DON'T do the upgrade. This is, without a doubt, the most worthless product I've EVER had the displeasure of using. After it was first installed, it deleted my access to the internet and mail program, a problem not even my ISP could figure out. Then, today, my computer's fax system DISAPPEARED. Gone. Vanished. No where to be found.

I've uninstalled 98 and returned to the "non-compliant" 95. Hell, if compliance means using that piece of crap, I'd just as soon lose it all. What garbage!!

Bob

-- Bob (bob@bob.com), December 20, 1999

Answers

I just installed the Beta-3 version of Windows 2000 Professional. Figured if the worlds gonna come down I might as well go out with Microsofts latest and greatest.

-- Polly-Morphic Doomer (vission@AOL.COM), December 20, 1999.

I downloaded the Windows '98 patch from Microsoft the other day and installed it with no problems as far as I can tell. Is this what you're talking about?

-- cody (cody@y2ksurvive.com), December 20, 1999.

Bob,

How hard is that to do? I am also fed up with '98. 95 can be made compliant with a download from Microslop. After spending the money and enduring the trashing of my peripherals, I found out that 98 must have a download "fix" as well.

8^(

-- Gypsy (GypsiGold@aol.com), December 20, 1999.

I like Win98 Second Edition.

-- dinosaur (dinosaur@williams-net.com), December 20, 1999.

I'd go with NT 4.0 if you seriously thinking about changing the OS. I haven't had near the problems I had with 95/98. Yes I know it doesn't let you mess with hardware level stuff like 95. But do you want stability or that constant "tinkering" you have to do with 95/98?

just my experience.....

-- (owner1999@yahoo.com), December 20, 1999.

Problems with WinDoze are generally due to "upgrading" an existing install, rather than formatting the hard-disk and doing a clean install. After years in tech-support "in a previous life", I would never upgrade - only do a clean install.

With a clean install (on a freshly formatted hard-disk), all flavors of Windows95, Windows98, and NT work great. Personally, I would only advocate NT, but some software won't run on NT.

Can't speak to Y2K compliance (except NT 4, which I "rolled-over"). I'm going to set-back my PeeCees (at least some) and see what happens to the ones that roll-over.

-- Anonymous99 (Anonymous99@Anonymous99.xxx), December 20, 1999.

Yup, 98/SE is the way to go. It has all of the (as yet announced) Y2K fixes included.

But speaking of the "update," yea, it does suck, at least from what I hear. I'm still a 95/B guy, so I don't have much hands-on time with 98, but from what I hear, the way to go is to do a "fresh install," then re-install your programs. The key item here is to have a BACKUP of your old DATA available. You know, things like your old "Cardfile," that you can copy to the new system (along with ALL of your other data!!!!!). Yea, it is some work, but the results are worth it. At least that's what I hear...

As far as 98 (orig) and all versions of 95, Y2K updates are available. Try this site, it figures out what version of the OS that you have, and builds a custom list of updates just for you. It also includes a bunch of other "critical" updates, like security issues.

Oh, and do install the "Library Update", that also has a Y2K fix, and do install "DUN 1.3" and it's own special Y2K patch. It's worth it, if you take the time to read the READ-ME.

http://windowsupdate.micros oft.com/

Hit the PRODUCT UPDATES link, and download the "Setup" (or whatever) if needed...

And, if anyone has a problem with this site, other links are out there. This one, IMHO, is the best way to go. Just do me a fovor, and post any problems in this thread... I'm still playing catch-up with my private mail.

only do a clean install

I'll be back... Tick... Tock... <:00= ...

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), December 20, 1999.

Ditto Sysman et, al,. ONLY CLEAN INSTALL. Bummer if you bought the upgrade version.

You can go to RUN and Type: Drwatson

It will perform some diagnostics on you system. Could help, couldn't hurt.

;-)

-- reformatHardDrive1st (karlacalif@aol.com), December 21, 1999.

Clarify....If you buy the full version 98se, you would want to reformat your HD before you install.

-- (karlacalif@aol.com), December 21, 1999.

STOOPID question - What about WFW 3.11 Upgrades for y2k compliance ????

yeah, I know - like I said ... STOOPID question, huh?

