No Windows 95 (XP)

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40%? where did you get that figure? I think it’s more like 5%.

XP won’t run on 95 for two or more reasons:
1) hardware issues, since most machines still running 95 are not powerful enough to run XP.
2) features, since the 95 kernel does not support the features needed by Office XP. While MS could release SPs to bring 95 up to par, that can introduce more problems, especially on low end hardware.

oh, and reason #3 – 95 is discontinued, and support will be discontinued Dec 2001 i think.

i could add a reason #4, although i don’t know that it was considered by MS: would people still using a 6 yr old OS really invest $200 in the latest and greatest office? Would they not have upgraded their OS some time ago if they cared about having the latest and greatest? This line of thought was considered when MS decided not to do upgrade pricing from office 95.

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Along that same line, those of you running Windows 95 will not be able to upgrade to Windows XP, for the same reasons, ie, hardware and etc.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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I believe my 40% came from a recent PC Week issue. Maybe I am wrong, but the reason I remember is because I was surprised by how large that figure is.

To address you other points. It is not a hardware issue, because If I installed WIN 98 on my computer OXP would then install, right? I have a 333MHz system with 128 MB of RAM.

I would install Win98 if I could, as I said, I tried but with so many problems, that I reverted to Win95. Maybe MS needs to deal with issues of people like myself who want to upgrade to a newer OS, but can’t get the thing to work.

It seems that my only option is to buy a new computer, That makes my real cost of using OXP several thousand dollars.

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You stated “It is not a hardware issue, because If I installed WIN 98 on my computer OXP would then install, right? I have a 333MHz system with 128 MB of RAM.”

If is NOT a hardware problem, why could you NOT upgrade to Windows 98?

The only other thing would be some of the older DOS programs and games??? that would prevent one from upgrading to 98.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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dos games wouldn’t affect XP or upgrading to win98, only ME or winnt.

Most users with win95 don’t have P333 with 128 megs. Those who do aren’t using win95.

Win95 does not have all the files and features in the OS that XP needs and it would require too much updating that could break other parts of win95.

Win95 is nearing the end of it’s support lifecycle. Trying to support an application on a non-supported OS could be a nightmare.

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Yes, that is the question! What would prevent it? My guess is driver software. There is a post on the Win98 board from someone with very similar problems as me.

Forgive me, but this attitude is what I got from Gateway when I had a failed memory card on my computer. They had me do everything including reinstall Win95 and only when I got a tech support person from MicroSoft on the line with them (saying it was a memory problem) did they grudgingly agree to send me a new memory card (which fixed the problem).

No one wants to believe the problem exists or that it is anything but some problem that is not the obvious one.

So, if it is not hardware what is it? I think that was my initial question.

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it’s always easier for the techs to blame MS Same with formats and what’s the new thing with Gateway? Goback maybe? It reformats and erases the disk. My daughter called from college the other day, a friend’s gateway crashed and wouldn’t reboot. I had her run scandisk. after it fixed a file it booted fine. If they called gateway tech, they would have told them to reformat. That irritates me to no end.

I’m guessing it’s a driver problem. Odd for a monitor though, but not for the NIC.

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And I’m sure that Lou568 doesn’t fall into this category, but I’ve found many people don’t realize that before upgrading they should verify they have the right BIOS to properly upgrade. The manufacturer should have it available for download.

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exactly what problems are you having getting win98 to install? are you upgrading win95 or trying a clean install?

are you sure it’s an MS problem and not a hardware problem that is out of MSs control?

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I have tried to install Win98 (the full version, not an upgrade) and had problems. My display would not work in anything but basic 640×480 mode, no internet via my LAN card, printer problems, etc. I did try reformatting my C drive (in fact I had to in order to get my Win95 to work again). That did not help. I suspect there are driver issues. Fortunately I have a tape drive so restoring Win95 was not too terrible. But restoring from a Win95 CD could have been a big problem because of all the missing security patches and other enhancements that have been added to that base Win95.

A comment on a previous post. Latest and greatest are not the same. WinME is the latest and I have not read anything good about it outside of MS.

As to people with my hardware not having Win95. Well, if I cannot upgrade, why do you suppose they could? I have a top of the line (3 years old) Gateway G6. This is not some old garage kludge. It works just fine with Win95, so why would it be a hardware problem?

I am a computer consultant and programmer, so I am at least a little more savvy than the average user, and If I cannot get it an upgrade to work, I have real empathy for others.

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I ran Gateway machines for a while. I found that if you upgraded from a retail box it did not work well, but if you bought the upgrade from Gateway, it would work.
A lot of the OEM’s are ‘branding’ the OS that comes with their machines. They add the drivers needed to run their hardware and leave out some of the generic ones and other hardware brands. Also they do NOT provide these drivers to MS for the upgrades. The OEM’s want the sales of the upgrades to come from them.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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This thread reminds me very much a problem I’ve had with a number of Dell PCs at my site.

Dave, if you’re correct in what you say here then it’s a bit sad as at least one manufacturer has permanently lost one customer, and any other site I have any influence with.

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I was very surprised to find that Office XP would not install on Windows 95! I understand that about 40% of systems still use this OS. Does MS think this product is so good that it will force someone to upgrade and OS?

I tried to install Win98 on my system but that pretty much was futile, it would not even recognize my video card and monitor (A standard Gateway product).

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