, not very hard to install and configure, good networking
Cons: Fat hardware requirements, some software incompatibility problems, complicated for new users
The bottom line: Not only good for business, Win2K is a great option for home users with adequate experience. The centralized Administration options are great, and the OS is fast and stable.
Don't let some of the talk on Microsoft's site fool you - Windows 2000 is not just for business purposes. Not at all. In actuality, it can be an excellent choice of operating system for more experienced home users, as well as curious new users looking to graduate past the more user-friendly Windows 9x line. However, Windows 2000 is actually very user-friendly; in some ways even more so than Windows 98 or Me. It's stable, it's rather fast (if your hardware is up to snuff that is), and it's very organized once you get a grip on where everything is (and from a user used to Windows NT 4, like me, some stuff is in odd places).

It's not all fun and games though; Windows 2000 has some very annoying hindrances that can frustrate newer users and veterans alike - from software incompatibilities, weird error messages, and a handful of more complicated techniques that normally takes seconds to complete using other OS's, Windows 2000 can be as much of a pain as it is a savior. The good wins out over the bad though, because Windows 2000, when placed on the right computer system, is a top-notch operating system that will please users sick and tired of the idiosyncrasies and occasional instability of Windows 9x. It's more expensive, but well worth the extra dough. It's no wonder MS is finally getting smart with WindowsXP using the NT/2000 kernel, considering how good Win2K is (however, I won't go into the stupidity of MS's new anti-piracy system for XP).

Things To Know - Unlike the rather minimal requirements required of Windows Me and lower, Windows 2000 Professional requires a LOT more hardware to run properly. Just to INSTALL Windows 2000 you need one gigabyte of hard disk space, or it won't install. RAM is also a steep requirement; 64 is the least amount possible to run well (32 will work, but not very good). You can get away with a Pentium-class processor around 150mHz, however. Stupidly, according to a series of test questions I saw for the MCSE exams, Windows 2000 requires a NIC (Network card) as well, but that isn't the case. I've installed it on a system without a NIC and it was fine. A good PC that is able to run Windows 2000 is a 450mHz and up processor, 128 or higher RAM, and a 5 GB or bigger hard disk. For the sake of statistics, the main PC that I use at home for Windows 2000 has a 550mHz AMD processor, a 20 GB hard disk, 184 MB of RAM (8 MB shared video unfortunately), and a 4X4X24 CD-RW drive.

Installation Tasks - Installation is very easy, even if it is a little on the long side with certain machines. Besides the text-based portion, it's a very hands-off process, besides for a couple small things (CD Key, name, and location basically, it all depends on the hardware it detects).

The process is very long as I said. On some computers, it takes over an hour and a half, depending on the speed of your PC, and how much hardware it can install for you. On my main home PC, it took 45 minutes or so (for a reason though which I'll get into in a bit).

You can do it two ways - upgrade or clean. You may upgrade from Windows 95, 98, NT 4 Workstation, and Me (which is odd, upgrading from an OS that is newer than 2000, is that forward compatibility?). I highly, highly, recommend installing Windows 2000 clean and blow away your hard disk contents - upgrading leaves a mess of non-working hardware and software, as well as a performance hit. If anything, split your drives up and do a dual boot of Windows. But whatever you do, install it clean and then install your software. It's the best choice.

Thankfully, doing it cleanly is easy. If your CD drive is bootable, all you need to do is place the disc in and it'll boot up the install process and let you manage the partitions on the hard drive and get the clean install ready. However, if you have to boot the install process from your current version of Windows, you can't wipe out your drive completely, because of the temporary files 2000 installs to start the install process. If that's the case, make sure to make the 4 bootable floppies to begin the install process.

File system of choice is also an option - either between FAT an NTFS. If you're doing a dual boot, make sure to use FAT so Windows 9x can read your 2000 drive. If not, go with NTFS. Besides the fact that it handles disk space a LOT better than FAT or FAT32, NTFS can handle file permissions a lot better (read: hide your porn pictures from your significant other by setting the "no access" permission to the folder or files). It requires a little more overhead and knowledge, but it's the much wiser choice.

During install, the hardware detection is flat-out awesome. Never before have I seen an OS pick up so much old and obscure hardware as Windows 2000. Microsoft did a great job on their HCL for sure. On an older PC, it detected everything except the network card; it detected the video card, the modem, the USB card, and even my long-lost ISA SoundBlaster card that Windows 9x couldn't detect. On a school PC I installed it on, it detected everything, including the 3Com Etherfast NIC card..which is amazing considering that Windows NT 4 couldn't detect this hardware, and left you running around looking for the drivers.

All wasn't perfect though - after finishing the install on my home PC (which took very little time and now I know why), it didn't find my 1)modem, 2)video card, 3)sound card, and 4)my NIC (which wasn't surprising). Until I realized that my PC was newer than the Windows 2000 OS, I figured it was a failure. After emailing Compaq about it (which resulted in them saying there were no drivers for Windows 2000 available), I found all my drivers (and one, the modem driver, was on the Compaq SoftPaq CD I had sitting around for months) and got my system working properly. All in all, with install and driver hunting, it took 4 hours to configure my system to how I wanted it.

Basically, if your system is older than the OS, it should have most of the hardware in it's HCL (Hardware Compatibility List) and you shouldn't have a problem. However, if your PC is newer than Win2K, make sure you have all the necessary drivers at hand. Don't be a moron like me, come prepared!

Once it's done you have a pair of options for log on - either make Win2K think you're the only user and have it remember you each time so you don't have to log on; or make you sign in each time, which allows for multiple, configurable users. If you're using it at home, you might as well go for the always remember option, as to not confuse those less computer-inclined.

Fiddling Around - On the surface, Win2K is much like Windows before it; minus the ultra-cool Tahoma font, that is. Most of the same things are in the same places, and have the same options; the personalized menus (ick), the expandability of the Control Panel, Windows Explorer, and the rest of the usual Windows features. However there are differences, the main one would be the "Administrative Tools" folder.

The Admin Tools folder is one of the most important parts of Windows 2000. From here you can enable and disable particular services (such as WWW Publishing service, IIS services, etc), view the event log (mucho helpful for troubleshooting, even if it can be an overload for worrywarts), fiddle with Performance Monitor (good for testing the PC's hardware), and most importantly, manage your computer.

Computer Management is the backbone of running Windows 2000. Based off the Microsoft Management Console (it actually IS an MMC), most major tweaking and maintenance duties are tucked away here. From here you can view the Device Manager (for installing and uninstalling hardware, and doing driver updates), Defrag, and Disk Management. Defrag is a lot different than the 9x cousin; it's a licensed less powerful version of Executive Software's Diskeeper software, generally one of the best defragmentation software programs in the world. Norton Speed Disk is a lot better, but if you can't afford or don't want Speed Disk, this is a welcome tool.

Disk Management within CM is also incredibly useful. It's just like a partition manager; it lets you fiddle around with your partitions and that sort. While you can't mess around with the system partition, you can play with your other ones if you have it set like that. What is even cooler is the networking part; if you have a small network, you can connect to other Windows 2000 PC's and play with the disks on that machine, even without the Administrative rights to do so (which is scary for the IT guys). I personally got this very bizarre enjoyment out of being able to eject and close the CD-ROM drive of the other computer in my network (much to the shock of the other person using the computer!).

The MMC is the main place to do your troubleshooting and tweaking and performance issues, and best part is, it's customizable. You can create your own custom MMC's, using the various "snap-ins" provided by Microsoft. It's incredibly useful for propeller-heads like me who need all their info in one place, and know how to get to it fast. Unlike the occasionally cluttered Windows 9x features of the same sort, the MMC makes things simple. It might be a lot of information for newer or less experienced users, but for most it's a Godsend.

Networking is also a wee bit different than it is under any other Windows OS. My Network Places is essentially the same, except for a few different changes, and not always for the better. Just getting to the properties to designate the IP address and Subnet is a couple extra steps, as opposed to the other system's easy right-click and you're there feature. However, you make up for that by NOT having to reboot after changing your IP address..the changes are automatic. If you change your workgroup or domain, though, you will need to reboot.

Windows 2000 allows for a new networking feature, the VPN (Virtual Private Network). A VPN is more or less a dial-up network-esque network, where instead of dialing up a Remote access server to log on, you dial up the actual computer you want to use to access it. It's still kind of Greek to me (then again so is Active Directory), so I don't know a lot about it.

Microsoft's backup program is also much improved. Finally, MS backup lets you make a backup file and burn it to a CD, instead of those darn tape drives that drive me crazy. Or you can place it on a different partition (or even better, a removable hard drive, like I have) to use to rescue a problem with 2000. It's all a wizard (as most everything is now with Windows 2000), so beginners should be okay handling it after some time using it.