-- hiding in plain (sight@edge. of no-where), December 21, 1999.

(karlacalif@aol.com),

You are correct, use FAT32 if you can. But how does one go about repartioning their hard drive if they don't have the new FAT32 software installed yet?

Hint, do the install, answer YES to the "Do you want a startup disk" question, let it make the diskette, then abort the install, and reboot from the SU diskette. You now have the correct version of FDISK and FORMAT. But we're gettin' a little OT here...

hiding in plain,

As far as I know, the only 3.1x Y2K update is the "File Manager" update. But, if you're still on 3.1x, I think you're pretty much on your own.

Anyway, I GOTTA Crash... See ya...

Tick... Tock... <:00= ...

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), December 21, 1999.

razzle-frazzle-stoopid Pentium-60MHz .... (you know- the ORIGINAL Pentium - the one with the messed up floating decimal place calculator somewhere out about the 800th decimal place or something like that)....

nincompooping 360MB Hard-drive .... daily file maintenance MANDATORY!

oh well ... I guess in about a week and a half - I might just be having to say - was nice to know y'all! :-(

Praying real hard that Santa is REALLY nice this year ... he did promise me a PII-600MHz system with a 12 Gig Hard-drive, and a UPS.

Happy sigh for happy thoughts --- There, I feel better now! :-)

-- hiding in plain (sight@edge. of no-where), December 21, 1999.

Q: should the BIOS be done before doing the W9x upgrade? TIA!

-- Zygote (zygote1@zygote1.zygote1), December 21, 1999.

If you're feeling particularly ambitious, install Linux or a Mac OS instead! We can't suck at Bill's teet forever (sorry, gross analogy) -- he'll bring all our networks to their knees! Really, I've seen it happen.

-- Mori-Nu (silkenet@yahoo.com), December 21, 1999.

Oh, yeah, wipe EVERYTHING and reinstall EVERYTHING? No thanks. If we have a Y2K 9 or 10, I'll join the villagers with torches marching on the castle. (OF course, Billy-boy will have long before bugged out to the South Pacific [see thread above].)

-- A (A@AisA.com), December 21, 1999.

Stuff windows ANYTHING down the toilet and go out and get linux, beats the crap outa any microsoft product ever released. If you must jump on the windows band-waggon get windows NT ..

-- XOR (drwizzard@usa.net), December 21, 1999.

Folks:

My experience is to do it clean [W98]. Got a new HD and saved everything. Still not sure that I am home free. There are new patches coming; but they may not deal with issues that bother me. We will see in Jan. when they come out.

Best wishes,,,

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), December 21, 1999.

Zygote,

If you do the BIOS update, do it before anything.

Many, even older, computers are OK, if you set the date after 1/1. Many of the BIOS updates only fix the problem that happens AT rollover. But you should check it out, before anything else.

A,

It really isn't that bad, to do a new install, as long as you have, first, a BACKUP of your old system (YOUR DATA), and second, the original install CD, or whatever, of your software. Windows is a strange creature. I've found it usefull to just "clean house" every once in a while, and start over. Might as well do it with the latest stuff, when I do. Yea, it does involve some work, but it ain't that bad. Do it the first time, and it'll be easy after that. Just make sure that old BACKUP is handy!

Mori-Nu and others,

I don't have any special feelings for Microsoft. Yup, I like Linux, from what I've seem. I've also been a big Novell fan for years. Assembly language, on any computer, is my hobby, and lucky for me, my job. And that's where the problem is. That's where the money is. Desktops, and sorry to say, more and more servers. I'm forced into the MS world, at least today. That doesn't mean that I like it, but if I'm stuck here, I should use the "latest" of what is available. I've learned to live with it. <:)=

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), December 22, 1999.

Sysman -- It's not just the Windows. It's all the apps. Got to reinstall them, reset all your preferences, hope you got all the data files saved and recopied, etc. FOR EACH ONE!!

And it's not like in the DOS days when most programs gave you a "packing list" that told you all the file names for an app and what they were for.

And you can't even "save yourself" by putting WIndows on one disk or partition, and everything else somewhere else. There's the little matter of that piece of genius called the "registry".

-- A (A@AisA.com), December 22, 1999.

