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i dont say that there is few people. i say that it is quite a lot of people. i just wonder that i didnt found such statistics on google zeitgeist...

i found this statistics... http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_os.asp this shows operating systems logging on internet. but there is another statistics: http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp IE5 can be mostly used only with Win9x system where IE6 was not installed - except some old winNT. that means 1.5 percent of computers are in the target of our work, even when OS statistics are not so accurate. althought on win9x can be installed Firefox, Opera, or IE6 - and those browsers are available also to other systems...

i tried to patch optional header in kernel32.dll but it has no effect. i imported there XP signatures... thats not the way how steam identifies the system... actually it didnt help by no app now. also i really dont know how and when steam use other executables (with missing exports)... later i realized that each executable has its own optional header with OS signatures... i really dont know for what...

some of them yes, but in some cases you may duplicately update some files. that may cause removal of previous updates. if you are looking for some help look in Immolator project. i use quite much updates - official and unofficial, so they must be installed in correct order.

try to download and install slimbrowser. it seems to be partially based on IE and it has fixed all errors for IE which i encountered.

partially. if the app gets error message like "linked to missing export" it may help. but if the app gives error message like "application expects newer version of windows" it means that in app is running similar program. these can block execution even when exports are ok. for example steamengine main executable has this problem. all exports are ok, but app wont run.

well, what is an old machine... as long i know Net 1.0 is the very first release, version 1.1 is same app with bugfixes. Net 2.0 is newer one but does not contain bugfixes - these are available in Net 2.1, which i have not installed on my system yet, and maybe there is no way to do that. i am quite sure that framework 1.0 is responsible for many performance trouble. Version 1.1 is little bit better, but not much. With .NET2.0 i was confident for the first time until i was trying this kind of interface. its installation had no performance or stability side effects, althought service pack for it reveals that it is indeed quite buggy...

if you run an installer which expects newer version of windows you may get error message even in case when all exports are working... here http://support.microsoft.com/kb/189249 is an example program how it can be done. how can be output from kernel getversionex modified? this applies to steam.exe mostly, while this executable really dont use any missing export (kex 032a)

i have here CanoScan 2700f SCSI scanner. this thing does not even have a driver, and it is only controlled via software which is TWAIN compatible... i have installed WIA, but i see no difference... how can i benefit from it, or how can i detect if it do something?

if you want to install last version of DX9.0c from november 2007 you need at least first DX9 release installed. while windows XP and later have DX9c installed you dont need do this on XP. this kind of "requirement" is quite strange. DX9.0c from november is not a standalone installation, but last available patch for DX9 installed on any system... but older DX9 builds (which supported win9x) can be surely installed and later upgraded with DX9.0c from november 2007, althougt some files shall not be installed, but can be extracted manually (*.dll). Also DX Managed code (based on NetFramework) shall surely improve DX9 performance when using newest DX9 - thats the best benefit when installing NOV2007. but some people dislike netFramework - mostly it is useless, but i found that it can in some cases help improve system performance for games. (measured by 3dmark 2001 and 2003, with and without framework 2.0 installed and with various versions of DX9) i recomend to install first release of dx9 on win98, then NET 2.0 and at last DX9.0c from November 2007. DO NOT INSTALL NET FRAMEWORK FROM GRAPHICS DRIVER CD, NOR DX9. install them separately. and avoid NET 1.0 and NET 1.1... i am just desperate that NET 2.1 cannot be installed on win9x

