Installing WinMe on new laptop

rjd

rjd

rjd

Associate
Joined
4 Mar 2006
Posts
168
Location
London
Hi

I know you will think I'm mad to consider this but I currently use WinMe on my AMD 64 PC by choice.

If I buy a laptop with some version of WinXP already preinstalled, what are the chances of successfully reformatting and installing WinME?

If I don't use the installed (but paid for OS) how do I prove I am not using it and get a refund?

At some stage I will proberly install Linux (Xubuntu 6.10?) but would prefer to try WinME first.

Any help or suggestions will be appreciated.
 
installing ME shouldn't be a problem in priniciple. but first you'll need to fdisk the partition on the laptop to delete the ntfs partition, create a new one and then format it as fat32. then boot from the ME cd (they are bootable i assume?) and run setup as normal.....

BUT the main problem will lie with getting drivers for the hardware. as a result of not having all the right drivers, performance/functionality may well suffer.

btw i think you're a sandwich short of a picnic for considering this. windows 2000/xp are both great but ME..... :shakes head: :p
 
rjd said:
If I don't use the installed (but paid for OS) how do I prove I am not using it and get a refund?
Click to expand...
You won't get a refund.

WinME is unstable rubbish. Linux is just stable rubbish :p Stick with XP.
 
Thanks marc2003.

What you say is pretty much what I thought so thanks for that.

I agree if you install WinMe 'as is' it is not that good and I would not generally recommend it.

But, if you like a bit of a challenge (and don't want to automatically follow the herd) and are willing/able to assess and follow the advice give on sites such as those listed below, imho it runs very well and is reliable and if you use reasonably up to date hardware appears to run faster than both WinXP and various flavours of Linux I have tried so far.

http://www.burzurq.com/forum/trevtweak.html

http://users.adelphia.net/~jgulley/me/index.html#Startups

http://www.mdgx.com/spx/98alive.htm

http://myweb.accessus.net/~090/winmetip.html

Some of the info also applies to other Win9x OS.

Out of interest, have you actually tried WinME or are you just repeating what you have heard others say (who may or may not have actually tried it)?

Thanks for replying
 
Last edited:
Yes I used it before I used XP.

On a laptop it will mean you don't get cleartype which in itself is reason enough to use XP, even ignoring all the hundred other reasons...
 
Thanks for the info dirtydog.

Why would I need to use cleartype?

Is it just for laptops?

I currently use a Dell Ultrasharp 2407WFP/Sapphire Radeon 9600 (128mb) with 'smooth edges of screen fonts' activated and this gives me very crisp clear text.

How would cleartype improve on this?
 
Hi bledd

For security I use

An ADSL Modem Router with the following security:

Firewall with NAT, Packet Filtering, Content Filtering
Stateful Packed Inspection (SPI) firewall
Deny of Service (DoS) protection
Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) Management Utility
Password Protected
VPN pass through (IPsec,PPTP)

Sygate Personal Firewall
AVG Anti-Virus
Ad-Aware
Spybot Search & Destroy
Spyware Blaster

If I remember rightly, XP has had 2 service pack updates to 'fix' the lack of security.

What extra security do you suggest I might need?
 
Whilst I am quite frankly shocked that anyone would want to install ME on a new laptop. IMO it is the worst OS to come out of MS. Please reconsider.

However, I am pro-choice so I believe society should allow you to try this blasphomous activity.

Joking aside, lets look at the licencing issues. How are you intending to put ME on there? Do you have a specific licence for it (they're not sold anymore)? If not, use it legally by keeping the existing OEM licence for XP. Under the terms of the EULA you have the rights to downgrade to a previous version of Windows. I think its a bit cheeky pirating an OS and getting a refund if that was your intended course of action.

And yes, I have used Windows ME, I even had the Plus! pack installed at one point. I happily upgraded to 2000 which was actually a rebust OS compared to ME.

Burnsy
 
rjd said:
Thanks for the info dirtydog.

Why would I need to use cleartype?

Is it just for laptops?

I currently use a Dell Ultrasharp 2407WFP/Sapphire Radeon 9600 (128mb) with 'smooth edges of screen fonts' activated and this gives me very crisp clear text.

