Windows 98 was not designed to run with more than about 512MB of RAM. I wanted to install it on my IBM ThinkPad T42 with 2GB of RAM. It wasn't easy, but not only did I get it installed, but the OS actually recognizes the full 2GB! How? Well, someone named Mr. Rudolph Loew wrote an unofficial patch that allows Windows 95/98/ME to access the full amount of RAM without crashing:



The patch was a bit expensive at $20 + $1 "shipping and handling" (it was actually just an e-mail attachment), but I recognize that it probably took a lot of time to develop it, and there's only a small market for patches for anything related to Windows 9x these days. Also, the machine seems to be very stable even with a lot more RAM than it was designed to handle. I also installed KernelEx which allows me to run some newer software than Windows 98 was designed to handle.

I did run into a few issues while setting things up. When I installed KernelEx, the computer would enter a bootloop and get stuck. To fix this, I had to boot to DOS and uninstall and reinstall the patch, using the /M switch. Also, Office 2000 seems to have a few minor issues, such as not being able to install from the network and a broken Office Assistant. However, everything else has run smoothly, and I can now run most software designed for either Windows 98 or 2000 with more than enough RAM to handle whatever I throw at it!

Now all I need to get is a new 7200RPM hard drive and this thing should take off and fly!