Windows ME install

Effluo

hey everyone

i'm gonna take you on a journey through time.....

dooooooooo dooooooooo dooooooooooo

The year is 2..... 0.... 0... 0....

yes the new millenium hoho

With this new millenium brought an awful lot of new things....
some good....
some bad.....

A new windows OS....
What a disaster!!!

Anywho i'm supposed to do a fresh install of Windows ME onto their antique computer and you see they had lost the disc...

So i "found" another one and was wondering before i format their hard-drive will their product key work with the cd? Or does it have to be the one that came with their pc.... (i really don't want to have to take chances)

kenon

Effluo wrote: »

hey everyone

i'm gonna take you on a journey through time.....

dooooooooo dooooooooo dooooooooooo

The year is 2..... 0.... 0... 0....

yes the new millenium hoho

With this new millenium brought an awful lot of new things....
some good....
some bad.....

A new windows OS....
What a disaster!!!

Anywho i'm supposed to do a fresh install of Windows ME onto their antique computer and you see they had lost the disc...

So i "found" another one and was wondering before i format their hard-drive will their product key work with the cd? Or does it have to be the one that came with their pc.... (i really don't want to have to take chances)

Provided its the same version of release it should be ok. Its not paired.

Stephen

If the copy you got is retail (i.e. not an OEM licence) it might not work with their key, which is pretty much guaranteed to be an OEM key.

They could probably buy a PC capable of kicking that relic's arse for €200

Professey Chin

Lie about finding a product key and install windows 2000 instead

mukki

i think "windows me" keys can be used with "64bit windows vista ultimate"


i could be wrong though

watty

Get a cheap copy of win98SE or get them to buy a netbook with XP.

Even Tesco has XP netbooks for only twice the price of buying a Retail OS.

Effluo

the thing is that she's perfectly happy with her pc!

It still does everything that she needs so i just thought i could "spruce it up" as she was complaining about how much slower it had gotten recently!

Can we be certain that the code will work with the ME disc?

Jonathan

I wouldn't go near any dos based versions of windows in this day and age.

Webmonkey

With something that Old, you might as well do Windows 98 SE, bit more stable.

watty

I installed Win3.11 in a DOSVM app for games on XP the other day...
2min install time from network share.
Load it in a window and run word 2.0a faster than you can open Office 2003 Word

mukki

op just run msconfig and disable all startup items, reboot and be amazed, a shyte os at high speed

Effluo

Well a major problem that the pc has had is that it hasn't had an anti virus program on it for about 5 years and she'd be using an out of date internet explorer so i'm expecting to find a load of viruses on it....

No doubt some intertwined with the os...

So i kind of figured that the best thing i could do for her is to reinstall the os. Or i'm thinking about putting some linux on it instead...

Is there any version of linux designed for netbooks and such but can run open office and skype(these are the two main programs that she wants to be able to use with it)

Cheers


edit: ok i was talking to her on the phone and was asking what brand it says on the front of the case and she said rylisis(or somethin like that) also i've read recently that on windows xp anyway that if you format the harddrive then you can't reinstall the os with the same key unless you copy the boot info or somethin like that before hand(cause some makers have special oem deals with windows)? Would this be the same for her "rylisis"

mukki

Effluo wrote: »

Well a major problem that the pc has had is that it hasn't had an anti virus program on it for about 5 years and she'd be using an out of date internet explorer so i'm expecting to find a load of viruses on it....

No doubt some intertwined with the os...

So i kind of figured that the best thing i could do for her is to reinstall the os. Or i'm thinking about putting some linux on it instead...

Is there any version of linux designed for netbooks and such but can run open office and skype(these are the two main programs that she wants to be able to use with it)

Cheers


edit: ok i was talking to her on the phone and was asking what brand it says on the front of the case and she said rylisis(or somethin like that) also i've read recently that on windows xp anyway that if you format the harddrive then you can't reinstall the os with the same key unless you copy the boot info or somethin like that before hand(cause some makers have special oem deals with windows)? Would this be the same for her "rylisis"

a lot of older viruses use the startup tab to make sure they are run everytime the pc is booted so they will be removed, but you will never know for sure, and i doubt an av would touch win me

Dartz

http://www.xubuntu.org

Save yourself the hassle of finding a CD key..... it'll do pretty much everything you need it to. I think skype runs well in Wine. All you need is about 256Meg of RAM, anything above a 600mhz Pentium 3, and bob's your uncle.

I know this is a Windows forum, but for older PC's like this, Linux distro's are more appropriate than digging out older copies of Windows that aren't even supported with security fixes and by AV programs anymore.

Honestly mate....

I ran a Pc with 98SE up until about 2 years ago... never had an AV scanner. Suffice to say it 'went slow' pretty regularly....

Zapho

Nooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Don't do it man. Windows ME is possibly thee worst operating system I've ever used! Boy do I remember the heartache...but to answer your question, your key should work fine with your cd.

I agree with Dartz, install a cutdown linux distro like xubuntu. It'll do everything you want and actually looks pretty decent on those old relics. Although you don't even need to use skype through Wine. Skype is now available for several linux distros. And no virus scanner needed :P

Also of note, I have managed to install and run XP pretty happily on several P3 machines with feck all ram and hdd space. Just switch off ALL of the visual effects, but you would need and AV scanner, mind.


http://xkcd.com/323/