Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with winme

Why WinME? My mother fears computers almost as much as she fears change.

ApathyGirl — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 21:00:53 -0800

[WindowsFilter]: I need to back up and then transfer everything to a new computer. Difficulty: Old pc is WinME; hard drive is failing. About a year ago I helped my mom pick out a new computer (HP m7470n) to replace her ancient WinME machine (10+ years old, custom built PIII 800 by a friend of my dad's). Knowing that her hard drive had already started down the noisy, sluggish and unstable road to failure, I made it as comfortable as I could: cleaned it up, defragged and burned her pictures, PST/PAB and documents to CD. I set the two computers up for filesharing so my mom (with dad's help) could transfer her files and install/configure the new pc.
Flash Forward to today...

She calls me in a panic because she can't update Windows to the new Daylight Savings policy. I also learn:

1. She's still using the old computer, and hasn't even turned the new one on in months.
2. The old pc freezes/locks constantly, and some days will not boot. When this happens, she uses my dad's laptop to do her email/ebay stuff.
3. She never transferred any of her files to the new pc.
4. Due to hardware and software limitations, no full backup of her drive exists.

Hive Mind, I need help! I need to figure out the best way to back the failing drive up, find software that will work in WinMe, and how to tranfer all of that to the new computer.
I also need a plan to ensure I don't overlook or miss anything in the process resulting in data loss/corruption and so that I can calm mom's hand-waving-freak-outery.

AIR GUITAR!!!!

emptybowl — Wed, 25 May 2005 11:25:26 -0800

Help me track down any information I can about the remote possibility of getting a program designed for Win 98 and ME to work in XP... About 15 years ago, my friend's father did accounting for a company that created a game called "Virtual Guitar", and he got a free copy of it for us. It was for the PC, and came with a full-sized guitar you plugged into the computer, and strummed along to popular songs of the day. The game reacted based on how well you did, and you eventually climbed the ranks to be a superstar. We loved it. Advances in technology and overuse of the guitar apparatus, though, caused it to eventually cease to function.

Cut to about 3 years ago. For my birthday, my brother found out that the same company was remarketing the Virtual Guitar, this time as a guitar pick you plugged into the USB port. The pick came with many of the songs available in the original, and some new ones. Again, this new virtual guitar got much use.

I just bought a new machine, and went to install the virtual guitar program. I was greeted with an error message saying that the program only worked under Win 98 and ME, and the installation would not even start. I've looked around, and the company that made the program has gone out of business.

Is there any chance of getting this program to work in XP? Is there, like, a Win 98 or ME emulator? (Not that anyone would WANT to emulate Windows ME...) I've used my Google-Fu to see if maybe there's an underground fan-base for this game, and maybe someone had made a patch to fix this problem, but all I've come up with are 3 year old reviews of the product. Any assistance you can give would be greatly, greatly, GREATLY appreciated.

The company was called MusicPlayground, the software was called OnStage and the guitar pick thing was called the V-Pick.

(Though, all may not be lost, since "Guitar Hero" comes out in the fall for PS2!)

Home network betwee XP and ME

emptybowl — Tue, 02 Nov 2004 06:39:38 -0800

How can I set up a small home network between an XP machine and an ME machine? [MI] I'm currently trying to download the World of Warcraft Open Beta client (2.5 gig torrent) for my girlfriend and myself onto two computers. I was getting supremely shitty speeds when both machines were attempting to download, so now I have the XP machine downloading it (it was getting better speeds), and figured I'd just share the folder to the other computer through the network to the ME machine once it finishes downloading. I have no idea how to set that up, though. Can anyone help?

Extensions

Grod — Thu, 07 Oct 2004 19:32:30 -0800

Rencently I installed something that decided to associate a bunch of common file extensions with it. This re-brought to my attention a problem that has plagued me for quite some time:every time I try to modify what programs are associated with a given extension the I am unable to. Example: say I'm browsing a directory using Explorer. I notice that .tif files are no longer associated with photoshop. I right-click and select Open With>Chose Program. The task hangs. The same thing happens when I view file properties:
Type of file: $filetype
Opens with: $someapp ........ CHANGE...
If I click CHANGE, the properties dialog "is no longer responding". Lastly, trying to change the default file associations by going to: Settings>Control Panal>Folder Options>File Types>
results in that applet freezing. HELP yeah, I know I can't spell

What is making this Windows ME laptop freeze every time you plug in the ethernet and the Windows Shell runs?

delfuego — Sun, 08 Aug 2004 14:51:17 -0800

I consider myself a reasonably good computer person, so the fact that I'm having this problem angers me. I'm working on a laptop for a friend -- a Toshiba Satellite 1805-S253 -- that runs Windows ME. When she gave it to me, it had a trivial problem with the Content Advisor, which I fixed; it also ran fine on a network. Now, 28 critical updates later, it runs fine off the network (which is the way she uses it), but the minute you plug a network cable into its built-in ethernet port and then try to run anything which uses the Windows Shell (e.g., Windows Explorer, Internet Explorer, any open/save dialog box), it freezes solid, and you have to manually quit the Explorer process in order to recover it. I've tried everything -- deleted all the clients in the Network control panel, plugged it into three different Ethernet switches, updated every single driver and/or BIOS that I could, prayed to the Holy Gods Of Built-In Hardware -- to no avail. Any ideas?

Can't access external USB drive with Windows ME

muckster — Tue, 02 Mar 2004 11:36:21 -0800

Large external drive on ancient laptop: I've got a 160 gig USB drive I'm trying to access from a laptop running Windows ME. The computer is an old Compaq with an AMD K6 processor (P1 equivalent, I think.) It won't run XP. Windows ME has some kind of size restriction that caps HDs at 120 GB. The drive is a Seagate in a Syba USB 2.0 enclosure. Now I'm screwed because this was going to be my music server.

Any suggestions on how to get it to recognize the hard drive anyway? Partitioning won't help, right? I'm open to installing a new OS or do whatever the hell it takes (although I'd like to be able to run WinAMP.)

Thank you all.

Is there a program that will present all of the fonts present on a system?

Grod — Sat, 03 Jan 2004 15:06:43 -0800

Fonts. They're driving me nuts. Does anyone know of a simple program to generate a specimen book from all fonts present on a system, installed or not. True type, open type, type 1, etc. The problem is, I have my fonts organzied well enough, but I frequently forget what the ones I don't often use look like.