Win 98 on newer PCs?

[Typhon]

I know you probably have no idea what I am talking about but I would use Nlite to make xp faster for your old pc. Windows 98 is so unstable and unpatched I would stay away form that.

[Xenomorph]

It's not that his chipset can't run it, it's that windows 98 isn't compatible with his chipset! Everyone can run dos fine because it's running inside of something that is compatible with their chipset (ie, windows vista or XP).

What the hell does this even mean??

Windows 98 has DOS in it.

DOS can boot up on anything.

Windows 2000/XP/Vista don't have anything DOS related in them (except for the 32-bit versions having some old DOS programs included, such as EDIT.COM).

Hi,

I have a P 4 3.0 GHz with 896 MB RAM (1 GB shared), and Physical Address Extension. When I tried to install Win 98, it wouldn't install, and when I asked my computer guy about it, he said that in these new PCs, you can't install Win 98.

Is it true? And is there a way around it?

Thanx.

And what the hell does this mean? This is like one of the worst trouble tickets a help desk could get.

Support: What is the problem?

You: "it wouldn't install"

Really? Thanks for all the detail there!

Why wouldn't it install? Did it crash? Was there an error message? A blue screen? A blank black screen? Some indicator of what was going on? A freeze? Did the install get so far and stop at copying files? Stop at detecting hardware? Could you get to a command prompt?

How were you installing this? Was this regular 98, or 98SE? Have you tried other versions of Windows or DOS?

I've installed Windows 98SE on a system with an Athlon XP 2000+ w/ 1 Gig RAM.

The issue once installed on a modern system may be the lack of chipset drivers, video drivers, and all kinds of other drivers.

Many WDM drivers from Windows XP for things like Sound and Network MAY install under Windows 98SE (but not the original 98).

What kind of hardware do you have? Telling us the system has "Physical Address Extension" doesn't help, as 98SE wouldn't use that.

- Chipset

- Video

- Network card

- etc.

Like others have said, going with Windows 98SE on a system capable of handling more is silly.

Windows 98: no built in firewall, lacks a bunch of security updates, insecure by nature, unstable by nature.

You're going to run into issues where some modern games and programs will not install. You're going to run into issues where the system blue screens and have you to reboot. You're going to run into GDI resource drain and need a daily reboot.

On my old Pentium 1 system (MMX 233 MHz), I have Windows 2000 installed.

Windows XP performs *very* well on a Pentium 3 1.12 GHz laptop w/ 512 Megs ram my wife uses.

I don't know what issue you're having or why you'd think running an unstable 9x/VXD/DOS-based OS is the answer.

[Drimacus]

you've gotta be kidding.... :wacko: i used to run xp on a 450 mhz cpu with 256 mb of ram and some on-board ATI graphics crap with 4 mb of video ram.... and it ran just fine, i could even play some games.

btw my hd was only 8,6gb.....and the initial xp installation used only ~3gb

[beanboy89]

Hey guys, I'm trying to run Windows 95 on my brand new Intel Core 2 Quad with 8 GB RAM a 1 TB hard drive and GeForce 8800 GTS SLI. Any help?

:p

[Hooya]

My suggestion to the OP, since it seems he basically just wants a super lightweight OS, is to install the lite version of Shift Linux. Learn a bit about open source software that can open his older documents and he should be all set.

[EnzoFX]

I don't know why you guys are suggesting a virtual environment. The OP wants something snappy, so running a virtual workstation ON TOP of xp would defeat the purpose of trying NOT to run XP. But like someone else said, XP is fast. And will be just incredibly fast on that P4. On that specific hardware, the difference between xp and 98 would be negligible.

[Skyfrog]

Windows 98 doesn't like modern hardware, fast CPUs, etc. It's just going to be a constant pain and crash like crazy, as if it was stable to begin with. Windows XP should run smooth as silk on that system, just do a clean install and maybe turn off the themes service and use the classic start menu if you want it to be even more responsive. I would never torture myself with a 9x based OS again. If I had to be stuck on an old computer I'd run NT 4.0 or even 3.51 before 98.

[KeeperOfThePizza]

Why would you want to install Windows 98? I dont see any reason why you would want to.. Theres almost virtually no support for Windows 98. XP Pro + nLite FTW.

[xplatinum]

If XP is slow on a brand new computer I suspect the problem to be the user and not the OS.

No offense to the OP but your posts tend to show that you don't know a whole lot about computers. So I wouldn't be surprised if you had tons of malware/adware on your system making your XP install crawl the way it does.

