The North Orange County Computer Club helps The Gadgetress tackle the multitude of readers cries for help. NOCCC group has experts in Windows, Word and all sorts of computer topics. The club, which meets monthly on various topics, has been in existence since 1976. Visit the club’s site at noccc.org. To get this answer delivered to your computer automatically, sign up for the e-mail update HERE.
Question: know it’s a dinosaur, but I prefer the Windows 98SE on my desktop computer to my laptop that has XP. The problem with 98SE is that it doesn’t want to shut down. This has been going on for the last 10 months or so. The three finger salute doesn’t always work and I end up having to turn it off with the Power button. Also, it won’t defrag. … I have a recovery disc, but nothing that will repair Windows. I know…I know…..my desktop is almost 10 years old and I should replace it. But that “helpful” little dog in XP is annoying and what I’ve heard about Vista is just plain scary! And all my important stuff is on 98SE. Is there any hope? ~ Sandy
PC Club: Windows 98 SE was known to have a number of shutdown problems. So many that Microsoft issued the Windows 98 Second Edition Shutdown Supplement that is available HERE. You might also consider “UNOFFICIAL Windows98 SE Service Pack 2.1a” available HERE. That contains a number of recommended Win 98 SE updates. Standard caveat, backup your computer first!
On most Win 98 SE computers, you have to start Windows in the safe mode and then run the built-in defrag program before it will successfully finish defragging your hard disk. Otherwise, one of the background tasks interrupts the defrag program and writes something to the hard disk which forces the defrag program to start over. After ten restarts, it just gives up. You can read about starting in safe mode here.
~ Jim Sanders, President, NOCCC
Tamara 'the Gadgetress' Chuang
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