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Hello
In a few weeks I am going to reformat my dad's PC and reinstall Windows(I can not use linux because he only uses windows or we can not also use windows 2000 because the pc is also used for games)
I am not sure if I should use Windows 98 Or ME
I have heard there is a lot of Problems in windows ME, But I would rather use something more up to date
The PC is more than Fast enotgh to use either
Thanks for your help
If I were you I would choose win2k or XP. And it doesn't matter that you also want to play games. I also play games (I'm using winXP) and I have no problems with it. (but to be honest I don't play them much so...). But that's my advise go for 2k or XP pro. These systems are much more secure and stable then 98 or even ME.
And if you want to install only 98 or ME I would use 98se. ME are the worst thing microsoft ever made... IMO.
Good luck with installing...
Yeah we have winXP on the laptop, and I think it is a really good OS for games, We would need to get more memory on this pc first thoguht, because I did a winXp install on a pc at school and with only 128MB it was as slow as anything, but after memory upgrade it was fantasic. I will to persude him to get winXp and Upgrade the PC ;-)
If its a choice between 98 and ME, I would go with 98 SE every time. ME just simply sucks. Also, 2k is great for gaming. I am running it right now for my gaming machine.
Hope this helps!
- ura
For a while there I was running an Apache http server on Windows ME. Let's just say, I lost a considerable amount of hair and gained a few more wrinkles in those few days...
I have very rarely found games that will not work under win2k. But if you are definitely going to choose between 98 & ME.. pick 98SE. I have had much better luck with it. I would make sure the games that you will be using will not run under 2000 first though, as it is much, much more stable than both 98 and ME.
98SE, no explaination needed.
win98 definitely else winXP
Between 98 and ME....
W2K!!, no problem with gaming!
I would go for Windows 98 SE, i'm running it with no problems. Me is basicly 98 with more bugs.
As for XP, I tried it and have gone back to 98 because it just wasn't up to what it should be, it would crash for no reason and was buggy. All my friends/colleagues that have tried it have gone back to their old OS's within a fortnight.
A positive note about Xp, it did run -nearly- everything.
Yeah in XPs were, are and will be mistakes. As in every OS. Even in (for some people glorious linux). But for example when your computer is connected to the internet or more then one people access it or whatever... Security of 98 is at zero level... I would definitely go for XP Pro if you can...Quote:
Originally posted here by p3pC
As for XP, I tried it and have gone back to 98 because it just wasn't up to what it should be, it would crash for no reason and was buggy. All my friends/colleagues that have tried it have gone back to their old OS's within a fortnight.
First off, I'd agree with everyone else that ME sucks big wang. Aside from that, it really depends on the machine you're installing it on. If, for example, you were deciding between 98 SE, 2K, or XP for a PII-350 with 64 MB of RAM, I'd probably suggest 98 SE. It's has a smaller footprint on your system resources, and would probably handle much better than 2K or XP on such a limited system. If you've got the resources, however, I have heard that XP can be fairly efficient. I haven't tried XP, though. I'm running 2000-Pro for all my Win games, and it runs great on my Athlon Duron-750 / 256 MB RAM.
Do not get ME, it's crap, 98SE out of those two. I got XP and have only had one problem with games. Mind You it was a crappy game I bought from the CooP. lol
98SE all the way. It's way better than ME although I'd rather take 2k.
I definitely choose WIN98/WIN98SE. It's more stable that WINME. But if I were you I'd rather install WIN XP.
I run XP on my primary gaming machine, I've never yet had a single crash....it's XP home, too! There's no problem with it. Go with XP or Win2k, like everybody else said.
I have windows ME, you can run every single game you want but other than it sucks. I would go for windows 98/SE, but if you have the money and a good computer windows 2k.
98SE is better than ME, (XP, will have problems with some games) whatever you pick don't forget to update it by going to windowsupdate.microsoft.com , That can help you to have better securty.
good luck
I used to have ME on and I never had any real problems with it. However by all accounts it looks like I was one of the lucky ones. 98se is tried and true. Any problem you might get with it there is bound to be a solution somewhere on the net. Windows2k is pretty good but XP is probably a better option if for gamming. I run XP now - runs pretty well. Only games I have trouble with are my old dos ones. Most new ones run fine or have a patch available.
