I have a friend that has WinME installed on her laptop when she bought it... the problems have been getting steadily worst. I've been trying to convince her to upgrade to Win XP or even better, Win2k, but she wouldn't listen. Things got so bad that just last month, she's done a system restore with the HP disk about 4 times. Moral of the story? Unless you like wiping your system clean with the system restore disk, stay away from ME.
ActuaryTm
Diamond Member
- Mar 30, 2003
- 6,858
- 12
- 81
This is true of most versions of Windows, at least as far back as 98 First Edition (perhaps back to 95 and 3.x, but cannot recall off-hand). Is often misunderstood that the full install version and the upgrade version of any Windows product are identical, save the prompt for prior proof of ownership. Will even accept the floppy diskette version (under the 98 installer), by prompting for a few random disks.
Not certain how the rest of the country fares, but NYC CompUSA stores have an entire linux section, including a number of the popular distributions (have seen SuSE Professional, and RedHat Professional). Typically around $60.00 per distribution. These distributions of course include official support from their respective companies, which is an added benefit for some (new to linux user, small business, etc); though certainly there is a great deal of information available online in the way of self-support for no cost. Also nice for those without an internet connection/dial up users, as the full installation of most distributions are multi-CD (SuSE 9.1 Professional is five discs, I believe).
Edit: Available online as well, it seems - though certainly more sparse than the selection in-store. Found here on the CompUSA site.
Just to echo any reservations you might have about win Me...it took a week for one of my friends to completely crash his computer using this OS, and 2 months for another on a brand new machine. Sometimes you get what you pay for...
It's still a dang virus, but I suppose if you like outdated OSes then it's a hot deal.
I don't mean to thread-crap or anything, I just want to encourage people to stay away from WinME. That's all.
I don't mean to thread-crap or anything, I just want to encourage people to stay away from WinME. That's all.
VirtualLarry
No Lifer
- Aug 25, 2001
- 56,587
- 10,225
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That's not entirely true.
"Full Install" versions also sometimes have a "block" against re-installation over the top of an existing install, which is one of the very useful things that you can do to "fix" a badly-busted Win98se system, without having to re-format and re-install all user applications. It basically works like XP's repair install. But only "Upgrade" versions will do that. Or perhaps retail full versions will too, and just not OEM "Full Install" CDs, back when they used to include full OS CDs from MS as OEM, before the advent of "Recovery only" CDs. (Although, having to re-format before re-installation almost makes it that way too.)
Perhaps WinME is different, I don't know. It was so horrid that it didn't even last a week on my test-install machine. It really was that bad.
Oh yeah, if it ever needs to do a disk-check on boot, it boots Windows first, and then runs GUI-mode Scandisk. However, Windows has to write to the disk during boot, so automatically, it can make any sort of filesystem-based disk-corruption worse. Just one example of the many wonderful (broken) design decisions that went into WinME.
However, the WinME CD, even retail ones, were by default bootable, whilst Win98se ones were not. (Some OEM Win98se versions were though.)
I still think that this deal is really only viable, if you contact MS and ask them to send you Win98se installation media, because you would like to convert ("downgrade") the WinME license to a Win98se one.
Friends don't let friends install WinME!
"I have a friend that has WinME installed on her laptop when she bought it... the problems have been getting steadily worst. I've been trying to convince her to upgrade to Win XP or even better, Win2k, but she wouldn't listen. Things got so bad that just last month, she's done a system restore with the HP disk about 4 times. Moral of the story? Unless you like wiping your system clean with the system restore disk, stay away from ME."
and she thinks bonzi buddy is cute, too, huh?
NEVER had to reload xp on a machine right? who do i make the check out to, the brooklyn bridge owner's association or a private address?
"Just to echo any reservations you might have about win Me...it took a week for one of my friends to completely crash his computer using this OS, and 2 months for another on a brand new machine. Sometimes you get what you pay for..."
i know i have, and it's why i was trying to get in on this deal also. xp doesn't crash? does the check go to two separate addresses?
"I don't mean to thread-crap or anything,"
what is it then? not like any valuable information was able to be fund within the post...
"Perhaps WinME is different, I don't know. It was so horrid that it didn't even last a week on my test-install machine. It really was that bad."
been running it on dell 2100 for 3 (?) years, for two on two other boxes...
and she thinks bonzi buddy is cute, too, huh?
NEVER had to reload xp on a machine right? who do i make the check out to, the brooklyn bridge owner's association or a private address?
"Just to echo any reservations you might have about win Me...it took a week for one of my friends to completely crash his computer using this OS, and 2 months for another on a brand new machine. Sometimes you get what you pay for..."
i know i have, and it's why i was trying to get in on this deal also. xp doesn't crash? does the check go to two separate addresses?
"I don't mean to thread-crap or anything,"
what is it then? not like any valuable information was able to be fund within the post...
"Perhaps WinME is different, I don't know. It was so horrid that it didn't even last a week on my test-install machine. It really was that bad."
been running it on dell 2100 for 3 (?) years, for two on two other boxes...
