Another day another VAIO. This one is A Windows ME desktop PC orientated with video and multimedia features. Whilst eMachines, HP and Compaq were after the low end market with internet ready PCs, Sony hung out in the multimedia sector with their machines being built out of box for photo and video editing with its bundled software and iLink support for DV cameras.
The VAIO desktop with a cool blue background
Some remaining software that needs to be installed
The VAIO support agent which features a quick fix wizard to diagnose problems with your installed applications. Not exactly sure what this does but it might undo any changes made to applications.
Issues with PictureGear already?
Looks like a registry setting has changed. My guess is to not mess with it unless there’s an actual issue with the software.
The VAIO tour which is also set as the default screensaver. This is an advertisement of the computer itself and its features and would have been used in a shop setting.
Sony Screenblast take you to a website, sadly It wasn’t archived well. According to a few older articles it was a video editing and music creation software you could purchase for editing.
ImageStation – Sony’s solution for printing images online, like HP’s Snapfish. Photo printers were still expensive at the time.
RealProducer – capture digital video or still images from a capture device
Adaptec EasyCD creator 4 – As Windows ME did not provide support for CD burning from within explore, you needed dedicated software to do that instead. This kind of system would have come with a CD-RW drive, along with a DVD-ROM drive installed as the secondary drive. You also have an assistant in the style of the Microsoft Office assistants, to guide you through the burning process.
Adobe PhotoDeluxe – An entry level photo editing software for manipulating photographs and can be used to make greeting cards. It has an easy-to-use interface, making it accessible to users who were not necessarily experienced in graphic design or image editing. Basic image editing tools provided were as cropping, resizing, rotating, adjusting brightness and contrast, and applying various filters and effects.
DVgate Motion, MediaBar, MovieShaker, PictureGear and VisualFlow are other bits of software included that only runs on a Sony VAIO system, due to the BIOS check.
The system does come with Tomb Raider Chronicles preinstalled. Not the best Tomb Raider but does serve as a good demo of what the graphics hardware can do.
McAfee security comes as standard
Trying to download new updated virus definitions, McAfee wants address and location details just to update.
To restore the image, you need to manually select the recovery image from the explorer window, select the FACTORY.PQI from the Q drive (That’s the CD drive mapped to Q)
Password is ZZZHIND
The program can be quite unresponsive, the only thing you can do is wait until it loads.
After recovery has completed, the system will reboot into the Setup screen here you will need to enter the OEM serial key and registration details as with your typical Windows 98 setup.
Windows starts to detect the new hardware and we get a BSOD from the Aureal driver. This ends up crashing the entire PC. Rebooting will take us back into the driver wizard but we still get blue screens due to the sound driver
Trying to remove the old driver by booting into safe mode and uninstalling it from there, this mostly worked but then encountered a hard crash with the below:
Not sure if this is considered a fix but I ended top removed the entry from the system.ini file and that seemed to stop the crashing. Not sure what this does but hey, as long as it works
Don’t know what this thing that keeps crashing, a quick search revels some Yamaha sound driver
On the subject of sound, the VmWare sound drivers will fail to install since they expect 98SE, and this is the first edition of 98. There were further problems with installing the standard Creative driers since these VM’s use a fucked up PCI/IRQ steering which the drivers cannot handle. The solution was to edit the VMX file to remove the PCI bridges, and to manually add the legacy sound card.
Following this archived guide is what worked for me:
What’s annoying is most of the online literature assumes Windows 98 is 98Se which isn’t the case for this version, so a lot of the solutions will not work. I suppose you could always upgrade it to Windows 98SE, but that’s too easy isn’t it?
Don’t forget to uninstall the Yamaha and Aureal drivers, they will cause issues with the Creative sound card. You can easily do this form the Add/Remote programs applet from the control panel
Eventually we get the system into usable state
The main desktop, its defiantly an Internet PC which means a low end Celeron/Cyrix system with a 56K modem and internet orientated software.
Compaq Carbon Copy – A remote support software. In the event you experience technical problems, you can contact Compaq who would then be able to connect to your PC and provide remote support. Looking in the software you can also use this over a LAN with other computers that have this software installed. You can also use this to transfer files and voice chat to the other user, kind of amazing pulling that off on a dial up connection.
