Windows ME on a Presario 5000

[pipercub]

Hi,

My uncle has a Compac Presario 5000 that has ME from Compac installed on it. The computer is used to do e-mail (dial up) and play card games on it. No virus protection or spyware installed. Can I format the hard drive and put ME on it or am I looking at a can of worms?

Thanks.

[lgbpop]

You can do it, but why would you WANT to?

All kidding aside, Windows 2000 would be ideal for that machine series (the 5BW120, 5BW130 etc. - the decal may still be on the left side of the case) and it's still getting extended support from Microsoft. Just make sure it has the maximum 256MB ram, or add another stick to get the 256MB. None of the 9x operating systems are supported anymore, and for internet use they're less and less safe as time goes on.

If ME is all you have, get an A/V at the very least for it, and a firewall is recommended as well. Otherwise, to answer your question it should be a straightforward install. I've done the same reinstall on my son-in-law's old 5BW120 using 98SE, no problems.

[pipercub]

Thanks for the reply.

This is my Aunt and Uncle and their thinking is if it works, okay. That was the whole problem in the first place. Why do I need to upgrade AVG every day. It's installed isn't it? What is "spyware" anyway? And it's not like they don't have money but dial up internet has worked fine. But that's my problem. Anyway, I got things working without having to format and reinstall. Nice to know it can be done though. Have a great day!

[lgbpop]

I'm familiar with older owners; they're the majority of my customers, actually, mainly because they all think "hey it works, so why should I upgrade?"
They also seem to think I should work for nothing and repeatedly bail them out for not upgrading their hardware and being hit by malware, hackers, etc.
You never did say just what problem you/they were having, but I'm glad you got it going.

[pipercub]

Since they didn't have any spyware removal program eventually they got enough stuff on there to where their computer was just barely functioning. It took an hour and a half just to load Spybot Search and destroy on the machine and another hour to get the latest update and another hour to run the program to get rid of all the offending material. They would also not delete programs using add or remove so that was a mess. Then I couldn't get the Compac recovery disks to work and their video card failed while doing this. I think that was all. It's all fixed now.

[lgbpop]

Ouch.

What are they going to do when they get things to a point where you can't undo the damage?

[pipercub]

Well.........lets see........I think my uncle will let me upgrade because he enjoys playing the Hoyle card games or maybe they will move back to Nebraska.