upgrade Windows 95 to Windows 98

[767bill]

Hi,
I have Windows 95 on a home computer, it serves me well for the use I make of it, occasional wp, spreadsheets and email & internet.
If, rather than upgrade the whole computer / operating system, I buy the upgrade disk am I asking for trouble or will this work? There is adequate memory but have heard different views on this and do not know what to believe. Anything more than nominal risk I will leave it as it is, but upgrade would allow me to view some CD Roms that need 98 that I cannot now view..
Any views / experience appreciated

[NutLoose]

One thing with the 98 update disk is it does not give you full 98...... I found this as at the time my PC had 95 on it and it did not support the USB ports.....

I purchased the 98 update disk to support my USB ports so I could connect a webcam, unfortunately it was only after talking to MicroDross that they told me the update disk would not support them either.... so I was refunded my money. but it was a painless install

With Vista coming out in the next couple of months you could hang on and get XP cheap, but that would involve a reformat etc........ what I did when i updated mine was to put in a second hard drive, installed XP on that as the primary drive and it still allowed me to access anything off my other disk...

at least with 95 etc most of the virus writers of the world have migrated onwards and upwards so you wont be bothered by them :)

[amanoffewwords]

u need win98SE for USB to work.

[Saab Dastard]

I would imagine that you can only buy the upgrade disk 2nd hand now, as Win 98 has long been discontinued.

IIRC, Win 98 was little more resource hungry than 95. Certainly a pentium 133 with 32 mb RAM was fine, and I certainly ran it on a 486 dx4 100 with 32 MB RAM.

If possible, try to get Win 98 SE, as this has better support for USB - among other things.

I definitely recall upgrading Win 95 to the beta Win 98 and I had no problems.

I ran the beta code for almost 2 years, then I got the full 98SE which ran for another couple of years until I bought a new PC.

Ususal caveats apply - back up all your important data, so if anything goes wrong you have a plan B. If you still have the distribution media for Win 95 that would be useful!

SD

[empacher48]

Windows 98 was the most unstable version of windows produced. Personally I would stay well away from it, unless you want to make the Blue Screen of Death your best friend, enjoy having whatever you've just written wiped, because something else has failed..

[vapilot2004]

Windows 98 was the most unstable version of windows produced.
Ever heard of Windows ME or Millenium Edition? Was pretty wobbly and surely gets my vote.

[oldbeefer]

I found 98SE a dreadful system - frequent lock-ups and, as mentioned, that dreaded blue screen. XP has proved to be a vastly superior product, but you need a certain minimum spec for it to work .

[Mac the Knife]

98SE is perfectly usable so long as you don't mind the occasional bomb-out or lockup. Irritating, but not a deal-breaker for casual home use. My installs were all reasonably stable, but I did cosset 'em. Can't say as I ever lost any files, just work in progress. If you've never experienced anything better it's doesn't seem such a bad OS.

Some of today's worms/viruses don't work on 98SE any more so you have a sort of quasi-security by obscurity.

Just remember the UNOFFICIAL Windows98 Second Edition Service Pack 2.1a (Freeware) available from http://exuberant.ms11.net/98sesp.html - all the official updates plus lots of useful tweaks and goodies.

[stevef]

I don't recall any significant problems with 98SE; in fact I've still got it on my second computer. I agree with vapilot2004 regarding Millennium. Horrendous OS and no doubt Microsoft learnt a lot from it too (at the end-user's expense). No gripes about XP - it's never let me down in two years.

I wouldn't have a clue how to get around in 3.1 nowadays, which is what I started on. That and Lotus SmartSuite. We've come a long way since then.

[terryJones]

stevef
Well, I JUST installed Smart Suite off a Magazine freebie from May 1999.
I had so much written stuff in WordPro, and various versions of Word would not read the text and pictures. (it runs great in XP by the way)
Re win 98, to repeat others, you need 98SE, but if someone offers you ME, or pays you to take it away, use it as a coaster, stick it on your fridge with a magnet, or tie it to a stick as a bird scarer. WHATEVER you do , DO NOT be tempted to install it on a PC/....

[767bill]

Thanks for all the replies, much appreciated. Still thinking about it. Will be sure to back up my files before taking any risk with the 98SE upgrade.