Netscape Communication also makes an appearance, this appears to be a customised Compaq version that has additional bookmarks added by Compaq. The Quicken 99 is included along with Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 99, this seems to be very common with OEM systems. Encarta was like our Wikipedia of the 90s, only it wasn’t publicly editable since all the data was held on the CD-ROM.
This version of Netscape also comes with support for the Cosmo VMRL plugin which allows the browser to display 3D models and graphics within the browser.
Compaq QuickRestore which is a utility to restore your system back to factory defaults, and to create boot disks. This interface is very 90s, even with the spinning Q logo.
Intel Video Phone, to make visual phone calls. This software typically came with Intel branded webcams. Now I’m not sure if both users had to be running the same software or if it was comparable with other video phone software like VDOPhone, I believe there was a standard (H.263) butI’m not sure how well adopted or supported this was. The help file does reference calling recipients with other software so it might have been compatible in that regard.
You can also make traditional phone calls, though not when your PC was connected to the internet.
I don’t believe this would have worked with 3G phone when they arrived, as they would have used the 3GP standard.
Compaq’s easy access utility lets you adjust the soft keys that are featured on the Compaq keyboard. You can configure this to point to a specific website or program. By default this would have launched your homepage or opened your default email client.
There is also a tray icon with a menu that can be brought up by right clicking on it. This appears to emulate the soft keys on the keyboard.
The is an onscreen display that appears when you adjust the volume. This can be adjusted or disabled altogether and is similar to the OSD of a regular TV of the time.
And that’s it, there is additional software like the Yamaha and Aureal sound programs, but these won’t function without the actual hardware being present.
The OOBE can be tricky to navigate without the proper graphics drivers, but if you use the Tab keys to navigate, and then press c to accept (It’s underlined) the terms and conditions, it should let you progress through. The main issue here is the lack of graphics drivers, and the HP OOBE assumes you are running at 800×600.
Can this wait until I’ve installed the graphics drivers? The dude at the bottom left is HP’s tour guide and assistant that has a habbit of popping up whilst you’re trying to install stuff.
HP Internet setup utility that helps you connect to the internet, which would most likely be a dial up connection unless you were lucky enough to have a ADSL or Cable DOCSIS connection.
HP’s own assistant. Its like they saw Clippit and went ‘Hold my beer’
As you can imagine it’s designed focusers who are new to computing and need assistance in navigating Windows. He sort of acts as a tutorial guide and clicking him can be used to ask about either the desktop, software or internet applications. Unlike the Microsoft Assistant, these questions are fixed, you cannot type in a question.
MusicMatch Jukebox with custom HP branding, MusicMatch was an MP3 and WAV music player that also supported internet radio streams. Main alternatives were RealPlayer with RealAudio Jukebox, iTunes/Quicktime and of course Windows Media Player which is still included.
MusicMatch start screen
A song comes included, If’ You’re Gone by Mad Season, its only a short 16 second clip compared to the Beck Sample that Windows Media Player provided. A nice touch is the HP assistant will put on his headphones whilst the music plays.
The Radio guide is long obsolete, I wonder what streaming format was supported?
HP PhotoBase – A photo editing application. Here you can import photos off a supported digital camera, which were becoming popular at the time. You can edit photos (like removing red eye), and print them to a photo printer or email them as an attachment.
ArcSoft PhotoStudio 2000 – This is the default image editing applications and opens when you try to edit a photo in PhotoBase.
System properties with the OEM logo
Start Menu showing the included programs
Microsoft Money, a standard on budget home PC’s of the era
Microsoft Works also comes bundled as a basic productivity suite, version 6
HP Help & Support Center that shows information of the system. Sadly it crashed when tying to access the other tabs
QuickLink III looks like modem software, we don’t have one so there’s limited use. This would have been used to send and receive fax’s. This was a common method of sending documents over the telephone line, before email attachments became more common.
Trellix Web is software to create your own websites, the same as included on a few eMachines installs
Adaptec DirectCD is included, I guess this system would have come with a CD recorder so you can burn the songs acquired from Napster. Nothing shows up when using the VMWare drives. I connected a Usb external DVD drive writer and passed it through VmWare but this wasn’t detected. Turns out we have an issue with the USB PCI device. Calling it ScanDisc is going to cause confusion with the disk checking utility on Windows, not sure why they named it that.
A compact netbook laptop released around 2000. Lets look at a recovery image for that laptop.
Something’s gone wrong, where are the start menu items?
