End of Support: Windows 98, 98SE & ME on June 30

Wiz Feinberg · Post by **Wiz Feinberg** » 13 Feb 2006 8:08 pm

Effective June 30, 2006, Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, and Windows Me (and their related components) will transition to a
non-supported status. After this date, Microsoft will no longer provide any incident support options or security updates (no more Windows Updates). Microsoft is not offering a custom support agreement for these products.

If you are still running one or more of these operating systems on your computers you are strongly advised to consider upgrading to Windows XP (if the hardware supports it), or replacing them with new computers running the current OS. Later this summer new computers will probably ship with the brand new Windows Vista OS installed.

Support for Windows XP Home Edition is scheduled to be phased out sometime in 2007.

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Bob "Wiz" Feinberg
Moderator of the SGF Computers Forum
<small>Visit my Wiztunes Steel Guitar website at: http://www.wiztunes.com/
or my computer troubleshooting website: Wizcrafts Computer Services,
or my Webmaster Services webpage</small>

Michael Haselman · Post by **Michael Haselman** » 14 Feb 2006 6:43 pm

Nothing like planned obsolesence. I guess that's why Bill is such a filthy rich uh, person.

David Cobb · Post by **David Cobb** » 14 Feb 2006 9:31 pm

And Win'doz XP in 2007??
That's really pushing it, Bill!

Jim Phelps · Post by **Jim Phelps** » 14 Feb 2006 10:16 pm

A new OS every 2-3 years.... oh brother...

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 15 Feb 2006 2:47 am

I don't know of any software vendor that supports a version indefinately. Technology moves too fast and it's too costly for the vendors. I dealt with computers, both mainframe and PC's for many years and Microsoft actually has done a better job with old versions or making the current version backward compatible than most - although with Windows XP a lot of the backward compatibility is gone and in Vista it will even be more apparent along with the hardware requirements.

In the commercial world, we've run across "get the new version" many times when problems arise, or "the new version fixes the problem" and the vendor won't do anything with the old version.

Ken Lang · Post by **Ken Lang** » 15 Feb 2006 1:18 pm

My Roland JV sound module has been obsolete for some time now, barely usable with NT version software. Software moves on but it can get expensive. Expensive is not what I need right now.

Wiz Feinberg · Post by **Wiz Feinberg** » 15 Feb 2006 1:50 pm

Anybody who is running Windows 9x, or M.E. and who for one reason or another is not planning on upgrading or purchasing a new computer with a current operating system would be smart to visit Microsoft's Download Center and grab every available file needed to keep these old systems as up to date as they can be. Downloads would include patches, hotfixes, browser and email updates (IE6.0 and Outlook Express 6.0), and updated hardware drivers for you motherboard and plugin cards. After June some or all of these downloads may become unavailable. This will be disasterous if you need to reinstall your old OS and cannot get the last updated components. If you have downloaded them and burned them onto a CD or DVD you will have them available after you reinstall the OS, to update manually, one at a time.

If you choose to keep using these operating systems you will also find that you will not be able to upgrade many software programs to newer versions, as most software companies no longer make their programs backwards compatible with Windows 9x or ME. Similarly, replacement hardware for DOS based systems is quickly disappearing from the market.

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Bob "Wiz" Feinberg
Moderator of the SGF Computers Forum
<small>Visit my Wiztunes Steel Guitar website at: http://www.wiztunes.com/
or my computer troubleshooting website: Wizcrafts Computer Services,
or my Webmaster Services webpage</small>