Offler

since my machine was fully able to run this windows i tried it. Later i start to examining its drivers and possibilities... I found very terrible things about newer Catalyst drivers. Catalyst 7.x and later are causing trouble with Shaders and they are lowering performance and many games even cant start (not a compatibility problem). Catalysts 8.x and later do same bug, but the Aero is functional. Catalysts 6.x work correctly, but aero is not functional. The most mysterious for me is the WDDM driver which was delivered with Vista. It works with aero, some games work with it, BUT it does not contain files necessary to run OpenGL based apps (atiglxx.dll and other ati opengl interfaces). is there a way how to import opengl files into WDDM driver by Microsoft? change of hardware is not possible...

hmm. aspi layer from adaptec works for me on win98. i dont know where should be the problem.

sounds very interesting

i tried vista yesterday, i need newer windows on my PC for some compatibility betatests (and sometimes to show some stubborn heads that problem is not Win9x related). only way i found is to use two harddisks. Since i have SCSI controller it would not be a problem to add so much disks i need, but i am just curious if somebody suceeded vista on FAT32 side by side with Win9x.

to BenoitRen: the same told me Co-Leader of freeware project where i participate about Win 4.0 kernel. Only later other leader of the team created new philosophy for new Client program which included full windows compatibility (win32 from Windows 95 to Vista 32bit, and Win64 for XP64-Vista64). In few months they realized that it is not so hard to create such application even when it is based on .Net 2.0. Slimbrowser is all i need. Just a point of view... the thing that is important for me is fact that Windows kernel NT5.0 is working with IE6 much worse than kernel 4.0, which is for me quite unique paradox which throws salt into eyes of all people who believes that XP is better than other systems, but they just cant say why... For me ideal Win32 OS will always be Windows 2000, but i really need much more backward compatibility which offers Win98SE.

i tried a lot of web browsers. Opera (quite good), Firefox (not so good), Maxthon (geee) and other. As always i returned back to default internet explorer 6, in better cases to slimbrowser which i use at home and in my notebook. Slimbrowser is not an ordinary browser - it is a upgrade for IE as i noticed correctly... Since i used IE6 for years on win98se i knew it has some trouble inside, but i never seen major error regarding directly to its code... At these days i am building up a server based on Windows 2000 and IE6 is present there by default, also in work i have to use IE6. Most users always thought that Win98 is less stable as OS based on NT5.0 kernel, but since i help with one freeware project based on NET 2.0 i noticed that stability is not archieved by better system kernel, but by zero fault tolerance in program code when win9x is used as OS. For example - 98 percent of users noticed no error when using last RC version of tested software, only i (as only tester with win9x) received fatal error regarding to NET 2.0. The leader of the project just released build where program has to write all errors which may occur, and they were happy because they have found simple hidden bug which might cause problems in later usage. so why am i writing it here... When i work with IE6 on NT5 based systems i noticed that it can crash 1-3 times a day (8 hours). On Windows 98se i didnt notice any standard program crash (invalid page fault blah blah blah), and no freeze. And i just wonder how and why...

I bought Diablo II: LOD and even Warcraft I in store last year . to see it in full CD version (since in 1994 i had 386sx without cdrom) was delightful

i was working as a SW developer - we were creating a game. my colleague told me that our product will never work on my old machine. therefore i tried it. the game ran flawlessly without any problem, althought my colleague was sure that Win XP is better SW developing environment because of its supreme stability... what shall i say... he didnt know what he said. in most cases the software developed by best SW companies are running flawlessly on both systems, games which were always buggy are crashing on both systems - but in some cases more on win98se... thats fact, but it is really not a problem of OS, but of app.

since today (1.1.2009) the Youtube requested from me newest flash player althought i have one installed already. Version 10 is no longer supported for win98/ME systems, so i downloaded the one from this page. this version worked for me. now it is only question of time when version 10 will be requested. For this reason i shall try analyze version 10 with dependency walker. if it comply with KEX 0.3.6 it will be possible to install it manually using regsrvr32.exe.

iy the media player classic. i dont know the gom player, but the MPC is just the simpliest solution for me. No glitter on it at all. the chopiness can be reason of your bios settings. if you wish try the MMX version of FFDshow. i just cant recall the number of mmx build that works with win9x... your machine has to be able run videos with ffdshow without trouble, and if am i right your cpu has MMX... Current search for software: - something that can play Digital CD Audio, except Windows Media Player9. Really no other software worked for me. at all the WMP9 is needed more even for WMV files which are choppy when WMP9 is not present.