The Program Files folder does not look good…
Well for some reason the install script that ran after you reboot wasn’t converting the directories back to the respective lengths, so they were stuck at 8 characters. I believe this is called 32-bit file access?
The only way to fix it was to reformat the hard drive as FAT16 and then retry the restore process again. Eventually this worked but we are limited to 2GB, though we could later convert to FAT32 and expand the partition back to 8GB. I can’t image they would have used FAT16 on the actual laptop since it came with a 4.3GB hard drive, according to a few archived product information pages. Might be a quirk with the recovery utility.
Also for your own sake, If you’re using VMWare make sure you are using hardware version 6, as using later versions means you are stuck having to install a bunch of PCI to PCI bridges. I swear there are 30 of these to go through and Windows 9X always wants to search for a driver for it. The later hardware versions offer no advantage for operating systems this old.
Post Install
After a few driver issues, the sound drivers were not installed automatically but a separate driver install is available here for VMWare guests – https://archive.org/details/win95-98-driver
There’s an OOBE registration process where you can fill in your personal details to personalize your install. This is only available in VGA since this runs before we can install the VMWare SVGA drivers.
Once we are at the desktop you can see the Access Thinkpad which resides on the desktop and gives access to common programs and functions depending on what you want to do. Clicking on I Can will show you different tasks like Writing a Letter or Send e-mail which will open Outlook. This makes the system easier to use as a newbie might not be aware of Outlook but might want to send an email that they have heard of. Power users might also find this useful as a shortcut to quickly send an email. Some links will open help dialog boxes that provide further information.
If this is annoying or you prefer a traditional desktop you can close this via the X in the right corner
Also regarding the wallpaper, it’s a very corporate blue style background that would expect to find in your typical office.
As with other IBM installs, you also have custom colour schemes, wallpapers and sound schemes.
For security we have Norton Anti-Virus 5.0, which the virus definitions are dated March 1999. I wonder how this fares against the common malware/worms of the era. Like other Anti-Virus programs it will run in the background and scan files automatically that could be suspicious. There is also a LiveUpdate utility to download new virus definitions.
Quicken 99 also comes included for our financial needs
IBM Update Connector makes another appearance, this would check for driver and software updates for the included IBM software. Not sure if it supports Windows updates since you could use Windows Update for that.
TrackPoint properties lets you view and adjust the features of the Trackball which was commonly unique to IBM’s ThinkPad as an alternative to the trackpad. Here you can adjust the sensitivity, enable the press-to-select feature and adjust the scrolling method.
Mediamatics DVDExpress , enabled you to play back DVD’s which would have been a very high-end feature for 1999. This would have required some sort of MPEG2 decoder or accelerator since processors of the time couldn’t decode this software, so it wouldn’t work within VMWare. It looks to be a custom branded version with IBM logo’s added on.
Features of the software include parental control that works off the age rating of the disc, and the ability to change the region of the DVD drive. There is also a 256 colour mode, cant imagine what that would look like.
IBM Global Network Dealer lets you set and configure different phone numbers or internet providers to dial out to, back when dial up was the main method of using the internet.
One observation I found is the Windows Explorer windows are designed to be as minimal as possible since this laptop had an 800×600 screen.
ESS AudioRack 32 – lets you play MIDI, CD music and DAT tapes? Clicking on open brings up an open dialog box for wav files. Despite using the VMWare SoundBlaster, this appears to work well for playing MIDI and WAV music files.
IBM Easy Launch Buttons, these act as shortcuts to open preferred programs or links. They use the same colours as Teletext/fastext keys found on televisions in Europe with the red/green/blue/yellow that correspond to a function. When a button is pressed, an onscreen text of the command appears on screen in bright green, simulating the OSD on some older Sony CRT TV’s of the time.
How to register your ThinkPad model, this would have given discounts in purchasing software from IBM, probably Lotus SmartSuite office.
Checking for updates using a restored version of the Microsoft Update, Using windowsupdaterestored.com
Other software included is RealPlayer G2/v6, RingCentral Fax and Config Safe. Many of these have been covered in a similar install.
Another budget eMachines system is designed to be an internet machine. This one is running the famous Windows ME(me)
This copy of the recovery program is modified to work on any system or virtual machine, here I have decided to try out Vmware Fusion on macOS since it is one of the few VM’s to support addons/acceleration for Windows ME (Parallels only has graphics support, no sound or mouse acceleration)
Also for some reason VMware Fusion has no screenshot feature? Instead you have to use the macOS Screenshot utility instead.
