Windows 2000 Pro or 98SE

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Hi All,

Just seeking views as to which operating system is better for retro gaming pre XP?

Essentially late nineties or early 2000 games compatibility/performance & Dos compatibility.

Windows 98SE or 2000Pro? My gut tells me 98 as 2000 was commercial software. Sorry for sounding dim but nice to have confirmation.

Thanks in advance.
 
2000 Pro was generally the better OS there are some games that might be a little trickier to run under it than 98SE but I think people managed to get everything working but its been awhile. (Some of the knowledge or programs relevant might be lost in time though).

Windows 7 in 32bit with the DOS VDM and DOS box should get pretty much anything running that works on 98SE though.
 
I would go 98SE - any game that works under 2000 will also work on XP and 7, 8, 10 (so you might as well play it on a modern system) whereas any game that won't run on 2000 but will run on 98SE is probably a lot trickier to get running on a modern system.
 
In which case, why not run XP? or W7?
98se is still based on Dos so you can run all the older stuff significantly easier than on an NT based system.
100% this.

2000 has no place for a retro gaming setup imo.

I have a 98se machine, an XP machine and my main win10 machine. Ive got everything covered for my personal usage.
 
2000 was never that good for gaming, 98SlackEdition is prob best for older retro stuff.
If its does gaming you need to concentrate on the Dos side of it, 98 or 95 then and start getting used to working with config.sys and autoexec.bat.
...and the fun and games getting your puny 640k of real memory to be big enough (memmaker or qemm386) ..

Ohh god its all coming back to me...its like... nooooooo sound car IRQs....XMS....MSCDEX.... no oooooooo
 
98SE, prepare for the BSODS! I had plenty messing about with drivers.

You've plugged in a peripheral, restart windows to continue.
Your peripheral has been set up, restart windows to continue.
You have restarted windows to use your peripheral, you must restart windows to continue

Win98SE was great, 2K was solid as a rock though. Couldn't fault it back then.
 
Thanks for the views all, really helpful. I'll give 98SE a go.

Cheers Mr Bell, I have the original disk (although it might be corrupt) so I might just take you up on this offer. Thank you. :)

Tomorrow will be the first format and 98 install since 1998? I can envisage something going belly up during the install and I'll be sat clueless - I'm a bit rusty!

I might be back (cap in hand) asking for advice - Probably bemoaning that Windows 98 is rubbish. :p

Thanks all.
 
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