The ultimate new feature is the Recovery Console, a DOS-based program which lets you copy files that are good into places where the files went bad (sounds simple..). Basically, if you installed a bad driver (which happens WAY too often) and can't get into 2000 to delete it, you can use the RC to delete that driver and put the old one back in. Simple as that.

Generally, Microsoft has done it right with these additions and improvements. The networking part is a little annoying, but the rest of these enhancements make things a lot easier for tweakers to troubleshoot their systems without doing the dreaded reinstallation.

Compatibility Issues - Thankfully, software compatibility is not as bad as it seems. All my software that I had on Windows Me works on Windows 2000, save for my printer drivers (which I had to get from their website). Microsoft Office was fine (of course), except that I didn't have to reboot afterwards (one of the joys of NTFS and Windows 2000), Norton SystemWorks was fine, except for a few missing programs and changes; for instance Speed Disk and NAV is a little bit different than the 9x versions, and some Utilities features are AWOL..and Disk Doctor doesn't even work because the Win2K Scandisk overrides it. My other programs such as Netscape 6, MusicMatch Jukebox, and AOL Instant Messenger work fine, and in a lot of ways better. Even my Easy CD Creator 4 software worked perfectly out of the box; I haven't had the CD burning troubles that have been reported.

One important piece of software IS compatible but a hassle -ZoneAlarm. It's a very weird thing that annoys me to the Xtreme (XFL reference there). After connecting to the Internet, then disconnecting, ZA will somehow hinder the system from normally rebooting and shutting down. If I lose my connection, I can't reconnect at all; so I have to reboot, which results in example #1. The only way I can safely disconnect or shut down is to reboot the system or shut down while connected. It's not fun. I went back and used BlackICE Defender for a while, and I didn't have the ZA problems; besides the lack of security BID offers, that is. I've been thinking of getting NIS 2001 to see if that works, but until then, ZoneAlarm and Windows 2000 have some annoying issues they need to work out together.

Games used to be an issue for me, but I haven't even checked to see compatibility issues, for I really don't like PC gaming anymore. I would suppose the inclusion of DirectX 7 would mean the games will work with no problems, but I can't say for sure. I do know my console emulators and ROM's will work without a hassle, however. Just don't use NESten if you're running Win2K.

Thankfully, most of my software has worked fine without any issues, and should work the same for you. Make sure to upgrade to Service Pack 1 though to be completely sure. SP2 is coming at the end of this month, as well.

The Important Stuff - Stability..how is it? I've had it installed on my PC for a month or so, and I've had NO crashes or freezes. Not a single one. I used to have a stuttering problem at times with 98 and Me; it's non-existent on Windows 2000. I used to run out of resources fast in Windows Me; Windows 2K manages the base memory excellently, and that problem has been eliminated. Even Internet connections are more stable and efficient with Windows 2000; my disconnects are much less frequent while actively surfing, and connections are a little bit faster for some reason. When all is working correctly with no errors, Windows 2000 is equal, if not more so, stable than any Linux or Unix OS out there. Sometimes a program will freeze if you do something funny, but never ever will it take the entire system down with it. And that's a very, very good thing. I can deal with an IE or N6 crash every once in a while, but when it took down the OS, frustration sets in quickly.

It's also a lot faster - Windows 9x only is able to manage a certain amount of RAM - if you're running Windows 95 with more than 64 MB of RAM, it only uses and recognizes that 64. 98 is a little better, and Me does a pretty good job actually. But 2000 takes all you can throw at it. 184 MB is used as 184 MB in my case, not 128 like Me sees. It'll even let you add another processor for extra speed. It can't be as fast as 2000 Server or Advanced Server, but it's a much faster and better performing beast than Me. Stable and fast - I think I'm in Heaven!

Very Much Recommended, But.. - If you are playing the "my first PC" game, stay away from Windows 2000. Me is a lot more useful for new users, with less hands-on maintenance tasks. Windows 2000 is an entirely different set of rules basically, and more for the intermediate to advanced user. If you are one of those last two types, then please, pick up 2000 if you haven't already, especially if you're running anything from 9x. The price is high for the OS, but you can buy the upgrade and do the clean install (as long as you have a disk from the other 32-bit Windows OS's to prove you had it prior). It's well worth it, because you'll get an OS that is not only fast (with the right hardware), you'll get a very stable OS that won't keep you up half the night working out the kinks (and spend more time with the kinky activities..). Windows 2000 isn't just for business, and is an excellent home OS - if you can handle it.