I have an avg computer with win xp.

I was thinking about reformatiing the hd &

buying win 98 op off E-bay.

1. would it be worth it.

2. would I have to activate on line with Microsoft?

or can you do it over the phone, I don't want to have this system on line.

Just a machine for playing 95 & 98 games

Gog has some old games, but not a-lot of the ones I want to play.

Thanks Dunn

XP was the first version of Windows that required activation. With Windows 2000, ME, 98, 95 and earlier, all you need is to type in the product key that came with the Windows CD.

If all you're playing is older games that don't use 3D acceleration, you can run Windows 98 inside of Virtual PC or VMware and play your games from there. You don't have to format the XP computer.

Despite that the XP computer is "old," it may still be too new to run Windows 98 comfortably. It might have too much RAM (unless you have 512MB of RAM or less, you may have problems with Windows 98 and earlier due to a ***bug***), and you may have problems finding Windows 98 drivers for your video card, motherboard, sound, etc. If you run Windows 98 inside of Virtual PC, this isn't a problem because Windows 98 only sees the emulated video and sound cards and has drivers for them built in.

If you want a computer to run Windows 98 natively, look for one that's more than 12 years old.

Everything that Jenny said, Dunn. About 8 years ago, I picked up a couple of computers from work which were Windows 2000 Gateways. The hard drives were completely wiped and I even had to format them. I purchased a couple of Windows 98 OS disks and installed. The computers both only had 512 GB of RAM, so that wasn't a problem. Gateway still had all the drivers for the video and sound etc. on their website. So, before you go there, be sure you can get the drivers that 98 will recognize.

I was recently directed to THIS site for old drivers. [By a colleague.]

Does it look any good ??

[I haven't needed to think about having to use it myself as yet ]

Well that's strange. The site you link to says Windows 98 in the title, but in the description it says "DriverDetective is compatible with Windows XP (32 bit) Vista & Windows 7 (32 & 64 bit) operating systems." One thing is for sure, if the Windows 98 drivers for a computer don't exist, Driver Detective won't find them.

Thanks everyone for the reply's.

I am going to have to do some thinking on which way to go.

Why did I get rid of those old machines ?

Dunn

The link almost looks a bit like a "bait and switch" thing.

What's a "bait and switch" thing ?? Is it something bad ??

[As I said, I haven't had cause to go to the site myself - just had it passed to me by a colleague. But it was some time ago that she passed it to me. Maybe it's changed hands or something, jenny100 ??]

Like Jenny said, it just seemed kind of odd that the heading says Windows 98 Drivers and then below it says that DriverDetective is compatible only with XP, Vista and Windows 7. I think you can get DriverDetective as a free trial, but it costs $30. That's why I said "bait and switch!" On this side of the pond, it means that one thing is advertised, but another thing is sold.

Driver Detective has several negative threads at the Major Geeks forums.

From what I can tell, Driver Detective is mainly for updating drivers on XP or newer operating systems. Apparently it isn't even so good at that, and can send you to dead links. This would be even more likely for Windows 98 drivers, where the downloads are often moved for archiving or taken down as sites are updated.

***Driver seekers BEWARE!!***

***Driver Updates: Trust Microsoft or "Driver Detective"?***

***Error 1706 No valid source could be found for product Dell Support Center***

Interesting since Major Geeks has a huge number of utilities -- yet they don't include Driver Detective.

And according to "necro61" Driver Detective doesn't even work on all the Windows 98 computers he's had to rebuild.
***Grrr..phoney 98 and driver links bs***

Man I had driver detective on my last OP system, which was vista.

Funny thing is , I was directed there after a search for updating drivers.

Can't be too carefull these day's.

On another note: Jenny, the other xp system I have is a PCI system that crashed.

I am hopefully going to get it back up.

You had sent me two files for running virtual

pc win 95 which is gone now.


I have the files on a back-up cd, how did I install them on this xp ? I can't remember.

Did you send me an install file with them ?

I could use this PC, if I can re-install those two files after I change out the hard drive.


Thanks, sorry for all the questions,

Dunn

The original zip file unzipped to a Windows95VirtualMachine folder with two files inside:
Windows95VirtualMachine Hard Disk.vhd
Windows95VirtualMachine.vmc

The default location of the Windows95VirtualMachine folder on an XP computer is My Documents.

Try opening VirtualPC and click New and Add an Existing Virtual Machine.

You can find Virtual PC at
http://www.oldversion.com/Virtual-PC.html

If you copied the unzipped folder to a CDR, they'll be changed to read-only and you'll have to get rid of the read-only attribute in order to use them as a VM. If you copied the zipped folder to your CDR, you won't have this problem.

If you want to install Windows 95 or 98 to a computer and not use Virtual PC, you'll need to buy yourself a Windows 95 or 98 disc.

OK thanks Jenny, so I have the Virtual PC files for XP also.

They are copied on DVD-R disks.

So if I understand, I have to put the Virtual PC for XP on the system, then add the other files, correct ?

Thanks so much for your help , I will have to get an unzip program installed on the XP.

I will let you know when I try it.

Diane has me re-modeling the two bedrooms

a-lot of things going on right now, plus work

Dunn

You install Virtual PC, then copy the Virtual PC folder with the two Windows 95 VM files to your My Documents folder. And if you extracted the folder before copying it to your DVD+R, you'll have to get rid of the read-only attribute. You do this by right-clicking each file, then Properties, then uncheck the read-only attribute on the General tab, and OK the change. After that you should be able to start up Virtual PC and, click New, and then Add an Existing Virtual Machine.

Thanks

Dunn

Mad, bait and switch is where an advertisement or something similar draws your attention for one thing, but when you look at what's offered it's something else entirely.

Thanks, Homer6 So it's a "naughty" !!!!

Success yea, Thanks Jenny

I don't know where you learned all that techie stuff, but thanks.

I now have a VC machine with win 95 back.

Dunn

Life is good, Dunn!

Yes it sure is

Dunn

This sort of thing happened to me recently when I was searching for stuff such as cd rom driver, etc for ms-dos 6 vim in virtual pc that I created about a month or so ago, and I was very angry since I felt that I was lied to, that is, the folks behind that particular website where lying to people/tricking honest people like us this way.