I'm planning to rediscover the 90's era of PC games, and I plan on either building a computer with contemporary parts (which I favour) or using a VM. Either way, I'll have to settle on a version of Windows. So which version offers the most compatibility? I was thinking about Win 98 SE or Win ME.
Be prepared for needing more than one OS And god forbid you have to go earlier Windows wise 95 - pretty good 98SE - probably the best XP (post 2000 it does have its uses - ME and 2000 are not XP but are usable too) Apple OS wise I dont know I haven't touched them Linux wise I'm gonna assume that you dont have to encounter anything of this but in case you do, chances are Wine will aid it with varied configurations for various windows (and win10 support now heeeeey)
Win98SE (or how about a hybrid made from the best bits from multiple versions?), plus maybe a second partition with DOS 5 or 6 and Win3.1 for compatibility, since "90's" also includes pre-Win95 Windows games and not everything ran perfectly. Hardware-wise, make sure to get a decent 3dfx card. And take some time to look into various sound cards - back then that choice still mattered.
Nah. It was my first Windows OS. I never once got a BSOD from it, even when it got loaded with virus, random freeware etc (back when I was 8 and knew nothing obviously).
That was my experience with it, terrible piece of software it was, PC was crashing constantly, slow to respond
Anything with C-Dilla (or however it's spelled) protection, like that South Park fps. Probably goes for some other protections too, and cracks don't always help. bleem!. 16-bit-Windows titles like Battle Isle 3 (2220 for 'murricans, iirc). All the 32-bit games that come with 16-bit installers - lots of Star Wars games come to mind.
Heroes of might & magic 3 Rayman legends Crysis doesn't normally, but after some major messing around I somehow got it working. I know there's lots more (as well as non game programs of mine that no longer work/work properly).
Timeshift for example, I know it's not the best game, but can't get it to work in Win10 even with a wrapper.
If you care about your privacy, Windows 10 should not be run on your machine period Also 16bit applications natively aren't supported (last i checked) You can do it I just dont recommend it to anyone unless you absolutely must.
I can confirm that Windows 8 and forward have compability issues with some games that run 16 bit colours. It works most of the time, but runs painfully slow.
16 bit apps/games work fine upto and including Windows 10. But only on 32bit OS. 64 bit has no support for 16 bit.
Technically true, but a 32bit Win10 obviously runs into the 4GB RAM limit, so for lots of people it wouldn't be a good choice for their main os. And if you're going to dual-boot (or set up a second PC) anyways, might as well go with an older OS, so you don't have to bother with compatibility modes etc.
