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Should I Downgrade to Win98?
racketboy - Jun 22, 2004
  racketboy Jun 22, 2004
Normally I would think about doing this, but I'm considering downgrading my in-laws PC from Win2K to Win98.

Here's why:

It's a PIII 866 with 128MB of Rambus RAM. I would upgrade it to 256 or more except for the fact that it's pretty expensive I (and especially my in-laws) can't justify spending that much money for it.

In 2K the machine runs fairly well for light stuff, but lately, if you have more than a couple light apps open, it get pretty bogged down. Some of this might have to do with the antivirus software and the latest MS patches I installed (which I heard degrades performance).

Also, my father-in-law is still using his DOS-based music arrangement software on his 486 (he's pretty stubborn). We are looking to get rid of that machine and migrate him to the more modern box. We are hoping to get him to use Finale on Windows (what my wife uses to arange music) and also allow him to run and print from his DOS stuff when he needs to.

Once we move, it will pretty much be just my father-in-law using his music stuff and my mother-in-law using it for web, email, and card games. The turn it off when they are done for the day, so rebooting won't be a problem.

What do you think I should do?

 schi0249 Jun 22, 2004
If they aren't using any newer hightech stuff (ie. digi cameras) i would think they would be fine. Win 98 still works fine for basic stuff. Of course newer apps is a different story. My in laws still use 98, and it runs for them fine.

 racketboy Jun 22, 2004
well my main concern is the balance between stability and performance.

up to now, I've always been the one to maintain the machine -- which hasn't been much of a job. But once I'm at school, all I can do is help them over the phone.

 Alexvrb Jun 22, 2004
98 (preferably SE), that would be probably be fine. You could possibly just clean up their 2k install enough that it would continue to be ok too, depending on what they do with it. You probably could get a 256MB stick of RDRAM for $60-70, depending on speed. But I don't know that I could justify it either.

As for your father-in-law, definitely make sure that the new machine can run his DOS software acceptably. So in this case, 98 would be great. A gradual shift would probably be best, because you don't want him to feel frustrated and trapped, unable to access his old (reliable, familiar) software. But perhaps once he becomes somewhat used to Finale, he might prefer to use it.

 racketboy Jun 22, 2004
does anybody know if you can take the games (pinball, extra card games) included with 2K or XP and put them on 98? Don't have a 98 machine handy, so can't test them.

 mtxblau Jun 22, 2004
I just downgraded to 98 from 2K on (one of) my laptops. This is what I did:

Installed the 98 Service Pack 1.5:

http://exuberant.ms11.net/98sesp.html...

Not only are there updates, but you get the Win2K icon set and themes, and folder viewing capability. You also get the 'sort by name' choice ala Win2K.

Installed 98Lite demo:

http://www.litepc.com...

I didn't remove IE. I simply chose the 'sleek' option which disintegrated IE from Win98. So IE stays, but you get the stability. Or so the theory goes.

 racketboy Jun 22, 2004
yeah I was thinking about that new "service pack" but didn't know it had those extra goodies.

 Alexvrb Jun 23, 2004
XPlite would also be an option if you just wanted to keep 2k, but I am loath to use trial versions of pay software. I'd rather either buy it or do without. But I've never used their trial software.

 it290 Jun 23, 2004
Music arrangement? Just get an Atari ST, an Amiga 500, or a Mac. Use the right tool for the right job. In fact, what's wrong with a 486? If it works, it works.

As for the 2k vs 98 thing, I'd just stick with 2k. As you said, they're only doing light stuff on it anyway, so the RAM shouldn't really be an issue. If anything, do some VM tweaks and the like. You're going to be doing the maintenance anyway, so you may as well use something that doesn't crash as often. But it really boils down to who's using the machine. I've seen all flavors of Windows get bogged down with useless garbage and spyware, and there's not really much you can do to prevent that if the user is a doofus.

 racketboy Jun 23, 2004
the 486 would be fine, I suppose it would be fine except the want only one machine. So the PIII is here to stay.

 Cloud121 Jun 23, 2004
I'd do it.

As much as I hate Windows, I don't really have any problem with 98. I just hate all post-Win98 OSes.

I'm actually considering bringing my old Windows machine back to life.

 mtxblau Jun 23, 2004

  
	
	

		
		

			Originally posted by Alexvrb@Jun 22, 2004 @ 09:32 AM



 XPlite would also be an option if you just wanted to keep 2k, but I am loath to use trial versions of pay software. I'd rather either buy it or do without. But I've never used their trial software.


The pay version of the software allows you to remove a lot more stuff other than IE. AND it allows you to streamline down to 98micro. Based on racket's needs, I don't think he needs anything more than that.

If you use 2K lite, it still uses a lot more resources on its own that 98lite with a firewall, virus scan and spybot (ala spy sweeper).

 racketboy Jun 23, 2004
well, I'm gonna work on stripping down 2K and see how it goes...