April 26, 2000
8:39 AM Subscribe
Stuck with Windoze but it drives you up a wall? Maybe 98lite will help...
98lite saves HUGE memory. I am less and less a windoze user every day, but I have to use it on my 166MMX laptop with 32MB of RAM (I know, I know. It needs more...). Explorer with IE, etc. eats up something like 18MB or RAM, and keeps eating more until the machine finally needs a reboot. 98lite killed all the internet bloat (essentially takes it back to win95) and freed up several megs of ram. I still have IE5 on the machine, but explorer isn't a hog anymore and everything seems to run more smoothly.
I remember when IE first did integral stuff with explorer it seemed really neat. Then I asked "why does my file manager need to be able to view web pages too?" Now I just need OfficeLite to get rid of that @(*&! paperclip...
posted by confusatron at 9:31 AM on April 26, 2000
I remember when IE first did integral stuff with explorer it seemed really neat. Then I asked "why does my file manager need to be able to view web pages too?" Now I just need OfficeLite to get rid of that @(*&! paperclip...
posted by confusatron at 9:31 AM on April 26, 2000
I run it, sort of. I ripped I.E. out by hnnd, edited the registry, replaced a few files with ones from Win95.B and wow! What a huge difference, fast, stable, seldom (if ever) crashes... no memory leaks. I did install a minimal I.E. 5.0 on it and it's still doing pretty good. I also run the same modified Win98 on several machines at my office (like 32-35 machines).
What this program must be doing is automating the process for you. I'm sure that it will catch a lot of things that I missed. Perhaps it even suggest the file replacements? Not sure.
posted by Dean_Paxton at 10:14 AM on April 26, 2000
What this program must be doing is automating the process for you. I'm sure that it will catch a lot of things that I missed. Perhaps it even suggest the file replacements? Not sure.
posted by Dean_Paxton at 10:14 AM on April 26, 2000
Does it improve game play or have any effect on some of the more graphically intense games?
posted by crawdad at 10:48 AM on April 26, 2000
posted by crawdad at 10:48 AM on April 26, 2000
crawdad, the performance comparison page on the 98lite site includes timedemo runs of Quake II. Apparently the chubby, sleek, and 98micro setups reduce frame rate scores by a sort-of-substantial percentage.
posted by sixfoot6 at 11:30 AM on April 26, 2000
posted by sixfoot6 at 11:30 AM on April 26, 2000
Other utilities of interest to the megaflops chaser: X-Setup, like TweakUI on steroids, and IE-Off, from Windows Annoyances people. Plus, the commercial O'Reilly Utilities.
There's new stuff at SysOpt very frequently. Gamers especially will want to check out fastgraphics, which covers video card performance, and speedguide, which covers broadband connectivity as well as things like overclocking.
IMHO, you can eke a lot more performance out of Windows using these tips and software than by running your Pentium hot, but that's just me.
posted by dhartung at 2:36 PM on April 26, 2000
There's new stuff at SysOpt very frequently. Gamers especially will want to check out fastgraphics, which covers video card performance, and speedguide, which covers broadband connectivity as well as things like overclocking.
IMHO, you can eke a lot more performance out of Windows using these tips and software than by running your Pentium hot, but that's just me.
posted by dhartung at 2:36 PM on April 26, 2000
I switched from NT4 to 98lite. It's meant that (when I'm not using Linux, which isn't that often now) it really doesn't feel as if I'm using a three-year-old PPro 200. It's so recommended you won't believe.
posted by holgate at 3:44 PM on April 26, 2000
posted by holgate at 3:44 PM on April 26, 2000
That's a good question you raise. Which is really better for lower end, older PC's? Overclocking or good OS setup and tweaking? I'm inclined to believe that latter is true and more stable by a long shot.
posted by Dean_Paxton at 4:07 PM on April 26, 2000
posted by Dean_Paxton at 4:07 PM on April 26, 2000
Depends, depends. The general rule for overclocking is that it's for people who upgrade hardware regularly, and don't mind forcing more juice through their CPU from the start. The equivalent of hot-rodding a car, I suppose: you trade off performance for reliablility. So trying to overclock a three-year-old CPU isn't necessarily a smart idea. Far better to back up your programs (if necessary, using something like CleanSweep), reinstall the OS with 98lite to strip out the crud, and start over with a clean registry.
Alternatively, the sure-fire best way to revivify an old Pentium or 486 is to FDISK and install Linux ;)
posted by holgate at 11:59 PM on April 26, 2000
Alternatively, the sure-fire best way to revivify an old Pentium or 486 is to FDISK and install Linux ;)
posted by holgate at 11:59 PM on April 26, 2000
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Gotta hotrod that extra 300 mhz, you know.
posted by lizardboy at 8:52 AM on April 26, 2000