WinMe Supposedly had horrible problems with a Memory leak, that would crash your computer after leaving it on for more than a day or so.
With all the hassles that ME caused me in the 2 years I used it before I got XP, I would say that even if they were giving it away, that it would still be too expensive (time, lost data, etc.) and not worth it, IMHO.
do you seriously feel the need to defend ME against the rest of the forum? Congratulations on running ME on few computers, you are truly special. ::Cookie::
VirtualLarry
No Lifer
- Aug 25, 2001
- 56,587
- 10,225
- 126
It should be said that I tend to stress my OSes, hardware, etc., to nearly their limit, and run into (mostly software, some hardware) issues with everything. But ME was just so.. slow, compared to Win98se on the same hardware, and way too.. bloated. If you tend to run a lot of programs like I do, WinME seems to offer even less free system resources for your apps than Win98se did, and once those run out, the OS starts to get really wonky and needs a reboot. Generally that happens to me after a few hours. Heck, I still run out of "system resources" in W2K too, although the limit is much higher than in Win9x, and OS itself doesn't start to die when the limit gets hit, the GUI just starts to get unusable. It's a royal PITA, I wish MS would get rid of these stupid limits entirely, but I suspect that they are too ingrained into the design of the Windows' API that it's not really possible without switching over entirely to a new windowing system API or something.
Zap
Elite Member
- Oct 13, 1999
- 22,377
- 7
- 81
That actually got a good laugh out of me. I used to have a shareware/freeware program called "Bubba" that was a knockoff of Bob. Funny stuff.
I don't recall any success with Windows, but I remember once turning a copy of MS Office upgrade (either 95 or 97) into a full version. What happened was that a friend of mine owned a copy and needed to reinstall it, but had lost the product key. I did a quick online search for it, and got the product key to a full version. I installed Office using the full version product key and it never asked to upgrade anything.
LOL, I remember reading a joke about that. Something like "is Windows a virus?" The reasoning was that viruses were compact and well written programs, so Windows in fact cannot be a virus. The conclusion stated that Windows was, indeed, a bug.
Speaking of outdated OSes, I recently sold a full retail box copy of IBM OS/2 Warp 4. Talk about outdated...
An easy way around this. Just delete or rename the file "WIN.COM" and the full version CD will happily install over the previous version.
Hehe, made a very valid point. A friend of mine almost had to do a reinstall last week because of some glitch in XP. He had a USB 2.0 PCI card as well as onboard USB 1.1. It was all working great, and he decided he didn't need the original USB anymore, so he disabled it in BIOS. Well, XP no longer worked. It would be booting, flash a blue screen (too fast to read) and immediately reboot. Re-enabling USB in BIOS didn't fix the problem. "Safe Mode," "Previously known good configuration," etc. resulted in same problem. Next day it was doing the same thing and he was just about to reinstall, then it started working again. Go figure.
I didn't mean to offend you--I was just pointing out possible frustration if one were to buy this OS. On the surface it does look like a good deal, but the multiple (and varied) problems I have seen people have with ME made me think twice about making a purchase. I did not want to be seen as a "thread crapper," just trying to help out. If you can run it with no problem for more than a few days, then I am happy for you and wish you the best.
Originally posted by: amdforever2
WinME can play starcraft
Linux can't
and that's all that really matters
Try Again.
Or here.
Or here.
edit: n00bed the links
I'm not say that if XP is installed, she'll never run into a problem that would require her to do a system restore, HOWEVER, what I'm saying is that percentage is lessened about 99.9%. Win XP will not cause a system to crash so badly that it needs a system restore 4 times in a month. Now of course, Win2k would be a better and more stable choice, but since she's a girl and not accustomed to the "spartaness" of Win2k, I'd recommend WinXP. WinME is like Agent Smith, it won't die when it's supposed to and it keeps coming back to try and take over the system.
"I'm not say that if XP is installed, she'll never run into a problem that would require her to do a system restore, HOWEVER, what I'm saying is that percentage is lessened about 99.9%."
99.9%? what numbers was this percentage pulled from? the same location as this "friend"? word word
"do you seriously feel the need to defend ME against the rest of the forum? Congratulations on running ME on few computers, you are truly special."
i am defending a deal period. most of the posts in this thread bashing winme amount to the same intellectual level as "psx sux! xbox rulez!"
and i already know that i'm special, baby! but thanks for re-affirming it for me
but that's not because i'm able to use me successfully, it's more likely because i have the common sense needed to do it
thanks for playing...
99.9%? what numbers was this percentage pulled from? the same location as this "friend"? word word
"do you seriously feel the need to defend ME against the rest of the forum? Congratulations on running ME on few computers, you are truly special."
i am defending a deal period. most of the posts in this thread bashing winme amount to the same intellectual level as "psx sux! xbox rulez!"
and i already know that i'm special, baby! but thanks for re-affirming it for me
but that's not because i'm able to use me successfully, it's more likely because i have the common sense needed to do it
thanks for playing...
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