Should I go back?

[21brian12]

Most software and hardware are dropping support for 9x. So it doesnt make a whole lot of sense going back. You can always dual boot like myself. That way you can use 98 for your old games and software. I feel your pain when you talk about xp being slow. Im running it on a p3 with 256 meg. Do what the others said. Turn theming off and put in more memory. It wont be quite so sluggish then. Another option is to go to windows 2000 or wait another year or so and reactos will most likely be beta.

[Idontwantspam]

if you upgrade that RAM (and RAM is cheap these days) that system will run xp fine. Turn off the superfluous crap, disable unneeded services, then enable the classic shell, use the windows classic theme and use the classic logon and it'll be fine. Windows XP is built on the windows NT kernel, windows 98 is DOS based. The benefits of the NT kernel far outweigh anything 98 has to offer. NTFS, better security, support for newer programs, better multiprocessor support, support for more RAM, less buggy, etc. Supported by MS still.

[Rockeh]

...ahh the memories with 98!

It's like a good cheese - One never wants it to end!

That's why I have both 98SE and XP on my PC - the memories go on.

BTW, A big welcome to MSFN!

Thanks!

I've tried to install Windows 98 on the same PC as my XP, but it didn't turn out so good. Maybe if I leave my current XP on my main hard drive, then setup 98 on a secondary hard drive? I'm not sure what the end result would be. I would imagine it would be ok.

Maybe I'll give it a shot.

[RetroOS]

...

I've tried to install Windows 98 on the same PC as my XP, but it didn't turn out so good. Maybe if I leave my current XP on my main hard drive, then setup 98 on a secondary hard drive? I'm not sure what the end result would be. I would imagine it would be ok.

Maybe I'll give it a shot.

Hi Rockeh,

You have to install Windows 98 onto a different partition or hard drive than Windows XP.

However... Windows 98 should be installed before XP...

See this Microsoft KB including resolving 98 after XP: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/293089

[Fredledingue]

Turning off eye-candy themes does very little or at all to improve overall performance.

W98 is still faster than XP and can work properly but it can be of some work to cope with all the updates.

If you want the easy solution, buy some ram and keep XP.

If you want the most of your machine try w98. It takes time but it's cool at the end of the day.

My advice: Reformat your HD to FAT32, and type "setup"...

[Idontwantspam]

Dual booting is obviously the best solution here. I'd recommend setting up two partitions, then install windows 98 on one of them and windows xp on the other. Install windows xp 2nd so that the new bootloader will be installed. If you need to set up partitions, you can either do it during windows setup, or you could use gparted, which is a free, handy boot cd with a partition editor.

[Rockeh]

...

I've tried to install Windows 98 on the same PC as my XP, but it didn't turn out so good. Maybe if I leave my current XP on my main hard drive, then setup 98 on a secondary hard drive? I'm not sure what the end result would be. I would imagine it would be ok.

Maybe I'll give it a shot.

Hi Rockeh,

You have to install Windows 98 onto a different partition or hard drive than Windows XP.

However... Windows 98 should be installed before XP...

See this Microsoft KB including resolving 98 after XP: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/293089

Thank you for the link, I wish I would have read that a while ago!

I'll give it a shot then, should be fun!

Turning off eye-candy themes does very little or at all to improve overall performance.

W98 is still faster than XP and can work properly but it can be of some work to cope with all the updates.

If you want the easy solution, buy some ram and keep XP.

If you want the most of your machine try w98. It takes time but it's cool at the end of the day.

My advice: Reformat your HD to FAT32, and type "setup"...

Yeah I saw the amount of updates for w98, there's quite a few. I'm unsure how to install them (in which order and whatnot), I'll figure it out sooner or later though. I'm hoping to get some ram soon, I haven't had time as of late to go out and do some minor upgrades to my PC.

Thanks!

Dual booting is obviously the best solution here. I'd recommend setting up two partitions, then install windows 98 on one of them and windows xp on the other. Install windows xp 2nd so that the new bootloader will be installed. If you need to set up partitions, you can either do it during windows setup, or you could use gparted, which is a free, handy boot cd with a partition editor.

*writes this down*

Thanks for the tip! gparted, never heard of it. If I were to create a partition, could I do it with the old fashioned w98 boot disk and run the tool "fdisk" from there? For example, If I wanted to do a complete clean install of w98 and XP on separate partitions, should I do this? delete current partition, create new partition, format the first partition then create a second partition? That's how I've known how to do it.. hopefully I got it right.

