new machine, old OS

[Kulindahr]

My mom's computer is getting very, very slow these days. It's a decade-old Dell running Windows 98. She's finally recognizing she needs something new.

The issue is that nineteen out of twenty things she uses the machine for won't run on any newer operating system. So the question is whether it's even possible to buy a new machine but put a Win98 copy on it: can 98 even run something that new? or are there ways to pick up all those '98 programs and still run them?

 

[AstareGod]

What does she use that still needs to run on Windows 98? There are more than likely alternatives out there she can use that are much more up-to-date.

Running a 15-year-old operating system that has been well out of support for years is an extremely bad idea. I very much doubt you can even install 98 on modern hardware. 98 just will not have the driver support for modern hardware out of the box, and hardware manufacturers more than likely don't make drivers for anything earlier than XP.

If you absolutely must run 98, you may be able to install it in a virtual machine. I doubt Hyper-V (built-in to Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012) will run 98, but you may have more luck in VirtualBox or some of the other flavors of virtual machine software out there.

 

[Kulindahr]

She's got some really old spreadsheet she uses for keeping medical info -- pulse, blood pressure, etc. She's also got a very old version of Microsoft Works for a word processor. On top of that, all the games she plays regularly, which help fight memory loss and stuff, won't run on newer systems (well, I did find a way to run them on XP).

I suppose there's a thought: find out how much will run on XP, and get a used machine with that.... ?

 

[T-Rexx]

My mom's computer is getting very, very slow these days. It's a decade-old Dell running Windows 98. She's finally recognizing she needs something new.

All OSs have a tendency to slow down with age. Windows is particularly prone to this.

While I agree it's time for your mom to get a new computer, one possible solution is to reformat the hard drive and reinstall Windows and all the old programs. This would require that your mom have her original Windows 98 disk, all the old driver disks for her hardware, and the original installation disks for the programs she wants to continue to use, however. It's unlikely that she still has all that stuff.

The issue is that nineteen out of twenty things she uses the machine for won't run on any newer operating system.

Not necessarily true.

Windows 7 and 8 have a Windows 98 compatibility mode, which can run some old Win 98 programs.

Also, WINE on Linux similarly has a Windows 98 compatibility mode that will run most Win 98 programs, as well.

However, if your mom really wants to continue using her very same old Windows 98 programs, she would need the original installation disks for the old programs, regardless of how she did this. Most people would not still have these, after all that time.

So the question is whether it's even possible to buy a new machine but put a Win98 copy on it: can 98 even run something that new? or are there ways to pick up all those '98 programs and still run them?

No, it is not possible to put Win 98 on new hardware. The necessary drivers to support such hardware do not exist. Also, if your mom does not have the original installation disks for her programs, you are unlikely to be able to find these.

Time to update to a new computer, a new version of Windows, and new programs.

 

[Kahaih]

OK, I'm curious.

Do any new machines come with a floppy (A) drive these days?

We build all of our towers with older well-built cases and always put the floppy drives in, but have never had any use for them.

I have the discs to install windows 98SE. There are two small floppies, and two cds to get the job done on an older machine where drivers may or may not be a big deal.

I think there was a problem with 98 not recognizing the hard disk size (anything over 2gbs?) and the 'newer' types and size of ram, too. Maybe not.



We have one win95 and two old IBM DOS(3 I believe) laptops that are in pristine condition. They are built so well, and yet, so obsolete. It pisses me to no end that the batteries all still charge and hold a charge like they were new. Of course, those old operating systems weren't real energy hogs, I suppose.

 

[T-Rexx]

OK, I'm curious.

Do any new machines come with a floppy (A) drive these days?

No. It is possible to buy a floppy drive that connects to a USB port, so that you can still read old disks. But the floppy disk is quite dead.

I have the discs to install windows 98SE. There are two small floppies, and two cds to get the job done on an older machine where drivers may or may not be a big deal.

Drivers are always a big deal with Windows.

You can run old Windows on old hardware, if you have (or can get) the drivers for that hardware. In the past, Microsoft did not supply these drivers - they came from the hardware manufacturers. Without these software drivers, the hardware is not usable.

And drivers to support old Windows on new hardware do not exist. So, it is not possible to install Win 98 on new hardware.

I think there was a problem with 98 not recognizing the hard disk size (anything over 2gbs?) and the 'newer' types and size of ram, too. Maybe not.

I believe Win 98 was restricted to partitions of no more than 128 GB (an absurd amount at the time).

I believe the theoretical limit on RAM for Win 98 was 2 GB, but in practice the limit was 512 MB. You would have have been hard put to find a motherboard that allowed more than 512 MB total, and I believe there was some sort of bug in Win 98 that made it unstable above 512 MB.

We have one win95 and two old IBM DOS(3 I believe) laptops that are in pristine condition. They are built so well, and yet, so obsolete. It pisses me to no end that the batteries all still charge and hold a charge like they were new. Of course, those old operating systems weren't real energy hogs, I suppose.

Museum pieces.

And, on the contrary, hardware of that era chewed up quite a lot of energy.

 

[72-Jay]

Windows 7 and 8 have a Windows 98 compatibility mode, which can run some old Win 98 programs.

