Upgrade from Windows ME

[Mario - Roma]

A friend have an old notebook running Windows Me. The notebook have only 384
MB RAM, so cannot run Vista.
Is it still possible tu purchase an upgrade license to install XP, or is
there any other option to upgrade the notebook without adding RAM?
Regards
Marius

 

[VanguardLH]

A friend have an old notebook running Windows Me. The notebook have only 384
MB RAM, so cannot run Vista.
Is it still possible tu purchase an upgrade license to install XP, or is
there any other option to upgrade the notebook without adding RAM?
Regards
Marius

You better first check if all the required drivers are available for
your hardware before migrating from an 9x-based version of Windows to an
NT-based version of Windows. Then check if all the critical and
important applications will run under Windows XP or if they have an
upgrade version that will (and if the "friend" is willing to pay for
them all). Do the homework regarding drivers and applications
compatibility under Windows XP before yanking away your "friend's"
working notebook. This applies whether migrating between versions of
Windows or to a completely different operating system.

 

[Guest]

A friend have an old notebook running Windows Me. The notebook have only 384
MB RAM, so cannot run Vista.
Is it still possible tu purchase an upgrade license to install XP, or is
there any other option to upgrade the notebook without adding RAM?
Regards
Marius

Why do you want to upgrade?
Is there something you can't do with ME than you can do with
another OS? Unsatisfied REQUIREMENTS should be your upgrade guide.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I like win98SE with the universal USB drivers for older systems.
Win2k is a very nice OS for not-so-old systems.
The major reason to have XP on an older laptop is because it came
with a license, which means it might have enough horsepower to run it.

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

A friend have an old notebook running Windows Me. The notebook have only
384
MB RAM, so cannot run Vista.
Is it still possible tu purchase an upgrade license to install XP, or is
there any other option to upgrade the notebook without adding RAM?
Regards
Marius

The machine will run like a dog if XP is installed. The 384mb RAM has to be
shared between the OS and the video card, and will do nothing for
performance.

In all probability, the CPU will not have enough power to make up for the
RAM shortfall, and the whole experience will be frustrating.

Windows 2000 would be a better bet, but you will not get it cheap.

There is enough memory to allow use of a Linux variant, Ubuntu or PCLinuxOS
maybe. You can try a live CD to see if everything would be ok, but it would
be slow going because of the CD drive speed. Installing it onto the hard
drive improves performance no end..

--
Mike Hall - MVP
How to construct a good post..
http://dts-l.com/goodpost.htm
How to use the Microsoft Product Support Newsgroups..
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=newswhelp&style=toc
Mike's Window - My Blog..
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/default.aspx

 

[Mark Adams]

A friend have an old notebook running Windows Me. The notebook have only 384
MB RAM, so cannot run Vista.
Is it still possible tu purchase an upgrade license to install XP, or is
there any other option to upgrade the notebook without adding RAM?
Regards
Marius

As long as drivers are available, it may run XP quite well. I have an old
Gateway desktop (P-III 500Mz 384 MB RAM) and a 128 MB video card that runs
XP, maybe a little slower than you'd be used to, but it certainly isn't "dog
slow". It originally had 98SE and I got so tired of freeze-ups and blue
screens that I stopped using it and moved on to other equipment with XP. I
finally unmothballed it and put on XP as a backup machine, and I was very
impressed with how stable and and rock solid it ran, it's just a little slow.
Oh yeah, I had to put in a USB 2.0 card as the tower only came with 1.1 You
won't be able to do that with the notebook, but you might be perfectly
satisfied with it for word processing, web surfing, and email. I wouldn't try
video editing or the latest video games and don't put Norton or McAffee on it
or it will bog down.

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

As long as drivers are available, it may run XP quite well. I have an old
Gateway desktop (P-III 500Mz 384 MB RAM) and a 128 MB video card that runs
XP, maybe a little slower than you'd be used to, but it certainly isn't
"dog
slow". It originally had 98SE and I got so tired of freeze-ups and blue
screens that I stopped using it and moved on to other equipment with XP. I
finally unmothballed it and put on XP as a backup machine, and I was very
impressed with how stable and and rock solid it ran, it's just a little
slow.
Oh yeah, I had to put in a USB 2.0 card as the tower only came with 1.1
You
won't be able to do that with the notebook, but you might be perfectly
satisfied with it for word processing, web surfing, and email. I wouldn't
try
video editing or the latest video games and don't put Norton or McAffee on
it
or it will bog down.

Mark

The OP has an old notebook, so no dedicated 128mb video card or USB 2.0..


--
Mike Hall - MVP
How to construct a good post..
http://dts-l.com/goodpost.htm
How to use the Microsoft Product Support Newsgroups..
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=newswhelp&style=toc
Mike's Window - My Blog..
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/default.aspx

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

A friend have an old notebook running Windows Me. The notebook have only 384
MB RAM, so cannot run Vista.
Is it still possible tu purchase an upgrade license to install XP,

Sure. A web search finds lots of places that sells the upgrade to XP.
Amazon.com, for example, is one of them.

