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General discussion

Windows upgrade question.

Mar 4, 2004 3:55AM PST

Hello, I am using Windows 95 right now and would like to upgrade to one of the newer versions of Windows. What I am writing for is I don't know which one would be the best to go to. I am not a person who likes to play games. Mostly I surf the Internet and right messages in "Outlook Express". My kids like to play "Tiba" and "Ages of Employers", and I have a friend who uses "Office 97", but that is about it. One of my friends said that I should only go up to Windows 98 because it is the most stable and has the least number of bugs in it. I am just wondering what opinions I could get from here. Any advice you could offer would be greatly appreciated. If you are wondering why I want to get away from 95 is because I am disabled and have to use DragonDictate to operate my computer. I wish to upgrade to Dragon Naturally Speaking and in order to do that I have to upgrade to at least Windows 98. Thank you in advance for any information you may be able to offer me.

Discussion is locked

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Re:Windows upgrade question.
Mar 4, 2004 4:10AM PST

And my advice is to skip 98 since it has the same limitations as 95 as to 64 thousand byte resource pools and other fun limits.

Short of Windows XP which will soundly wipe out your Office 97, we run Windows 2000 without issue at the office.

Now that XP has been out for years, the drivers for hardware have been coming of age for the Windows 2000 as well.

Sorry, I'm not going back to the stone-age of Windows. I need something without the Resource limits and a robust filesystem that can create a file bigger than 4 Gigabytes...

Bob

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Re:Windows upgrade question.
Mar 4, 2004 5:18AM PST

Since your running w95 I am going to guess that your machine is quite old and limited in memory and processor speed.

If you move to w98 you might have to upgrade booth to make it run well, which can be quite expensive on an old machine.

If you try to move to xp you may find that it does not support a machine of your vintage.

Bottom line--- Sometimes it is better/less expensive/less headaches to replace the unit than to try to upgrade the unit.

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Re:Re:Windows upgrade question.
Mar 4, 2004 7:57AM PST

For this case, I agree with bob b. You will most likely need a newer computer. I still use W98SE because, for me, MS hasn't come out with anything better. Yeah, I know. Most of you will like XP but I don't. Anyway, for you to find a good cd copy of W98SE might be a bit difficult these days. Also, even if you did find a good copy, you'll have to spend a couple of days at WindowsUpdate site getting it current and safe. Like me, you may be on a fixed and limited income. So, try to find a new computer at either TigerDirect or ComputerSurplusOutlet (CSO) that can fit your budget and comes with XP. Do a google search for those 2 sites. CSO is your best bet for an affordable new computer with XP. Though it will be limited in some respects, if you just need a basic computer, thats your best bet.

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Re:Re:Windows upgrade question.
Mar 5, 2004 1:38AM PST

That is a very good point. I should have told you what I had for a computer. I am running a 1GHz computer with 256MB of RAM. So as far as I know it should run anything out there. You do point out something else I hadn't thought of if I was to go with 98. I wasn't thinking of all the updating I would have to do to get 98 updated to today.
Then if I understand R. Proffitt correct my office 97 won't run on Windows XP.
So with all this information it looks like I should use Windows 2000 if I am understanding correctly.
If anybody has any other ideas please let me know.
Where would be the cheapest place to get a copy of 2000? Again thank you very much for any information you can offer me.

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Just the FYI on Office 97 on XP.
Mar 5, 2004 1:51AM PST

It does "run", but not without a glitch or error.

1. Open a .DOC from Explorer and it tries to open it twice. You just OK the error box and it works.
2. The spell checker would normally work with Outlook Express, but fails.

All this for me is rather a dead issue since the office moved to Open Office last year (we have some users still strewn across the Microsoft road(kill) with Office 97, 2000 and a new XP user.) http://www.openoffice.org for the free one that is, in my opinion the MS Office killer.

As to finding a Windows 2000, that's a shopping exercise in your part of the world. And with 1G CPU and 256M RAM, the basic requirements are well met. I would add the latest service pack to the OS, plus ZoneAlarm and Free AVG (www.grisoft.com) and the Open Office and I have a pretty ready to use desktop.

Bob