Windows 98 machines "need cleaning up again"

[Disorder]

Right not sure what to do with this one.

Ive been left the above message in my job book at one of the middle schools i work at. Ive only been there this term so this is the first time i have been told to do this.

Ive got 40 win 98 machines running the schoolcare software on them apparently they keep crashing and are generally slow. Now the best way i can come up with is to take the schoolcare software off but apparently I am not allowed to do that!

SO anyway if you had a load of win98 machines that needed cleaning up what would you do? Cause apart from running antivirus, anti spyware and doing a defrag im not sure what to do.

Thanks for any advice.

[Dos_Box]

I alway set the Win98 policy to run scandisk on bootup. It made a real differnance.
You caould always clean them in to a landfill I suppose.

[Disorder]

heh i wish the landfill was an option i really really do.

Another issue with them is Sophos. It seems to install and update each time someone logs in and with the kids being the patient people they are they want 20 programs open within the first 5 seconds of the application starter loading up. Anyone know of a way to stop sophos doing this and maybe only do it with a manager account or something?

[crc-ict]

Ive got 40 win 98 machines ...

SO anyway if you had a load of win98 machines that needed cleaning up what would you do? Cause apart from running antivirus, anti spyware and doing a defrag im not sure what to do.

Thanks for any advice.

I feel your pain! I have a whole suite of 98 machines to look after at one of my schools.

As for 'cleaning up', I would echo Dos_Box's suggestion of Scandisk, and add a defrag. Clear out the caches, cookies and histories in IE, delete any unneccessary crap from the desktop and My Documents, try to rationalise the amount of start-up programs that run (I like Startup Explorer - Google it) and perhaps use CCleaner (again, Google) to clear out the hidden depths of Windows and maybe try it's 'Scan for issues' function too.

Can't think of anything else you could do - unless then mean physical cleaning of the machines??

HTH,
Chris

[localzuk]

I remember the way that most people I knew 'cleaned up' windows 98 machines - re-image them - sounds drastic but Windows 98 is quite small so a full room re-image shouldn't take long really.

May I ask why the school is running Windows 98 at all? It has now long passed its support period from Microsoft so is not secure. Also, why do you support the Windows 98 machines? (8 year old software is not fun to run!)

[Disorder]

Money is the main cause. The school can't afford to replace the machines and get XP. They are hoping to replace one suite in april but that seems a very long way away right now.

So sadly all i can do is try and keep them running as smoothly as possible.

But thanks for the advice gonna try some stuff this afternoon.

[SteveT]

Significant amounts of additional dosh have gone into schools over the past couple of years specifically to support ICT.

What have they spent it on??

[Disorder]

Boxes and boxes of crappy software and maintaining the machines they already have. Oh and I think Schoolcare convinced them to buy 2 new win 2003 servers one of which just has cds on it.

Hopefully since i was requested to come and work here for a few hours a week they might listen to me before parting with the money next year.

[CyberNerd]

I think Schoolcare convinced them to buy 2 new win 2003 servers one of which just has cds on it.

turn this into a windows terminal server for you windows applications, reimage the 98 machines with latest XUbuntu. Jobs a good un'.
no-cost upgrade. ('cept the TSCALs of course...)

[tarquel]

Dot be hard on Disorder... there are plenty of schools [and buisnesses for that matter] that still use Win 98.

Why? Because of £££....

In the buisnesses case, most of them are of the school of thought of "it works for me so why should i replace it?". Tell them to replace it because its insecure in many cases wont mean a thing to them because.... they cant understand what you mean.

And similarly, in school's, unless you have management who "really knows" whats what i.e. what IE exploits, patching, vunerbilities, etc really are.... then they wont see the justification for it.

I *pray* that we wont have to move the old 98 computers around the school when we get to have more in the computer room - as they have had one hell of a bashing over the years, and they need that landfill site too i think.

Re-imaging the 98 machines is the best way to go - and even if you dont have Ghost, there are other ways of doing it.... plenty of Open Source gear out there for the task.... network boot disks and mapped network drives will do the job. A bit of learning / reading is required but it is possible if cash and buying imaging software is a problem.

Cheers
Nath

[Disorder]

Thanks for the explanation of the use of win98

Imaging, ive been looking into this for the last couple of weeks for several of the schools i look after. Buying ghost or similar isnt really an option sadly, for any of the schools at this time. Now im not being lazy or anything but if there is any good open source imaging software someone can recommend I would be most greatful.

The other issue I have with imaging is that all the 98 machines dont all have the same hardware, am i gonna struggle with different drivers for alot of the machines if I am going to image them?

thanks again

Pete.

[CyberNerd]

http://sourceforge.net/projects/g4l

Ghost for Linux (it images windows)
I've used it on servers and clients alike.
defrag first, boot the cd then back up to an ftp server.
to image boot the cd and suck the image down from ftp server.
will also do disk to disk etc. may need sysprep if 2k/XP but I generally put them on domain last.

[CyberNerd]

sysprep should sort driver problems, install all the drivers to the original image and it should pick them up on first boot.

[ajbritton]

Sysprep? On Windows 98??????

[CyberNerd]

Its amazing how much I forget after a relatively short space of time.
Apologies, my answer wrt 98/sysprep was inaccurate.

thanks for clarifying AJ