However if the computer is old, and especially if it's a laptop, be
aware of the possibility that you may need specific hardware drivers
to run XP. Be sure to check with the laptop's manufacturer first to
make sure the drivers are available; there's a good chance that they
are *not* available.

Also what about the rest of its hardware configuration? Is it adequate
for XP? How fast is the processor? How big is the disk drive? Does it
have a CD drive?

or is
there any other option to upgrade the notebook without adding RAM?

In many cases, upgrading an older notebook just doesn't make any sense
at all, because so much of the hardware is inadequate and difficult or
expensive to change.

 

[Mark Adams]

Mark

The OP has an old notebook, so no dedicated 128mb video card or USB 2.0..

Mike

My point was that the Gateway ran pretty well with a 128MB video card, the
notebook probably has 32 or 64 MB for video at best; there should be more RAM
available for the OS than the Gateway had. It ran okay, but I didn't ask too
much of it either. The stability of XP was so much better than 98 it was
worth the performance hit. As far as the USB, he will have to live with 1.1
as noted in my earlier post.

 

[Xandros]

The hardware is likely not supported by Vista anyway. Upgrade to Windows
2000. If you shop online you will find a copy for cheap
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00003JAU7/ref=dp_olp_2

 

[Guest]

As long as drivers are available, it may run XP quite well. I have an old
Gateway desktop (P-III 500Mz 384 MB RAM) and a 128 MB video card that runs
XP, maybe a little slower than you'd be used to, but it certainly isn't "dog
slow". It originally had 98SE and I got so tired of freeze-ups and blue
screens that I stopped using it and moved on to other equipment with XP. I
finally unmothballed it and put on XP as a backup machine, and I was very
impressed with how stable and and rock solid it ran, it's just a little slow.
Oh yeah, I had to put in a USB 2.0 card as the tower only came with 1.1 You
won't be able to do that with the notebook, but you might be perfectly
satisfied with it for word processing, web surfing, and email. I wouldn't try
video editing or the latest video games and don't put Norton or McAffee on it
or it will bog down.

I switched my file manager to totalcommander and most of my win98
stability problems went away.
If I never clicked "my computer" it was quite stable.
Win98SE with the unofficial service pack and the universal usb drivers
is a very capable system. But I still prefer win2K if the hardware drivers
are available.

If ME ain't broke, don't fix it...especially if it's not your system.
Once you mess with it, you become obligated to fix all future problems.
I once helped a neighbor...ended up costing me $50 to keep
from injuring the friendship.

 

[Gis Bun]

As Mike Hall said, it would be slow.

Before even bothering to "upgrade", check if Win XP even supports your
system. Install the "advisor" [forgot the full name] which will tell you how
compatible your system will be for Win XP [and technically Win 2000].

Check the manufacturer's site and see if they [some how] have drivers that
work with Win XP or 2K.

Is your hard disk big enough? In the days of Win ME and laptops, the disks
weren't that big [unless you replaced the drive]. Going back to 1999, 6.4GB
disks were the norm.

Also note that the remaining support for Win 2000 dies out sometime around
May or June of next year. After that, no more updates. Software drivers will
also be unavailable for newer hardware.

 

[Jerry Martin]

Windows 2000 would be a better bet, but you will not get it cheap.

Hello:

I was able to buy a new, sealed OEM copy of Win 2000 Professional SP2 on
eBay in Oct. 2007 for $30.00 plus S&H.

The downloads for SP4 and Update Rollup 1 - v2 are a free download from the
MS downloads web site.

So a smart shopper can get Win 2000 Professional for a reasonable price with
some shopping.

But as said, make sure that the appropriate hardware drivers are available
before purchasing.

Cheers,

Jerry

 

[Jerry Martin]

... and don't put Norton or McAffee on it
or it will bog down.

Hello:

I've read in several places that Norton 2009 products have been redesigned
to make them light and fast, as opposed to the bloated and slow products
that they've been putting out in recent years. However, I haven't had time
to try them for myself yet, but hope to in the near future.

Cheers,

Jerry

 

[Lil' Dave]

A friend have an old notebook running Windows Me. The notebook have only
384
MB RAM, so cannot run Vista.
Is it still possible tu purchase an upgrade license to install XP, or is
there any other option to upgrade the notebook without adding RAM?
Regards
Marius

There are many obstacles when upgrading from one MS OS to another in the
overall scheme of final usage of that PC/laptop.

Initially, its hardware drivers and RAM usage.
If overcome and worked out satisfactorily, it may become a money pit sucking
money for 3rd party applications that will work in XP. These installations
will provide some files that run from the git-go when XP starts, further
limiting satisfactory use. There's some ways around such, but, becomes a
user burden as well.

Your intentions seem to be noble. Your efforts may be substantial in the
long run. The results, the user will probably be dissatisfied at best.

If the user intends to use the laptop in the future with ME installed, the
user should stay off the internet, and avoid shared media from others.