WinME -> Win98

[Guest]

Hiya people.

I'm in a bizarre situation where I've just bought a new PC and I've got to get rid of ME and put 98 on. (I'm about to get cable and the cable company cannot yet support ME and will not install software onto it!)

Any known issues with going 'backwards' in OSs?
Am I best doing a reformat or not?
Is not having DOS going to be a problem?

Also, the bloke at the cable company reckons that once the network card has been configured to the cable modem, I can upgrade again to ME and the network card won't know the difference or lose any settings. Is this correct? Surely TCP settings will be lost?

Cheers in advance.

 

[Henrik]

There should not be any problem with going back to Win98. Infact I recommend you do just that. I would do like this:

1. Boot the computer with the Win98 CD.
2. Format the drive.
3. Install Win98.

If you just erase the windows folder and install Win98 it will behave weirdly and crashes will be common. So take it all away.

As for upgrading to ME later I don't know. If you are able to just upgrade from within windows you should be able to keep all your info, including TCP/IP settings.

Good luck

 

[Bubba]

My cable company said the same thing. I just ignored them and set it up myself. I would stay with Win ME. The cable company may not support it but it will work just fine. All you need to do is install the network card like you would any other card. The network settings in the Control Panel are the same as Win98SE anyway.
I also read somewhere that WinMe is designed to be more efficient with setting up and using networks, especially home networking and cable modems and that by using ME instead of 98 you may actually get faster download speeds.
Just put the NIC in yourself and plug the cable modem into the card. Set up the networking just as you would in win 98. No big deal.

 

[DSutcliffe]

Bubba is a smart guy, and absolutely right about the WinME Network properties. If you know what you are doing with Win98, WinME will not be an issue. I did the same thing he did by configuring my cable modem myself, easy stuff.

Also, to answer your other issues, best to reformat then re-install any time you are switching OSes. Also, upgrading from Win98 to WinME will not cause your computer to lose network settings unless you do a re-format and install type of upgrade.