Windows 98 - Which Version?

Pooon

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Hopefully someone here can help, if not can you poiny me in the right direction.

I need to find out which version of Windows 98 my father's laptop is running, wether it is FE or SE, how would i find this out. If i type dxdiag into the run command it tells me the operating system is Microsoft Windows 98(4.10, Build 2222) A. Does this mean anything to anyone?

Second query is, will a Windows ME upgrade disc work on both versions? (I don't think the laptop will run XP as its only a P3 600Mhz and only 96mb of ram) before you suggest to use that instead.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

:lease:
 
I though ME was the same as 98?

Just a bit more updated?
 
If you right click on My Computer and then click on properties does it give you the version then ?
 
Originally posted by JohnG
If you right click on My Computer and then click on properties does it give you the version then ?

Yep and when I had Windows 98SE on my system, it read:

Microsoft Windows 98
Second Edition
4.10.2222 A


Originally posted by iamtheone
Second query is, will a Windows ME upgrade disc work on both versions?

Yeah, it should do but I don't recommend it.
 
If the laptop is running 98SE as it would appear to be, then I wouldn't bother with the 'upgrade' to ME.

You will gain very little as a result of going through the process, so effectively you would be wasting your time. Then there is also the possibility that you may actually encounter problems during the install, and you could end up with having to rebuild from scratch, thus wasting even more time.

ME has earned itself a reputation for being unreliable and some even claim it to be the worst o/s that microsoft released. Whilst I would not go as far to say that, I have had problems with ME on one of my machines.

Stick with 98SE, or get yourself a memory upgrade and then have a look at XP - with 256mb ram, it should run ok.

If you do decide to install ME, make sure all data is backed up before you start, that the backups do work, and that you have all necessary drivers for the laptop.

Good Luck!
Tony
 
Originally posted by Games Guru
I though ME was the same as 98?

Just a bit more updated?

Far from it. ME is more a minimal 'version' of Win98, that was supposed to be a nice simple OS for gamers, office use etc.

As for your (iamtheone) thought about 'upgrading' to winME i highly recommend against it, granted i am one of the people who fit in to tonyb's aptly put "some even claim it to be the worst o/s that microsoft released" category, but only because its true ! WinME is horrificly unstable if you try to push it at all, driver support is minimal at best and performace-wise is 'ok' as long as you dont expect to be able to do anything major with it.

My advice would be the same as tonyb (except the big anti-winME thing) and to keep 98 on there, or like he said wack some extra ram in and try xp.
 
There are many who still believe that Win98SE was and still is the best version of Windows ever produced.
 
Originally posted by iamtheone
If i type dxdiag into the run command it tells me the operating system is Microsoft Windows 98(4.10, Build 2222) A. Does this mean anything to anyone?
IIRC there were 3 main releases of Win98:

1) The initial version
2) OSR2, aka 'release 2'
3) OSR2.1

Again, IIRC, OSR2 added stuff like USB, 2.1 added a few more bits. I believe build 1111 was designated 'A' and 2222 is designated 'B'.

And as others have said, ME is to be avoided, it offers absolutely nothing to the gamer (or anyone else for that matter) and you lose the ability to boot to DOS in a simple way. It added System Restore which is a poor relation of Ghost/Drive Image, twiddled with Internet connections very slightly and other largely hidden and even moreso irrelevant bits and pieces. It was 100% marketing, they needed a stop-gap release when what became 2K slipped for the umpteenth time.

I wouldn't go as far as saying it's the best Windows ever though. :) ... IMHO XP is far superior for running anything released since '97 or thereabouts, no game from that period causes me problems and I can play Morrowind while downloading and installing Linux into a virtual machine ... maybe not something most people need to do but a testimony to its' stability which would leave 98 dead in its' tracks even if it were possible to run VMWare on 98. :)
 
Originally posted by KraGorn
IIRC there were 3 main releases of Win98:

1) The initial version
2) OSR2, aka 'release 2'
3) OSR2.1

Again, IIRC, OSR2 added stuff like USB,

I wouldn't claim to be an expert on this topic, but that reads like a history of Windows 95. I know that W95 OSR2 introduced USB to Windows. I'd assume (rightly or wrongly) that USB was therefore in W98 from the off??
 
Originally posted by nigel
I wouldn't claim to be an expert on this topic, but that reads like a history of Windows 95.
:eek:

:oops:

Yup, you're right .. silly me .. there was just Win98 and Win98 SE .. it was the 2222 build number which I confused, since OSR 2 definitely was 1111 I leapt to the assumption 2222 was 2.1 ... of course, it was R2 of Win95.

Now you correct me I now can't recall what build number 95 2.1 was.

:suicide:
 
There are many who still believe that Win98SE was and still is the best version of Windows ever produced.

Poppycock! :p

The best release of Windows was 3.1. It was fast, stable and did what it said on the box.

Of course, it couldn't run hardly anything, but it worked and you would really have to pull out all the stops to get it to crash.

On topic :- Win 98SE is the best version of windows to run from that generation. Personally, I do prefer XP much more as it is far more stable than any 95/98/ME OS.
 
I think i'll go kind of halfway, to say i think Win98SE is the best OS for old old machines, as WinXP is without a doubt quite memory hungry. But i dont know any other OS as compatible as WinXP is with just about anything you want to put on it, and would let me have about 10 heavy applications running at the same time without any probs. Also Win98's memory management is shall we say, not good ;)
 
Originally posted by nigel
There are many who still believe that Win98SE was and still is the best version of Windows ever produced.
Nobody's been able to convince me to upgrade yet, but then nobody's convinced me that my Pentium 133 needs updating either :)
 
Blimey, cheers for all your replies guys, i have discovered that the machine is running 98se, and also decided that win me is not the way to go. Will go for more RAM i think, otherwise the laptop is going to join the great rubbish dump in the sky.
 
depends on what slots are still available in your dad's laptop, but if you can get an extra 128mb in there go for it,

it would run XP just fine with a P3 600 and 192mb+ of RAM

If you're looking for RAM, buy 'Crucial Technology'

dabs.com and overclockers.co.uk are the first places to look...


www.crucial.com have memory selector tool that will tell you exactly which part No. you require for your machine...

;)
 

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