Is there a possible way to leave noothing but WIndows on my system?


Recommended Posts

I just obtained an extremely old computer, running Windows ME. It's only housing 3.25 GB, and I want to clear it off and leave nothing but windows. I'm sticking with this HD until I save up enough for a better HD. (I'm 14 mind you.)

Is there any program that will just wipe all programs and make this beast of a machine like a default install of Windows?

Weird that you didn't get media for the computer from the store, does it have a back up partition?

Other than that you are just going to have to uninstall all the stuff you don't want and delete any files you don't need

My suggestion to you would be to use a program like this:

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html to get your CDKey (unless there is a sticker on your case) and then goto a torrent site and downloads Windows ME.

When you buy windows you pay for the key not really the CD so as long as you use your CD Key it's legit.

This install is so old and buggy, I can't just unistall the programs. They wont uninstall correctly. Vital windows files are missing; it's insane. Is there an alternative OS? I need an OS that I don't need to sit down and learn, Linux isn't that friendly. I'm not buying another Windows install (my small Drive wouldn't support the space requirement).

Which version(s) of Linux have you tried? I've heard that Ubuntu is not too difficult to learn (though I can't say that from my own personal experience.) You could download a CD, boot from that, try it for an hour and decide then if you want to install it or not. Worst case scenario, you played with Linux for an hour and learned something new?

That's not the main issue, if have the simple Windows function can't work, then I can't run Ubuntu. I'm on the 'Wipe or Die' phase on that PC. I just need that damn thing clear for a a couple basic apps. (Firefox, PlayerWorlds, etc.)

I am not generally one to reccomend Linux, specially as you said you don't want to learn it, but Ubuntu or really any distro is many, many times better than Windows ME and will run well on your old hardware. Even at the time, ME was garbage

So, should I wipe my HD clean? And If I do, how can I run a program CD if Windows isn't installed? (My expertise in computers lies in the web coding department)

I'm running an old IBM, Personal Computer 300PL, it's the Horizontal one most old schools have.

i recommend upgrading to windows vista Microsoft's latest product or windows XP

if you want to get these "cheap" buy a new PC :)

Lol, you didn't realy mean that did you?

I'd say go for Windows 98SE or if the hardware allows you to, go for Windows XP and clean it up a little bit (remove unnecessary programs and services).

Good luck!

i recommend upgrading to windows vista Microsoft's latest product or windows XP

if you want to get these "cheap" buy a new PC :)

Lol, you didn't realy mean that did you?

I'd say go for Windows 98SE or if the hardware allows you to, go for Windows XP and clean it up a little bit (remove unnecessary programs and services).

Good luck!

I would go for Windows 98 SE / XP Home anyway.

Besides, even if you do obtain a Windows ME CD, you can't boot from it. So it'd be just as useless.

Windows ME is single handedly the worst OS I have ever used, I reccomend you put something else on it, such as widnos 98SE if you can, and there's always linux as mentioned, it would probably run good on your old hardware, and any modern distro (such as ubuntu) would be much better than ME.

I'll use Linux I guess, My Laptop and Family computer run Windows, so it's not like it's absent from my house. And to Nic; Vista? I'll switch to Vista when Britney Spears put's some clothes on.

I think I might use xubuntu, because 3.25 GB of space is evil. I need as much space as possible.

I have another problem, my items that need drivers, (USB Flash Drive, Camera, etc.) I got rid of the CD's because all the PC's in my house are up to date for the most part. So i'm screwed if I install 98SE. What can I do? Besides, 98SE's USB support is pretty lacking

Edited by Ranting Kitsune
This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • Very umm, blue?  
    • Steam Summer Sale 2026 kicks off offering weeks of PC game discounts by Pulasthi Ariyasinghe Every year, one of the biggest events that Valve hosts is the Steam Summer Sale. Now, the 2026 edition has just kicked off, bringing discounts for everything from the newest games and retro gems to all sorts of DLC packs. As always though, PC gaming hordes have managed to shake the servers of Steam just as the sale opened its doors, so expect the prices, store pages, and services to not show up properly for some time till the backend stabilizes. You'll find sales being present, though with minor cuts, for even relatively recently released titles this time. The front page is the place to be for anyone looking for recommendations, with it putting a spotlight on fresh games every day. However, keep in mind that the discounts themselves will not be changing and will remain static throughout the sale. Blockbusters like Clair Obscur Expedition 33, Split Fiction, Red Dead Redemption II, Battlefield 6, Dispatch, Baldur's Gate 3, Resident Evil Requiem, Anno 117, Arc Raiders, Black Ops 7, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, and much more are currently discounted. Valve has also brought back the special "Deep Discounts" section. While part of this same sale, it only highlights games that are discounted by at least 85%, with some titles even reaching 95% off. Some of the games included here are The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Watch Dogs 2, Far Cry 4, Wreckfest, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, The Quarry, Ghostwire Tokyo, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, and much more for just a few dollars each. The Steam Summer Sale of 2026 will be open for business until July 9, giving everyone two whole weeks to try and keep their wallets closed. If you want to see the biggest highlights, be sure to read our Weekend PC Game Deals special coming this Saturday.
    • Digisecret 2.1.431 Pro and Wzipse 4.0. Both are encrypted self-extracting archives.
    • Google reshuffles its AI coding team as it struggles to catch Anthropic by Karthik Mudaliar Google is already reorganizing the AI coding “strike team” it created roughly two months ago, as it attempts to find ways to close the gap with Anthropic in one of generative AI’s most commercially important areas. According to The Information, Google DeepMind is expanding the team’s focus to include “midtraining,” rather than concentrating only on coding tools and agents. Midtraining takes place after a model’s broad initial training but before the final stages that prepare it to follow instructions and perform specific tasks. In simple terms, it gives developers another opportunity to expose a model to carefully selected data before it is polished for release. That could help Google improve Gemini’s underlying coding abilities instead of relying only on better prompts, interfaces, or post-training. Previous research has found that midtraining can be particularly effective for code and mathematics, where models must move from general language knowledge to more structured tasks. Google reportedly created the original strike team in April. It was led by Google DeepMind research engineer Sebastian Borgeaud, who previously worked on model pretraining, and focused on complex, long-running programming jobs. Google co-founder Sergey Brin and Google DeepMind chief technology officer Koray Kavukcuoglu were also reportedly involved in the effort. DeepMind researchers were said to believe that Anthropic’s coding tools were outperforming Google’s Gemini models, prompting the company to give the project more attention. Anthropic has made coding a central part of its AI strategy through Claude Code and its Claude model family. The company has continued improving that area, with Claude Opus 4.8 offering upgrades for coding and other agentic tasks, along with the now-unavailable Mythos and Fable models. The reshuffle also comes at a time when Google faces increased competition for AI researchers. Gemini co-lead Noam Shazeer recently announced that he was leaving Google for OpenAI, while two other researchers who contributed to Gemini and DeepMind projects are reportedly preparing to join Anthropic. It remains unclear whether the reorganized team will produce a new public Gemini model or developer product. No release date, team size, or specific performance target has been disclosed. Source: The Information
  • Recent Achievements

    • First Post
      kinowa earned a badge
      First Post
    • Rookie
      krychek57 went up a rank
      Rookie
    • Grand Master
      Jaybonaut went up a rank
      Grand Master
    • One Year In
      Philsl earned a badge
      One Year In
    • Dedicated
      Scoobystu earned a badge
      Dedicated
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      413
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      168
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      132
    4. 4
      Xenon
      73
    5. 5
      Michael Scrip
      73
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!