Which Microsoft OS supports Hyper Thread cpu's?

Which Windows based operating systems support the new hyper threading CPU's? Machine has one CPU but HT support should show it as two CPU's.

Win2k and WinXP both support HT w/ the correct HAL installed, afaik.

I believe you have to install it manually, however.

i know xp pro does

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;234558

That should help you

This is what intel says:

http://www.intel.com/support/platform/ht/os.htm

I guess they should know. I think HT does still work under win2k, but not exactly as it was intended, or it may not work as well.

Win2k doesn't know the difference between a real CPU or a logical CPU. So if you have a dual processor machine with HT (xeons) then Windows 2000 will see it as a four CPU system, so you will need a server licence as Windows 2000 Professional is limited to 2 'CPUs'

For all practical purposes only XP and above support HT as it was intended to run. You can run one HT CPU on w2k but it won't be as efficient as XP would. Same for s2k with two HT CPUs.

My work station has 2.4C HT CPU I865chip set 768ram on a Win2000 SP4 OS.. I run like 8 programs at once, HT would really help out!!
THe HT has been enabled in BIOS. How can I check if the OS is picking up the HT or utilizing it? Task manager does not show 2 CPUs.
Which one of these options do I need to pick to enable HT in WIN2000? Thanks



HAL Description
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
ACPI MultiProc Use for a multiple-processor ACPI computer

ACPI UniProc Use for a ACPI multiple-processor board but with a
single processor installed

Advanced Use for a single processor motherboard with single
Configuration processor ACPI computer
Power Interface PC

Compaq Systempro Use for a Compaq Systempro computer

MPS Uniprocessor PC Use on non-ACPI computers dual processor motherboard
with a single processor installed

MPS Multiproc PC Non-ACPI computers with a dual processor running

Standard PC Any Standard PC, non-ACPI, or non-MPS. Could be a 386,
486, Pentium, Pentium II, or Pentium III

Standard PC
with C-Step i486

(See my sig for system specs) I did a clean install of Win2k with HT ENABLED in BIOS and IDE mode set to 'compatible' and it installed right away as 'ACPI Multiprocessor PC'. The first thing I did was installing SP4, after which S-ATA and a ton of other onboard (chipset) hardware is detected and supported and I could set IDE mode to 'enhanced' in BIOS. After installing the rest of the P4P800 mainboard drivers and running all Windows (security) updates needed, latest WHQL Dets, DirectX9b etc. I built my usual working setup and the system has been flying ever since. I have two CPU's in taskmanager (just like under XP) and there are two SETI WU's running all the time resulting in the same average WU-times as I got with WinXPpro. I can mulitask my *** off and the system simply will not go down. Surely Win2k might not have certain 'optimizations' for HT, but any software that's 'SMP sensitive' detects and uses the two virtual CPU's so I dunno what more to ask! I still kinda dislike all the bells and whistles and the 'my first Sony' look and feel of XP, so Windows 2000 professional is still THE system for me...

-edit-
The only optimization in favor of XPpro I found out about so far is that when I run 1 thread of SETI under Win2k the load gets balanced equally on both virtual CPU's (both have a 50% load) while XPpro runs that 100% on a single virtual CPU, keeping the other 'available'. However WU results and benchmarks seem the same so I dunno...

I'm running on s2k3 and it's the best of w2k and xp. Very nice WS OS once you tame it with the online help sites. Stuff just seems faster than XP because it installs locked down unlike XP which install with all the bells and whistles ringing and tooting. You just turn on the ones you need and leave the rest off.

You can still get the eval copy to try out with minimal effort from microsoft.

HT won't be a problem with this OS.

OMG!! I have enable the HT in my work station W2k sp4!!! Task manager shows 2 CPUs, I can now adjust CPU usage, not just priority.
Before HT was on.. this 1 app would use 99% of CPU at times, when that happends, my other 3-6 apps will lag like a P2. Thanks to HT: The CPU dose not top out like before, everything is running like a dream. Holy Crap!! Thank you Lancelot !!
Reviews state maby 20% more juice but with what I'm running, this is like a 90% jump. WOW hehe.
I wish my home 2.4B is HT... oh well

Windows 2000 shows 2 processors, both at 100% running 2 instances of SETI.

I'll stick with W2K until my copy of Small Business Server 2003 arrives.

HT ROCKS!

If the Opterons don't win decisively, I'll get a future dual 800fsb Xeon setup and four count 'em four logical processors

hmm still need to snag 2k3 enterprise... SBS blegh =\

so you are saying that Windows 2003 Server Enterprise Edition does support HT ?

And is it so far the BEST and FASTEST OS available even better than XP Pro?

There's good and bad w/ W2k3. You have to do a lot of tweaking to make it a desktop OS, and even then there are things that it just doesn't like. You have to use corporate versions of some software etc.

If and when I do pick up a new processor and board (I'm lookin' to Intel next), I'll pro'lly take it for a test drive.

I've played with Win03 Server Enterprise, and I can tell you that it ran my P2/rambus very quickly..but it doesn't support anything..but then I learned about compatibility mode afterward..