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Old Laptop Win 98se or Win Me?


Randy_Rivers

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:whistle: just wondering if you 9x gurus know which is the best way to go with this.Now theres a lots of programs to tweak 98se kup 98setome rp7 sp2.1 etc. many for gui customizing many to add me files to 98se so whats the difference do i add me files and such to 98se or do i just go with me and try the unoffical service packs/P.S i,m not 2 concerned with the true dos issue with me.thx u 4 your replys. :wacko:
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Your computer is perfect for Windows 98. Not sure about ME though...

Windows 98 System Requirements

Processor

Minimum: 66 MHz 486DX2

Reasonable: Pentium, Pentium MMX, or Pentium II. Note, however, that Pentium Pro systems do not run Windows 98 noticeably faster than other Pentiums running at the same clock speed. The Pentium Pros are optimized for pure 32-bit code (such as you find in Windows NT), and Windows 98 contains enough 16-bit code to prevent any significant speed increases.

Memory

Minimum: 16MB.

Reasonable: Windows 98 runs much better with 24MB of RAM. For best results, I recommend at least 32MB, with 64MB being the bottom line for the truly impatient.

Hard disk free space

Minimum: The minimum amount of space required by Windows 98 Setup is 225MB.

Reasonable: A full install of Windows 98 could use up as much as 400MB of hard disk space. (See the following Note box.) Setup may also require another 45-50MB for the backup copies of your system files, and Windows 98 will need 20MB or 30MB for its dynamic swap file.

Video

Minimum: VGA, 14-inch monitor.

Reasonable: Super VGA, 17-inch monitor. Windows 98 enables you to open and work with many more applications at once than did Windows 3.x. So to maximize screen space, your video card and monitor should be capable of displaying 256 colors at 1024X768 resolution. If you plan on using Windows 98's multimedia features (such as video), a video card that can handle true color (16 million colors) and DirectX is a must. You need to install a second adapter to take advantage of Windows 98's multiple monitor support.

http://www.tdbennett.com/samples/31235-2/01/01.html

Edited by Atmosphere XG
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It would run either just fine. But some of the multimedia stuff in ME would be quite slow. Just for stability, I'd try both and see which one runs the best and is most stable.

From personal experience, ME has pretty much always been more stable for me. Some will argue that 98SE is better, but either would be good on that system.

Try both, what have you got to lose?

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No one can just tell you what OS to put on your system, mainly because you will get opinions from several different people on what you should put on it.

But I think the best OS to put on that machine would be 98se.

If you can though, try to add more ram to it, that will greatly help in speed.

Edited by prx984
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Unless you have your heart set on Internet Explorer 6, why not use a current Firefox or Opera browser?

I never use Internet Explorer so, I'm still on version 4 :blushing: Internet Explorer 7 is Microsoft's current browser. You can download a more up to date browser from Firefox or Opera than worrying how long Internet Explorer 6 will install.

You also need to understand that a 200 Mhz computer is going to take time installing programs based on it's processing speed. So, you need to set some time aside.

Direct X relies more on processing speed than what platform you are planning to use. A computer of that size is good for web browsing and emails. But, if you are trying to play videos and up to date games, you'll recieve processing speed issues faster than what operation system you choose.

Edited by Atmosphere XG
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If time is the biggest issue, then just go after 98SE... you shouldn't have to tinker quite so much to get it 'stable' (restore, anyone?)

What kind of ram does it take? You may get lucky and find some real cheap at your local ma and pop computer shop...

I wouldn't install anything past IE 4 with only 64megs ram.... firefox or opera is your best bet...

if you *need* MS Outlook, you will be forced a new IE... if this is the case, you may want to use ME and deal with killing off the bad parts of the OS manually just to avoid issues later installing IE...

With 64megs though, I would try to stick to 98SE at nearly any cost...

You could always try Jackhammer... it is open-source, and includes *many* software packages out of the box... It is based on 98SE.

Be warned though, it is a BETA!!!

http://jackhammer.sourceforge.net

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Unless you have your heart set on Internet Explorer 6, why not use a current Firefox or Opera browser?

I never use Internet Explorer so, I'm still on version 4 :blushing: Internet Explorer 7 is Microsoft's current browser. You can download a more up to date browser from Firefox or Opera than worrying how long Internet Explorer 6 will install.

I'm using WinMe on this Thinkpad 600, ~ 300MHz, typing this in Opera 9.1.

The main problem is not *using* IE, but that some s/w insists on IE6 being present or it refuses to install!

However, after installing said s/w, you can often remove IE6, & the s/w works just fine.

