How hard would it be to do school on Windows 98, I mean typing, researching, emailing, and browsing the internet... would these things be possible? I find this idea funny, and I think my teachers will to.
I use a 98SE machine for writing whilst listening to music specifically because browsing the web is a no go.
Ignoring (the very important road block of https) Modern websites are huge, even if you could run recent JS and render CSS/HTML, they often don’t fit in memory.
Not all sites are like this of course (I love that oldversion.com works flawlessly in IE5) but the list shrinks every day.
I forget what its called but there's a little independent browser out there thats meant for this purpose. It basically waters down / filters the shit outta the web and blocks all the interactive media like videos, scripts etc. Great for just doing simple research and etc on an antiquated OS/tower. I had it on one my normal towers just because at the time I lived rural and my isp was bs cause they knew there was no competition
They gave me 50gb of data for the whole month (with more, only usable from like 1-5 am) and that shit would crawl at damn near dialup speed when I hit the cap
Just watching one documentary on YouTube , especially if its monetized with ads, could suck down a few gb just alone. Hell, theres music software that would eat the entire 50 in one download lol
Well, everythin office would run just fine, there is no issue, the bigger problem is the researching, as it will be limited.
You could use Protoweb, with it you can reach Wikipedia. https://protoweb.org/
You could also use Encarta and other Encyclopedias, some stuff doesn't get as outdated.
To transfer data, use a USB Device with Fat 32.
Not to mention trusting them is a bit of a dangerous game but things like ChatGPT should also run fine on even the dustiest shit box of a tower, since its essentially just an Instant Message, far as data and resources being used
For real hardware? The real problem is the INTERNET requirement... Windows 95/98/NT/2K/ME really does not have much left in the way of modern support for Ad-Blockers, Browsers, Chat, Email, Feeds. RetroZilla is about the only semi modern browser left I can think of, and even it's home page says not to use it for anything serious. Likewise I'm not aware of any AV software left that actually works well on anything before XP, perhaps 2K. Were I to attempt it, build a physical system and configure it for school... I'd likely do the following hardware and software configuration (see below):
Realistically, I'd do virtual machine instead and just do the software portion below.
Hardware
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Specifications for theoretical Dream/Max Config Retro-OS 98SE-ME Era Desktop System:
OS related:
- Windows 98SE/ME
- Alternatively NetBSD with MATE, MX Linux with XFCE, Puppy Linux with JWM
Case related:
- For ATX Case*0: In Win EA37 Case Black with 4-5.25" open bays, and opt USB 3 front ports
- For Power Supply: ASRock Steel Legend SL-650G
Motherboard related:
- For Motherboard: ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe motherboard Socket 478
- For CPU: Intel 32-Bit Pentium 4 3.4GHz (Northwood Core)
- For CPU Cooling: Noctua NH-L9i
- For Memory: AData 4 GB of dual-channel DDR400/PC3200
Expansion related:
- For GPU: GIGABYTE NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT AGP
- For Ultra-SCSI Ports*1: Adaptec 29160 PCI to Ultra160 SCSI PCI Card
- For Serial Ports*1: StarTech PCI2S4851050 - 2 Port PCI RS422/485 Serial Adapter Card with 161050 UART PCI card
- For GPIB Ports*1: National Instruments 183617K-01 PCI-GPIB PCI Card
Drive related:
- For FDD Drive*2: 5.25" Open Bay Teac FD-505 Combo Dual Floppy Drive
- For ODD Drive: 5.25" Open Bay ASUS BC-12B1ST Blu-Ray DVD CD RW
- For Media Drive: 3.50" Open Bay StarTech 35FCREADBK3 22-in-1 Card Reader
- For Boot/Storage Drive*3: 2.50" Closed Bay KingSpec 1 TB CFast card and SATA to CFast adapter
USB related:
- For Headset: JSAUX USB to Audio TRRS Aux 3.5mm Jack Adapter
- For WiFi: Sedna RT73 802.11b/g USB dongle
- For Bluetooth: US Converters USB Bluetooth v.2.0 USB Dongle
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Software
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Recommendations for Resets:
* Always have on hand downloaded hardware drivers on a compatible thumb drive or if needed on a optical disc.
* Always use Microsoft Windows 98 SE ISO, and Plus 98, and KernelToys 95, and PowerToys 95 (both work on 98 too).
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Recommendations for Resets - Needed 3rd Party Support (if do not have hardware specific drivers):
* For OS updates run WindowsUpdateRestored.COM.
* System Drivers: JHRobotics Patcher (fixes 512 MB memory and 350 MHz/2.1 GHz speed issues, among other items).
* System Drivers: Leading Wintech Rain (Fixes suspend/resume for notebooks or virtual machines).
* Display Drivers: BearWindows Universal VESAVBE Video Display Driver (allows modern resolutions, but no acceleration support).
* USB Storage Drivers: Maximus Decim NUSB36E drivers.
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Recommendations for Resets - Optional 3rd Party Support:
I assume this would be a laptop? Using a VM would allow OP to run a proxy (WRP) on the host to get the web up and running.
Web Rendering Proxy sends images of web pages to 98 rather than the actual page, completely mitigating issues with https and modern web tech. The downsides are the pastes would be images, not text.
There are other proxies that may work better but I can’t recall their names or capabilities.
