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Switching to Windows after 10 years of Mac
by Samuel Buchmann
Windows 98 is turning 25 – and I’m spending the week working with it
20/6/2023
Translation: Katherine Martin
On 25 June 1998, Microsoft Windows 98 was born. Twenty-five years on, I’ll be working with it all week, using it to create this article, complete with images.
Could I use Windows 98 today and still be productive? Having repurposed my retro gaming PC into a retro office one, I’ll be spending a whole week working exclusively on this computer. Besides the 25-year-old Microsoft operating system, I’ll also be using Adobe Photoshop 7 and Office 97. I’ve had the image editing software as well as a hefty Markt+Technik compendium since its release 21 years ago.
When surfing today’s internet, encryption makes running into major issues unavoidable. I do have a plan – but, as it turns out right at the beginning of my retro work week, it’s a bad one. Thanks to my plan B, I end up being productive despite my chaotic start. Even if I am always being distracted by Clippy, Solitaire and the occasional sheep.
Final prep for office use: USB ports for my webcam
I’m actually supposed to have a virtual team meeting scheduled after that, but I skip it – my webcam and internet access aren’t quite there yet. However, after hearing the Windows 98 shutdown sound and unscrewing the PC, I start working on it. I put in an expansion card (Asus USB MIR Rev. 1.11) so that I can get two USB ports for my webcam, USB stick and all the rest.
Fifteen minutes later, I’ve got through a successful test with my 64-megabyte (!) USB stick. Both ports do what they’re supposed to. The stick has some old MP3 files I once downloaded with a 128k modem, a process that took a good 20 minutes per song. By contrast, the ancient USB 1.1 stick is a veritable rocket, taking a few seconds per song.
To play music, I use the legendary Winamp media player. I’ll download more songs from the NAS as soon as the computer is connected to the network. Working without music takes some getting used to because of the soft sound of the casing and processor fans whirring away in the background. Like a tap that never stops dripping. It didn’t used to bother me as much before.
When you get blue screen instead of internet
With the network cable plugged in, the computer starts up again. It boots smoothly until the desktop background is loaded; at which point, I get a blue screen instead of the usual startup sound. An error and total crash, which happens two more times minutes later. On my third attempt, I at least hear a choppy startup sound, the taskbar briefly flashing up before the system crashes again.
Halfway online
Remember that AOL advert with Boris Becker? It makes it all look so easy ... on the internet, quick as a flash.
Things aren’t quite as easy on my retro hardware as they were back then. Web browsers of yesteryear can still be used today, but only for very few websites. The reason? Encryption. For years, most internet sites have required the Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption protocol, with at least version 1.2 for secure data transmission.
SSE first became available with the Intel Pentium III. My AMD K6-2+ has an instruction set extension called 3DNow!, which works in a similar way, but has received less support from software developers than SSE and SSE2. This means I have to rely on a web browser that works without SSE, which narrows the list of possible candidates down to less than a dozen.
I spend the best part of two hours testing different versions of Opera, Seamonkey, New Moon and Firefox until it works. With a customised version of Firefox 31.8 ESR, I’m finally able to surf the net without SSE or SSE2.
However, it doesn’t go quite as seamlessly as I’d hoped. My browser just can’t get off the ground. Surfing www.digitec.ch, the home page takes several minutes to load up. It’s almost like using a 56k modem, and other websites are no better.
This wasn’t how things were supposed to go. Slightly confused, I connect my network-attached storage to Windows 98, allowing me to open my modest cloud directly from Explorer. Local download speeds also hit 55 megabits per second – more than enough for fast internet. But it still doesn’t work. I don’t know whether this is down to my using an older MMX instruction set instead of the SSE. Maybe the browser modifications just aren’t well programmed enough.
Disappointed, I finish my first retro working day.
Plan B works: I’m online!
Having already installed the software on the Windows 11 notebook, the remote desktop server starts automatically when the notebook is booted. I set the display resolution to 1024 × 768 pixels – the same resolution I use for Windows 98 on my 21-inch Fujitsu Siemens monitor. This way, I only need to open the notebook for it to boot up. I’m strict about working exclusively on the old PC.
Just as well an old version of ThightVNC compatible with Windows 98 works with the newer version on Windows 11. That is, once you discover, after a lot of trial and error, that the colour depth can’t go to 32-bit (True Color) on Windows 98. Only with 16-bit (High Color) or lower can I get a modern PC image.
Since the program is small, I was able to copy it to a 3.5-inch floppy disk in advance. I slot the disk into my retro PC and install ThightVNC. Shortly afterwards, I start the remote desktop client, typing in the IP address as I go, feeling pleased.
It worked! The Windows 11 desktop is easy to control. Nothing else gets in the way of internet research, clearing my inbox or joining my Teams meeting.
I’m a bit sad that I don’t get to use my retro webcam after all, being displayed instead in sharp focus via the notebook’s webcam. It doesn’t bother me that the meeting’s video feed shows up anything but smoothly when transferred from Windows 11 to Windows 98. After all, the image updates at least twice a second.
Working with Windows 98: a whole other concept of winding down
It took the post office one to three days to deliver a letter, so you generally couldn’t expect a response until at least a week later. Every day, we’d have enough time for a leisurely round of Crazy Chicken or breaks to recover from our breaks. I had to be careful not to develop boreout.
Photoshop 7: works really well, but the CRT is a hindrance
Windows 98: you can still use it productively, but beware of hack attacks
All in all, Windows 98 is still a usable operating system today – provided you know the necessary tricks and don’t mind the effort. I mostly like it because I’d use it to play Baldur’s Gate, Diablo and Quake for hours on end in the late 90s. Using it to access the internet these days is obviously not a good idea due to the lack of security patches. This considered, it’s maybe a good thing that I can’t get on the net without using a remote desktop trick.
If you fancy trying the sheep, there’s an up-to-date version for today’s Windows in the Microsoft Store.
Header image: Martin Jud
Martin Jud
Senior Editor
martin.jud@digitecgalaxus.chI find my muse in everything. When I don’t, I draw inspiration from daydreaming. After all, if you dream, you don’t sleep through life.
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