I tried to download IE6 yesterday, but gave up as it would never start the transfer. In the end I found an IE6 on the net, installed it, installed my s/w, removed IE6, then realised I now have a Spanish shell ;-) Ah well, it will improve my language skills :-)

Direct X relies more on processing speed than what platform you are planning to use. A computer of that size is good for web browsing and emails. But, if you are trying to play videos and up to date games, you'll recieve processing speed issues faster than what operation system you choose.

This laptop is an "emergency machine" in the event of power cuts. I was interested to see how it copes with divx, mpeg2 etc., & using an external DVD (internal is cd only) it just copes with playing DVD's at full screen :-)

So, be interesting to see if the 266MHz can manage it!

HTH

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Look up the program PROtab. It creates registry keys that make it appear as if IE is installed, fooling applications that check that. I used it to register version 9.99 of IE on here. :P

That does indeed work, thank you :-)

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The main problem is not *using* IE, but that some s/w insists on IE6 being present or it refuses to install!

However, after installing said s/w, you can often remove IE6, & the s/w works just fine.

But warning, Comodo Personal Firewall probably wont run fine after removing Internet Explorer!

Expect errors to be spat out and then terminated.

Also, it likely don't even support Windows 98 and ME!

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Well, I'm personally on a 266Mhz, pentium laptop which is very similar to your setup. It had initially 32 megs of ram, which was way too little for running win98FE it came with. So I bough two 64Mb sticks foe about$30 delivered. I know it says win98 only needs alot less ram, but that would work only if you run one program at a time, or only one browser window.

I had a few problems with msvrg32 stop responding and what not, so I opted to upgrade it to ME and have been very happy with it since. Grantedm I've only run it for a month, but it works way better than it did, and ME also has some nice additions to it, which you'll need to install as extras to 98. I don't care much about dos either. And basicly, I don't really see the point of using win98 to be able to use dos, when you can just boot up with a dos diskette on ME... Please someone explain that to me if I've got it wrong.

For me, this laptop is for "light" use. That means, it's mostly, web, writing light editing og photos etc and such I'm using it for. In 98 you cant view photos as a pic in a folder, while in ME you can. System restore is know as "bad" since it could back up a virus if you went to a restore point which had one. Sys.restore has an update, which I belive adresses this. I didn't read the accompanying document. But anyways, something to consider. But as I see it, it's better having a system restore than non at all. If you managed to get rid of the virus the first time, you'll do again.

I don't see the huge negative sides with using ME at all. In fact, I like the look and feel better, and if your not going to tinker alot with the OS itself, Me has more and better feautures out of the box.

If you want dvd decoding on a prosessor this slow, you better get a margi card, it decodes dvd's in a pc card format. Note however, that your laptop MUST be ZV(Zoom Video) capable, if not it won't do anything. THey can be had for around 6-7$ on ebay usually.

And NO, it don't take alot more time to install ME than win 98, it's about 30-40 minutes.

Plus parts of ME over 98;

You get moviemaker 1

System restore

view pics in folders

Fresher look

More stable IMO

More apps will install ( not alot though but messenger 7.5 for instance)

Most all of what works on 98 also works on me

Mediaplayer 7.1-9 AND "classic" 6.4 as default

Protection of system files

Not needing to reboot as often

If you connect a digital camera, it will retrieve the pics instantly (WIA feauture)

Improved home networking, IE, you connect to a XP pc and want to get files, it will be more smooth

PChealth

Plus! pack for 98 built-in

hibernate feauture... (is it in win98?)

usb mouse works the instant you plug it in

UPNP universal plugplay which actually works

New tcp/IP stack

ICS internet connection sharing

I'm sure there are more, it's the ones I found atleast.

In short, it feels like a win XP "light", without the hassle of needing to install extra apps to get things to work like you want to like with win98.

Negatives;

Well I don't really know any in particular, exept for the possibility of restoring a virus with system restore. It's supposed to be more "buggy", but I haven't noticed it, or any general problems. In fact I'm very happy with it!

I think that it's become a bit of a sport to bash ME, and thats a big reason why it's not that popular as 98. Given the differences when it was released, I can see why someone who had just paid for a 98 version, and had that up and running with alot of tweaks this and that didn't wantto shell out for the extra me feautures. And I guess the unpopularity just stuck. It hasn't really had that many users, so the ones who bash it mainly does it by what they've heard bad about it. Also, for business users, alot of the digital media enhacnements are nonsense.

For the experienced win98 user, used to jump down to dos on the fly running a dos app, and then fast back into 98, I guess ME was felt as sort of restricting, in the sense they couldn't do things the way they were used to. That had a BIG impact on me's reputation... But IMO the OS itself isn't a problem, it's what your used to before it.