As with other machine utilities looked at in the past, recovery is pretty straightforward forward where Ghost is used to restore the recovery image. And as with using these images with VMWare there is an awful amount of New Hardware dialog boxes to get through, most of which are for the PCI to PCI Bridge.
eMachines branding on the boot screen
iChoose – Not sure what this is but from the about screen it looks to be a shopping assistant where it notifies you of any savings or if a product is available cheaper elsewhere, whilst datamining you in the background. Cortana on Microsoft Edge did this a few years back, before Microsoft yeeted it due to GDPR
StarOffice is the Office suite included, featuring a word processor, presentation/PowerPoint and spreadsheet software. This was developed by Sun Microsystems and would eventually become OpenOffice, which would influence to LibreOffice, and then Apache OpenOffice.
It will try to use its own file format (.sdw for Writer), but is capable of opening HTML, Microsoft Word (doc) files and even WordPerfect (W4W) documents
Since there is not much difference here that we’ve not seen in other eMachine installs, lets try and upgrade to Windows XP.
Running the compatibility report advisor, the Keyboard hotkey driver and the iChoose alert applications appear to have issues and will need to be updated.
Starting the upgrade, things went a bit pear-shaped when he VM window appeared to have closed, in reality it resized itself to 1×1 pixels which was odd. I thought the VM had crashed until I heard the ME shutdown sound after about 2 minutes and then it rebooted into setup.
Soon after we are rewarded with the Windows desktop, along with the lovely eWare toolbar.
At this point I discovered save.com, which looks to be a voucher/coupon application that requires both a printer and an internet connection. Guess I must have missed this earlier.
Apart from the issues mentioned in the compatibility advisor, no further issues were found.
There’s quite a few OEM customizations included here, so I’m curious what gets transferred over and if anything breaks. The original system came with Windows ME which was built on the 9x/Hybrid DOS kernel.
Since we are going from a 9x to NT-based install, changes are going to be drastic with new device drivers requiring to be installed. Before installing, Windows does a compatibility check for existing applications and drivers and will alert if any are found to have issues or require updates. This only alerts if Windows finds a known issue with the program based on Microsoft’s testing, some lesser-known applications might not have been tested.
The install appears to have started, but after a few seconds the screen went blank and the VM was unresponsive. Rebooted and was greeted with an option to start Windows or cancel XP Setup. Booting into Windows ME instead boots directly into the XP Setup, which appears a little darker than usual
Not sure why it’s prompting to create a password, never seen that before
The default desktop post-upgrade, along with the eWare banner above the taskbar
Adaptec CreateCD requires an upgrade before it can function. Interestingly is this is generated by Windows XP. RealJukebox works but failed to load the previous files since the documents directly have changed from Windows ME. What’s strange is the music files have been renamed?
Windows Vista
And we hit the wall, since the drive is formatted as FAT32 from the ME install, we cannot install Vista without reformatting the hard disk. We also have to convert FAT32 to NTFS
There were a few obstacles, first we had to expand the VMWare disk, as it was set to 8GB by default. Once expanded we had to extend the partition which wasn’t possible in XP’s disk management utility, so I had to use an old version of EASEUS Partition manager to extend the partition.
We can also use EASEUS to convert the disk to NTFS, so we can finally install Vista, and hopefully Windows 7. Before conversion, a quick disk check is done.
Some issues were found but some of these are part of the VM and might not apply to the actual machine, either way it lets us continue
The Flyswat toolbar appears to be broken, and we are missing some buttons on the eWare taskbar
Some of the Windows 98 themes still remain and surprisingly they work. Color schemes, sounds and screensavers.
Adaptec CreateCD has now stopped working completely and will not launch, instead displaying the above dialog box. Later versions of Windows usually keep a database of incompatible programs, including ones that require patches to work.
Windows 7
Install was a lot easier since most of the prep work was done for Vista
Application compatibility is the same as Windows Vista, Meanwhile the icons on the eWare toolbar have started to function gain. It’s rare that you will be able to install this on the actual machines without extensive upgrades, and I’d imagine the eWare links would also long be dead at this point. Also the eWare toolbar sticks out like a sore thumb when combined with the Windows 7 taskbar.