How would cleartype improve on this?
Click to expand...
Cleartype won't make it look sharper, it will make it look more rounded like you would see text on a printed page (book, newspaper). It is personal preference - some love cleartype, others hate it :)

As said above though, NTFS is a more compelling reason to use XP over ME. If you use ME you must get the hard drive cache update on a modern computer or it shuts the power off before it has had a chance to write the HDD cache contents to the hard disk properly and you will lose data. But for the love of all things holy, just don't do it :D
 
Hi burnsy2023

I bought a retail version of WinME when I upgraded from Win95.

I may need to check but I believe the License allows me to install on more than one computer provided I only use one at a time.

The laptop I am considering has Windows Media Centre pre installed (would I be happy with this?) and afaik I would not get a full 'copy' of the OS on CD's which makes it difficult to get rid of all the other 'junk' software, partition it to my liking and reinstall the OS.

If someone can let me know where I can buy a similar laptop ('Philips' X56) which includes a full copy of WinXP Pro (without having to buy it again separately) that would be appreciated.

Thanks for your help.
 
rjd said:
The laptop I am considering has Windows Media Centre pre installed (would I be happy with this?)
Click to expand...
You should be :) It is essentially XP Pro with a few arcane features missing which 99% of people would never need or want to use.
 
Hi dirtydog

I can hear the pain I'm causing in your text!

So, are you saying that WinXP Home/Media Centre/Pro is better in every way compared to WinME when running on the same/similar PC/laptop?

Would a current fully updated version run noticeably faster than winME ?

Is it easy to stop/uninstall all the bloatware as I prefer to use a basic lean fast OS and choose my 'addons' e.g Browser, multimedia software, security (see my post above) etc.

Presumably, all/most of the software I currently run under WinME will also run under XP, or are there any notable exceptions?

Sorry to be a pain but I think you are all gradually winning me round if that helps to 'spur you on'.

Thanks to everyone for your help.
 
rjd said:
Hi burnsy2023

I bought a retail version of WinME when I upgraded from Win95.

I may need to check but I believe the License allows me to install on more than one computer provided I only use one at a time.

The laptop I am considering has Windows Media Centre pre installed (would I be happy with this?) and afaik I would not get a full 'copy' of the OS on CD's which makes it difficult to get rid of all the other 'junk' software, partition it to my liking and reinstall the OS.

If someone can let me know where I can buy a similar laptop ('Philips' X56) which includes a full copy of WinXP Pro (without having to buy it again separately) that would be appreciated.

Thanks for your help.
Click to expand...

Firstly, was the retail version of ME FPP (Full packaged Product) or an upgrade version?

Secondly, the version of Media Center that would be proinstalled will be an OEM version, there is a difference between this and the 'full product' (FPP). Most OEMs will supply recovery media as standard, that may, or may not include bloatware. However, in most cases you can get a clean version of the OS if you contact the OEM. Depending on the OEM you could probably obtain a copy of the OS from another source and it'd be valid with the OEM licence.

I can't link you to another laptop becuase of competition rules on the forums.

And as for some of DD's points, XP is better then ME in pretty much every way. I would upgrade for NTFS support alone. FAT32 is a lot more error prone and very wasteful compared to NTFS.

In a lot of cases you can remove the bloatware without too much hassle anyway.

As for compatibility, I have seen quite a few apps that won't run under 98/ME. I can't remember what they are off the top of my head but it most definetly is becomming more of an issue. Althoguh software that you are currently running will work on ME, will the next version? Maybe you should think about the full life of the latop and think about future proofing yourself.

Also, think about security. Although your running appropriate protection, MS are no longer fixing security holes.

Think of this anology: you can have security gaurds guarding a perimeter fence, but they are pretty useless if your fence has huge gaping holes in it.

How often does ME crash? I've not had XP crash for months, and even then it was my fault.

What about driver support? How often are Win 98/ME drivers updated? This is a huge impact to performance.

They are many other reasons to upgrade, please, think of the children.

Burnsy
 
I would not install ME either, it's a POS. Windows 98SE is far better. Windows 95 was good too. If this is for a older machine than you would install 95/98, you can install 2000 or XP on a dated machine but it'll run dog slow.

If this is new laptop there is no reason at all to install the rubbish that is ME. I tried ME, fresh install. BSOD within the first 10 minutes, went back to 98SE which worked fine.

Stick to XP.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom