AlteredAaron

Thanks, duffy98. I'm still searching for decent programs to add to my list.... call it my contribution to the Win9x community. Maybe I'm just crazy. I added a couple of Word Processing apps today (Angel Writer, Jarte & AbbyWord) and a couple other progs.

I tried using Eusing Free Registry Cleaner and all it did was delete a bunch of "un-used" file extensions like .zip, .bmp, .jpg and other important file associations. So then I had to re-associate all those file extensions with the correct programs. Basically all Eusing did was screw up my computer. The only registry cleaner I use is the one inside CCleaner.

Here's what I was thinking, XP users will be even more stubborn to upgrade than we have been with our 95/98/ME computers. Furthermore, I think the average person is starting to catch on to Microsoft's practice of "planned obsolescence". You know, they gotta keep the money machine rolling, so don't let customers go too long without forcing a new version of windows down their throats, which usually invovles buying a new computer as well. Microsoft plans to stop support for XP in 2014, only three years from now. When that happens, there's going to be tons of XP users who are going to be left out in the cold, and who won't be able to run the lastest version of Internet Explorer. Something like 50% of all computers hooked to the internet are people using XP. Not only that, but there has probably been more people using XP than any version of Windows ever. For example, Windows 3.1 came along and was kind of like a novelty... who would've thought Bill Gates would take over the computer world? Then came Windows 95, which nearly destroyed Apple and ushered in the Microsoft that we're familiar with today. All of which culminated in XP being the most widely used version of Windows in history. I'm thinking either Microsoft will have to change their businsess practice and stop forcing people to upgrade every four years, or else they're going to be replaced by something that's less aggressive and greedy. Because if the economy stays the way it is, most people (not to mention businesses) can't afford to upgrade when Microsoft tells them too. Microsoft may have been able to get away with that kind of stuff before 2008, but not anymore. I just don't see how they can keep going the way they're going. Everyday more people either switch to firefox, opera, chrome, linux, or whatever. I don't know what reasons other people have for continuing to use older versions of Windows, but for me, I'm used to it. I like how I can easily go into DOS and fix stuff, and it doesn't take long to reinstall, plus there's no "activation" other than typing in a few letters, I can turn off most of the automatic updating. It just seems like it's my computer, and I don't have to wonder what program is connected to the internet in the background. I have no interest in computer games either, so all the fancy graphics and tons of RAM is meaningless to me. I mainly just like to surf the web and read blogs and check my email. I like to do simple photo editing and burn music CD's and type documents, but I can accomplish all of that on my Windows ME computer. Buying Windows 7 just seems pointless. I tried using KernelEx and I got Firefox 3.6 to work on my computer, but I don't know if that version of gecko is any better than the one available in K-Meleon 1.5.4 or Seamonkey 1.1.19? I also heard that KernelEx worked on Opera 11. Since version 10.54 was the last one to work on my computer that's really good news if it works. Good job to whoever wrote KernelEx. But getting back to my point. I think the longer that stubborn XP users hang on, the longer Windows 95/98/ME can survive as well. Once 64-bit systems are the norm, then we can really kiss Windows 95/98/ME goodbye. My own opinion is that Windows will be history in less than 10 years. I think Windows 7 will be the near final version. That's just my hunch. America will be bankrupt, the Chinese won't ever stop pirating software, the Russian government has already switched to Linux. I think the Desktop PC was just a blip on the radar of history. It won't last forever. What do you guys think?