Windows 2000 Tips

[damooksta]

Let me inform you that Windows XP is exactly the same as Win2K. (This is unofficial, but from personal experiance.) Windows XP is just so much bigger because it is fancy. I have a brand new system & i decided to get rid of Windows XP because it is so much slower and takes up more system resources than Win2k.
So if you have an ace system but it lags a bit, try Win2K. It works better.

[damooksta]

I have forgotten to point out that in some games when trying to install in win2k, an error will occur (games such as Age of empires 3 or Rise Of Legends). If it mentions "You need Windows XP or higher to install ....."
This is completely incorrect. As i said earlier that everything that works on XP will work on 2000. This error message is a block from you installing it on 2000 even if it will work when installed.

[damooksta]

I have 3 games wouldn't work on Win2k, all of which I still managed to install & all work perfectly. The games are the following-
Age of empires III
Rise of Nations 2 - Rise of Legends
Lord of The Rings - The Battle for Middle-Earth 2.
I will go through instructions on how to install all 3.

[damooksta]

Age Of Empires 3
Basicaly you will need to "reconstruct" disk 1 of the game and edit it to bypass the OS check to allow you to install the game. you will need to download the following-
Windows Installer SDK

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=A55B6B43-E24F-4EA3-A93E-40C0EC4F68E5&displaylang=en

Binary script

http://m1009.gamecopyworld.com/games/pc_age_of_empires_3.shtml#Age%20of%20Empires%203%20WIN2K%20FIXED%20SETUP%20PATCH%201

On this page go down to the "Age of Empires 3 WIN2K FIXED SETUP PATCH #1"
and click on the floppy icon beside the "File Archive [62 KB] - Do-It-Yourself Installation Script" and download.
And any iso software & mounting tool.
After you have all that software follow these steps.
1. You must first make an iso of the first disk on AOE 3 and save it on your hard drive.
2. Now go back to Disk 1 and open it up from your CDROM drive (not the iso)
3. Copy the Age of Empires III.msi file onto your hard-drive, somewhere easy like the desktop or documents folder.
4. Install all of the Windows Installer SDK. (I know it is big but it is temperary".
5. In the director you installed it go to the orca.msi file. It is located in \Microsoft SDK\bin\orca.msi
Click on it and install ORCA.
6. Go back to the Age of Empires III.msi file you coppied onto you Harddrive and right click on it. Select properties. under properties you will see the "read-only" box ticked. untick it.
7. right-click on the Age of Empires III.msi again but this time select "edit with ORCA" or something along the line of that.
8. When ORCA opens up, there should be a list down the left of the screen. Click on the "binary" tap.
9. now the binary table has opened up click down on "InstallScript" tab and double click the
[binary data] tab to the right of the InstallScript Tab.
10. Locate where you downloaded the Binary Script above (http://m1009.gamecopyworld.com/games...mpires_3.shtml) and load it into the installscript tab.
11. Save the .msi file.
12. open the iso that you made earlier with software like UltraIso and swap the original .msi file with the new one you made.
13. Save the new Iso and mount it. you should be able to install Age Of Empires 3

[damooksta]

I know the instructions are a bit long and complecated but they worked for me and it saved me heaps of time not having to install XP.
If you are stuck anywhere don't hesitate to post in and tell us all.

[damooksta]

Lord of The Rings - The Battle for Middle-Earth 2
This one is much easier but stll involves reconstructing the iso.
you will need the following
LotR: Battle for Middle-Earth 2 [MULTI] WIN2K INSTALL FIX

http://m0001.gamecopyworld.com/games/pc_lotr_battle_for_middle-earth_2.shtml#LotR: Battle for Middle-Earth 2 [MULTI] WIN2K INSTALL FIX

Scroll down to where you see "LotR: Battle for Middle-Earth 2 [MULTI] WIN2K INSTALL FIX" and "File Archive [304 KB]" and click on the blue floppy disk drive.
Iso software (Cracked version of UltraIso is recomended by me)
Mounting software (I use Alcohol 120% but Daemon tools works fine)

STEPS
1. After you have obtained all of the stuff above, create an iso of the CD on you harddrive.
2. Use UltraIso to open the iso and swap the AutoRunGUI.dll that you downloaded from "LotR: Battle for Middle-Earth 2 [MULTI] WIN2K INSTALL FIX" with the one in the iso you created of the cd and save the new iso.
3. mount or burn, i suggest mount and install.

[damooksta]

This game is seriously good and I recomend it to everyone. It is worth the trouble to get it to work.
Again if you have any troubles with the steps then drop us a line and i will reply soon as possible.

[bigbang]

nice thanks ill try it out.

[wicker]

seems that win xp is a lot less hassle and looks better too. i have installed xp onto an 8 year old computer with pentium 2 at the begining of the year and it ran perfectly with only itunes running slowly therefore this is a rather useless work around in my view.

[travmanx]

I agree after my XP crashed I switched to 2000, yeah i lost all fancyness but i got faster and more space left

[oderf]

Winj 2000k is a lot better than XP

[danas]

nah...windows sux,download ubnutu then u will se whats a realy god OS

[noels2010]

hello everyone