Re: Upgrading IE 5.1 Safely

Derrick Fawsitt wrote:

> A friend sent me the following problem, although I can probably offer
> some useful advice I am not competant to advise him how to proceed
> without any danger of ending up worse that at present so thought I
> would pose his problem here. Please help me to help him, thank you.
>
> His query is.....
> I quote...
>
> "I wonder if you could help me with a computer matter? I currently
> have Windows 98 and Internet Explorer 5.1. This has caused a slight
> problem. I subscribe to a business website and keep some personal
> details on one of its pages. Just recently I have been unable to
> access this page which has my business details on it, though I can get
> the rest of the website.
>
> I emailed the people who run it & they replied that Internet Explorer
> now needs to be 5.5 or above to get the site. So I am considering
> upgrading to 5.5 but am a bit chary. I am on Windows 98 & only have
> 64mb of RAM. My PC man who installed this told me my computer wouldn't
> take more.
>
> I've browsed around Microsoft updates & there are loads of them.
> However I don't want to get in a fix where I lose IE 5.1 & can't
> retrieve it without being able to make a smooth upgrade. This is a
> real risk as some of the updates, e.g. IE 6.0 say you can't uninstall
> if you download the upgrade. I want to avoid losing what I have got at
> all costs (it does everything else very well).
>
> So, given my limited facilities do you know of a failsafe way to get
> me onto IE 5.5 or above without risking losing what I have at present.
> If not I'll stick with what I have & forget the website and my
> business page, however, any chance you can help me".
>
>
> End of quote.

Have your friend take his machine to a qualified professional computer
repair shop - not his local equivalent of BigStoreUSA. They can image
his drive before making any changes. I find it most unlikely that his
computer can run Win98 but can't take another 64MB of RAM. I suppose if
he has a very ancient machine that is really too old to be even running
Win98 that might be the case, but otherwise it is unlikely. I've never
had a problem updating Win98 machines to the most recent IE, but
without actually seeing the machine that's about all I can suggest.

Malke
--
MS-MVP Windows User/Shell
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic"
.

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