What are some good programs for Windows ME?

RangerXML

RangerXML

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OK, I finally got Windows ME (Upgrade Copy) installed on Virtual PC 07! I was wondering if someone knew where I can find some programs to run in a 98 environment. I tried to install Chrome to no success so I would have something other to use besides the forsaken IE6, but it didn't work. I might need to find a version of Netscape at the rate.

Just looking for some gimmick programs, only run in 3.11/95/98/ME or useful ones, like say a better browser. Maybe I can find a copy of Mosaic just for kicks :p

WindowsME.jpg
 
Why are you doing this, its more like torture surely?
Try Firefox if you are after another browser.
Google is great for finding more.
 
Using Vista to virtualize WinME? That's brain dead, rofl. I could understand if your host was a mac or linux and you had no other windows license, but what you're doing is just silly. ME is built on an unstable OS line, is insecure and doesn't run many modern programs/games. But hey, it's your time to waste doing as you like, so have fun whatever you're doing.
 
Already tried Firefox, alas.

My Grandpa is still running Windows 3.11 programs in XP and he is thinking of getting a new notebook with Vista64...so I'm going to set up a virtual work environment for him. I had a copy of ME Upgrade lying around I bought when it came out, yuppers first in line (looked around, only one in line). And ME really isn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be, especially on our systems today...IE6 on the other hand. Ots really fun, kind ticked I can't find a VM program that supports openGL, I really wanted to play Q3A on this and maybe a couple of old DOS games.
 
Because this is a nice trip (literally tripping) down memory lane. Doing this kind of off the wall stuff is fun.

I got Firefox 2.0.0.17 now, w00t! And when I get home Office '97.
 
Because some dos games need a true dos environment to work, and some older windows games wont run in a "NT" environment.

There's a bunch of older games available free on the web.
 
lol, I pity your grandpa.
You shouldnt perform such experiments on him.
See if you can get a copy of 98SE cheap/free.

Its interesting you havent been able to get other browsers working in your virtual environment, I've not had a problem doing the same.
 
If anyone cares to donate a copy of 98SE, I would gladly except.

FF3 does not support anything under Win2000, but FF2 works fine. I had to do a little work around to get flash for FF, because adobe's website wouldn't let me install it.
 
Yeah sure ME isn't as bad as we all remember it. It just some how fixed it self after Microsoft stopped supporting it. Sorry but it isn't even safe to have a windows ME box connected to the Internet IMO.

Now you said the whole point of this is so grandpa can keep running his dated software. Well if said dated software works in XP than as others have said virtual PC XP since it is at least still supported by MS so security vulnerability get patched.

If you insist on running a 9x variant then I would not even give it Internet access. I mean really whats the point of surfing the web with an unsecured OS and dated unsecured browser when the host OS can handle web browsing with your browser of choice?

Oh and I almost forgot. I haven't tested it with my copy of q3a yet but AFAIK browsing to the setup.exe on the disk will allow it to install on Vista 64 it's just the autorun that fails.
 
Its just so fun, I'm posting from ME. I'll install something like Zone Alarm and AVG, but still its just fun.
 
TGA said:
Yeah sure ME isn't as bad as we all remember it. It just some how fixed it self after Microsoft stopped supporting it. Sorry but it isn't even safe to have a windows ME box connected to the Internet IMO.

Now you said the whole point of this is so grandpa can keep running his dated software. Well if said dated software works in XP than as others have said virtual PC XP since it is at least still supported by MS so security vulnerability get patched.

If you insist on running a 9x variant then I would not even give it Internet access. I mean really whats the point of surfing the web with an unsecured OS and dated unsecured browser when the host OS can handle web browsing with your browser of choice?

Oh and I almost forgot. I haven't tested it with my copy of q3a yet but AFAIK browsing to the setup.exe on the disk will allow it to install on Vista 64 it's just the autorun that fails.
Click to expand...

Gimme a break. You can run any OS online securely with the proper precautions......although the browser is the weak link. I've run ME online with only a hardware firewall and IE6 with no problem.
 
Monkey34 said:
Because some dos games need a true dos environment to work, and some older windows games wont run in a "NT" environment.

There's a bunch of older games available free on the web.
Click to expand...


Yeah, and whats wrong with DOSBox? It's free and worked quite well when I wanted a taste of nostalgic gaming.

I also seem to recall playing a bunch of old Apple2 games in my web browser on some site the other year. Now I have to be honest I don;t know what it would take but I am rather surprised we haven't seen a site like that setup for DOS games.
 
Anyone know where I can get QBasic, I wanna play Gorilla Basic and the QBasic version of Bomberman. I still have copies of some old QBasic games on an old 20MB HDD.
 
