Jlo555

I figured someone would comment on that. I don't trust SP3 on XP, it screws up some of the drivers. (My wireless adapter was unrecognized after I installed SP3). Other than not having SP3, its fully updated. Even at my university, all the school computers have SP2, almost none of them have SP3. Nevertheless, I haven't gotten any viruses!

You'd have to be out of your freakin' mind to be using Windows 2000 with NO service pack these days! You might as well drive your car without wearing a seatbelt and wonder why you flew through the windshield when you crashed. As for using an older OS, I guess it is logical to state that if barely anyone uses it, no one will bother to attack it. But honestly, I really haven't gotten any viruses, malware or spyware since I stopped using dialup, and kept my computer up to date ALWAYS. I haven't used an antivirus program on my desktop for years with highspeed internet, and I haven't really had any problems at all, but it's always up to date (with WinXP SP2). My laptop, however, has windows 98 (I'm writing this message from it!) and I've never had any problems with viruses on it either. So to recap, you can use an old OS (with any available updates) and it will protect you to some degree from intrusions or attacks. But I think using a modern OS (like XP, but not Vista) that is fully updated and maintained by a responsible user is equally as effective.

I just wanted to say thank you for the native usb drivers. Not only did I get both my USB hard drive working on 98SE, but I also got my external dvd burner working as well...and both are working more efficiently than they were on XP Pro! It's a shame the 98 user base has reduced so much that not that many people would even be willing to try it anymore with all of the new fixes. Keep up the good work! Hell, I'd even throw in a donation for the work you've put into it. (And that's saying something considering that I absolutely refuse to even consider paying for most modern software).

So my laptop is new enough that it did not come with a built in floppy drive, but it did have 98SE drivers, so I went and installed 98SE on it (of course), and My Computer reports that there is still a A:\ 3.5" floppy drive, which is physically non-existent. If I click on the icon, the system freezes and eventually blue screens. If I disable it in Device Manager, it disappears from My Computer, but is constantly reported as "disabled" in Device Manager. Is there a way to permanently get rid of this "reported" drive and to stop 98SE from believing it exists? (Right now I'm working under XP Pro, but I will return to 98SE in the near future, and would like to fix this issue among other things).

Never mind, I resolved the issue. I guess Win98SE is so old, that my university only forces me to install Cisco Clean Access for authentication, but skips all the AV/firewall/anti-spyware checks. It's there way of saying "no body cares about your OS anymore, use the internet at your own risk." YAY for ME!!! sucks to be a win2000/XP/Vista user haha! In this day and age, should I be worried that I'm using a university network with no AV or anything? Just one more advantage to using old technology...nobody else cares enough about it to sabotage it.

Well, I have a problem now...my university only allows me to use "certain" AV applications because I'm forced to use Cisco Clean Access *sends chills down spine* and AVG (which is also my favorite AV app) is not supported. My options are Symantec Norton AV, Trend-Micro AV, SoftWin BitDefender, McAfee or Computer Associates eTrust EZ AV (whatever that is). So, my question is which program is the least terrible (resource, stability, usability and effectiveness wise). Here's the list: http://www.cisco.org.lv/univercd/cc/td/doc...1rn.htm#wp72834 I love using windows 98, but that combined with any of today's mainstream AV programs, well, they make me feel like I'm driving a Camero with 80HP, and a busted transmission.

I'm glad I still have my 98SE computer running...I've modded it and killed it hundreds of times, but I just reload the OS and slap on some new hardware and I'm good to go. It's a shame to see my dad running VISTA, because it runs so horribly slow; but he, much like many others just can't "handle" the complex obsolescence of an older OS (if that makes any sense)...I on the other hand love using a variety of electronics that the "mainstream" has deemed obsolete. To this day I still use regularly: Win98SE and 2000 (I do have XP on a computer I never use though), a Compaq Evo n610c that's been the most reliable laptop I've ever had, a CRT television, Sony walkman tape player/tapedeck, a vcr, and an oldsmobile (which continues to fall apart from the inside out). I still love all my sh!t, even if it is almost all obsolete...everyday I boot up my 98SE desktop and enable auto-reverse on my tape deck I feel all the more nostalgic!

that's good, so any suggestions on 'compatible' external hard drives, or are there any ones that people know for sure are NOT compatible?