Personally I've come a LONG detour around win 3.1, 95 and 98 to end up on me. Granted, I have used all of them, but not extensivly, exept from writing letters. I came from the old "workstation" platform, on autocad and other construction programs, running first unix, sun, intergraph ( now microstation), win NT 3,5 & 4 with autocad, then win 2000 and then win xp 6 years ago. So I don't have the "inheritage" of using dos 1.0 to 7.0 win 3.1, win95 win98 etc. So I'm not "used" to things needed to be done in this or that way. And maybe thats why I don't feel using ME as a restriction or problem at all. Because I really don't, I cannot see for the love of God whats really wrong with it at all. Win ME is the system I feel works best out of the box for this old laptop.

Basicly, I'd say try me first, and if you can get it working without big problems or stability issues, then just stick with it! If not, consider downgrading to 98.

Edited by tilstad
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Well, I'm personally on a 266Mhz, pentium laptop which is very similar to your setup. It had initially 32 megs of ram, which was way too little for running win98FE it came with, ...

Basicly, I'd say try me first, and if you can get it working without big problems or stability issues, then just stick with it! If not, consider downgrading to 98.

Interesting post tilstad :-)

This TP600 has 128 Megs of RAM, which I thought was the maximum but it seems it can possibly take more.

That's a fair point about DOS from a floppy, although for me it has to be a CD, as I don't have the slot-in floppy. In fact that's how I got Me on it in the first place, by having a DOS boot CD.

A friend regularly uses "Ghost" so I thought that may be a good alternative to System Restore as the size is relatively small, so can be backed up to a DVD RW.

I put "Tiny Personal Firewall" on it (not that tiny actually) then disabled it, went to Steve Gibson's Shields Up site, & it said it couldn't identify the OS & it passed his tests :-)

I only use a pc normally for a particular task associated with a pci card that only has win drivers, so am not an expert user. For several years I've used Mac OS X daily. I'm used to web browsing with > 20 tabs open at a session, & many other programs running, so it's interesting to see Me in action.

Like you I've only used this TP recently, but I've deliberately used Opera with about 15 to 20 tabs open, & apart from slowing down a bit, no crashes.

My ghost-using friend's son had Me on his pc until recently, & only changed to xp as he couldn't get a driver for his new TV card. They both think Me is fine. It is hard to understand why it got such a bad press. Maybe there's problems ahead for us ;-)

Thanks for the margi card tip. Next to find out if my pc is Zoom Video capable.

Although this is intended for "light", occasional use, as I'm not a regular pc user I've been looking for utilities to speed up folder access, particularly in load & save dialogue boxes, launching app's etc., so the program menu is on its second page now, & it's being stress tested :-)

I've tried "Xfilesdialog" & "Fastfolders", & am still looking.

"GOMplayer" seems a pretty good media player, & Xnview for pic's.

Firewire on Me seems pretty reliable too. I'll try the f/w networking soon.

I've done a few tests with 98se on a newish intel based mobo, & although it mostly works, it feels a bit fragile compared with Me, so I think I'll stick with Me.

I generally agree with your other observations. It's not clear to me that 98se has major advantages over Me.

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I think you should have tried Win98 SE for a better comparison.

It had initially 32 megs of ram, which was way too little for running win98FE it came with.
Thanks to IE4 integration.
I don't care much about dos either. And basicly, I don't really see the point of using win98 to be able to use dos, when you can just boot up with a dos diskette on ME... Please someone explain that to me if I've got it wrong.

WinME still has DOS, it's just hidden from view, which is quite silly.

DOS can be nice for playing older games. It's also much faster to switch to DOS than to boot from a floppy. You would have to make the floppy yourself anyway, so it is a disadvantage, considering your positive "more features out of the box" stance.

And if Windows complains that you can't mess with a file, DOS comes to the rescue. :) Basically, it's an extra OS that you can use to do maintenance or tweaking of Windows while it's not running, or without having it check what you do. For instance, I don't have IE installed, but there is the odd application that will create the Favorites folder (probably with a hidden desktop.ini) for no reason, and Windows will claim it's a system file that should not be deleted. Open a DOS prompt, and delete it from there, and you're done.

In 98 you cant view photos as a pic in a folder, while in ME you can.
Win98 can do that, but only from BMP files. I read that somewhere. My problem with this feature is that the explorer is a file manager, not a picture browser. As such, viewing 20+ pictures in a folder is really heavy on resources, and slows things down.
Me has more and better feautures out of the box.

More features out of the box means less choice, and not everyone likes that. There's also the problem of where it ends.

You get moviemaker 1
Someone explain to me what that program is good for. I have the second version on my WinXP laptop, and I can't figure out why I would want to use it, or how it would be productive.
Protection of system files

Didn't Windows have that since Win95?

ICS internet connection sharing
Win98 had that too.
I think that it's become a bit of a sport to bash ME, and thats a big reason why it's not that popular as 98.

I think the same thing sometimes. But I don't really care, as I don't use either as my home OS (though my newer PC will have Win98 SE).

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