I have used 'compatibility mode' in both Win-XP & Win-7 with old programs (one being a win-3.11 app) and whatever it does, it works

 

[Kulindahr]

I believe the theoretical limit on RAM for Win 98 was 2 GB, but in practice the limit was 512 MB. You would have have been hard put to find a motherboard that allowed more than 512 MB total, and I believe there was some sort of bug in Win 98 that made it unstable above 512 MB.

The mom's machine came with 512; we boosted it to 1 GB and then to 2. The jump to 1 GB improved things radically. The jump from there to 2 was weird: most of the time, things run superbly, but when opening a new program while another is already running can take several minutes. It doesn't seem so much unstable as, well, preoccupied and easily distracted. It even happens when printing -- it took two minutes yesterday from the time I clicked to print an email for her to the time the printer actually did something besides blink.

 

[Kulindahr]

I have used 'compatibility mode' in both Win-XP & Win-7 with old programs (one being a win-3.11 app) and whatever it does, it works

Have you run things such as Minesweeper and the old Mahjongg for Windows?

 

[72-Jay]

I have not...
I can try the old version of Minesweeper from Win 3.11 or 98 (in XP or 7 sometime if you want)
I think I might have an old Mahjongg for Win 3.11 .. that I'd have to look though.

 

[Kulindahr]

I have not...
I can try the old version of Minesweeper from Win 3.11 or 98 (in XP or 7 sometime if you want)
I think I might have an old Mahjongg for Win 3.11 .. that I'd have to look though.

My mom has the Mahjongg with medieval tiles and road signs among the sets -- she likes those MUCH better than the old Chinese characters.

I read through getting Minesweeper to work on Win8 -- it was one of those things I think I understood while reading it but was clueless once I looked up.

 

[T-Rexx]

The mom's machine came with 512; we boosted it to 1 GB and then to 2. The jump to 1 GB improved things radically. The jump from there to 2 was weird: most of the time, things run superbly, but when opening a new program while another is already running can take several minutes. It doesn't seem so much unstable as, well, preoccupied and easily distracted. It even happens when printing -- it took two minutes yesterday from the time I clicked to print an email for her to the time the printer actually did something besides blink.

You should reduce the RAM back down to 1 GB.

That, plus optimizing Windows (defragging or reformatting/reinstalling Windows if you have the drivers and program disks) might give you the performance gains you require, without the purchase of a new computer.

You may be able to get another year or two of life out of this old hardware.

 

[Kulindahr]

You should reduce the RAM back down to 1 GB.

That, plus optimizing Windows (defragging or reformatting/reinstalling Windows if you have the drivers and program disks) might give you the performance gains you require, without the purchase of a new computer.

You may be able to get another year or two of life out of this old hardware.

The problem is that at 1 GB videos ran like a drunken cripple --jerk, freeze, run, jerk, run, freeze, run, jerk, jerk.....

 

[maxpowr9]

Even the non 64-bit version of XP capped out at 4GB of RAM which is the "base" for modern PCs. You even add more RAM but it wouldn't recognize it.

At least for her spreadsheets, as long as she is using Office 97 or later, she can still open them in a later program in compatibility form.

 

[Kulindahr]

Even the non 64-bit version of XP capped out at 4GB of RAM which is the "base" for modern PCs. You even add more RAM but it wouldn't recognize it.

At least for her spreadsheets, as long as she is using Office 97 or later, she can still open them in a later program in compatibility form.

Using Office would mean learning a new way to do things, I suspect. Her copy of Microsoft Works is from before there was such a thing as Microsoft Office.

 

[andysayshi]

This article should tell you all you need to know about Windows 8 - it's a certifiable flop. Not only is it selling much worse than its predecessors, it's actually experiencing just 0.05% market growth, compared to Windows 7 which still has 0.20% market growth. A year after Win8 was released, people are installing Win7 4 times more than Win8 on new machines!

Your Mom should have no problems running her old software in emulation mode on a Win 7 machine. Win 8 has reduced legacy capabilities, so Win 7 is definitely the way you should go. You should be able to buy a quite decent refurbished Win7 machine for a couple of hundred bucks.

 

[Kahaih]

I'm using Microsoft Word 2000 (copyright 1983-1999) on 7 64bit. It always installs without a hitch.

I use a few older programs from the '98' days on all of my newer machines, as I like the simplicity of some of the old programs - before they became bloated and ugly.

Once in a while, I'll get blocked/stopped by the old (main) installers, but bypassing them will often get it done. On the rare occasion where that doesn't work, I've copied the program folders from an older machine and made them 'portable'.


BTW, Windows 7 Ultimate came with a pretty snazzy Mahjong Titans game that has a 'Large Print Tiles' option.

 

[Kulindahr]

This article should tell you all you need to know about Windows 8 - it's a certifiable flop. Not only is it selling much worse than its predecessors, it's actually experiencing just 0.05% market growth, compared to Windows 7 which still has 0.20% market growth. A year after Win8 was released, people are installing Win7 4 times more than Win8 on new machines!

Your Mom should have no problems running her old software in emulation mode on a Win 7 machine. Win 8 has reduced legacy capabilities, so Win 7 is definitely the way you should go. You should be able to buy a quite decent refurbished Win7 machine for a couple of hundred bucks.

Now you tempt me to wipe my machine and go back to Win7.