i was using opera 9.62 recently. it works fast, looks good. only problem was with the webpage service.futuremark.com. try to find some 3dmark results and you will see, but the page itself is a nightmare. also opera requires new installation of Java if you want to use javascripted pages... IE6 with Slimbrowser prevailed because its java support is older but better than new one. newer java seemed to me as big trouble - i had to remove it from system... i guess i will try Opera 10 but i am skeptic since i had no trouble with slimbrowser.

to drugwash: dont use Xvid and DivX together. there are two reasons. Xvid can decode any DivX movie, and DivX is more cpu consuming for encoding than other codecs. the stupid divix logo in the corner is also annoying me. as always try to use so few codecs as possible. you use bit much of them, but if they dont make trouble it is OK. jus be sure that it doesnt happent that two codecs will compete in for the place in decoding stream... I personally use one single codec for encoding, and other for decoding. if you need only decoder, without codec specific post processing the FFDShow should be the best choice. Why Xvid... i use two versions of xvid. one of them is extremely old installed in xvid directory. this codec i use for encoding while it has low CPU requirements. then i use the newest koepis, installed in Xvid2 directory for decoding which is the best choice, since it can make video extremely clear - without any sign of quantization. quite weird installation but it works to sp193: i mean desktop icons.

codecs support: look for them at www.free-codecs.com FFDshow - classically the SSE version was developed for NT5 or higher windows kernel (2k, XP and higher). The MMX was developed even for Win9x when it has MMX support - right now i use the previous version of it. The current version was not supported by my system. The unsigned version is as always available for all systems. first of all you need strong hardware, but i measured that even if you use multicore processor you will hardly gain better performance as with Pentium III. For example q6600 has better performance only due its frequency. Xvid - Koepi's Build Decoder and encoder works perfectly even in windows 9x. it has only small trouble in Start panel while the lnk files are linking to rundll32 which is located in system32 directory - default for 2k and Xp systems. also i dont recomend the Nic's build (if i remember correctly it has not been updated since 2004). full deblock, full dering + vsfilter 2.23 is quite CPU consuming but if you have Intel Pentium III-S "Tualatin" or something with similar performance (over 400mflops) you will be able to play movies with this strong realtime postprocessing. x264 or h264 Mpeg4 i found codec called x264Vfw. not available at freecodecs site, but available at sourceforge. i used rather old version from year 2006 but recently i found newer version from december 2008. very good for decoding, but encoding - allows multithreading, but not usable at all at Win9x systems. any encoding is very time consuming. Indeo Codec on freecodecs is available version 5.11 which is newer as version available with win98SE. Mpeg2 The best codec i found for this format is clsvsd.ax which is part of PowerDVD 6.0. if you use version 7 the player will crash when playback ends or if you close the player. If you own any product where was bundled PowerDVD6 (eg. graphic card as ati x800, or some DVD writers) you may be able to use legally, since powerDVD is not freeware. the same codec i use for Mpeg2 demux from DVB-T card and for playing DVDs. this codec can use hardware acceleration of your graphics to decode... this works with some ATi cards if i remember correctly. also i read some articles about ATI decoder - obviously the same codec, but in newer version. if you have the correct installation CD you will be able to download it from ATI/AMD page. Audio: MP3 codec didnt changed since 1999. AC3 in some cases it is provided by Creative as a part of its Soundblasters. the question is if that codec work HW or SW based. i dont use it since acessibility to it is terrible. AC3 Filter for me the best choice which allows me to set voice level for each speaker separately. still compatible with Win9x Player: Media Player Classic I was able to use all renderers including Haali and VMR9. NEVER check "VMR mixer mode". player will freeze in most cases.

back again DVB-T television support in Windows 98SE Possible: after few months i was able to run digital TV, using ATI Radeon X850xt and Pinnacle 300i. the mpeg decoder is using GPU to decode. the app is working correctl mostly, but i am using older version and no newer versions are good. development of newer version stopped. ICQ: Miranda not bad but not good will test in future. some minor bugs still here. VSfilter.dll for better subtitles the version 2,23 is better than other newer...

the logo is done, but i was unable to finish all work that i was trying to do... i will release it some time, but i just dont know when since the christmas, and work.

