Reformatting a ME computer

Hi,
A friend of mine just bought a new Vista computer and is passing down her old computer to her daughter who is 13. The computer is running the Windows Millennium edition. She has so many programs and other things that she would rather get rid of as the hard disk is almost full and wants to reformat it for her daughter so she will have a nice clean machine.

She has all the originial recovery disks that we could use to reformat it but my question is will we be able somehow to update this version with all the security patches since Microsoft doesn't support it anymore. And if so, where do we go on the internet to download them.

What would your advise be, reformat it or just try to uninstall programs and use clean up programs to rid it of the documents and temporary files.

Thank you for your help.

Jean

 

It seems that Windows Update still functions for Win98/ME when it feels like it. You usually need to downlaod and install Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1 first.

If you cannot access Windows update there is an alternative.

ERPMan's Windows 98 & Windows ME System Updates Page

 

Thank you for your help. I will work on the computer this weekend and see how it goes. If I can't update the ME software I'll try to figure out the other site you gave me. It looks complicated but I'll give it a try.

Thanks for your help.

Jean

 

I have also found this. Sometimes when visiting Windows Update it will state that your Win9x/ME PC is a Mac.

Microsoft Update Thinks My Win 98 Is A Mac

These are the WinME updates from ERPMan's site.

Do you have Office 2000 or Office XP installed or plan to install either? If so skip #4.

I would download and install IE6 SP1 first and try Windows update. If you receive the Mac indentification issue and the above fix doesn't resolve it try the following.

Open My Documents and right click on an empty space then click New> Folder. Name it WinME updates. Download the following updates to that folder. Execute them (double click) within the folder so they can install.

Download and install in order.

• 1. Windows ME System Restore Update
  
  2. Windows ME "WebTV for Windows Denial of Service" Security Update
  
  3. Windows ME 'IDE Hard Drive Cache Package' Ifsmgr.vxd Update
  
  4. Windows ME Web Client Fp4awec.dll Security Update (without Office 2000 or Office XP)
  
  5. Windows ME "Malformed IPX NMPI Packet" Security Update
  
  6. Windows ME Q299014 Help & Support Update
  
  7. Windows ME "HyperTerminal Buffer Overflow" Security Update
  
  8. Windows ME Universal Plug and Play Security Update
  
  9. Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1
  
  10. Windows ME & Internet Explorer 5.5/6.x Xenroll.dll Q323172 Security Update
  
  11. Windows ME Q329048 Security Update
  
  12. Windows ME & Internet Explorer 5.5/6.x Q329115 Security Update
  
  13. Windows ME KB823559 Security Update
  
  14. Unofficial Crypt32 - Msasn1.dll KB835732 Security Fix for Windows ME & IE
  
  15. Windows 98 & ME Dhtmled.ocx Security Update for Internet Explorer 5.x/6.x
  
  16. Windows ME Hlink.dll IE KB888113 Security Update
  
  17. Windows ME KB891711 Security Update
  
  18. Windows ME KB918547 Security Update
  
  19. Unofficial Windows 98 & ME Cumulative Time Zone Update (DST)

Optional: DirectX 9.0c End-User Runtime

 

Thank you for the additional information. I will try it this weekend and get back to you. If I have problems with something, I'll post them here and see if we can work it out. I'll keep you informed.

Jean

 

Hi,

Just a quick note to close out this question.

I never did reformat the computer and reload the ME version. My friend could not find the original restore disk that came with the computer so there was no way I would try to reformat it without the disk. She had the other disks but somehow the most important one was lost.

I did do a huge cleanup and uninstalled many programs and the computer is running like a charm. It seems when I disabled the system restore function, it must have deleted a lot of backup files that were lurking in the background because now there is hardly anything on the hard drive.

She is happy with what I did so I just want to thank you for all your help.

She will continue looking for the Restore CD but it is probably mixed up with all of her disorganized files and she probably will never find it.

Thanks again.

Jean