Jump to content

Windows ME or windows XP


duffgun

Recommended Posts

I been told for the last few years that windows ME is rubbish and that i should have brought a new copy of windows XP or 2000 when i brought my computer about 3 years ago, but i have installed most of the fixes and pathches for ME and it has allways ran fine on my system, about 3 month ago i decided to upgrade to windows 2000 but its been causing me lots of problems. it keeps crashing even though everything is compatible with it, and i have SP4 on and all the hotfixes and patches. the internet is a real problem as it always gets viruses after a couple of days even with the latest version of norton anti viruses and firewall, and yesterday when i went to delete a video file dr watson got corrupted and now the hole system is corrupted, win 2000 has been so bad i have had to do 3 fresh installs in a week, i have decided to go back to ME but now my friends are telling me to go for XP but i think ishould just stay with ME for now. what do you guy's thing

Link to comment
Share on other sites


You'd be best to go with Windows XP. The NT based kernel is far better than the one from Windows ME. Windows ME used a "hybrid" 9x/2000 based kernel.

Memory management in Windows 9x/ME is terrible as well. You can barely do things without having to reboot numerous times each day. Thus the issues with memory management also reduces stability.

I upgraded to Windows XP SP2 with my newest machine and it has been an excellent OS. The only time I see a BSoD is when the screensaver I use comes on. :P

Also, all the major (and minor) products, games, and much more are designed with XP (and now Vista) in mind; so that opens a whole world of opportunity to you. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If your computer is 3 years old, the best is w98SE (+uSP2 and other patches and updates (+++)).

I DO NOT recommand W98 First Edition however.

The commedian above who said that you need to reboot every 1/2 an hour refered to W98FE. The w98SE+++ doesn't have these problems anymore or very rarely.

XP is slow, bloat, complicated and may not accept old drivers.

The advantage of XP is that newest softwares, games and hardware sometimes won't run on w98 or ME.

About safety w98+++ is the safest even without firewall, if you take XP don't contemplate anything below XP SP2+recent updates+firewall+antiviruses.

There is no advantage of 2000 over XP and it might be even less safe than XP SP2.

ME, AFAIK, is the worse M$ OS ever.

If you can get w98SE and add the free uSP2.01a and recent updates, that's the way to go.

Second solution Xp SP2+updates+firewall+antiviruses+SafeXP

Last solution ME or 2000.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 years old, this is not very good specification of your computer. It may be rather powerfull with 2.66 GHz Pentium 4 processor or with Athlon XP 2200+, or it may be weaker box with Celeron 1.8 GHz or AMD Duron 1.0 GHz, this was the range in the middle of 2003. The size of the RAM is importanat too.

You will see better responsiveness with Windows 98 SE or with Windows Me in comparison to 2000/XP.

Windows 2000 will have rather long boot time.

Windows XP should acceptable on this hardware, especially if you have 256M (or better 512M) of RAM.

There are many new applications that are not compatible with 98SE/ME and some even with Windows 2000.

It's up to you what is your priority. If you need the highest speed and don't need newest versions of all programs, then 98SE is good choice. If you prefer to be able to run newer applications and a bit slower response is not so big problem for you, I'd recommend fine tuned Windows XP, with removed all unnecessary components and services (look for nlite) - but this is discussion for other forum. I'd never recommend Windows 2000.

Petr

Link to comment
Share on other sites

duffgun sorry you are having so much trouble with your box. I am using a windows 2000 upgraded with HFSLIP and I am very happy with it. IE is gone and firefox is my browser. I went to one of those internet sites where they check to see if they can attack it.... WELL I am secure :D

I dont know your serfing habits or if you are into modding an OS but I would reccomend the setup I got.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I guess it all depends on the use you make of a PC and how you "keep" it.

Just for the record I run Win2k since 2003 on this PC, and previously had it run another 3 years on a previous one and NEVER re-installed on either machine, nor EVER had a BSOD.

jaclaz

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I guess it all depends on the use you make of a PC and how you "keep" it.

Just for the record I run Win2k since 2003 on this PC, and previously had it run another 3 years on a previous one and NEVER re-installed on either machine, nor EVER had a BSOD.

jaclaz

Ma che dice? You never had a BSOD? Man you're a lucky one... My laptop didn't like 2k so it had to go...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is large disc support on Windows ME now as I guess you don't ignore. I personally would not swap it for another OS. Of course it has no system restore and system file protection. But to truly enjoy it I recommend at least a 2ghz cpu and 1GB of RAM. That's why I laugh when MS says you can run Vista on a 800MHz chip. Sure I could also run ME or 98 on a P133...

I had considered eventually switching to 2k because of dual core cpus support but my own experience with 2k, albeit very brief, hasn't been a pleasant one.

Not saying it is a bad system as I haven't enough experience with it. I managed to screw it faster than when I started with win 95 and maintenance recovery turned out to be quite problematic/difficult so I gave up as I was just trying it out of curiosity and not out of need.

I have XP but I have never installed it. It just covers my use of a Live XP CD that I use from time to time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...