Hi, so I really need another external hard drive, as I've managed to fill my 160gig Maxtor onetouch III completely with tv shows and crap. When I bought this drive originally, it was listed as incompatible with win98, but I was able to reformat it with FAT32 and use the native drivers, and it works perfectly now. So, now I'm thinking about getting a bigger one (like 300GB) and doing the same thing as before. I'm sure someone has already asked/answered this but is the LBA problem with 127+ GB hard drives prevalent on external hard drives? also, will i run into problems formatting a drive that's over 300GB with FAT32? I never had any problems with my original 160gig, but I figured that I was just lucky! also does anyone have recommendations as to which drive I should get that's external, cheap, compatible and between 300GB to 1TB? Thanks!

I have recently noticed a rather odd issue in windows 2000. after installing a fresh clean install of windows 2000 pro with all necessary updates (including sp4), I copied over all my media files (mp3, avi, wma) back into my documents. now i can read all of the media files, but i cannot modify (i tried to change the name of a couple songs) any of them. i hate using windows media player for my media because it just sucks. but i figured out that unless i fully upgrade to wmp9 with all the wmp updates this problem magically goes away. i can edit the file names, delete, cut, paste, do whatever to them. is there a way around this? I don't see why I should have to install windows media player 9 just so i can edit my media files. I did try using a locked files program which stated that the application that was locking the files was explorer.exe. could it be the media previewer built into explorer? any help would be awesome!

It's funny how things work now. In 2003, I was still chillin' on Windows 98/95, seeing how much controversy windows xp got with driver support, the DRM nightmare which still goes on, and excessive resource usage. I just built a new computer, which I stuck XP Pro on and it runs pretty **** well now, so I think I'm set for the Vista nightmare. (It doesn't run 9x/Me though, which I was unhappy about, but I have another setup for 9x). That article looks like a borrage of lawsuits and headaches waiting to happen. I plan on sticking with this system for years to come. Hell, after reading that article I'm seriously considering just reverting back to analog video/audio (ahh, good ol VHS). I don't have a hi-res tv or monitor anyway so I couldn't care less about "premium content". For those people who have to have blu-ray, hd-dvd and extremely hi-resolution video and digital audio, I wish you the best of luck....you're gonna need it!

Yeah, Windows 98 will become pretty impractical in the near future, in which case, I'd recommend windows 2000, fully updated, properly installed and SP4'd. Here's my theory on the whole Windows>Linux migration thing. Windows is like cigarettes...its bad for your computer experience, it controls your computer, and the worst part, you get used to it. I've tried the Linux migration several times, and I've gotten thrown back to Windows every time. Linux, I guess is like Nicorette--it looks like a good plan, but it just doesn't work out. BTW, I've tried to quit smoking many times to.

If you kept the same motherboard since 1998, then I would definately check which type of AGP slot it has. What the previous posters have said is a good idea: check out the Radeon 7000 series; we still got a Dell from 1999 with the radeon 7400 and it ran most games pretty well until about when Vice City and Halo came out. I also wouldn't go for a much higher end graphics card because it would be a little over the top for a computer that old. The chances are that if you buy an older model graphics card, you won't have much of a problem with driver support.

Ah **** it! I wish I had known that when I had like 2 copies of Win98FE lying around with their manauals. I finally got rid of them and kept the Win98SE manual, but I never thought to keep the serial numbers. My bad.

There is a chance it could be due to a failing IDE cable. That happened to me a few months ago, but I had a bunch of errors for that in the BIOS as well. I'm guessing it is more likely the chipset drivers, because the last time I saw a drive using compatibility mode was when I had an external hard drive, and the USB 2.0 drivers were creating some weird conflicts. I'm sure there's a chance that the motherboard drivers could be doing the same thing.