Andromeda43

There are several things you can do for a lighter install of 98/SE without futzing around with the install CD. One,,, when you do the install, use Custom install, where you can select the modules you want to install. Two,,, I wrote a little batch file called "1st Clean.bat". It deletes all Media, Wallpaper, Online Services and several other totally redundant folders from the HD. It takes only a few seconds to run and removes a ton of crapola. Later during my setup, I install a minimal set of sound files and beautiful wallpapers. (something 98 never did have). Good Luck, Andromeda

I have a lot of customers who still have PC's with ME on them. I very seldom advise them to upgrade. The resources for XP vastly overshadow those for ME. So, I've found ways to make ME less offensive and more productive. The main thing is to shut down that horrible restore feature and delete the thousands of files it's already created. My worse case scenerio, was a PC with over 150,000 restore files on it. That really loads down a HD and can even fill it till it crashes. There's a great little program called "ME Restore Remover". I use it often. Then I install my performance tweaks and ME begins to run half way decent. Better than new, actually. Thanks for satisfying my curiosity. Andromeda

Having multiple instances of Svchost running is absolutely normal. Each instance is running another service for you. Don't fuss with them and never shut one off. AMD X2? What's that got to do with Svchost? Nothing actually! Andromeda

Any version of Windows, legal or not, can be great if you have the technical expertise to use it properly. If you're not technical, you should stay with the Main Line (and legal) XP. That's not a rebuke,,,,just a fact. Many folks use other than legal OS's but it's always a crap-shoot. You really need to know what you're doing. Cheers, Andromeda

Hi PapaJoey, Since getting off of that old ISP, have you gone into your connections and completely removed the old connection. Also do that in Outlook Express if that's what you're using for your eMail program. Clean it up! After that, it probably wouldn't hurt to run a good Registry Cleaner like "Easy Cleaner". All too often, folks make new things but never remove the old ones. That's necessary. Your internet connection sees Hibernation just like "Power Off". It probably doesn't know the difference. Unless there is some mandatory reason you must use Hibernation, why not just turn off the computer when you're done with it? Let windows refresh itself during boot up, and reestablish the internet connection. Just a thought. Andromeda B)

Isn't that like re-designing the latch on the barn door after the horse has broken out and run away? Just kidding! For old and slow PC's, Windows 98/SE is still king IMHO. Always MAX out the ram whenever possible. Then clean up and defrag the HD. I take great pleasure in tweaking an old 98/SE PC and making it run better than it did when new. That's really not too hard, because none of them old PC's were ever set up right from the git-go. Installing the unofficial Sp2 is a great place to start. That greatly improves SE. Then there's the tweaks that I've been doing for many years that improves efficiency by about 15 to 30 %. Here they are, FYI.: ************************************** Tweak Win 98,or '98/SE, to make it run more effeciently: 1: START---Settings---Control Panel Double Click "System" Click "Performance" tab Click "File System" Button Set, "Typical Role of this computer" to 'Network Server' Click the Apply button Then: Click the "Floppy Disk" tab Un-Check the little box in 'Settings' window Click "Apply",,,,,,then click OK Click OK again (this change will become permanent after a Re-Boot 2: START---RUN--- type in Sysedit , and then press ENTER Maximize the "System Configuration Editor" window Maximize the "System.ini" window Scroll down till you can see the entire [386Enh] grouping Place your mouse cursor on the first blank line at the bottom of the group Then, type in the following line.... ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1 (type the line exactly as shown,,,with NO spaces and caps where I've put them) Then press enter. The above line will help Windows to use RAM more effectively. Click "File" in the upper left corner of the Editor window. Then click "SAVE" Close the Editor window and Re-Boot your computer. After a re-start, windows will now operate at 15% to 30% faster and more efficient than it did before. **************************************** That's a real good place to start. Then, go to My Webpage and download Hoover.bat This little batch file will clean out all the garbage from your HD. If put in the Startup folder, it will give you daily "Maid Service". Then you can download the Windows ME defrag program Here. It runs about 10x faster than the old defrag from 98. Also from that site, you can get "Safe Clean Util's" which scours your hard drive for 'junk' files and then removes them. Then, using Google, look for and download "Easy Cleaner" (from, 'ToniArts') to clean your registry and you can also get MS's little "RegClean" program. (I use them both to clean up 98 or ME registries) (heck, they both work equally well in XP) I do this stuff for a living and I've been doing this package for six years. My customers are just amazed by their "NEW" pc's. That download site is a work in progress....I'm adding files to as needed. Take what you need. I sure hope that helps you. Was that kind of what you're looking for? 98/SE can be made to really FLY. Cheers, Andromeda B) EDIT: It's five years later, and things have changed dramatically. My old web site is GONE and so are the programs "Safe Clean Utilities" and "Regclean". If anyone needs the other programs that I mentioned in my post, please drop me a PM. I'll try to find them for you. Andromeda