Anything would be better than ME, even if you can only use windows 3.0 lol, no seriously tho 98se or 2k work fine, and XP is good too, I'm running it on a system with 96MB of ram.
Ah Win 3.1. Maybe the best Windows version. But a little old.
The differences between Win 98 and ME depend of the machine. I had more problem with 98 than Me into my computer. So...
But it's true XP is a good OS and There are only problems with old games (some MS-dos games, Worms armageddon...)
I vote for Win98/Win98SE.
Really, I vote against ME. :
:sadwin: :shootem:
I vote Win98se
As for Win ME all i can say is "throw salt over left shoulder turn around twice ,spit walkaway and dont look back";)
regards
Mike
Uraloony is right; ME is a piece of garbage (I've run it before and it was horrid); if you MUST choose between these two, then go with Win98SE. However, my main windows box is W2K PRO and I play all my games on it with no problems.Quote:
If its a choice between 98 and ME, I would go with 98 SE every time. ME just simply sucks. Also, 2k is great for gaming. I am running it right now for my gaming machine.
~N~
If its between 98 and Me then definately go with 98. Never install Me!!! If I were you, though I would go with XP (if your comp can handle it). It has a compatibility option that allows you to run games/programs with compatibility for NT, 98/Me, 95 or 2000. The other day I was running red alert 95 edition which is meant to be used on DOS or 95 only with the compatibility option. You cant go wrong with it.
I think this has been covered, but 98 SE is what im running, and i believe its one of the best with the exception of Win 2000 Pro.
98 for sure. ME is widely known as the crappiest Windows release yet.
However, I would pick WineX for gaming instead :D
win 98 se is not all that bad with all of the patches and plugins out there it can be made to run fairly well.
If your puter has the steam I'd try xp pro
But back too your original post ---dad uses windows--- load whatever os your pops wants then when he is not lookig load linux and use the boot disk option he {dad } won't even know it's there and it gives you the best of both worlds.
I dual boot XP Pro / SuSe 7.3 Pro and love the setup I have tried 4 windows os's and 5 linux os's.
This setup seems to give me the most versatility and speed.
PS having the linux as second os will let you look at all of the win files on the hard drive as well as corying them then trying to modify them ex....pwl... but don't let your oldman catch you he might get pi33ed
Thanks folks, I think I will stick with Windows 98, I still need to reformat the pc though, because it as been running for 6 hours a day for 2 half years now though, and it's just became a big mess. The PC is an P3 733mb pc with 128mb and a 30gb hard disk, It does need upgrading, I am going to pick up some more ram before the prices go sky high, But I can't really do big upgrades to it because it is mainly my Dad's Pc which he does all his Work on. Anyway Thanks again
I don't know if this post is over yet but oh well...
Go with 98 SE, Windows ME is a resource hog and tends not to handle things very well, I've had the most blue screens with it. If it were between XP and 2K, I would suggest 2K because it uses less resources. I'm sure there are things in XP that 2K doesn't have, but I wouldn't put the newest OS on a computer just because it's new. If I can get better performance out of the previous version with little to no feature loss...
Oh BTW, 98's Product updates are going to become obsolete soon, if they haven't already. I think MS stops the service 4 years after the OS has been released? You can still get the patches but it has to be done one by one, instead of with the downloader built into windows.
Windows ME?!? *shudders at the thought*
Well, alot of people have said that 98se it the way to go. I completely agree. The ME OS is basically a bloated 98 anyway. Some of the differences between 98 and ME are as follows:
- The Windows ME operating system has a new upgraded system protections (ya right)
- The M$ Sytem restore automatically updates and backs up the registry and other system files when the system is idle, about every 10 hours of up-time. This same feature also doesn't allow the user to delete critical system files. (okay, A program screwed up the registry with out me knowing about two days ago. Can i revert back to it? Nope, The OS has already re-backed itself up with the bad registry like 6 times by now. Good job M$.)