A typical Toshiba laptop from 2005, let’s take a look at what a factory install looks like.
This restore CD is unlocked which allows you to install it onto any PC or virtual machine, Parallels 18 is being used here.
I actually have one of these laptops, though it is a much later revision that shipped with Windows Vista basic, and featured integrated Intel graphics and an Intel Pentium (Core) Dual core processor. Confusingly A100 refers to the chassis design, as there is a wide range of specifications in this series which is confusing. Whilst you can expect differences in memory and hard drive storage, Toshiba even provided different graphics cards and optical drives in this range.
The Out Of Box Experience which features the Toshiba logo, this is mostly the same here you accept the license agreement
Post-install with the default theme and wallpaper, with Windows XP Home Edition being installed with SP2
Appearance
A few screensavers come included, including a speech one that talks to you and will ask you how you are today. The other screensaver is simply an advertising reel that shows the features of the laptop with a compressed guitar playing in the background.
Software
ConfigFree – A network utility that was bundled with various Toshiba laptops of the era, I remember this most from an old Satellite Pro A60 that I had from around 2004ish that functioned very similar to the version here, along with memories of trying to run The Sims 2 on its integrated Radeon 7000 graphics card.
Microsoft Office 2003 – This version makes the debut of OneNote, which has become a staple of Office since, and is even found as a standalone product on modern versions of Windows. It’s a not taking application that can sync across multiple devices.
Your standard Office applications are also included with Work, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook.
Intervideo WinDVD (V5) – Standard DVD player to play back DVD and VCD movies using the built-in DVD drive. This wasn’t possible not the VM since the graphics drivers do not support MPEG2 deciding which software required
McAfee Security and AntiVirus – Our favorite AntiVirus suite comes bundled here, this also includes a firewall as part of its Internet Security suite. It’s pretty out of date, and has issues downloading new virus definitions since it’s over 16 years old.
Toshiba Assist – Acts as a launcher for many Toshiba utilities. The Optimie section contains a few interesting ones, with the Toshiba Hardware Settings allowing you to change BIOS-specific settings from within Windows. You can configure the power on password, USB legacy support and the boot priority.
Other settings let you change the hotkey assignments, optical drives acoustic noise. There is also a diagnostic tool that lets you test various components of your laptop.
Microsoft Works – A little redundant since we have full-fat Office installed here. I would assume some restore images don’t include Office so Works was included as a backup option. I should mention that Office by default is not activated and prompts for a product key, so it might be the case that Toshiba offered Microsoft Office as an optional extra. Maybe some SKU’s come with a key.
Quicken 2005 – Finance management program
Toshiba Software Upgrade – Checks and installs software updates. The interface hasn’t changed much from the 1998 version
Yahoo! Music Engine – Music player that can play you legally acquired MP3 files, this also features a music store that Yahoo operates to purchase and download music. There is also Y! Unlimited which I assumed was some sort of music subscription service but I couldn’t find any further information since the help files just point to a dead web address.
I don’t think it’s like Spotify or Deezer, but rather a service you could download say 10 tracks inclusive per month
Sonic RecordNow! – Disc burning application. Typically this can burn audio CDs if Windows Media Player isn’t your thing. This appears to be a basic version as there are a few options that are only available when you upgrade, this includes burning ISO images
Toshiba Speech System – A voice recognition program that runs in the background and listens to the microphone so you can soak commands into the computer. You can start specific programs by speaking ‘Run Calculator’
Despite running in a virtual machine, I was able to pass through the microphone and it was able to pick up my voice. As you can expect this is very finicky with it failing to recognize certain commands or misinterpret noise as commands. It was even though the noise from my mechanical keyboard was the undo command. Probably best to disable this feature to avoid losing any work, since it will also misinterpret commands for deleting or cutting.
You can configure it to listen through a button instead which will cut down the amount of misinterpreted words. For tethering else it’s best to move the microphone away from the keyboard, presumably on the actual laptop this would be somewhere toward the top of the screen.
And yes, noise from applications and games can also interfere. Playing 3D Pinball will cause it to launch a command prompt window after you hit a bumper and finishing a game will cause it to run the MSN Backgammon game.
Imagine trying to play a Halo LAN party with this thing enabled.
eTrust EZ Firewall – Optional firewall that can be installed, this is a ,limited trial copy. This looks very similar to ZoneAlarm firewall.
