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I think only under W98SE did it become relatively stable and did not automatically ignore it, but you had to have the specific drivers for each device or it would complain on every boot-up unless you listed it under "unknown devices - disabled" in the Hardware Listing.

Yes, first 3.1 then 95 and then W/98se of nostalgic memories. Used the latter for years (till about 2005). Illegal Operations! Blue Screens. Dangerously low on system resources! Which i often was, so i used FreeRAM XP which had an option that warned me when i got about 10%.

Then there was the search for drivers. It kept the forums busy, but it was very manageable, and quite the improvement over its predecessors. No need to mention W/ME. And XP still is very viable, esp on old laptops. Got lots of use, and i thank God i could use all of them - and for free dial up till about 2005.

I have W/8.1 now, as early on NewEgg had it for 29.00 (w/ rebate card) as a XP64 bit upgrade, then i transferred it from the old PC to this one: you can legally do that with it.

Plan to put a copy of Linux on the old 2.8 dual core i used for about 6 years.

Drivers are still a bloody pain. I have recently started going quite retro as far as running windoze proggies, since as far as I can see the only "advantage" of acquiring a newer 'doze OS is more system requirements and slower speeds, along with larger and larger hard drive space.

Just recently worked on an upgraded W7premium system, and I must say I am not impressed. Not only does it insist that it is an invalid copy of the OS, despite the presence of the install disc and cert sticker on the machine, I really can not see any performance or useability improvement. Not to mention that I am NOT connecting to the internet to 'validate' the system by the MS pukes, thereby giving them access to the machine, I refuse to 'register' it over the telephone. It's nobody's business what I put on the machine. I paid for the system, not an IRS audit. I'll simply do a websearch to find out how to bypass the MS snoops.

Going back to earlier 'doze versions is looking more and more like the way to go for various reasons, where installing Linux is not possible, and not just the increase in speed for pretty much all programs. Less system demands are a benefit as well!