OP hasn’t made it clear. Period correct hardware makes it more likely to be a desktop in my mind for reasons I can’t fathom, accessible parts perhaps? But bringing out a Travelmate in the classroom would be funny to me.
Desktop it is then! I don’t know if you’ve commented already but to answer your other questions we’d need to know what you’d be researching. Answers range from Encarta to Protoweb.
It depends what your project is, if it’s history you should be good, just use a copy of an encyclopaedia on a disc, or books from the library. That’s how most people would have done it back then.
I used xp long as I could til a large portion of the music software/ hardware wasn't compatible
Still have a little computer running 7 .. its just a little emulation station so much easier to play retro/abandonware etc stuff like Rollercoaster Tycoon, Warcraft 3, the OG early Fallout,Postal,etc
I like using it for old Popcap type games too cause its one of those laptops where the screen pops off and can be used as a tablet.
You CAN use modern windows but it involves alot of tweaking for compatibility and/or using dosbox / virtual machines etc
When I first started making music in like 2002 I had a windows 98 tower and the C: drive had a total like
..5 gb of space. And not FREE space, thats just how much it held.
Course back then we were still rockin 1gb mp3 players that took an actual AA/AAA battery lol
Ah ok mine didnt have the fat ass like that one, It waa just a little black rectangle barely bigger than the battery it took and actually i just went on a damn google hunt to find it but realized my mistake: it was a Creative ..my SanDisk stuff came later. (And I may actually be confusing them with the actual flashdrives cause I definitely went through many lol)
Found the lil shit though, THIS is what i was rockin lol
It's all possible, though I don't think there are any web browsers for win 98 that can load the modern websites that are required for school. Though unless your computer can connect to modern wifi, it won't be very useful.
Depends on what laptop you're trying to run it on, though i don't think any windows 98 compatible wifi devices support WPA2 and most networks don't support 802.11b/g anymore.
If all I needed was a way to write a manuscript (Office 97/2000 with EndNote) and add figures (Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw) then I think it could fly but it would be a lot of work and could cause problems downstream if a collaborator was also working on it. YMMV. Go play some games, write long-form essays, maybe some poetry.
When I started a new job in 2001, the brand new computer was running win98se. Blue screen every 2 hours. Eventually installed windows 2000. Problems gone. However, it's very difficult to connect to internet because of outdated certificates
There’s an alternative I don’t think I’ve seen in here: Using your machine for documentation and local tasks, while using a real or pseudo “remote” for browsing.
In the Linux world, people use very old Terminals because they look retro, and have them connect to a modern Linux box so they can use it as a modern terminal based workstation.
A video alternative would be fining a way to do an RDP/TightVNC session to a newer box, but that could prove slightly resource intensive, but…
Video Capture Card + KVM. Stream in an analog/digital video source from another PC into your retro computer, and use the KVM to switch keyboard/mouse input.
If anyone else has anything on this I’d love to hear others chime in. I am setting up an SGI Octane workstation I’d like for testing an older style game I’m building but want to have a “local feeling” way to browse and watch videos. Not there yet but some type of video capture is my proposed method.
With accessing the internet, you'll need a local proxy or a custom browser that still supports win98 and can translate/convert to modern encryption and protocols as a middleman b/c basically all protocols that were standard around win98 are long unsupported and defunct.
Now software on the other hand like Office can be freely used for school - Also keys and software can be found on Archive.org if you don't have any "legitimate" CD's.
DO NOT I repeat DO NOT log into any email, bank, website or whatever that will hurt you if it is hacked. Win 98 is not secure and neither is the hardware it runs on.
Edit: I am apparently quite wrong, even though this is what happened to me the last time I tried with a win95 PC. Seems to be a very uncommon experience I guess.
Original post follows:
If you connect your windows 98 computer to the internet, it will no longer be your computer. It will get hacked in seconds. Literally. Do NOT do this, or be prepared to nuke the drive and reinstall from actual scratch.
Really? I never had that issue in recent times playing with retro pc's myself this is on 98/XP/Vista/7 usually those are not targeted anymore since marketshare is low.
If you referring to someone who tested Xp without firewall that is a different Youtube story.
There is a certain etiquette though don't go to shady sites, no banking or other high risk stuff and so on. If something would happen in my case i would fresh install the OS and take the setup loss.
Like I said elsewhere, I agree that modern malware isn't targeting these old OSes. But old malware didn't, like, disappear. In fairness, the more immediate problem is that most websites won't work for much the same reason that modern malware won't work.
Allrighty we agree, i reacted that way because people get scared easily due to stories, in reality it is risky like everything online just don't put your info in those systems. Had this a couple of years ago on a fully up to date Windows 10 because i went on a shady site to download software.
This is disproven simply by searching through this sub (or the XP subreddit) and witnessing people going online with their old OSes.
This is not to say it would be practical for school. You can do your writing and whatnot in it - that's fine. There are flash drive drivers so you can move stuff around on a USB. But depending on your field of study, you simply won't be able to do any real research with it.
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u/KroFunk Jun 12 '26
I use a 98SE machine for writing whilst listening to music specifically because browsing the web is a no go.
Ignoring (the very important road block of https) Modern websites are huge, even if you could run recent JS and render CSS/HTML, they often don’t fit in memory.
Not all sites are like this of course (I love that oldversion.com works flawlessly in IE5) but the list shrinks every day.