Forgive me father, because I tried Windows Me...

[uberlad]

Just for anyones information, when I upgraded my win98Se to millenium a few weeks back my boot times were sped up very much. Since I made it very unhappy by running a SCSI device on ID 0 it boots pretty much the speed that 98 was doing after 6 months of use.

I've had no problems with it so far, long may that continue (although I hold out little hope).

Uberlad

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8 out of 10 women say they would feel no qualms about hitting a man.
5 out of 10 referred to me by name.

[Paddy]

I am going to do a clean install and optimise win98 for games as I use 2K for everything else. Unfortunately I still have an old ISA SB awe 32...

Given that I wont be using apps in 98/ME, is there a method to really increase performance by only installing the bare minimum of crap? Also if ME is a step closer to 2K (at least visually) presumably this takes will take the edge of performance?

[Thundrchez]

Paddy, this is how I install win95. Most of it is applicable to installing w98

Install w95, selecting only the programs and frills that I actually use

w95 only: for networking setup, I give it only TCP/IP, and I use the standard windows logon

w95 oem sr2.5 only: I ctrl-alt-del and kill the process that tries to install IE4. It installs all of w95, and then it runs the ie4 setup program automagically. This only happens with w95 osr2.5, not earlier versions of w95. There is no way of preventing it from installing ie4 in w98.

setup a fixed 256MB swapfile on my D: drive

w95 only: Install the USB supplement

Install the VIA 4-in-1 driver patch

install directx 7.0a

install the G400 drivers, PD 6.04

install the Aureal reference drivers (for Monster Sound MX300)

Install the Iomega Zip drivers

Install modem drivers

Install printer drivers

and then start installing the software: Acroread, Netscape, QuickTime, and games

I just know that this setup works pretty sweet for me.

[Paddy]

I follow a pretty similar route, however 98 still installs a lot of crap by default. Will removing any of this actually improve performance?

[Bixler]

Paddy:

If you want the cleanest possible install of ME, you may want to read up on Shane Brooks hack called 98Lite. Others may disagree, but I've had almost NO problems out of this shareware, and when used from the clean install option, allows you to install 98/ME with IEx NEVER touching your HDD. The program has matured quite nicely in the last year or so, and gives a LOT of flexibility and options depending on whether you're after features (bloat) or speed. The fastest/cleanest option with 98Lite uses the trusty ol' 95 explorer and desktop, as well as pure text based wordpad and notepad from W95--to have this option you need a W95 installation disk handy during the 98Lite install process--but this option (98Micro) is much faster, and cleaner. It also automates the process of stripping all of M$'s bloat, turning most of the bolt-on crap into features available under add/remove programs in the control panel.

Lemme know if you're interested...I'll be glad to share a copy for your evaluation, but if you do like it, I'd appreciate it if you'd register. 98Lite and other such sites need all the support we can give.

www.98lite.net

[Nuno]

I can give a word of aproval on 98lite, too. A finest piece of software: I used it to uninstall IE 4.0 from win98 and to install IE 5.0 after that. I got rid of lots of crashes that I got if I installed IE 5.0 on top of 4.0.

[Paddy]

I want to turn 98 into a pure fragfest. - My CPU will need all the help it can get!

Cheers Tim

[Paddy]

what version should i be looking at?

[Bixler]

It's on the way via e-mail Paddy.

Good luck, and by all means read the "read me" before you dive in.

I think you'll be quite happy with this, especially if you have an older cpu with limited memory...it works great.

[Nuno]

Another thing that win2k handles much better is printing. I can queue around 20-30 documents and let it printing while doing other things like surfing or burning a cd. If I try to queue that many documents in win9x, I am looking for trouble...

[Rags]

I also think that win2k is better for burning CD's. Heck, I watch DVD's while waiting for my CD's to burn

Rags

[Nuno]

Anything that involves multitasking works way better in win2k. Win9x doesn´t really support true multitasking. Kinda sad, isn´t it?

[Paddy]

Cheers Tim!

I dont know how big the email is but my mail box is verrry constipated right now!

ta

[Paddy]

Well i have tried 98lite and it is fast....
But i get a lot of random lockups.

I'll give it one nigt to sort itself out

Wish me luck

[Bixler]

Was it a clean install?

The only way I would recommend. Good Luck, and play around with the shell swap option to see if it really is missing files or some other problem.