If I were you, I'd opt for an OS that's slow than one that's blazing fast but doesn't support 3/4 of my devices.

[devHead]

I know that even with 512 MB of RAM, Windows 98 does some really wonky things. Plus, it likely won't be able to access all your hard disk (since it will have to be FAT32, not NTFS). Plus, your CPU is way too fast for it. I think you'd be better off with Windows 2000 (if you're feeling you need a nostalgic OS) or better yet, XP. XP will smoke with a GB of RAM and a P4 3Ghz CPU.

[Aldur82]

OK, it's been mentioned a couple of times but I'll say it again as I have had experience of this very situation.

The OP said they wanted 98 for nostalgia. If you're running Windows XP, download Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 (free from Microsoft so long as you pass the Validate procedure). You can install 98 under that very quickly, it runs extremely fast (even under Vista), and you don't have to worry about completely messing up the installation and not having a functioning computer afterwards.

Everyone who pipes up with "Why do you want to install that crap?"...unless you can contribute in a helpful manner, don't post. I understand installing an old OS for nostalgia, I installed OS/2 under Virtual PC 2007 and it ran like lightning.

[devHead]

Oh, I just want Win 98 to do typing stuff, not for games or anything. The only reason I want it is because whatever I do to tweak XP, Win 98 will still be faster. I don't plan to connect to the net at all with it. You all have spoken about a virtual environment; I have no idea about it; where do I get it?

I am posting a separate topic in the XP section, about my XP being slow, and more than slow, about it taking up the entire C:\ drive (10 GB) partition!

Thanx.

Well, then it's not a problem with your OS, it's something else. XP should scream on a machine like that. If it's dragging slow, there's something else wrong. But you can't run 98 on that rig. It just won't work. Do a Google search on the issues with Windows 98 and 512 MB of RAM. Plus, if you've got a really big hard disk, it's going to be wasted on 98.

[HydraHeaded]

Alright, so Win 98 can't be installed on my system, that's what I have understood so far.

It is true that I wanted to keep the old Win 98 just like that, but it seems its not possible. I also need it because it is fast, compared to my XP Pro SP2, which definitely has some problem in it. I did another install of XP SP2 on D:\ drive, and it is faster, but the way you people make it sound, as if it should be blazing fast: no, it doesn't work that way on mine, whatever it is, Win 98 was faster.

So Win 98 doesn't have any features, any security; but I've already said that the only reason why I want it is that I can start the computer very quick, and open Word, and do some typing, and that's all. There's also the added advantage of keeping another OS, so that if XP goes bust, I can atleast use Win 98 for the time being.

Using a Virtual environment, according to some, seems to be the answer; I have no idea about it, but it seems like starting XP, then starting the virtual environment, and then running Win 98, right? All I want is speed: push the ON button on the CPU, and in one minute, the compu is ready (my XP at present takes some four to six minutes, for the OS, ZoneAlarm, Bitdefender, Spyware Doctor and Spybot to load; at times, it reaches the desktop without loading the start bar, and then says that there has been some problem, some kind of access violation, and the memory could not be read in some module, and then when I click OK, it restarts XP, though CheckDisk doesn't run in these cases).

As far as malware/adware is concerned, I have scanned with the stuff that I have got, and yes, it did detect something that is still there (Internet Explorer opens on its own, and ZoneAlarm gives a message of having blocked access to the IP address 89.188.16.50 ). But, that problem began only about ten days ago, while my XP has been like this for as far back as I remember.

The first time I start Firefox, it takes about two minutes to start, and frequently jams up for about twenty seconds every five minutes. If I click an html file (e.g. faq.htm) in a folder, this is what happens: after about 16 seconds, a message window pops up, saying:

Windows cannot find 'C:\Documents and Settings\(user name)\My Documents\faq.htm.' Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again. To search a file, click the start button, and then click Search.

Then, after another eight to ten seconds, Firefox opens. And this is when I have already opened Firefox at an earlier time (and closed it); if it is the first time, it takes more time.

A member has suggested using Shift Linux, but will it open Word files?

Thanx.

[xplatinum]

A member has suggested using Shift Linux, but will it open Word files?

Thanx.

Switching to linux is a whole other story... If I were you I'd stick with XP. But if you really want a change, try Ubuntu.

For the word (.doc) files you will need to have OpenOffice installed (free alternative to Microsoft Office). Some compatibility issues from what I've experienced. Tables for exemple, aren't placed properly.

[Xenomorph]

Install Linux, problem solved.