i have analyzed this piece of hardware lately. its analog tuner is based on Conexant's Blackbird (cx2288x, or x88 or cx88x). Digital tuner is DVB-T Demodulator chip CX2270x. it consists of three major parts: cx2702 chip - DVBT demodulator CX288xx chip - chip for standard TV and FV Tuner - covered with metal box video capturing requires some drivers> Video Capture Crossbar Tuner (FME1216MEx) audio needs only one - Audio Capture Device Digital needs two: BDA Transport Stream Capture DVB-T Demodulator I started with standard drivers on CD. althought installers were beeping about unsupported operating system i was able to install analog part of the driver without any trouble. Audio capture was making trouble because MMdevldr and NTkern were unable to load the driver. i tried some other drivers and i was sucessfull in correct installation with drivers from either Haupauge, Conexant and Jetview... BDA Transport capture is very strange type of device. it seems to be virtual connected only with DirectX - some kind of interface. this interface is crucial for digital tv and for some kinds of streamings. Win98 seems to be completely ready for these devices, only device developers doesnt seem to be ready for win98... DVB-T tuner is still the biggest problem i was unable to load any driver. INF files in each driver i tried were written for Win2k and newer (win2k ddk builds?) and later when i rewrited one inf the driver was completely unable to run - it caused BSOD, or ntkern was unable to load it (ntkern only, mmdevldr was working). It seems that conexant has developed only one type of driver for digital receiving with Win2k DDk what are your opinions about digital tv receiving on this operating system? also i found some info about external TV boxes which can be connected directly to PC via Firewire, while they are connected to digital tv source which is very similar to internet connection/ or is a form of internet connection. these provide real and full DVB because data stream is fully digital from beginning to end. In cases where is hybrid tuner used is small possibility that signal is degradated when video capture driver pick up the signal ---------- after few days i found a reference about Pinnacle PCTV 300i. This card has fully compatible driver with win9x and it is quite powerful when it comes to tv viewing and capturing. i try to buy one of these cards maybe, but they were produced around 2004

USB + Firewire ST-Lab f-116: USB2.0, Firewire400 TV tuners all BT8x8 devices - driver support at www.iulabs.com (Ivan Uskovs Tweaked drivers) CX88 - unsupported tuner, but It seems that Analog section is working correctly when installed manually. xceive3028 - analog + dvb-t tuner - i found a driver, but i miss the hardware DVB-T demodulators - drivers for Win9x are only few and cause BSOD or does not seem to work.

i work in shop which sells a lot of HW. it does not matter if the dvd writer is PATA, SATA or whatever. just count that it is almost impossible to fulfill PATA limitations, so you really dont need to use SATA writer if you have enough connectors. all dvd writers are quite good configured to work without trouble, but while the burning is in progress really dont push the button by running another application always check for newer firmware - thats all.

look for topic "breaking the 2gb barrier" in Win9x projects subforum. right now i can create, burn and read files larger than 2gb up to 4gb where really is the FAT32 limit. First of all you need to have kernel and shell patched because 2gb barrier is not in the fat, but in system files. also i would reccomend you Nero 6. it can burn DVDs in windows 98 without troube. also i dont believe that you will really need to burn files larger as 4 gb since DVD and CD filesystems are quite old suffering by similar limits as FAT32. But if you come in contact with DVD Image larger there is always possibility to unpack it.

i have recently tested new Tv Tuner Leadtek DTV2000h. This one is hybrid (analog+digital+fm). Althought manufacturer says that the driver is available only to WindowXP and higher. it is truth only in half. analog tuner works normally. the driver comply to the WDM standards. audio capture does not work. driver comply to wdm partially - as with KX audio driver. it needs windows ME. i have here NTkern.vxd from year 2001 but mmdevldr.vxd is from year 1999. this is possibly the reason. digital DVB-T driver has not been installed yet. its INF file is in Win2k format so i am trying to rewrite it. Also i have analyzed *.sys files with dependency walker. they needed ntoskrnl.exe and hal.dll. so i have installed them into System directory. it doesnt seem that it has helped the driver to work better but dependency walker shows that they are being used. for these reasons i have taken a look at my win2k cd and at winME cd to extract needed files. i found them, but i failed to find mmdevldr in winME cd and on intenet i found only very old version. therefore i think that could be some place for standalone driver handling update (althought i have not tested all available upgrade packs) edit: if possible send me mmdevldr from winME here or on mail mir-@post"dot"cz

i think that you are right in some things. Win9x systems are evolving in some way as linux or freedos. No support, just feedback and group of skilled programmers able to change everything if you say that nonskilled users are not our goal you are partially right, but what about potential developers? Right now i am very confused when i am trying to find something where i can help with - i am just betatester and scripter, and i can barely help with any development.

