which operating system to install

[jimmy mumu]

right, i've got an old pc with windows 98se on it but it's got loads of drivers that not installed with it so i was thinking of installing win 98 on it but then i found a copy of win me. i would prefer win xp but the systems only got 64mb ram, which is the best one to install, it's mainly for my daughter just to surf on and to connect to my network. thanks jimmy

[PhilEnfield]

Stick with 98se m8 ... ME is a load of crap and 64mb will make XP really sluggish.

[jimmy mumu]

what about win 2000

[Lazza]

You could easily run XP on 64mb RAM if you disable many of the services as per Blackviper's XP services list, however the page is no longer there. Arggghhhh! :D

If anybody knows of a similar setup guide for disabling windows services please post it, that guide was an essential. W2K would run fine if you disable the services you know you won't need, there are a lot more in XP that I am never sure about.... especially XP SP2.

[Lazza]

Found one! :)

http://www.beemerworld.com/tips/servicesxp.htm

or..

http://www.overclockersclub.com/guides/windows_xp_services.php

or d/l a nifty pdf data sheet which is much better here:- http://techrepublic.com.com/5138-10877-5747817.html

Follow that and disable what you know will be safe to and you should find running 64mb RAM no probs at all with XP.

[ken]

I think you'll find Windows 2000 should be OK and is a good OS but whatever you choose I would stay clear of Win ME, I agree with PhilEnfield that Windows ME is a load of unstable crap ...... having said that some people say they like it and find it reliable.

[jimmy mumu]

nice one thanks, xp here we come

[Roger The Shrubber]

What is the speed of this computer? This will also have a large impact on how well XP runs.

[Van Nugent]

I agree. A 450MHz or faster system with at least 128MB RAM and minimum 32MB video card would run WinXP comfortably for Internet surfing and office stuff.

[jimmy mumu]

its a pentium 2 350 with 64meg graphics card

[Van Nugent]

I guess your PC is using SDRAM. FYI, 256MB PC133 is around $25 US & 512MB PC133 is ~ $45. But you need to check what type of memory and how much RAM each memory slot can support.

Edit: If you can increase the RAM to at least 128MB, I believe the system can run WinXP OK. :)

[jimmy mumu]

was told it can take 3 strips of 128mb running at pc66

[Van Nugent]

You can get PC100 RAM at about the same price as PC133. It's almost impossible to get PC66 RAM these days. The good thing is PC100 is backwards compatible with older systems. However, PC133 may or may not run on a system designed for PC66 RAM.

Edit: Since your system is slower than 450MHz, you will need at least 256MB RAM to run XP/2000. Your system with 128MB can run XP but will be da mn slow. :)

[jimmy mumu]

cheerz

[AndyR]

I have an old P2 333 (o/c to 375) on and old ASUS LX chipset based board with 160 Meg Ram (PC100) and a GeForce 2 mx400 that is running windows Xp Sp2 without any problems.

I have all eye candy turned on (i like my eye candy!) and all un-needed services turned off plus I've tweaked it to high heaven. It actually runs surprisingly well - within windows you'd honestly be hard pushed to tell the difference between my XP3000+ and this P2 system.

Obviously, its useless for recent games/dvd ripping/encoding/archiving etc but plays quite a few older games really well, emulates SNES, Megadrive and Amiga really well and is great for broadband surfing. I'm actually using it now to teach my 'technophobic' mother how to use a computer. She hadn't even picked a mouse up before 2 weeks ago and now is a solitaire master and becoming hooked on the internet!

I did run Fedora (4) Linux on it and while KDE and (my preference) Gnome ran really well, I couldn't really get into the whole Linux thing (and didn't really have the time to put into it either) - for now I'll stick with WinXp and Amiga Workbench.

Go on and chuck WinXp onto the old system - you might just be a little surprised!

[Lazza]

Yeah you can surprise yourself for sure, I had an old Celery On running 64mb PC100 and XP SP2 and it was fine for the usual tasks of letters & web surfing but I totally agree about adding more RAM especially as it's almost free these days for 100/133 and will improve usability no end. :)

[jimmy mumu]

well i slapped xp in and it runs with no problem, thanks for all your help, will get more ram though