"irb" for Windows Me

My old Windows Me does not like the installed "irb.bat" script. Work around is to copy it to "irb" and edit to remove several top and bottom lines as below:

1,4d0
< @echo off
< goto endofruby
< #!/bin/ruby
< #
24,26d19
< __END__
< :endofruby
< "%~d0%~p0ruby" -x "%~f0" %*

And run this way: "cd [ruby-bin-path]; ruby irb" in place of "irb". Seemingly Win Me does not like the standard batch invocation trick. The same for "gem": I do "ruby gem ..." as a poorman's solution.

I wonder if anyone has a better workaround.
Upgrade the PC? Oh, yeah.