Other bundled software included AOL, RealPlayer 8, QuickTime 6, Adobe Reader & Windows Media Player 10
Misc Observations
Not sure what a Tbios device but could be used to interact with the BIOS more closely
Once again McAfee is nagging us for further information, this happens a lot with McAfee
Adware on a fresh install?
Custom Windows Media Player skin
Help and Support with Toshiba branding
Shutting down the laptop, it has an altered shutdown screen that features four options which I have seen on a few Dell installs of the era
The PCV-70 originally shipped with Windows 95, but can be upgraded possibly to Windows XP. Along the way you will have to upgrade the processor and the amount of memory to run modern versions of Windows, which is easier to do in 86Box (4.0.1)
For this I’m more concerned with how far the OEM install can take us whilst maintaining the existing install. And what applications that Sony shipped with the PC still remain functional.
Windows 98
Great, something called HWINFO has crashed. That’s always a good sign
Install appears to continue though
A couple of reboots and Windows 98 starts to initialize its driver database
Not this shit again, thankfully the installation continues
Install was successful with the welcome to Windows dialog appearing
The VAIO Space appears to work OK
Another casualty is the WOW application. Wipeout also no longer launches, I won’t count this since we are not using a RAGE 3D accelerator (No 86Box support for that yet)
VAIO themes, wallpapers and colour schemes have been preserved
Windows ME
Looks like I need to bump up the CPU speed, so ME allows us to install. Enter the Pentium running at 166MHz
Again, Seriously? What is this and why does it keep crashing through an upgrade?
Something else went wrong
Windows Media Player seems to have taken a hit during the install
VAIO space is up and running, but some of the program links are missing. Also we are unable to launch the CD player or any of the multimedia applications
Netscape Navigator also has issues, but this is a very old version (2.0)
And Windows Media Player now works, not sure how?
No major issues were found with other applications, though losing functionality from VAIO space takes away one of the unique features of the PC.
Windows XP
Sadly we hit a roadblock here, as we do not have enough disk space to complete the upgrade (We have a 2GB hard disk with 652MB free, but Windows XP demands at least 800MB)
Perhaps I can expand the VHD. It’s worth noting the original system only came with a 2.1GB hard drive.
Even if we got XP installed, it’s a struggle running it on a 200MHz Pentium through 86Box, any faster and the emulator starts to throttle the speed. Might be worth revisiting in the future but for now ME is the best we can get.
A similar laptop to the ThinkPad T20, but this appears to be a customized image for a specific University. Lets take a look…
The recovery utility is very similar to what we have seen previously. This will restore the operating system installed to the hard drive, and will initialize it if the drive is blank. Once completed the system will restart.
Currently using 86Box (4.0.1) with the Gigabyte GA-686BX motherboard, which has a similar chipset to the actual notebook itself, Intel 440BX chipset.
After a few New Hardware Dialog boxes, we arrive at the desktop. Here we have Windows 98, compared to Windows 95 that the T20 we look at came with.
Very similar to the T20 we have the IBM custom wallpapers, sound schemes and colour schemes that can be selected. There is also a custom wallpaper from the Carolina Computing Initiative which is the default wallpaper and it appears this is a disto that’s intended to be imaged on ThinkPad laptops for a North Carolina University.
I guess IBM had a facility where institutions could create their own recovery images, complete with their own branding and any additional utilities to allow these images to be distributed to all notebooks that are used within that institution.
Office 2000 looks to be preinstalled for us, this includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Access, along with a sidebar to quickly launch Office. Not the best idea for a laptop with a small resolution screen (640×480) since it takes up valuable screen estate. Thankfully you can disable this.
The Start menu showing preinstalled applications, and one of the custom IBM colour schemes
CCl Laptop Tour: A tutorial application that is built using Macromedia Flash (Now Adobe, now dead). This provides information regarding the laptop itself, and is to help get students accustomed to using their new notebook. Information on installed software is also included. One thing to note is this program is very noisy, with swoosh sound effects for every animated text on the screen. It reminds be of creating PowerPoint presentations using PowerPoint 2003 and littering the slideshow with different animations and sound effects to make it more cool.