Windows Immolator project has one goal - to build up some kind of distribution based on many updates here. This project was previously (moths ago) for my personal use while i have not seen no reason to make it available for more users. This changed... System stability and potential is still growing and as i see it will grow for some time now to some solutions: 1. Immolator is based mainly on freeware software if it comes to applications. Those apps are new and updated. Many of these software are on sites as filehippo or softpedia and are promoted like this, or are under GNU. 2. If there is some pressure "newer is better" we may use it as an psychological weapon. We may say that upgrades we have selected are new, or may renew you system... or kind of... 3. Public forums and initiative on wiki-like sites may be affected by some users who disagree with our opinions about powered Windows 9x. In good case they just say what they think. in bad case they erase so much as they can. we can be 24 hours online and keep wikipedia sites in state which reflects reality, or we can create our own site. which can be localized and have so much information as possible. 4. forum really do a great job, but in many cases upgrades are not compatible between them or do the same job as other. I think this may make trouble for non skilled users.

Since i am one of few people which are still using this system many people around me are surprised that i am still using Win98SE, and quite amazed when they discover full potiential of my home computer. Many things that they found impossible to do are for me normal application... Sometimes i have seen activity when some crucial information about Win9x systems have beed edited out, even when are well known. This happened on some sites - especially on Wikipedia. there is a lot of projects which are available to all, but many people - even skilled with IT are quite amazed when they found forum like this, and they are amazed much more when they discover how much has Win9x evolved by work which has been done here. I want to ask all people in this Win9x Project subforum if there is a possibility to create one powered win9x upgrade which shall be completely free, legal and also easy to use for non skilled users. Also i believe that if there really is aproxximately 20 percent of all computers using Windows 9x that we may help more users to gain information about upgrades here, the question is how...

I have analyzed steamengine executables: Steam.EXE - all exports OK execution is blocked due error message steamTMP.exe - all exports OK SteamService.exe - Kernel.32dll: GetConsoleWindow and Advapi32.dll: ChangeServiceConfig2A At least missing exports, but file can be executed GameoverlayUI.exe - user32.dll: LockSetForgroundWindow Writeminidump.exe - all exports OK

mostly i am interested in applications of this types: Editors and viewers for: - text (open office) - audio (cooledit 2000) - video (mpc, virtualdub) - web (slimbrowser, and plain notepad, sometimes frontpage) - images (photoshop, faststone) Applications for communication: - web browser (included as web in previous section) - instant messaging tool (for icq or whatever) - audio communication tool (for gamers or other purposes) - video communication tool (mebeam activex works quite good, but only in web browser) Hardware related applications - all disk tools - all drivers - special tools for scanners, tv and radio tuners which are needed for their function Windows upgrades which may help fix some issues and bugs: - uberskin fix toolbar locking - all service packs and other system modules such as framework, mdac, IE6... Upgrades such as: - wll - 32bit icons - transparent icons - localisations are partially in my interest, but if they cause trouble (and they cause trouble right now) i really don want use them Applications as: - total commander are parts of user interface which i personally need. DM2 maybe shall be able to solve trouble with MPC and icon creating, but these are just minor trouble in user interface of MPC. mostly i need only to click once instead of installing any tool right now i am looking for freeware replacement for Adobe Photoshop 5.5, since this old version does not support 32bi BMP and it is quite bad because i cannot read most bmps used for skinning, but i can create skins compatible with 16bit and lower graphic devices. all of the apps must be able to work with different types of hardware

