WindowsME can BITE ME
Posted: Sat Nov 30, 2002 10:56 pm
WinME lasted exactly ONE WEEK on my new lappy. That's it.
I don't totally blame WinME though - it's the custom Compaq installation on this lappy. I've installed ME on plenty of systems and never seen this before so I know it's the Compaq crap.
No matter what I did I could not get free system resources above 70% which is rediculous. A clean ME install (and I just did one the other day for a friend) has 90% free.
Believe me I cleaned out the registry startup and still couldn't get it it over 70%. Even worse, I was running low on memory with 128Mb installed!!!!
F' That!
I upgraded it to XP and it's running fine and dandy (with all the XP eye-candy disabled and configured to look and feel like Win2K thank you - I HATE the XP GUI).
Amazingly I've even got 40 - 50Mb free with only 128Mb installed (got another 128Mb stick coming in the mail).
XP did a nice job upgrading from ME. It shrugged off all the Compaq crap I couldn't find, gave me fair warning about 2 items I'd have to re-install and the upgrade when smoothly.
I've done several Win9x to WinXP upgrades now and as long as you have Internet access when you start the installation (so XP can download the latest compatibility info) it always seems to go smoothly.
Oh, and before you ask, the reason I didn't install 2K in this lappy is because I didn't want to do a clean install since I had just finished installing all my apps (2K doesn't upgrade well but XP does), and XP boots a hell of a lot faster than 2K which is nice on a lappy.
I don't totally blame WinME though - it's the custom Compaq installation on this lappy. I've installed ME on plenty of systems and never seen this before so I know it's the Compaq crap.
No matter what I did I could not get free system resources above 70% which is rediculous. A clean ME install (and I just did one the other day for a friend) has 90% free.
Believe me I cleaned out the registry startup and still couldn't get it it over 70%. Even worse, I was running low on memory with 128Mb installed!!!!
F' That!
I upgraded it to XP and it's running fine and dandy (with all the XP eye-candy disabled and configured to look and feel like Win2K thank you - I HATE the XP GUI).
Amazingly I've even got 40 - 50Mb free with only 128Mb installed (got another 128Mb stick coming in the mail).
XP did a nice job upgrading from ME. It shrugged off all the Compaq crap I couldn't find, gave me fair warning about 2 items I'd have to re-install and the upgrade when smoothly.
I've done several Win9x to WinXP upgrades now and as long as you have Internet access when you start the installation (so XP can download the latest compatibility info) it always seems to go smoothly.
Oh, and before you ask, the reason I didn't install 2K in this lappy is because I didn't want to do a clean install since I had just finished installing all my apps (2K doesn't upgrade well but XP does), and XP boots a hell of a lot faster than 2K which is nice on a lappy.