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BenoitRen

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Posts posted by BenoitRen

  1. DOS? PowerShell is so much better.

    I doubt (s)he was looking for a command line shell.

    For compatibility, there's DosBox, Boch and Virtual Machines.

    The real thing is always better. DOSBox is quite slow in comparison.

    In fact, I think maintenance is a lot easier and faster with win2k and up, due to their support for unattended installations, the ability to integrate SP's and hotfixes before hand, et cetera.

    I think it's possible to apply hotfixes in Win9x' install CDs as well.

    What speed? ME doesn't even support the latest technology, like dual and quad core processors, modern videocards, et cetera.

    Dual and quad core processors won't necessarily make your computer faster. Not to mention that XP will still bog down one core more than Me will. A 'modern' video card only matters if you like to play recent games.

    And the install size is a bit of a moot point, since HDD space is cheap these days.

    Just because it's cheap doesn't mean we want our OS to use more of it. We have our own files to store.

    Did you know XP has a decent, fast en secure filesystem, called NTFS, that has none of the ancient FAT limitations?

    NTFS is proprietary, less secure (you can hide things in streams), and benchmarks show it's not as fast as FAT.

  2. There's another problem that I'd like to fix. When I do a Replace All operation, the control scrolls to each instance of the text in the file before replacing it. The scrolling happens automatically when the EM_EXSETSEL message is sent. This slows the replacing operating a lot.

    I've looked for other ways to replace text, but I haven't found anything. There doesn't seem to be a way to prevent the implicit scrolling either.

  3. Wow, it's been a half year since I posted in this thread. I've made some small changes since then to have my program behave more normally, but nothing major. I did find out how to enable the opening of large files, though. Which leads me to the current problem that's been bugging me for some time...

    I can't save large files. It gives an error. So I finally investigated using GetLastError() and FormatMessage(), and it turns out that the buffer I'm allocating it too small. I'm not sure why. A DWORD is 32-bit, which should be able to have a number as large as 2 GB, no? Anyway, this is the function I use to save a file, slightly altered from theForger's Win32 API Tutorial:

    BOOL saveFile(LPCTSTR pszFileName) {
    HANDLE hFile;
    BOOL bSuccess = FALSE;
    hFile = CreateFile(pszFileName, GENERIC_WRITE, 0, NULL, CREATE_ALWAYS, FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL, NULL);
    if (hFile != INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE) {
    DWORD dwTextLength;
    dwTextLength = GetWindowTextLength(g_hRichEdit);
    if (dwTextLength > 0) {
    LPSTR pszText;
    DWORD dwBufferSize = dwTextLength + 1;
    pszText = GlobalAlloc(GPTR, dwBufferSize);
    if (pszText != NULL) {
    if (GetWindowText(g_hRichEdit, pszText, dwBufferSize)) {
    DWORD dwWritten;
    if (WriteFile(hFile, pszText, dwTextLength, &dwWritten, NULL)) {
    bSuccess = TRUE;
    }
    }
    GlobalFree(pszText);
    }
    }
    }
    return bSuccess;
    }

    Despite previous Google searches being fruitless, I decided to try again. This time a message board thread suggested a solution. I looked at the EM_STREAMOUT message, and from there figured out how to make a callback function and correct my file saving function. It now works great. :)

  4. Also, W95 is more difficult to install than W98-Me. Not just for the disquette; W95 needs an awful lot of functional updates (forget security updates, it's pointless) which are difficult to find, are sometimes bugged, and must sometimes be installed in a precise order.

    "awful lot"? Only 10 if you don't include DirectX 8.0a but do include the couple security updates. They're easily found as well.

  5. And the better underpinnings.

    Not really.

    You're also still wrong about the shell thing.

    Looks like I was. I looked at the page again closely, and chubby removes Active Desktop and View as a Web Page.

    Hey, notice my OpSys says "none"; why do you think that is

    Because, like me, you didn't want to confirm your birth date just for that? :P

    I never really noticed a big difference between 95 & 98 on any given pc

    I did. I used to run Win98 FE. When DOS programs switched to 320x240 resolution, the screen would remain black and freeze. No such problem with Win95.

    95 and 98 allow you to boot into either operating system and switch from one to another. ME does not as there is no real DOS in ME.

    http://toastytech.com/guis/medos.gif

    The above screen shot shows the system monitor indicating that two virtual DOS machines are open even though only one DOS box is open. This shows that Windows ME runs on top of MS-DOS just like Windows 1.x, 2.x, 3.x, 95 and 98(...)
    I might be wrong in saying this but I thought Win95 could only handle 64 Mb of RAM?

    Definitely wrong! Running happily with 160 MB of RAM here with no tweaks needed.

  6. The shell does NOT need to be changed to get rid of IE.

    I Googled this, and while you can remove Internet Explorer itself, you can't remove the web crap without switching the shell.

