Best current OS/FE for a cab

[Dexter]

Greetings all.

Its time to give my cab an overhaul. It's currently running Win2K swp4 with Gameloader frontend. While I'm at it I was going to switch over to TinyXP rev 6 to improve boot times and possibly a new frontend. I'll be launching multiple emulators from the frontend and possibly a jukebox.

Just wondering if theres any functionality I'd be losing by switching over to XP i.e. multimouse support or the possibility of using wiimotes as lightguns etc? Also, what frontend would you recommend with the switch??

Cheers

Dexter

[youki]

I don't thing you need to switch.

Just optimize you Win2k to boot faster.

I wouldn't recommand tiny XP  and other "tiny" version of OS.   Take the full OS and optimize it.   

Tiny version are only interresting if you have a problem of Hard Disk space.   If it is just for speed , memory  or memory issue it is better to do the thing by hand.

Honnestly , keep you Win2k if all is working as you want. If the reason is just boot speed you can manage to make you OS boot faster.

If you want change the FE ,   I think the major one works on 2k too.  Mala or AtomicFE for sure.   GameEX should too , i think.  And Surely MameWah too.

[XyloSesame]

If you're interested in manually optimizing your W2k system, you might check out the Videoguys guide, "Tweak Windows for Video Editing." The guide is (obviously) for video, but will improve performance in general.

Personally, I'm a fan of the nLited XP installs, including the TinyXP releases... But Youki is right - you don't have to upgrade your OS.

[Dexter]

To be honest with you I'll be switching operating systems UNLESS theres a compelling reason to stick with Win2K on the arcade machine. I run 4 PCs at home and want to have a common OS on them all for convenience.

So c'mon guys, are there any good reasons to AVOID xp from an emulator/arcade perspective if I'm already running win2K??

Cheers

[youki]

Wasting your time ?

A part that i can see any reason to AVOID xp in your case.

Xp and Win2k are really really similar  except the look and feel and few minor technical change these OS are identical.

if your machine is already running perfectly on win2k and you happy with it , why to go to XP?

But of course if you like Install and de-install OS , you can play! 

Or if you have a new hardware to install that Win2k for some reason can not support....

[Dexter]

I will be doing a build on a virtual maching here at work then bringing it home. Seeing as though I'm starting from scratch I can install any OS to start with without a time penalty either way. Once I'm done I won't be touching the cabs OS for a long time, so I'm leaning towards XP to ensure long term compatibility from a hardware perspective as well.

[youki]

If it is an install from scratch go for XP.

But as i said i wouldn't recommend Tiny version.  Sometimes for some emulators or software some DLL, OCX, etc.. are Missing. It is not a big deal because often you have just to find the dll on the net and copy it in the system folder.  But if your cab is not connected to the net , it is not very practical.

i have lot of user of my Front end that had this kind of problems using some emulators with Tiny XP.

but if it is just for mame. It should be ok.

[Dexter]

Will do, XP it is, ta. Was looking into AtomicFE for the cab. I started out with Arcadeos on my original cab way back when!