May be my last question!

I am going to have to reformat C drive. What I need to know is your opinions of what is the best OS to put on. I have 3.1. 95, 98, 98SE, and ME. I think I will even purchase XP.

In just a small summary, please tell me the best and why. I'm tired of a system that is too unstable. I suppose I'm looking for perfection.

I am looking for something I don't have to reformat 3 times a year. Or is it practical to reformat often? If so, I will soon learn how to do it more efficient.

Thanks :confused: :what: :duh:

1) I would suggest 98se out of those. I've never really had any problems like that with it.

2) Always use the add/remove programs box to delete programs.. I think that may have alot to do with it. If you just drag and drop to the bin it still leaves reg entries and other unwanted stuff.

Thats about it..

BTW: Do not use ME.. it blows.. If I had a dollar for everytime I've had to fix the command.com on a ME box I would be very very rich.



/me says... GO LINUX!!!!!!!!

If you have at least a P III 500Mhz 128+MB Ram, should opt for Windows 2000. It's much more secure and stable than 3.x/9x/Me. Running three visual development environments, connected to Internet, playing MP3s and more, Win98 reboots 2 to 3 times a day. Win2K has work for me for 4 or 5 days, 24 hours without a blink. Don't even think on XP: there are changes all over the interfase (that makes me crazy) and a new and dangerous Network core. And there is the old hardware drivers problem...

If you don't need all the extra pieces/headaches from Win2k, stay with Win98se. Win2k will do nice things like kill games (about all a Winblowz box is good for, in my estimation) though it will add "security" to the machine (*cough*) -- ironically, it also comes with a lot more open holes in it, by default.

And I wouldn't waste my time beta testing XP...

Ideally, I'd just say buy VMWare and run Linux (Mandrake) and put whatever Winblowz system done in a sandbox where it belongs. (No, I won't go in to the whole "a poorly configured Linux box is worse than M$" argument)

If you have a good box with a minimum clockspeed of 500 megahertz then go for win 2000 or XP, but never use ME, Microsoft has never admitted that ME has serious problems, every OS has to be able to manage it's memory, only ME can't, what happens? it uses all it's memory and then uses your harddrive, result? instability and then CRASH

Of the operating systems on your list, I have used 3.1, 95, 98 & 98se.
Win 3.1, IMO, was the most stable.
If I had to choose an OS from your list, it would be Win98se.

:idea:

Live life on the edge like me. Get a firewall, Install Windows XP, and disable all this nasty visualization options. That way it looks like Windows 2000 but is really XP. Think of all the neat stupid pop ups that say you are an idiot this is how to do it. Or watch it ask you to take the DAMN tour 14 times a day. Or tell you to register for a .NET password. Of course there are registry hacks to fix these minor annoyances, but its more fun just to cuss at it. I have to say, even though Hogfly crashed XP w/ Windows Update, I have had no problems with Windows Update or stabaility or uptime. Though my laptop runs Linux......I wonder if that says something..

I would have to agree with the almost everyone else I bought windows xp and upgraded my box from windows 2000 Big MISTAKE!!! crashed my box a few times sad to say it now runs 2000 once again.

I would go with 98se.

You asked if it was practical to reformat three times a year. The answer isn't very straightforward, but let me give it a shot. If you own all of the software on your computer and have CD's for it all, then yes, it would definitely be practical to reinstal three times a year. You just back up your files tat contain settings, back up your data files, then nuke the drive from on high and reinstall. If you have a lot of pirated software, then it's not quite so easy because you'll probably loe a lot of it (unless you have the CD's copied). If you have another system that you can back up your data onto then it gets a little easier. That's what I always do when I reformat. I'll disconnect form the internet (VERY IMPORTANT) and then share my C drive with another one of my systems. Then I copy the entire directory structure to the other machine and store it in case something goes wrong with my reinstallation. Obviously, this takes up a lot of disk space, but if you've got disk space, you may as well use it. A reformat can be a painless thing if you have all your ducks in a row. The first time I tried it, I forgot a few things and had to rebuild my system the hard way, but I've got the hang of it now and I do it about every three or four months and never have any problems.

As far as which OS to use, I have to put a plug in for linux. It's my OS of choice for a number of reasons. But if you're insistent on using Windows, then my favorite is still Windows 98. Windows 3.1 and 95 didn't have USB support, so that's no good for me. NT was just a horribly complicated beast that I'm still forced to reckon with occasionally at work. Definitely not a good idea for a home PC. Windows ME... bleh. Windows 2000 seems to be pretty stable to me, but there's a lot of hassle involved in getting it set up just right. Oh, and it's incredibly slow if you don't have a powerful computer. The same goes for XP, though I'll admit, I have only limited experience wth it, so I don't know if there's any way to configure it to use less resources. I also have a large issue with the whole registration "feature" of XP. I'm constantly changing hardware on my machine and trying new things, so I wouldn't enjoy sitting on the phone with Microsoft every time I added a hard drive or reinstalled my system. So to wrap up:

Stability:
1. Windows XP
2. Windows 2000
3. Windows 98
4. Windows 3.1
5. Windows 95
6. Windows NT
666. Windows ME

Ease of use:
1. Windows 98
2. Windows XP (not counting re-registration)
3. Windows 95
4. Windows 2000
5. Windows 3.1
6. Windows NT
666. Windows ME

All around:
1. Windows 98
2. Windows XP
3. Windows 2000
4. Windows 95
5. Windows 3.1
6. Windows NT
666. Windows ME

I also vote for windows 98.

Never had real prob. with it.

I will use it as long as pos.

I would say it you have the hard-drive space to install 98SE and XP. Avoid ME like the black plague.

i would go with windows 95, it is my favorite

i run win2k pro, on a 7200 rpm HD; and 512 mb ram. And it seems just as fast if not faster, than when 98se was installed on this machine.

XP blows. Installed it, and not 10 minutes later it crashed. I wasn't doing anything. I have crashed win2k a few times. Mostly during games. Which sucks. But other than during games, it has been very stable.

And as for reformating. The way I do it is (since I end up having to reformat without backing stuff up, cuz i forget) heh.
I put all my apps on a seperate drive than C:; sure i still have to reinstall the apps, but i don't lose the executables, when reinstalling windows.

Louie made me laugh. XP is quite annoying. If you were thinking of buying XP, think instead of buying 2000. It's nice and stable. I haven't had any major problems with XP either, but it keeps wanting to update crap all the time. Every time I think I've disabled it, something else comes up.
If you're networking, might want to stick with 98. 2000 seems a little slower to me, but maybe I haven't learned all the tricks yet.
As far as reformatting 3 times a year, a little tip for you. When you have all your programs freshly installed on a clean OS use drive image and make an image of your hard drive on either another hard drive or another partition. Re-building your OS with all your programs will take 30 min compared to numerous hours depending on how much software you use.
With all that said, you could leave the dark side and join the linux force. Be free of Microsoft! It's too late for me, I'll never be able to leave.

Also depends on what you want to use it for. If you have a decent rig and want to flex it a bit go 2000 or XP. If you are just a power user then 2000 is probably the best bet. If you want to use it for games and stuff or you have other people using it, then best bet is XP.

If you go for XP, make sure you hardware is compatible though. XP is very piccy with older pieces of hardware.

But in any case, nothing really wrong with 98se(if you can get past M$).