How fast does 98 boot up on that machine Jafo? Seconds?

No...about the same as a normal machine of the time.  A core i7 with 12gig of ram is dumbed down to a single processor with 128meg ....and hardware emulation [like a soundblaster 16] is still searched/loaded like a normal box.  Shutdown is pretty quick though.

That's because it's about to pass out from the strain anyway....

Gonna have to try that on VMWare. I've done DOS6.22, Win 3.x and Win95 in some but it's been a long time. (aka vmware 3.x days)

Found my 98 disk and booted it up on a VM, those were the days, hours lost playing minesweeper ...

Anyone using VirtualBox have a look @https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?t=9918 for some help

Handy link there, Taz...tho I'd already used the vid driver refered to as 'unstable' ...32bit does speed things up. An iso mount for file sharing could be easiest ...or see if I can't get some sort of interaction with a USB stick.

This has become a 'challenge'....I'd alread had 9x on VMWare .... but as always....one MUST 'tinker'...

BTW...re the Op....since it's a hiding-to-nothing I can't see an issue in its 'hijacking'...

I've seen it with damaged hardware (I have a soundcard that was putting out enough heat to fry an egg.  Huh?  Damaged caps I guess.) and occasionally IE10 glitching when both Neowin and Neogamr were loaded (Huh?  Problems with Flash and shared content I guess, but that was weird.)

At any rate, this is the most tiresome part of talking about 8.  Eight months of useless arguments that boil down to 'I like this' 'I don't' that end with people screaming at eachother for no apparent reason.

Whee.

I may not agree with you all, hell I barely even belong on this forum anymore, but I respect your opinions.

I just timed it...as a matter of interest ...3.15 to the gong of the welcome thingie...straight 98, not s/e.

I'm pretty sure that can be reduced...obviously a time-out loading something 'hardware'...

Shutdown took 5 seconds...including clicking yes to shutdown...

Paul!!!!!

Well, I've been hiding in gaming lately. And work of course.

I still have a peek here from time to time. And skinning? Not actively, but I'm enjoying Treetog's Thunderstorm currently.

I hope you're well, sir.

Back to topic. I think it boils down to personal preferences. You either like an OS or you don't. In the case of W8 I have a problem with MS' vision about the mobile market and the way a desktop OS should look like a phone. If I use W8 it feels like I am running a smartphone emulator. It's fun to run it, but I rather use a real phone. Carrying a HAF XM with me gets tiresome real fast. Besides, the batteries for my 1.2KW PSU don't last long either. Ghehe. For my desktop computer, I rather use an OS that fits the machine.

and back to the reasons of the op.

on my w8 install (triple boot on a lenovo g530 laptop 4gb ram, core 2 duo 2ghz, integrated video, the os's are xp-sp3, win7 32 bit & w8 64bit) when I click the shutdown/shutdown in w8, the computer does co through the shutdown, BUT after about 30 seconds after is switched off, the computer switches on again, but in xp & win7 the shutdown DOES shut down AND KEEP off the computer.

good thing is that the default os from the boot menu is win7 so that I can eventuallyshut the computer down.

harpo

So, back on topic.....

I've heard a great swag of complaints about Win 8 and 99.9999% of them are about Metro/the Modern UI, and for mine, that's like canning a movie after viewing the opening credits.

There is a whole desktop environment beneath Metro/the Modern UI, and if one organises their PC efficiently, one can complete ALL their daily computing tasks within that desktop [you know, the one that's like Win 7 only better] and never have to enter Metro/the Modern UI if one doesn't want to. Therefore, in all my great wisdom and worldly experience, I have deemed all complaints/bitching about Windows 8 based on Metro/the Modern UI to be irrelevant and illegitimate.  And like all competitions, employees, their friends and families are not allowed to enter.. uh, comment and no correspondence shall be entered into. 

Now to what I really wanted to say....

Let's face it Win7 sux dead dogs whatsits. So yeah, my perfectly good and efficiently working Win 8 machine suddenly starts acting up when Win 7 is re-added to the equation.  Like Win 8 wouldn't boot without the installation disc on board.  However, take away Win 7 and all is great with the world again, Win 8 boots like a charms and behaves wonderfully, leaving only one conclusion.... Win 7 f**ked everything up and therefore sux satsquatch saveloys bigtime.

There is no essential difference between 7 + 8 beneath the UI. Code cleaned up a bit, tweak here, there. Added some stuff that 3rd party progs have been doing for ages and better. If you really are silly enough you can use a millisecond timer and whee 8 is faster.

So if you like using, as the Hat said, a phone UI for your desktop computer 8 is fine, if you don't you only add the hassle of getting rid of the only thing that's actually new, the UI.

As following the lemmings go, it's about the silliest thing to spend your time and money on.

There'll be little luck with InDefense or Achilles Shield .....they're trialware...with no hope of reg'ing ....so 45 days is all you get.

Back in the day I was licensed direct....being that I was testing it....so I don't even have an old reg.