In this and many other forums, polls have been taken asking what's the worse OS. ME comes out on top every time, so here's my question: Why did you decide to re-install ME? (sorry, I'm just being nosey) Stepping back to 98/SE or going forward to XP would have surely been a better choice. Windows 98/SE with the unofficial service pack 2 is a pretty good OS for older machines with limited Resources and of course XP is great for newer systems with Ample Resources. ME just don't fit in the equasion any more. Just Curious Cheers, Andromeda

Take a look at the Registry tweaks on My Webpage Also, as has been eluded to, you need to greatly minimize the number of TSR's and Services that you have running. For a laptop, that's critical. That little HD generates a lot of heat and you definitely need to get it to just RELAX as much as possible. I've posted a list of possible services to shut down on my Website too. Also maxing out the RAM on that little beastie is paramount to good operation. I have real good luck, getting more performance out of laptops, while minimizing HD usage. It's sort of what I do for a living. Blessings, Andromeda Afterthought: You should NEVER run a resource hog like Norton or even McAfee on a little machine like that. A lightweight AV program like AVG FREE would do you well. Also, run several Anti-Spyware scans to make sure your PC is FREE of Spyware. See my list of selected programs on My Webpage

That's a tough question. There are so very many variables involved here. With the CPU, ram and HD you listed, it may well run XP but it will be a dog. That's below the minimum ram needed for XP. You could however install XP and find out that it don't like your vid, sound, modem or peripheral devices. I thought I pretty much had a mild version of a Super Computer before I made the big jump from 98/SE to XP-Pro, with an upgrade CD. The upgrade went smooth as silk. But then I found that my sound card didn't work any more, neither did my modem and my scanner. There were NO XP drivers available for any of those things. The sound card and modem were no big deal....I had new ones on the shelf, but dang it I had to buy a new scanner. I was able to download new XP drivers for my printer, so I didn't have to replace that too. ME can be cleaned up and made to run pretty good. I do that all the time for my own customers. I've never upgraded an ME machine to XP yet. Most of them just can't hack XP and its demands on system resources. If you decide to keep that old PC on Windows ME, drop me a PM. I've got some tricks for you to make it run a bit better. Good Luck, Andromeda

Big Unknown FACT! A PC really doesn't multi task, unless of course you have more than one CPU. (and, most of us don't.....yet) It runs all its TSR's, Services and whatever you're trying to do, like play music, in time slices. The more you ask the CPU to do, the narrower those time slices. While playing Sol or doing the internet these time slices don't show up at all. But load your CPU down with a dozen or more TSR's (resident programs running in the background) and fourty or more Services then ask it to play music or videos....and you've got big problems! When I do something that needs total CPU attention, I use a little program called "End It All 2" to shut down all running programs on my PC. I use it before installing new software, playing DVD Movies or running Defrag. If you'd like to have it, you can download it from My Download Site. Grab NTREGOPT while you're there. It's a great little Registry Optimizer. A gig or more of ram can help. A good clean and well defragged HD can help. But, the biggest help of all is what I do for a living.....a complete Tune-UP. Remove every TSR and SERVICE that you don't absolutely need to run windows. Then strip every file out of your hard drive that's not required and defrag it. Finally, you'll most likely be able to play music or anything else with NO problems. If not....drop me a PM....there's more tricks in my 'Trick Bag'. Good Luck, Andromeda

When in a situation like that, I make my own Restore CD's using Norton's Ghost 2003. It will copy the C: drive to a CD or DVD directly (with compression) .....all from a Ghost boot floppy. Then it will even put the boot disk on the CD/DVD making it a bootable Restore Disk. It's Marvelous.....simply Marvelous! Andromeda

Forget the caps....windows is NOT yelling at you. My big question is, "why on earth are you installing MS's all time worse OS?" Years ago when ME first came out, I installed it like so many others. I had it about one whole month. Then I deleted it and went back to Windows 98/SE, again like so many others. The next time I had a yen to upgrade, I jumped right to Xp-Pro, with a neat little XP-Pro Upgrade CD. Cheers Mate, Andromeda

When you run "Services.msc" you will get an explanation of each service in the left hand pane. For a more in-depth explanation of each service, check out "Black Viper's" web site. Or, get "Windows XP Services", by Gene Goldring. Here. http://www.beemerworld.com/tips/servicesxp.htm That was my primary reference when deciding what services to shut down for myself and all my customers. Then when I was finally set on a certain group of Services that were safe to shut down, I put them into a batch file to speed up the process. Now it only takes me a couple of seconds to do the job that formerly took me about fifteen minutes. (and, I don't have to worry about making any mistakes in the process.) It's always a good idea to make a Restore Point before you edit the registry or shut down services,,,, just in case you need to "back up" to your previous settings. Cheers Andromeda

A CAB file is nothing but a big ZIP file. And, you want a zip file with the .cab extension instead of the .zip extension.....WHY? I think I'd use zip or rar and be done with it.