[glocK_94]

Yeah I saw the amount of updates for w98, there's quite a few. I'm unsure how to install them (in which order and whatnot), I'll figure it out sooner or later though. I'm hoping to get some ram soon, I haven't had time as of late to go out and do some minor upgrades to my PC.

The Autopatcher is your friend for this task...

*writes this down*

Thanks for the tip! gparted, never heard of it. If I were to create a partition, could I do it with the old fashioned w98 boot disk and run the tool "fdisk" from there? For example, If I wanted to do a complete clean install of w98 and XP on separate partitions, should I do this? delete current partition, create new partition, format the first partition then create a second partition? That's how I've known how to do it.. hopefully I got it right.

If you want to do it this way, IMHO the best option would be to use two different hard disks. One for XP, the other one for 98. This way, the installation order wouldn't matter and you wouldn't even need a bootloader. The systems would be totally independant and you could avoid the delicate consequences if you ever need to reinstall one of the system (after a crash for exemple).

Just change the boot order in your BIOS and you can switch OS.

Just an alternative to keep in mind...

[j7n]

Oh my... You don't need 2 hard disks.

Here I wrote step by step instructions how to install both Win98 and WinXP on the same computer.

http://www.msfn.org/board/instal-2-systems...140#entry736140

You can install Win98 after WinXp, but two boot sectors (1024 bytes) and the boot.ini have to be updated. To update the boot sector I use... WinXP installer. Quite inefficient way to work with 512 bytes of data, but it gets the job done.

[Rockeh]

The Autopatcher is your friend for this task...

If you want to do it this way, IMHO the best option would be to use two different hard disks. One for XP, the other one for 98. This way, the installation order wouldn't matter and you wouldn't even need a bootloader. The systems would be totally independant and you could avoid the delicate consequences if you ever need to reinstall one of the system (after a crash for exemple).

Just change the boot order in your BIOS and you can switch OS.

Just an alternative to keep in mind...

Ah the auto-patcher, I didn't think of that. I'll take a look.

True. I also would rather use two separate hard disks so that I can devote one hd for XP and the other for 98. Problem is, is that I have two HDs right now, one of them is for my OS and the other is for my backups/downloads and whatnot. I wouldn't want to format the hard drive. I'll find a workaround though.

Thanks for the link & tip j7n.

[Legolash2o]

Use nLite, gets rid of the junk from XP so it runs alot faster, stay with XP

-Lego

Edited February 25, 2008 by LegoLiam™

[Randy_Rivers]

I dont think u should ever go back but u should use the os that best suits the demands of your Pc.In otherwords use the os that run efficently on your current hardware.In xp case u get the use of current software and or updates.If dos is your thing 98 might be the way 2 go even if dosbox or virtual pc is around.Your might wantta use 98se if it runs your curreny hardware and suits your current needs or habits today but cutting yourself off from newer version of certain programs may only limit your experience,its really down to what your comfortable with and your needs.

[Fredledingue]

Ah the auto-patcher, I didn't think of that. I'll take a look.

Yes. Or the uSP3.0 by Gape. (see member's project subforum)

The auto-patcher seems more complete and more regularly updated while uSP is smaller in download size and straight to the essential.

Both are very good.

The patcher and the uSP as they install the most important updates, are enough if you want a w98 without BSOD. The latest updates to install individualy are only for us, w98 fanatics who want to be always at the top of the top.

[Idontwantspam]

Gparted

Kick a** partition editor. Burn the iso and boot off of it, then it uses a live cd to give you an easy to use interface with which to modify partitions. Easy, fasy, free (as in beer and freedom!) Also in the future if you want to change the sizes of partitions or add new ones, it can do that, too.

I'd advise deleting all of the old partitions, then making an XP partition and a 98 partition. Format the 98 partition with FAT32, and the XP one with NTFS.

[jeffredo]

The XP machine you have will absolutely run better with more RAM. Put a full gig in it and that should take care of that noticeable slowness. Just clean boot before you game with it and it should run older games fine.

Now the older of the two would be better off with 98 SE imo. I have an old Dell V350 with Windows 98 SE. Fully patched from Windows Update and the Unofficial Service Pack for 98 SE and it runs great. Sitting behind a router with a hardware firewall with regular manual virus scans and prudent surfing I don't worry too much about security.