I've used a few WinME computers that ran unbelievably well. I think the problem most people had was with their hardware not being powerful enough to handle it.
I've used a few WinME computers that ran unbelievably well. I think the problem most people had was with their hardware not being powerful enough to handle it.
I have absolutely no idea why people claim Windows ME was "horrible". It was significantly more stable and refined than Win98. However, there is one critical difference to a gamer: no pure DOS mode. WinME removed real mode DOS, which you may as well have if you are going to play old games. That is the only practical difference for a pure gaming PC.
My first brand new PC was a Dell running WinME that I bought for college back in 2001, just before XP came out.Originally Posted by beigemore
I never had any real problems with it, and it ran great, especially after I upgraded to 512MB of RAM.
My friends who held out for XP had nothing but problems until SP1 came out. People sometimes forget what an absolute dud XP was when it first launched. There was no reason to choose it over Win2K at all, and that didn't change for several years.
XP being a "dud" it's first year was certainly the minority opinion at the time. To most people, XP was light years ahead of ME or 2000. It also looked gorgeous back in 2001/2002.
Anyway, I'm loving this topic since I was going to post the exact question the same day this one was started. I have full installs of just about every Windows version since 95. This thread (and other forums) seem to indicate Win98SE is the best OS for mid/late '90's games. DOS-based games anyway.
The question is how do I trick my Pentium III running XP (SP3) to install Win98SE? Would a HD format + reboot with the Win98SE disc work? Would it really be that simple?
"One of the ways I gauge a DS game is by recharges. "...Tycho (Penny Arcade)
What makes you think otherwise? A PIII is sufficiently old that there are unlikely to be serious hardware issues.
Actually, I have a PIII that dual-boots XP and Win98SE using Grub4DOS. (Technically, it triple-boots XP and two separate installations of 98SE, for no particularly good reason.) You'd have to resize your XP partition to do that, of course.
mdgx.com has a good number of links to projects on the MSFN forums that are useful for new 98SE installations, including unofficial service packs.
"There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge." --Bertrand Russel (attributed)
Yes, assuming your motherboard uses an Intel chipset. A P3 with a BX chipset board is pretty much the best Win98 machine you could ask for.
Was that the Inspiron 8000 "desktop replacement" notebook by any chance? I got one in 2001, 900MHz Pentium III, 128MB of memory, on the basis that it was "for college" although I didn't go to college until 2002. I also upgraded the RAM to 256MB, it was the first major purchase I ever made on my credit card. It also ran horribly with Windows ME, XP was WORLDS better, memory upgrade or not. I still have it sitting out in a dead computer parts box in the garage, no hard drive (it was louder than every fan in my current PC combined), but I wonder if it will boot...
This is the total opposite of my experience. I started using Windows XP with RC1 and it served me very well for my PC gaming needs. This was a stark contrast to Windows 2000, which had inferior DirectX hardware support.
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