Do you even know what a batch file is? Or do you know what services are? A batch file is nothing but a list of DOS commands that will do "something". YOU DON'T install it, you run it. You Don't remove a batch file. It ran, it shut down about a dozen usless Services and it ended. Finis! If you think you must turn those usless Services back on just do a Registry Restore. That will put everything back the way it was. (heaven forbid) Maybe it would be better if you'd understand what you're doing before you do it. That could save you a lot of problems later on. That Care Package is for those who have some knowledge of what they are doing, and how windows works. cheers

I'd take XP out of the mix all together. Boot up the system with something like Memtest86 and let it run for a few hours. That takes the HD and windows out of the game and you'll find out if your ram is OK in the mean time. Well, ya gotta start somewhere, and that's as good a place as any. Oh yeah, remove the ram and clean its edge connector thoroughly. It should be nice and bright and shiney. Then reseat it and make sure the white latches are firmly locked into the ends of the ram. Luck, Andromeda

Do you know that your mobo is seeing your SATA drive properly? Does it show up in the bios? What boot order have you set? It should be CDRom then SATA then floppy. At least for installing windows. Do you even have a floppy drive? If you do, I'd boot up with a 98 or ME boot floppy and then FDISK and Format your HD to validate it. I do that with all my drives anyway. Just makes things easier later. If you can access the SATA drive with a DOS boot disk, then anything should be able to access it, including the XP Install disk. Andromeda

AS a professional, I must agree wholeheartedly. Put your important stuff on a FAT-32 formatted drive and you can read it anywhere, even on an old Windows 98 system or from a DOS boot floppy. NOT SO with NTFS. NTFS is for business systems.....NOT personal computers. MS never quite got that through their thick skulls, much to the downfall of many a user. I run one of the fastest PC's that I've ever seen (Nicknamed the HAL 9000) with two hard drives, each one partitioned with Two Partitions each. Every byte of it, formatted FAT-32. There are six running PC's in my house and not one NTFS partition in the bunch. Never will be either. Good Luck to you, Andromeda

All ram does not play well together. Some brands don't even play well with certain motherboards. Old ram and new ram will sometimes fight with each other. Likewise diferent brands. When upgrading, its always better to replace old ram with new. Good Luck, Andromeda

Thank you Mr. Spock That's completely logical.

First things first! What hard drive, what computer, what OS are you going to load and WHY? So, you have NO floppy drive,,,,just a CD drive,,,,right? We really need more info here if we're going to be of much help to you. Oh, and do you want an NTFS format or a FAT-32 format? Fill in the blanks.....OK? Andromeda B)

I don't understand some of the above posts... A strict rule with XP is that you don't move the OS from one type of computer to another. It won't run when it sees a different MOBO or CPU for instance. So, if you're going to clone an OS like XP, you have to have PC's that are exactly alike, at least in the mobo and cpu dept. So, if you bought a dozen PC's that were all exactly alike, you could do all your set-up's on just one machine and then make a Ghost Image to a bootable DVD and then boot and restore it to all the others in just minutes. That's 'sort of' what computer manufacturers do. I've done that myself when building multiple PC's for a customer. Good Luck, Andromeda

That's it! It's just there to annoy the heck out of you. Disable it! Here's a few more that you can normally disable: Here's my short, short list of services to disable for a stand alone PC, not on a network: From the RUN box, type in Services.msc , then maximize the window to full screen size. Then scroll down the list of services to each item on the following list and right click on an item and then click Properties. In the properties box you can Stop a running service and then set the action box to "Disable". Then Apply the change and OK the window to close it. Move down the list to the next item and repeat the process. When done, close the entire window and reboot your PC. Clip book Computer Browser Error Reporting Service Messenger Performance Logs and Alerts Portable Serial Number Remote Registry Remote Desktop Help Session Manager Routing and Remote Access Server (leave this on for a local network) Smart Card Helper System Event Notification Task Scheduler Universal Plug and Play Device Host Upload Manager Web Client Windows time Wireless Zero Configuration (disable if you will never use a wireless network) Having too many redundant services running in the background can really slow down your PC. Kill off as many as you safely can, for a much better running PC. I got tired of doing this by hand on every computer tune-up that I do, so I wrote a nice little program to do it for me. Saves oooodles of time. I added that to my "Care Package" on my Download Site. Happy Computing, Andromeda

There are several things that anyone can do to speed up both startup and shutdown. I do a lot of things during boot-up on my PC and still it's up in 20 sec's. Shutdown is as good. Takes all of 8 sec's. If you're interested, get my Care Package Here. Unzip it and read the instructions sheet. XP is terribly bloated with Un-Needed services and TSR's. After you've shut down all the totally Redundant Services, go into MSCONFIG/Startup and disable all those little programs that you don't absolutely need. That's a good place to start, Good Luck, Andromeda43 Having ample ram and keeping your HD clean and Defragged helps a lot too.

That's neat. That text must be copied and pasted into a Notepad document. Not a wordprocessor document. It worked ok for me. Thanks, Andromeda43