Windows 98 to XP?

Convert? No, you can't.

You buy an XP installer and install it into your computer.

A Windows 98 computer may not be capable of XP. They were perfectly capable of using less that 100 meg of RAM I think I remember?

Do you mean upgrade from 98 to XP? Yes, you can; but keep in mind that your current system may not be able to handle XP. Review the minimum requirements for XP and compare them to what you have. You most likely may need to upgrade some key components like memory or cpu.

You can probably upgrade, but almost none of your Win 98 software will run on XP. Like, none!

Your computer likely does not have the memory or processor to handle XP well. It will likely be bogged down, freeze up a lot or be extremely slow.

I suggest buying a new computer or a rebuilt system with XP. Even XP is being tossed for Vista. BTW, I am on vista now and finding it ok to use with the exception of being incompatible with some software.

It has its growing pains.

Absolutely pointless as many have already told you, forget it completely.

Buy a new(er) computer, designed at least for XP and buy the XP Pro version, leave Vista alone for at least another 2 years.....

...by the way, throw away all the hardware/software that you have running under 98, most of it will not work at all and a lot will be missing drivers for XP as well, sorry....

....or just keep the old PC as its is for jobs that it can still do, but disconnect it from the internet first!

I have done the upgrade from Win 98 SE to XP many times. Most of the software I used on 98 has has functioned well with XP. The last machine I did this on needed an memory upgrade from 512 M of RAM to 2 Gig which was simple and inexpensive. It had an 80 G hard drive installed and a speed of 1.3 GHz.

As was previously mentioned, pay close attention to system requirements for XP.

Gosh, I am using Win98se right now. I have, however, upgraded this machine form 32 meg ram to 192 meg ram and have the sticks to go even further. This is my wife's machine and Win98se is a very good OS for her to use. However, I stopped using Windows altogether when my main machine with i gig of ram crashed while I was using Win2000pro. I have gone completely to Linux now, and would still be using it on my main machine except my hard drive went made and I am waiting for my new one to arrive in the mail this week. I will install the new HD and re-install PCLinuxOS (based on mandrake). Since all my important files are stored on html servers and not on my local files, I can recover everything in less than a few hours (the time it takes to replace the hard drive and install Linux and then to FTP from the several servers). If you wish to look at Linux, I suggest you get a LiveCD, they are very inexpensive, less than $10 (US) per distribution. There are hundreds of Linux distributions for Linux and even some for Windows, too. You can find them by typing buy livecd in google, or you can go here for a list of cd's you can buy. If you wish to stay with Microsoft, however, you can find machines complete with monitor, printer, and DVD reader/burner with XP or Vista installed for less than $500 (US) buy simply doing a Google search.

A quick side note on Linux:

Google Ubuntu.....live CD is available for download, at no cost.

Ubuntu forums are very helpful if you get stuck on anything.

IMHO Ubuntu is at the top of the list as an alternative to Windoze.

Ubuntu is a good issue, however, it uses Gnome for its desktop and many prefer KDE. Kubuntu does use KDE as an alternative. However, I do not want to say any one release is better than another. When it comes to Linux, they are all good and how the desktops are set and what applications one uses is a matter of personal choice. I like the KDE desktop, I like staying updated by using the Synaptic with its depositories, I like to use Bluefish as my HTML editor, I am learning to use GIMP, Blender, and QCAD (have used Autocad for years). I use Abiword rather than Open Office but have both installed. The fault I find in Open Office is its footprint and its failure to convert text to HTML properly (W3C Accessibility standards and XHTML 1.0 required). All of the above require a learning curve when switching from Windows to Linux, however, the LiveCD's make this learning curve much easier to digest.