Svoboda's Home and Small Business Review
The Computer Contrarian
June, 1998
revised Dec., 1999

Upgrade to Win '98 ?

By Wm. R. Stocking

ANYTHING WRONG WITH IT?

What went wrong with Win 98? Actually in a technical sense Windows 98 will be one of MS's better efforts in the last couple of years. Ironically, it has been made better by the forced delays in it's release. First, it was delayed by the Justice Department, then it was the large computer retailers that slowed the release of the product.

Originally, Microsoft wanted to release Win 98 in January of this year. Computer retailers screamed: "No, that will ruin our Christmas season - everyone will want to wait for the new machines!" So, Microsoft delayed the release for four more months and during that time worked on getting out more of the "bugs."

"Windows 97" was never released as a product with it's own name, but this is what has actually been showing up on new computers since Spring or Summer of 1997. This 97 version of Windows 95 has about 85% of the components and functionally of the soon to be released Win 98 - Thus, much of what you will be getting in 98 has already been tested for almost a year in the market place.

However, there are still many things that you need to know about Windows '98 before you decide to upgrade. The computer companys' are interested in selling more product and more software so they benefit if you don't know the whole truth. You might start out with the idea that this is going to be a simple upgrade and wind up spending a thousand dollars or more upgrading your whole system and some of your software before you are finished!

UPGRADE TO WIN 98?

Well, there are a number of possible answers to this question. And, as with all upgrades of this magnitude I'd urge you not to try to do it yourself unless you are absolutely sure of what you are doing. And, of course, you need to make a complete backup of your current configuration before proceeding. (What? You don't have a tape back-up system? Send me a fax or email for your guide to tape back-up systems and logging form.) Here are some of the questions you'll need to answer before proceeding:

1. Do you have enough computer power to run Win 98 properly? If your machine is an older 486 or Pentium 60 or 75 with less than 16 to 20 megabytes of ram, then we suggest you stick with the older versions of Windows 3.1 or Windows 95. Win 98 does require more machine power to utilize all it's new gadgets even though many parts of the program with run faster than old Win 95. It boots up faster, for one thing.

   If you can bump your ram up to 32 megabytes, do so. Ram is cheap. If you have a 486 of recent vintage, see if you can bump the processor up to 100 MHZ or 133. Better yet, get a motherboard "transplant." Replace that motherboard with a new Pentium board of 166 MHZ or better.

   Souping-up old machines at this point in time without replacing the motherboard could be a waste of money because you might wind up with a machine that can't be made year 2000 compatible thus you'll have to junk it in 18 months anyhow!

2. Do you need to run some older Windows 3.1 or DOS programs on Win 98? If so, then you'll need to make provisions on your upgraded machine to handle these. Win 98 can be configured to use what is called the "32-bit file system." Unfortunately, many older programs cannot run on this file system.
3. You have two choices: You can configure the whole system to stick with the older 16-bit file system or you can re-partition the hard drive so that you have an additional area, (drive letter), that you can allocate to the older programs while using the more efficient 32-bit file system on the largest part of the drive. The later choice, is the best choice but you'll probably want a professional to do this for you.
4. If your machine was bought mid 1997 or later, you should have no problems running Win 98. And, as mentioned above, you already have much of the functionally of Win 98 in what was installed on the machine when you bought it. So, the only decision you need to make is whether you need some of the new features.
5. Adenda: After writing the above, (Number 4), a couple of months ago I have become very aware that you really need 32 megabytes of memory to run Win '98 even reasonably well. While it will run in 16, you are not going to like it! Since RAM is relatively cheap, I'd suggest that while you are doing this, you should probably bump the memory up to 48 or 64 megabytes. If you don't need it immediately, you certainly will in the future.

We wish you the best of luck in using Windows '98 and personally we think it is a needed step in the right direction for Microsoft - Finally, Windows is actually getting as easy to use as the MacIntosh has been for the last ten years!

(After writing this ending I took another gander at my 7 year old MacIntosh. While Win '98 is a big improvement, it still has a LONG ways to go to match the intuitive, friendly interface of the Mac. While '98 works in a much more "Mac" manner, it is cluttered with "techie" features that smack you in the face at every turn. Hasn't anyone at MS ever heard of "KISS" ?? We doubt it! All Window versions are still clumsy by comparison even though you do get used to them after a while.)

William Stocking is President of First Business Systems, Ltd. an information management consultant to businesses of all sizes. He can be e-mailed at wrs@firstbiz.com. Visit the web site at http://www.firstbiz.com.