Windows 98 and ME no longer updatable...

[Red_Machine]

This is a sad day indeed! I just reinstalled Windows ME on a Dell I got from work planning to use it for some old games and so on, but when I tried to update it Windows Update refused to load. It got stuck in an infiite refresh cycle and I could not get it to break through.
I thought I'd try 98SE instead, but alas the same thing happens.

Has Microsoft finally abandoned these venerable OSes?

 

[monte84]

Yea i had the same issue when i was playing around with those two oses in a virtual machine.

 

[erocker]

Quite a while ago. XP may be in the same boat now.

 

[monte84]

i havent noticed any issues updating any XP machines yet. Repairing those old rigs all the time at work.

 

[erocker]

i havent noticed any issues updating any XP machines yet. Repairing those old rigs all the time at work.

Quite right, XP is still listed in technet. Win 98 unfortunately isn't. Windows 3.1 and 3.2 are listed though.

 

[Red_Machine]

But why now? It doesn't take much for them to keep the service running does it? Not compared to everything else they do.

What the hell am I supposed to do when I need a legacy rig?

 

[qubit]

It might be a case of the version of Internet Explorer not being supported. I remember several years ago, I tried installing Windows 2000 and then using Windows Update. However, it got stuck in a similar way to yourself and I had to install IE6 I think to make it work properly. I may have also needed to install a patch or two, I can't remember now.

In short, I don't think Win98 & ME are gonna be updateable, but it doesn't hurt to google for a fix and/or look through the Microsoft Knowledgebase to see if there's a fix for this.

You'd think Microsoft could release a rollup patch at the end of the product lifecycle, including the latest versions of every patch and make it easily downloadable, so that one could at least update that product to the very latest updates for it, wouldn't you? After all, one does get a "perpetual" licence with their products, so doing this seems reasonable.

 

[erocker]

You could always try the unofficial service pack for it. It includes all the updates: http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/OS-Enhancements/Unofficial-Windows-SE-Service-Pack.shtml

 

[Red_Machine]

I always update to IE 6 sp1 before doing anything on 98 and ME as WU never used to work on the versions that installed with them.

That sounds like a damn fine idea, qubit. Shame it'll never happen though. Imagine the download sizes, XP would probably be hundreds of gigabytes worth of updates.

 

[qubit]

I always update to IE 6 sp1 before doing anything on 98 and ME as WU never used to work on the versions that installed with them.

And this is failing? Time to start hitting those search options!

That sounds like a damn fine idea, qubit. Shame it'll never happen though. Imagine the download sizes, XP would probably be hundreds of gigabytes worth of updates.

It would actually be a lot smaller than you think - likely no more than double the size of the original install disc at the very most, I'd guesstimate. This is because many patches overwrite existing files to update them and then those patches themselves may be overwritten by new versions. The extra size would come from things like .NET support and the handful of new features that were added to the product, such as the Windows Firewall.

 

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

I may have the official win 98 se updates cd I got from Microsoft many moons ago. I will check over the weekend. If I do I will burn you a copy. I too am putting together a win98 se legacy system to play some of my old games on. Win xp will solider on for a while longer. Too many businesses using it right now for Microsoft to abandon it.

 

[fox102383]

Gotta Love those old operating systems!

If you need a good site to get the Windows Xp updates This is a good site! I've been getting my updates from this site for years now! (http://www.softwarepatch.com/windows/index.html):D

 

[Widjaja]

Thought autopatcher might support ME/98 but it appears the oldest OS it supports is 2k.

 

[mtosev]

support for win 98/ME ended in July 2006. support for xp ends in April 2014. google microsoft lifecycle

 

[Drone]

Has Microsoft finally abandoned these venerable OSes?

Man, even Windows Vista SP1 is abandoned

 

[Frick]

support for win 98/ME ended in July 2006. support for xp ends in April 2014. google microsoft lifecycle

Here's the address to the list:

http://support.microsoft.com/gp/LifeSelectIndex

And @ Service Packs: They are updates to the OS, so support on them is not really applicable. Support for Starter, Home Premium and Ultimate ends in 2012-04-10. Quite soon actually.

 

[mtosev]

consumer vs business platforms. first have a minimal support of 5 years, business products have 10 years of support (mainstream support 5 years + extended support 5 years).Also my win 7 ultimate is supported only until 2015 but win 7 professional and enterprise editions are supported until 2020

 

[RejZoR]

You don't really need to update it. Just use the latest service packs that you can get and thats it. You can also update DirectX. Other than that, there is no need to update anyway.

 

[TC-man]

Hi,

The unofficial Windows 98SE service pack works, because I have ever used that service pack (earlier versions of course) long ago before I switched to Windows 2000. Google for "Exuberant Software", it's site of the guys who made this unofficial service pack and it's also where they have the links for unofficial service packs for Win98SE with other languages such as Czech, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Polish. There's also a unofficial SP 3 beta 4 for Win 98SE in the forum section (if I remember it correctly) which was last updated in 2010,

Furthermore, you can also google for "ERPMan's Windows 9x & ME Services Packs", or even better google for "MDGx MAX Speed WinDOwS Tricks + Secrets" where they have every Windows updates (I believe also for Windows 3.1 and Windows 95).

 

[Red_Machine]

support for win 98/ME ended in July 2006. support for xp ends in April 2014. google microsoft lifecycle

I'm well aware of that, but the updates were still available until recently.

 

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

You don't really need to update it. Just use the latest service packs that you can get and thats it. You can also update DirectX. Other than that, there is no need to update anyway.

I agree with this as this is all I am going to do with my win 98 build.

 

[Kreij]

You can still get everything you need to make a Windows 95, 98 computer compatible with Windows 7 computers on a network and even in an AD domain (although the confguration is harder due to there not being any wizards and such).

My suggestion would be that as you find each patch you need, put them on a CD (and give the files names you can understand) so that in the future you will have a compilation of the updates in the event you want to build another legacy machine in the future.