updated minor bug section

so i have analyzed once again the whole thing and here are some things i have learned: definition of vcache: The disk cache software in Windows 95/98. It is a 32-bit program that dynamically allocates available free memory and replaces the 16-bit Smartdrive cache in DOS/Windows 3.1. Vcache can automatically adjust the size of the cache depending on the current environment and amount of free disk space. althought it dont shows for what the vcache is, i found similar text according to smartdrv: A {Microsoft} {MS DOS} {disk cache} program to speed up disk access. For most users, a 1MB cache is sufficient. Devoting more memory to the cache offers diminishing returns, since the additional cache hits become fewer (and the extra memory could be better used to reduce {swapping}). Typing SMARTDRV /S at a DOS prompt shows the cache size, a hit-and-miss report, and information about which drives are being cached. The hit-and-miss statistics are crucial for gauging the effectiveness of SmartDrive settings. A score in the high 80s shows that SmartDrive is well configured. Run SMARTDRV /S several times during a Windows session and note the-hit-and-miss figures each time. If your percentage usually falls below 80 percent, you should consider increasing the cache size. You can edit the SMARTDRV line in your {AUTOEXEC.BAT} file to increase both the InitCacheSize and the WinCacheSize parameters. SmartDrive Monitor is an undocumented Windows program that comes with DOS 6.0 for logging and controling the cache. (1995-11-22) blah blah blah and so on... Vcache seems to be "Virtual Cache" of harddisk/other media. any cache memory is used to speed up the transactions between hardware. if the cache is not present we get only pure hw effectivity which is incredibely low, but there are some things that changed since 1995. Disks are faster and it is quite normal that they use physical cache memory module. i have seen 2mb hardware cache on 5400 and 7200 rpm drives, and my cheetah with 15000 rpm has 16mb of cache... the question is if absence of virtual cache can affect disk performance in negative way when there are hardware solutions for this problem, or if i am wrong Vcache has little bit different function as cache memory installed physically on disk. if the vcache works as i think that is not necessary to use so large amounts of memory for it, but just adequate amount which reflects hardware - disks and similar media - in addition of optimizing disk acesses. and the third possibility is that if i have good harddisk with large cache memory, total absence of Vcache (all set to 0) shall not affect disk operations, but may improve operations in RAM. in next day i shall do some test using HDtach software to measure if the disk/memory accesses have been affected by amount of vcache. edit: there is slightly small difference between Maxfilecache 16 or 32 megabytes, and between 64 megabytes. all these settings work well. i think that this amount has to be set to smaller number if less harddisks is installed on system and to larger if more of them are installed, but 64megabytes seems to fit for most systems. Larger number may affect opening of command line and some critical apps... also chunksize is good to be optimized for smallest hw cache on your harddisk. for example if i have 2mb cache on disk the optimal value is 1536 (three quarters). if i have two disks, each with 8mb disk cache the optimum is 6144, with at least 16 mb of Min/max filecache.

games able to run on Win9x with kernel ex go to "rank 2". if i understand your question... also about HL2. i asked support if there should be added to steam a command line switch to skip OS check and try to run Steam on any system. i have to write down the missing exports for steamengine. if they shall be fixed steam and steam shall have a cmd line swith it could work even on Win9x with KEX.

i have read some articles about it... althoutght they were not to professional as the rest of discussion: there was reccomended this setting: Maxfilecache=32768 Minfilecache=32768 just because of MS recomendation for 32mb of memory for caching. Max as topmost limit before memory shall be consumed by it, minimum to keep the amount of allocated memory at constant value - no shrinking or expanding possible. That is good idea while amount of allocated memory shall cannot "attack" some parts of already used memory. My tests here show that 64mb is topmost limit for any application which have trouble with lots of ram. i shall test 32mb once again and see if it affects performance.

some people requested Crysis... i am too lazy to download demo... anybody tried it?