[winrez]

Windows 98SE could be installed on that type of computer in the bios do the following;

1) disable hyperthreading

2) if you have a SATA hard drive put it on legacy IDE

3) If you have a SATA DVD drive you will need floppy installation disks

4) if you have a USB mouse and keyboard turn on the legacy options in the bios also

5) set your boot order to boot to the CD rom first

If it does not boot you will need a boot floppy located here http://www.bootdisk.com/ (there were some 98SE CD's that did not have the boot information on the CD)

also goto the individual device manufactures website and download the oldest drivers usually under previus versions

I have already setup a P4 PC with Dual Boot 95 98 for playing really old 3d games that will not run in a virtual machine. If you want to go the virtual route goto www.microsoft.com/virtualpc and download a copy

[Shadrack]

winrez is on the right track with all his suggestions. The OP is wanting to use Win98 because it will be 'faster' but in order to get Win98 to run you'll have to live without a lot of performance enhancing features of the hardware.

If the OP just wants some nostalgia then Virtual PC is an option. Actually here:

There is your nostalgia. :p

[C_Guy]

Install Linux, problem solved.

Except he won't have Windows 98 which means it would do absolutely nothing to solve the problem.

Thanks for the helpful insight though.

[4CxbqFxVnstmA Veteran]

Except he won't have Windows 98 which means it would do absolutely nothing to solve the problem.

Thanks for the helpful insight though.

Actually, he could install Ubuntu, then add Virtualbox OSE, and run Win 98 in a virtual machine. Ubuntu and Virtualbox OSE are both free, so no extra cost to him.

HOWEVER, since he is after speed, I think this would be slower than a normal install of Win 98.

[C_Guy]

Considering the amount of work and tweaking it will take to enable your computer to install and run Windows 98 which is obsolete and no longer supported by Microsoft, I would recommend Windows XP, especially if all you need ia s word processor. Word processing won't run any slower on XP or Vista than it does on 98.

Here's how you can make it run faster and look like Windows 98:

-Backup any data you want to keep

-Re-install Windows XP from scratch, including a format of your hard drive first (Use NTFS)

-Use Add/Remove Programs control panel to remove any components (like Messenger or MSN Explorer) that you don't want.

-Install all updates and drivers

-Change the appearance to Windows Classic

-Tweak your system settings (such as virtual memory) to maximize performance

-Use msconfig to eliminate any non-essential services (like System Restore) and startup items

-Install your word processor

This is still XP, granted. But it's as close to Windows 98 as you can get without using an obsolete operating system. And since you won't have to reduce or turn off hardware features in your BIOS, you will have better performance than if you ran Windows 98 as your OS.

winrez is on the right track with all his suggestions. The OP is wanting to use Win98 because it will be 'faster' but in order to get Win98 to run you'll have to live without a lot of performance enhancing features of the hardware.

There is your nostalgia. :p

Actually, I think he wants nostalgia like someone who knows how to run a computer. Not someone like yourself who just gets blue screens of death and then dishes out the blame to Microsoft and thinks it's funny.

[Shadrack]

Actually, I think he wants nostalgia like someone who knows how to run a computer. Not someone like yourself who just gets blue screens of death and then dishes out the blame to Microsoft and thinks it's funny.

lol. Your insight into my life amazes me :| . You obviously have a lot of virtues to be thankful for, but humor is not one of them.

[Shadrack]

Considering the amount of work and tweaking it will take to enable your computer to install and run Windows 98 which is obsolete and no longer supported by Microsoft, I would recommend Windows XP, especially if all you need ia s word processor. Word processing won't run any slower on XP or Vista than it does on 98.

Except he won't have Windows 98 which means it would do absolutely nothing to solve the problem.

Thanks for the helpful insight though.

[markwolfe Veteran]

...

A member has suggested using Shift Linux, but will it open Word files?

Yes. If you just want a customized reduced system, internet browsing, and word processing, you might try out Xubuntu (XFCE-based Ubuntu) with Abiword as your word processor. Abiword runs on Windows, too, so you can test it out right now without installing Linux.

Install Linux, problem solved.

Just for the record, Linux isn't the solution to all problems. In some cases (like commonly sold scanners in stores)^* you might find unexpected problems.

* _{Sorry for the link to my Neowin blog}

:p

[soldier1st]

why would you want win9x now?it's slow and outdated and most software/hardware wont work on it,true if the system is very slow 98 would work but good luck trying to find working drivers for it.go with vista or xp as you will be much happier.

[C_Guy]

You obviously have a lot of virtues to be thankful for, but humor is not one of them.

I tend to only like jokes that are funny so get over yourself.