A,

Don't even mention that word, registry! Another great idea, but the implementation sucks.

But that's the idea of reinstalling your software, to update the virgin registry. Yea, you do have a good point about prefs and such. Like I said, it is some work. Some systems store prefs in a file, and all you need to do is copy that file from your backup, once you've figured what it is...

I guess it depends on how one organizes their machine, or their directories. If you leave the "native" software alone, and keep your "data" files in different places, it makes it much easier. I mean after all, you will have to update everything, eventually, know what I mean? This is true for .C and .ASM projects, just like it is for .DOC and .XLS files. You've got to know where YOUR data is... <:)=

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), December 22, 1999.

Sysman you are a wizard. I've got 98/SE cleanly installed as I bought the system, and am perfectly happy with it, except for one thing. They only gave me the one drive C with no partitions, and I would love to partition the drive. If I do decide to do it, I will probably at least wait until after the 1st to see if the whole thing comes unglued and I would have to do it anyway. But from what I hear, I don't expect any serious Y2K troubles. Is it a lot of trouble for me to do that, and would I risk screwing things up? What is the FAT 32, or would it be better to buy something like Partition Magic to do it?

-- Hawk (flyin@high.again), December 22, 1999.

Hello there Sysman. Imagine the mess I'm in here in Japan...

I made two primary 2.5 GB FAT32 partitions - one for English Win98 and one for Japanese Win98 that I hide/ reboot through PQBoot (Partition Magic). Then I have another 10 gigs as D:\ for applications and data that I call up through the booted primary. Some are Japanese apps and some are English apps -- I can't run Japanese apps in the English OS, but I can run English apps in the Japanese OS.

I have to seriously stop and think before I do anything because a hasty choice causes instant misery. But at least I only have to reinstall the OS's (and not any other apps or data) when Win98 (E or J) does the "Microsoft flop."

I agree 100% on the clean install (but I cheat and use [Format C:/s /q] and from a:>[copy MSCDEX.exe c:]from a floppy first)

Then, from DOS, I make a directory in the partition first [md windows] then copy all windows files to the new dirctory (from the Win98 directory on the CD [E:\Win98> copy*.* C:\windows ]. Then I run install from DOS and I always seem to get a good install.

My problem is that I have 1st Edition and I can't get a disk. Microsoft will not ship an English OS to Japan and Microsoft Japan will not sell English OS's or updates. The Micrsoft download site even sniffs my IP address and will not let me access any English OS downloads -- it bumps me to the Japan download site.

Amazing--Microsoft Japan and Microsoft US will not let me buy a fix for their mistakes...

Anyone willing to risk the wrath of Microsoft (and a felony prison sentence) to mail me one of those handy little free CD's from Microsoft?

BTW, Apple is no better than Microsoft in supporting English Mac software in Japan. You just can't get it.

Cheers-

-- PNG (png@gol.com), December 22, 1999.

Hawk,

I like the large drive myself, but to each his own :)

If you want to get into partitions, Partition Magic is the only way to go.

FAT-32 uses smaller clusters on your drive. If you have a 2-gig drive, using FAT-32, each cluster is 32,768 bytes. A 1 byte file takes 32,768 bytes of space on your drive. Using FAT-32, the cluster would be 4,096 bytes, which would free-up 28K of space for that file. Extra clusters are freed for almost all files (except those already 28-32K, or a multiple), not just small ones. It's just a more efficient way of storing stuff on your drive.

Partition Magic includes a utility to convert existing partitions, back and forth between FAC-16 and FAT-32.

Howdy PNG.

Good luck my friend. I'ld mail you the CD, but I'm still a 95/B guy, both at home and work.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS! Tick... Tock... <:00= ...

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), December 24, 1999.

CORRECTION! the above should read:

If you have a 2-gig drive, using FAT-16, each cluster is 32,768 bytes.

<:)=

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), December 24, 1999.

Hey thanks Sysman, you is da tech-man! Yeah, I guess better safe than sorry. I'll buy the Partition Magic, and that way if it screws anything up I can make them buy me a new puter. :-)

Merry Christmas!

-- Hawk (flyin@high.again), December 24, 1999.