If he's running Win 3.1 apps, you should run them in a WFWG VM. IE 3.01 for the WIN!

capture2.jpg



The VHD is only 58 MB, boots DOS 6.22 no mods, DOS 6.22 hand tweaked for maximum memory free with CD support, DOS with TCP/IP and basic mode redirector, DOS with CD and TCP/IP, and Windows for Worgkgroups from a boot menu.

Yes, I was very bored that day. I even tried using memmaker to optimize the memory, forgot how bad that program worked.

Found a web site with a really old archive that had an IEAK version of IE 3.01, an viola!
 
TGA said:
Yeah, and whats wrong with DOSBox? It's free and worked quite well when I wanted a taste of nostalgic gaming.

I also seem to recall playing a bunch of old Apple2 games in my web browser on some site the other year. Now I have to be honest I don;t know what it would take but I am rather surprised we haven't seen a site like that setup for DOS games.
Click to expand...

I personally find it easier to have an older rig with decent hardware for the time to run this stuff on for real, rather than screw with programs to run programs in.
 
Well if you want to give DOSBox that I mentioned above a try. You can download every old dos game I can think of for free.
 
I can testify that putting DOS extensions into ME is a pain, I just caught myself doing it again (I now have QBasic and other DOS commands in the C:\DOS). I bought ME back in the day because I wanted to go legit back then (was using pirated 98), guess things change very slowly, lol. Anyways, back then already MS was moving away from DOS at breakneck speeds. My friends and I would always put DOS back in, sorta a duel boot, I think ME was the first OS not to have 'Boot DOS Prompt'. Alas, I don't remember a lot about how I did some of it, hence I can't use some of the added DOS commands from the prompt from just anywhere, it has to be right now from C:/DOS :(

nessus said:
If he's running Win 3.1 apps, you should run them in a WFWG VM. IE 3.01 for the WIN!

capture2.jpg



The VHD is only 58 MB, boots DOS 6.22 no mods, DOS 6.22 hand tweaked for maximum memory free with CD support, DOS with TCP/IP and basic mode redirector, DOS with CD and TCP/IP, and Windows for Worgkgroups from a boot menu.

Yes, I was very bored that day. I even tried using memmaker to optimize the memory, forgot how bad that program worked.

Found a web site with a really old archive that had an IEAK version of IE 3.01, an viola!
Click to expand...

You are fucking l337!
 
Monkey34 said:
I personally find it easier to have an older rig with decent hardware for the time to run this stuff on for real, rather than screw with programs to run programs in.
Click to expand...

And I find having yet another PC and monitor setup rather annoying when I can do it all from my modern PC, not to mention I find it nice to be able to play these kinds of games in my living room on my TV.

More then one way to skin a cat you know?

If you get all warm and fuzzy booting up an old 486 that's great but personally I can't deal with dated computers anymore. Hell I refuse to service and repair any PC P3 or older. I just can't stand how slow they are to work with, especially after being gunked up with all kids of crap. Just like I pull any box I have running an OS no longer supported by MS and either upgrade or move it to Linux. Actually I moved a few Win 2k boxes I maintain to Linux early so I don't have to deal with it later.
 
Monkey34 said:
I personally find it easier to have an older rig with decent hardware for the time to run this stuff on for real, rather than screw with programs to run programs in.
Click to expand...

18 yrs worth of my old compuers. That wouldn't take that much space...

386-25
386-40 - one computer (DOS WFWG machine)
486slc2-66
Pentium 75 - two computers (Windows 95, could run DOS/WFWG, but not really the right era)
Dual P2 - 233, upgrade to dual 350's, upgraded to dual 450's - three computers (NT 4.0/Windows 2000/ Windows 2000 server)
Dual AMD 1600+
P4-3.6 GHZ - 4 computers (XP box/2003 Server, couldn't use for earlier OS's other than 2000 no AGP drivers)
AMD 3800+ X2 - 5 computers (My Vista HP media box)
Core 2 2.4 GHz box - (oh wait, can't have 2003 on that, gave to my Mom)

so keep 5 computers assembled and working

or 37 GB of disk space on my current workstation for

Windows 95 VM, Windows 98 VM, DOS VM, XP image with troubleshooting and sniffing tools, Vista Business VM, 2 Linux VMs, w2k AS VM, an XP VM with my old normal full application load (sysprepped to move from old workstation), and a DOS /WFWG 3.11 VM.

I defintely should have gone with the 5 physical machines from each major era to run old stuff on, but it would probably tick off the wife...
 
I found DRM in Windows ME, I'll take a screeny later tonight :p
 
RangerXML said:
... And ME really isn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be, especially on our systems today...IE6 on the other hand. Ots really fun, kind ticked I can't find a VM program that supports openGL, I really wanted to play Q3A on this and maybe a couple of old DOS games.
Click to expand...

