Upgrading from 98SE

  • Thread starter Thread starter Terri Williams
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Terri Williams

I have the Win98SE upgrade CD, upgraded from Win95. Will the WinXP Upgrade
work for me? I have a Pentium II 450 MHz with 256 Meg Ram. TIA


Terri
 
Yes, the XP Upgrade CD will work. However, your hardware is woefully
inadequate for Windows XP, no matter what the 'official requirements' are.
It will be slow as molasses in January.

Some real-world minimum requirements for XP are as follows:

- At least a 1 GHz processor
- At least 512 MB of RAM
 
Terri said:
I have the Win98SE upgrade CD, upgraded from Win95. Will the WinXP Upgrade
work for me? I have a Pentium II 450 MHz with 256 Meg Ram. TIA
Click to expand...

Theoretically, yes, the WinXP Upgrade would work for you, at least
licensing-wise.

"Glacial" is the term that comes to my mind, I'm afraid, based on
the specifications you've provided. If you turn off all of WinXP GUI
eye-candy, it will still be very slow, but it might usable for simple
word processing, email, web-browsing, etc. It won't be any good for
graphics-intensive applications, and most newer games. (During the
public preview period, I tested WinXP on a 500 MHz machine with 256 Mb
of RAM, and it was much slower than I like.) Of course, "adequate
performance" is a subjective standard. Performance that I would find
wholly inadequate might seem just fine for you. (Or vice-versa.)

1) Right-click the Task Bar > Properties > Start Menu, ensure
"Classic Start menu" is selected.

2) Right-click an empty spot on the Desktop > Properties > Themes >
select "Windows Classic."

3) Right-click My Computer > Properties > Performance > Settings >
Visual Effects, ensure "Adjust for best performance" is selected.

However, with a PC this old, it's essential to make sure it's
components are WinXP-compatible _before_ proceeding. Have you ensured
that all the PC's components are capable of supporting WinXP? This
information will be found at each of the PC's component's manufacturer's
web sites, and on Microsoft's Catalog:
(http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/hcl/default.mspx). Computer components
designed for use with Win9x/Me very often fail to meet WinXP's much more
stringent hardware quality requirements.

Can you obtain OS-specific device drivers for your PC's components,
and any necessary motherboard BIOS updates? Additionally, you can
download and run Microsoft WinXP Upgrade Advisor to see if you have any
incompatible hardware components.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/howtobuy/upgrading/advisor.asp


HOW TO Prepare to Upgrade Win98 or WinMe
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q316639

Upgrading to Windows XP
http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpupgrad.htm


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrum Russell
 
Bruce is correct, going into much detail, leaving you the choice
to decide if this is right for you...

Bruce is correct and also tactful, I'll tell you outright,
an XP upgrade on this machine will suck. IMHO

Richard
 
Actually I am going to upgrade my system. I wanted to know if I could get
away with the WinXP upgrade or if I had to spring for the full version.
Thank you everyone for your kind and very helpful information. No wisecracks
either! LOL My system is so slow now anyway, I really need to upgrade very
soon.

Terri
 
Richard said:
Snipped...

Bruce is .... also tactful, .....
Click to expand...

You're probably the first person who has ever said that.

--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrum Russell
 
Terri said:
Actually I am going to upgrade my system. I wanted to know if I could
get away with the WinXP upgrade or if I had to spring for the full
version. Thank you everyone for your kind and very helpful
information. No wisecracks either! LOL My system is so slow now
anyway, I really need to upgrade very soon.
Click to expand...

Terri,

Depending on how long it will be until you are running your new system,
there are actually many things you can do to make your current system
run *much* faster.

Eliminating unnecessary startup files and deleting temp files and
Temporary Internet files, followed by a defrag will do wonders. Here's a
good resource for people still running Windows 98:

Shep©Windows/Fix/Clean/Tune
http://www.geocities.com/sheppola/house.html

HTH.
 
Daave said:
Terri,

Depending on how long it will be until you are running your new
system, there are actually many things you can do to make your
current system run *much* faster.

Eliminating unnecessary startup files and deleting temp files and
Temporary Internet files, followed by a defrag will do wonders.
Here's a good resource for people still running Windows 98:

Shep©Windows/Fix/Clean/Tune
http://www.geocities.com/sheppola/house.html
Click to expand...

And one other thing...

Very often, bloated anti-virus programs ironically make PCs (at least
ones running 98) run slow. Another thing to consider is a program like
AVG* and turn off e-mail scanning (which isn't really necessary).

* available at
http://free.grisoft.com/
 
Daave said:
Very often, bloated anti-virus programs ironically make PCs (at least
ones running 98) run slow. Another thing to consider is a program like
AVG* and turn off e-mail scanning (which isn't really necessary).

* available at
http://free.grisoft.com/
Click to expand...

Specfic bloated anti-virus programs that have been known to muck up
systems running 98 include McAfee and Norton. AVG and Avast are decent
freeware alternatives.

That is all. :-)
 
Terri Williams said:
I have the Win98SE upgrade CD, upgraded from Win95. Will the WinXP Upgrade
work for me? I have a Pentium II 450 MHz with 256 Meg Ram. TIA


Terri
Click to expand...

Do yourself a favor...try Kubuntu or Ubuntu. Runs great on a system with
your specs. Windows will runs like crap on that system. Your other choice is
a cheap Dell.
 
Do yourself a favor...try Kubuntu or Ubuntu. Runs great on a system with
your specs. Windows will runs like crap on that system. Your other choice is
a cheap Dell.
Click to expand...

PII ? Nope. on a PIII system it would be slow but maybe usable.

How big is your disk? 6GB is really tight for XP. I run a decent XP
system and apps in a 12BG partition on my laptop.
 
PII ? Nope. on a PIII system it would be slow but maybe usable.

How big is your disk? 6GB is really tight for XP. I run a decent XP
system and apps in a 12BG partition on my laptop.
Click to expand...

I have Kubuntu 6.06 running on the same system with only 192 megs. Pretty
snappy! I use it for a garage stereo system hooked to an amplifier to play
my 40 gigs of music... plays great!
 
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