Norton AntiVirus 2000
Norton AntiVirus 2000
Norton AntiVirus 2000
Norton AntiVirus 2000 comes with the install, here you can run virus scans (or set a reoccurring schedule), and make system backups to floppy or Zip disk drives if you have one plugged in. Like other Thinkpad’s of the era, this model supports the SmartBay that lets the user swap and install drives whilst the system is active, and Zip drives are supported using this bay.
Norton also included a Liveupdate feature for both program and virus definition updates, but this just crashed the program, and the entire system
ConfigSafeEZ makes a copy of critical system files, kind redundant when you have Norton Rescue installed
IBM ThinkPad A20
IBM ThinkPad A20
A couple of ThinkPad utilities come included:
Battery MaxiMiser – a simple program that informs the user on how to get the most from their battery. The Presentation Director Wizard shows you details on how to connect and enable an external LCD projector or display. You can change the external resolution which will scale the internal display (since it only supports 640×480)
We also have Netscape Navigator 4.7 preinstalled as an alternative to Internet Explorer, showing the default homepage of the era using theoldnet as a proxy server.
WS_FTP
WS_FTP
WS_FTP
WS_FTP appears to be an FTP (File Transfer protocol) program to connect to remote FTP servers, This has already been configured to connect to an Ipswich server, though there are plenty of other servers included by default.
Tried connecting to a few servers (Microsoft, NASA) but no luck
WinAmp 2.5 is also preinstalled to playback MP3’s from Napster
CoSession Remote 32 (v8.1) – A remote control program that lets you control a desktop computer (That also has the supporting software installed) over a network, similar to Remote Desktop or VNC. It will also function over the internet and can be used to transfer files.
Main use for the program would be for Helpdesk support purposes, or if new software needs to be installed remotely. I’ll have to look at this in more detail when I find another copy.
A low-end laptop released in 2000, let’s take a look at the recovery media and what a typical IBM Thinkpad install would look like.
First attempt was using the MSI MS-5119, whilst the recovery environment would start, it would get stuck at the actual recovery stage and would just freeze. Changing to the Intel motherboard fixed this and allowed a full recovery, though this BIOS takes a while to boot.
Other motherboards might work better, I mainly picked these two since they contained very similar chipsets to the actual IBM system.
Once the HDD is prepared, the recovery program begins the restore
I’m a little confused as to why this is running Windows 95? From researching online the Thinkpad T20 came out in late 1999, when Windows 98SE and NT 4 were the main operating systems and were in the mature stages of their life cycle.
Once recovery has been completed we can reboot into our new install
Going through the New Hardware Wizards
Something went wrong when installing the Crystal sound drivers. Ended up Swapping the Crystal for a SoundBlaster 16 PnP, which worked much better.
The main desktop with the default IBM wallpaper, I’ll always like IBM’s design of the era with its business-oriented blue. Some wallpapers also make an appearance from the Thinkpad 390E
Two screensavers come included, Think 1 and Think 2. None of them have any settings to configure and really serve as advertisements.
Four colour schemes come included, though they are not set as the default. These give either red or blue highlights and give a bit of Thinkpad style to the Windows desktop.
System properties showing the OEM logo and support information.
Device manager showing the UltraBay dock adaptor. The was a custom dock that allowed the user to quickly connect a monitor, desktop and keyboard by placing the laptop in the dock. Nowadays you can just use USB 3 dock, or Thunderbolt if your computer supports it.
The Start menu, with the suspend feature enabled.
A look at Intel SpeedStep, which I’m surprised existed this far back. I always assumed that came out with the first-generation i7/i5 chips. Here it functions the same where it will slow the processor down to conserve battery power, a desirable feature for ultra-portable notebooks.
PhDiskWin, looks to be a liberation file monitor. You can delete the file to free up disk space, which Windows will recreate when you next enter hibernation.
PC-Doctor, runs through a few tests to check for any issues or faults with your system
ConfigSafe Ez – sort of like a predecessor to System restore introduced in Windows ME, though commonly known from Windows XP. This takes a snapshot of critical files that can be restored should there be any issues.
SoundFusion control panel applet which would have configured the onboard sound card. This looks to be produced from Crystal, which could be why the earlier sound card failed to install. I doubt 86Box can emulate the exact model that this notebook had shipped with.
A custom sound scheme also comes included which changed the Windows Start and Exit sounds to IBM’s own, which are very Rock/Aerosmith.
Links
Archive.org – Modified archive copy, this should allow it to install on any PC or VM
Drew1440: Blog 