My old NEC notebook came with ME and it ran like shit. I put a copy of WinXP on it and it was so much better.
 
Can someone tell me what to read/learn to get started in VM's? I have some older stuff I'd like to play with just for the sake of doing so.
 
RangerXML said:
And ME really isn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be, especially on our systems today...
Click to expand...
Seems to be highly dependant on hardware, and I'm not talking about "faster is better" type of hardware. More like there was very specific hardware requirements, and if you drove off the beaten path you were in the woods.

I supported ME. Never again. ME was absolutely the worst OS I have ever had the displeasure of using. From randomly losing it's printers to defrag wiping the drive clean, there was no shortage of weird random shit that this OS would do.

The horror stories on this OS are warrented. If you haven't run into any issues, then I suggest you go buy some lottery tickets.
 
Ok, ok, I admit ME is a bad OS, then again it was lying around...free...unless you guys are telling me to pirate. And again, if someone wants to kick a copy of 98SE, I'm not going to spend money on it. I also have XP and 2000, but I wanted to do something a bit older.
 
Kil4Thril said:
Can someone tell me what to read/learn to get started in VM's? I have some older stuff I'd like to play with just for the sake of doing so.
Click to expand...
Install the VM software of choice, such as VirtualBox. Then, have your OS discs in the form of .iso files. Follow the wizards and set up one or more Vms. Simple as that.
 
TGA said:
If you get all warm and fuzzy booting up an old 486 that's great but personally I can't deal with dated computers anymore. Hell I refuse to service and repair any PC P3 or older. I just can't stand how slow they are to work with, especially after being gunked up with all kids of crap. Just like I pull any box I have running an OS no longer supported by MS and either upgrade or move it to Linux. Actually I moved a few Win 2k boxes I maintain to Linux early so I don't have to deal with it later.
Click to expand...
They're fun to tinker with and occasionally play an old DOS game on, but after awhile you have to ask yourself: what the hell am I doing using a computer that's older than dirt?:D

It does put you in a nostalgic mood for a brief period of time...but then you remember the pain of creating boot disks, which for me was never fun. Getting sound to work on anything other than a real Soundblaster card was also a bitch. Oh, and Windows 95 and the "plug 'n pray" fiasco. Fun times.:)
 
dark_reign said:
They're fun to tinker with and occasionally play an old DOS game on, but after awhile you have to ask yourself: what the hell am I doing using a computer that's older than dirt?:D

It does put you in a nostalgic mood for a brief period of time...but then you remember the pain of creating boot disks, which for me was never fun. Getting sound to work on anything other than a real Soundblaster card was also a bitch. Oh, and Windows 95 and the "plug 'n pray" fiasco. Fun times.:)
Click to expand...

I have a few in the workshop, but the only ones to get any time are a P3-866 with Me on it for some games, and a pentium 90mhz with Damn Small Linux. I also use a duron950 in a rig for various troubleshooting jobs - the shop workstation so to speak.
The same keyboard, mouse, speakers for all.
 
DeaconFrost said:
Install the VM software of choice, such as VirtualBox. Then, have your OS discs in the form of .iso files. Follow the wizards and set up one or more Vms. Simple as that.
Click to expand...

Don't forget that if your OS disk isn't bootable (Windows 95 was a pain for me to set up in Virtual PC) you may need floppy bootdisks or images of them to get started.
 
Waste of time? Maybe. But it can be quite fun to take a trip down the memory lane using virtual machines. Though I prefer to run WinUAE and Workbench 3.1 - that's nostalgia for me. Even got networking, browser and email working :)
 
I had an old machine in which Windows 2000 didn't support the modem I had, only ME would for some strange reason. I used ME for quite some time without issues. I know the general concensus is ME was complete shit, but it sure as hell worked for me. No pun. I didn't have any issues with it. It played Team Fortress and ran IRC like a champ for at least 9 months or so.
 
Monkey34 said:
I have a few in the workshop, but the only ones to get any time are a P3-866 with Me on it for some games, and a pentium 90mhz with Damn Small Linux. I also use a duron950 in a rig for various troubleshooting jobs - the shop workstation so to speak.
The same keyboard, mouse, speakers for all.
Click to expand...
Yeah, the only older PC that I kept around was my PII 350 with Win98 SE on it. It still works great but gets little use. I have a P4 2.8 GHz Northwood box for troubleshooting jobs and use it as a general workhorse machine. It's encased in a Antec 1080AMG and that thing is a tank.
 
I actually had fewer freezes and crashes running ME in 2000 than I do running Vista in 2008.
 
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