I can't believe it...a pain free computer software upgrade!

[Wedge]

Well my father-in-law's computer has never quite ran right (it is like 4 or 5 years old) and while the hardware is okay the software left a little to be desired.  It was running Win 98 and the assmebler didn't do much more than use plug-n-pray...so there were conflicts everywhere.

After a few years of essentially non-usage he asked me to take a look at it.  Being the good son in law that I am (and the fact that he has a nice 1989 Corvette that he lets me drive) I start poking around...

- Tons of shareware programs
- Multiple versions of AOL - they don't use AOL
- More shareware - it is all conflicting
- Win 98
- IRQ conflicts

- The thing took about 8 minutes to boot up.  It had never had any Windows updates done to it.  They have dial-up and the first download of 16MB took 4 hours (3 hours if you exclude being kicked offline about 10 times).

It was clearly becoming a problem that was way more trouble than it was worth.  Sure I could have fixed it but sometimes it is easier to tear down the house and rebuild.  So I told my FIL that I could take it home (where I have broadband) and bring it back in a week.  He agreed.  I put a licensed copy (yes the real thing) of Win XP Pro on it and formatted the computer.  Then I updated windows and put his software back on the box.  All of a sudden the machine is running like a champ (it is an Athlon 1.2GHz with 256MB ram.  Yeah it could use more RAM but he doesn't game and it runs fine.) and the in-laws won't have to buy a new PC or pay to get it fixed and after I took it home it only took me about 2 hours and no strange hassles.

[mtnbkr]

Win98 is probably the worst OS MS ever put out (I leave out Win3.x since it was technically an "environment" and not an OS in it's own right).  I never touched 98.  I jumped from 95 to NT4 (then Linux, then Win2K) and never looked back.

Chris

[Wedge]

I HATE and I mean HATE Win 98.  He is really going to think I am giving him a new machine when all I did was update the software.  I have actually never had a problem with XP - then again I am not a power user but I have been very happy with XP since the day we got it.

You should be happy you never touched 98.  You have a part of your life that I will never have back...

[GigaBuist]

Windows ME is worse, I'm told.  I never ran it myself, and barely ever ran Win 98.  At the Win 98 "release party" at my local CompUSA I picked up a copy of RedHat Linux 4.2

The -worst- updgrade I ever did involved a massive PDM system.  The Oracle DB behind the scenes was something on the order of 100 or so GB, and the schema was normalized beyond the 3rd degree.  It was a schema that defined it's own schema within the DB.  The scripts (in TCL!) from the manufacturer to upgrade the thing took about 16 hours to run... and they'd fail.  Had to tweak their own scripts to get the order of operations right without loosing the custom objects we had inserted into the DB ourselves.  Took months of running, checking the output, restoring the DB, trying again... etc.  Figure one run per day, at best.  Typically 2 days between runs plus the OTHER stuff I had to get done.

Yeesh.

[Phyphor]

Yes, Windows ME is positively the WORST OS MS has put out.  Take the crashiness of '98, REMOVE the DOS functionality of Windows 98, and tack on more code bloat.... you gots Windows ME.

Oh, did I forget to mention, the full (non upgrade) version of ME comes on a NON BOOTABLE #$%&ing CD?  You have to start off a floppy to install the POS.

Upgrade mY ***.

[Zundfolge]

I am one of three known people in North America to have a Windows ME Machine that ran properly. :p

Whenever anyone I know buys a "packaged" computer (like a Dell, HP, Compaq, eMachines, etc) the very first thing I tell them to do with it is get a copy of Windows ... not an upgrade ... not the copy that came with their computer, but an honest to God OEM disk and wipe the machine, reformat the drive and do a clean install from scratch. Believe me, it will be worth the extra cost.

All that crap that the major computer manufacturers put on their pre-loaded systems cut their power by at least 25%, and on some machines by 50%

AOL is spyware that sucks up CPU cycles even if you don't use it, same with MSN, same with the various "Support" software (like Dell's support software) same with MSN Messenger, same with RealJukebox, same with most of the junk software computers come preloaded with.

Downside is when you wipe it, you lose the manufacturer's software support ... upside is you're significantly less likely to need it.

[Wedge]

My wife has an HP Laptop.  That ended up being the upgrade from hell.  I think it took me a week to put Win XP Pro from Win XP home on it because I lost like every single driver imaginable and XP Pro couldn't find 'em.  Her computer is 4 years old and came with XP Home on it when XP first came out...

[Intune]

Hey guys, I have one of those package Dells (4100) and the tutorials take up a huge amount of space.  What should I upgrade to from Win 98? Is it hard to do?  There is nothing on this comp that couldn't be wiped out other than some email addresses that I could write down.  Thanks.

[Wedge]

I would say go XP pro.  I like being able to remote desktop into my machines.  And just do a full wipe of the computer...it will run so much better when all the corporate spyware and spam is gone!

[Sean Smith]

Hey guys, I have one of those package Dells (4100) and the tutorials take up a huge amount of space.  What should I upgrade to from Win 98? Is it hard to do?  There is nothing on this comp that couldn't be wiped out other than some email addresses that I could write down.  Thanks.

The tutorials, unwated "support" crap, and free 30-day trial copies of software you get on mass produced PCs are a real pain in the neck, waste hard drive space and hurt performance.  

For most people, the extra expense of XP Professional isn't worth the big price hike over XP Home, since you simply won't use the extra features, and extra features you don't use = bloat.  That said, XP Pro has its fans, and there is nothing 'wrong' with it by any stretch compared to XP Home.

Then try the following stuff to improve your performance:

http://www.geocities.com/mr_motorhead/xp_perf.htm

[Happy Bob]

What Wedge said:

You should be happy you never touched 98.  You have a part of your life that I will never have back...

I had Win98 on a 233MHz (IIRC) Pentium-MMX box at an old job (and an insane, non-technical boss). Didn't kill myself, but I think I ground a lot of tooth enamel from my molars.

They had a T1 line there, too -- I was like a guy driving a Model A Ford on the autobahn.