- System File protection: If you delete anything in the Programs Folder, Windows ME will make a compressed image of the deleted files, just in case you need them again. It will also prevent older programs from writing over newer .dll files. (not always a good thing, what happens if one was a non-standard .dll and is corrupt? BSOD!)
- Boot to DOS? Nope, don't think so. You can use a VDM (virtual dos machine), but its very limited. You also can't use any 16-bit device drivers for older games. The autoexec.bat and config.sys files are obsolete now and don't allow any drivers, TSR's or any other USEFUL things to be loaded.
Well, those are just a few of the changes with the ME Operating system. Some others are more help options and more description boxes.
As far as games are involved, I would suggest using 98se. Win2k and XP are also good to use, but as others have said, they won't allow older DOS games to play. The reason? Older DOS games were written to have sole use of all the hardware resources and wanted to control them directly. In the true 32-bit OS's like win2k, NT, and XP this is an absolute no no. This is one of the reasons they are som much more stable. They don't allow ANY program to access the hardware directly. Everything goes through the HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer)
Well, I hope this helped clear up WHY ME blows. :)
xmaddness
Yeah I was a bit worried about microsoft stopping the updates because it is a usuful way of keeping windows up to date, I just had to update my windows 95 pc to windows 98, because they were no longer supporting it, Not sure thought if they will do it for windows 98,even if the time runs out. A recent servey by google says that about 50% of hits they get are from windows 98 users, with any luck things like this might persude microsoft to keep it going but knowing microsoft probally not
Also yeah that is probally the must annoying thing I have heard about windows ME, that it does'nt allow being reset into DOS mode, DOS mode saved this pc's life when it's hard disk went wrong once and we could'nt get into windows because a of a damage hard disk. We had to get a parallel cable(no joke!) and use a program to transfer over all our info to another pc that way then format this one and then send them back over. With Windows ME what if that happened again?
98 all the way get 2k if u can but 98 is way better than ME...me is one of the biggest shits ever
Go with Win 98SE not ME. But I have not heard any problems with 2000/XP and gaming. Also make sure you have copies of all the drivers prior to reimaging the machine. (NIC, modem, HD controller etc) You may even want to read up on Norton Ghost and copy an image to a hard-drive prior to reimaging. Hope this helps!
If you are planning to run games, just stick with Windows 98. Windows 98 will be compatible with the newer games being released, and it is also compatible with the games released for 95. Shiznit, you can even get away with playing DOS games on 98. Just my opinion.... I use Windows XP on my Windows machine, but I really do suggest 98 on any system meant for gaming. It is also easier to find 9x drivers also....
win 98se or make a dual boot
Cheesegoduk, WinME does include a copy of the io.sys, msdos.sys, and command.com to boot into real-mode dos (boot dos before windows), but you have to make the boot disk yourself. Get a blank floopy disc and copy the entire contents of the \windows\command\EBD folder to the disk and then boot from that. This will get you to the DOS prompt in winME. But I still don't like the fact that they did away with booting to dos from the F8 Start menu.
Also having to connect thru parrallel has got to be the last option, heh.. For more on saving your computer from a crash check my tut here at AO. Win Emergency Boot Disks. Cheers
x
I don't have any experience with ME but from all I've read (including all replies to this topic) and my experience with 98se - I'd definitely stick with 98se. I have been spending quite a bit of time lately tweaking that OS. If you want to get the most out of 98, why not use the updated system files from ME? There is a complete list of tested files which can be replaced with the upgraded ones at: http://members.aol.com/axcel216/newtip.htm#HOME
NOTE: There is a warning that replacing the files will void your MS warranty (if you care!). The listing is under the tip entitled: "Killer Replacements: ME -> 98 SE". Axcel216 has all sorts of information to get 98 running at its peak, plus I've found various other sources for additional bug fixes, tips and tweaks. If I were you, I would base my decision on which OS the person who will be using it, would be more comfortable with. Thanks for listening.
win98 has always been relyable for me.
illv//
for me, I prefare XP and Windows 98se.
this should go better for ya games, great for gaming