    But since you won't show me any proof of what you say

    Please don't selectively read my posts. I asked you what proof you needed. What would convince you, save for me filming the install process with a video camera?

    on a 486, Windows 98 will be slower than Windows 95, but on a PIII 1000, 98 will perform some tasks a hair faster

    This doesn't make any sense, because Windows 98 is not optimised for anything newer than a 486 CPU. A higher clock speed will not suddenly make Win98 faster than Win95.

    By advocating Windows 95C for this computer instead of Windows 98 you're essentially advocating a low end Mercedes with a slower engine and less features than the higher end Mercedes, while forgetting to explain to the customer that she won't be able to go as fast, listen to CDs or have heated seats.

    Yet you're advocating Win98 only if it's stripped to what Win95 was. Except for the better USB support, of course.

  7. As far as I am aware, Windows 95C does not optionally install Internet Explorer. It's a silent installer, and if you can show me definite proof that removing the CD means you will 'never see IE4' without it throwing up a load of errors, I'd love to see.

    What kind of proof are you looking for? I reinstalled Windows 95C many times years ago, and I never had IE4. But one time I left the CD-ROM in the drive, and then I saw the horror.

    What the installer does silently install is IE3, and you can prevent that by editing the setup ini file without any side-effects.

    Regarding speed, web enhancements and other junk, 98lite can get rid of that while still maintaining the 98 core.

    IE is integrated into Win98's shell. You can't get rid of all of IE unless you change the shell, in which case most use Win95's shell. So why not just use Win95 instead?

    98 will run some programs faster and also a slightly faster shutdown time

    Considering the bloat that each Windows release brings with it, I find that hard to believe. My Win95 PC shuts down in only 2-3 seconds.

    Why install 95, which has smaller hard drive support, less USB support etc and still have the web crap?

    There is no smaller hard drive support. With LLXX's patch it can even support HDDs larger than 137 GB. There is no web crap.

    Sometimes, getting the smallest, slimmest, fastest, leanest OS isn't always the most viable, if all you can do is run notepad.

    Windows 95 can still be quite useful.

    Thus, running Windows 95 on this computer will bring NO ADVANTAGE.

    This is a lie, as evidenced above.

  8. JustinStacey, I find it contradicting that you would recommend Windows 98 for that computer, but not Win95C because of web integration. As you know, Windows 98 comes with web integration out of the box. At least in Win95C it's possible to not install IE at all. In fact, if you don't leave the CD-ROM in the drive on the full boot, you'll never see IE4.

    Win95 will not only be faster, it will be pretty much clutter-free. No giant toolbars and web integration. No Start Menu with a mind of its own to confuse you. It'll be more stable to as well.

  9. Actually, that is incorrect. The Windows Driver Model (WDM) was first introduced for Win98, and then used on Windows 2000.

    You don't seem to browse this forum enough, as I'm only partially incorrect. :P Windows 95 OSR 2.x' USB support patch installs a newer kernel that has basic support for WDM drivers.

    Windows 95 USB support is very limited. There are almost no USB devices able to work in Windows 95.

    In a way, this is true, but don't underestimate Windows 95's ability to work with lots of USB flash drives!

  10. As a Windows 95 OSR 2.x user as well, I recommend Windows 95. I feel they got it right with this version. Of course, the downside is that less applications support it. In the end, it really depends on what you want to do with it.

    Lacking driver support isn't really a conspiracy. Windows 98 has much better support for a better driver model that was borrowed from the Windows NT line. Many drivers are written in this new structure.

  11. While I intend to move to Linux from Win9x rather than to Vista, I think Linus is more of a networked designed OS rather than a stand alone desktop type OS. For instance I believe that Linus uses TCP/IP for as their Ethernet protocol rather than NetBuei or Netware meaning that you cannot have a different protocol for your Ethernet than you do for your internet. I also think that there are admin rights and permissions in Linux similar to the stuff you find in XP and which have no place in a stand alone machine.

    It sounds like you might like Haiku. It's based on BeOS, an actual home OS. There are permissions, but they don't restrict you, as they're only there for POSIX support.

    Haiku is still in development, but it's definitely something to watch.

  12. So when you download an executable from the web, you do so from a trusted source? That's quite an assumption. You said in another thread that most people don't know what an operating system is and I agree with you. But they do know what can be trusted?? No way. If that was the case we wouldn't see spyware or rogue virusscanners so much. People click on "yes" somewhere and they download and execute something and they don't even know.

    Well, duh. But we are not average users.

  13. You are contradicting yourself here. You can't blame somebody if its not safe anywhere. And change the word P2P with "internet" and its also a valid statement.

    No, I'm not contradicting myself. Browsing the web doesn't mean downloading tons of executables from unknown sources. The web of HTML documents, images, CSS, and JavaScript. When you download an executable from the web, you do so from a trusted source. With P2P, all the sources are untrusted and unknown.

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