please guys add rank of the game when are you writing it here, else i am not able to sort it

jaclaz that page about NTFS contains some very interesting information which are totally absurd this is about fat32 supporting systems DOS v7 and higher Windows 98 Windows ME Windows 2000 Windows XP max volume size 32GB for all OS currently i am running 73gb disk via my SCSI, and 80gb disk via PATA. currently my limit was around 137gb since i dont want to install esdi506 patch by llx, so i am absolutely sure that that page is not reliable source. i was also running a 137gb disk without problem. also i know that each FAT (including newer filesystems in vista, but also old ones such as FAT32) has lower hardware requirements as NTFS. NTFS is also reason why the NCQ was developed for disks. Fat does not require such stuff because it is not acessing some data in NTFS header any time when it asks for permission to read or write. "Fragmentation of FAT - no fragmentation on NTFS" - stupid myth. Each magnetic harddisk fragments its data especially when pagefile/swapfile is used without strictly defined size. "NTFS is Safer and locked/ecrypted files cant be acessed by other users" - this is also big myth. use "mstask" to run "cmd" and acess all files without limitation with Admin rights also boot from diskette and use "NTFS reader" tool to access any data. althought both methods are used as exploits it just shows how easily can be safety broken.

Win9x != Win98SE My bad sorry . But after all if i take a closer look on any Windows since 95 to Vista a see only minor differences when it comes to real work of the system. No matter games, no matter god dammed support, no matter appearance (thanx Tihyi for your uberskin ). Copying, creating texts, images, watching media, internet... what has changed? there will be new versions of course, but the question is what they will bring and what it will cost

there is a topic like this - look in "Gaming Guide"

Lets begin with some overview of Win9x family and its specifications: These systems are with 16/32 hybrid kernels which can theoretically handle even older processors. win9x cannot handle multiple program threads or 64 bit processor capabilities. System contains as legacy ms-dos 7.0 which is almost 100% compatible with any other ms-dos. And now the cruel reality: 1. Era of single core/single threaded 32bit processors is ending. 2. Major producers of graphic chips refused to provide new drivers for these systems 3. Software developing is not exactly focused on windows 9x. and now the good news. 1. Multicore systems still stuck in 32bit era and it will last some time. Adding more cores will bring up new problems in OS designs. For now Microsoft has not presented nothing that can safely handle more than 2 cores without wasting HW capabilities. Quad core systems are surely working, but while OS is still centralized throught kernel thread that thread/core can be easily consumed. There must be developed completely new OS architecture, and vista or win7 are still based on old one... 2. there are driver development kits. new drivers can be created. can this be done even for 3daccelerated graphics? 3. while not exactly focused on win9x still focused on win XP which is quite similar 4. single core processors are still being developed and used. win9x is still best choice so i think that Win9x have another years to work able to accept new hardware and software. I want to thank tihiy for his work, to xeno for his compatibility layer As you maybe know Linux is one of the systems which is evolving over time. Win9x on this forum did the same evolution. win98SE and win98SE+KEX is a huge leap... do you believe that Win9x can start evolution similar to linux and stay updated over time and later cross barriers which are now our border?

to jglori: the problem can be elsewhere than in buffers. try it and you will see if it help. to alexanrs: i know it is still much memory, but thats why i set it this way my system is an experiment how far can 32bit single core procesor system go with the same chipset (good old Via Apollo Pro 133T). I am quite generous when it comes to setting some things...

that might be a statistic fluctuation. but there is also one possible reason. People have just massively migrated from desktops to notebooks - even the old ones. In some cases the realized that Win Vista and XP is consuming up too HW much to run them correctly. Win98SE is still good choice for anybody who wants to watch media or browse internet. At all only very few apps of this type are not compatible with Win98SE.

So after another year of testing i was able to bring up some new tested settings not only included with vcache but also with classic dos memory management: Config.sys SWITCHES=/F /E DOS=HIGH,UMB,noAUTO FILEShigh=255 BUFFERShigh=32,8 LASTDRIVE=k FCBShigh=1,0 STACKShigh=0,0 DEVICE=C:\OS\HIMEM.SYS /numhandles=128 /hmain=64 /TESTMEM:OFF /Q DEVICE=C:\dos\EMM386.EXE RAM NOTR SET PATH=C:\OS;C:\OS\COMMAND;c:\vc;C:\DOS SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 SET CTSYN=C:\OS DEVICEhigh=C:\DOS\QCDROM.SYS /D:AADVARK DEVICEhigh=C:\OS\SETVER.EXE DEVICEhigh=C:\OS\IFSHLP.SYS ; these lines belong to slovak localization and GUI will not run without them devicehigh=C:\OS\COMMAND\DISPLAY.SYS con=(ega,,1) Country=421,852,C:\OS\COMMAND\country.sys i use emm386.exe because of its compatibility with my dos sound driver. SB16 Emulation driver wont work without it, and also if dos driver is not present the windows driver will fail to run causing system to hang in BSOD. system is always able to run with FILEShigh=255. no trouble was detected. Before i used setting BUFFERShigh=99,8 to try largest possible memory for buffers. The following errors occurred: Civilization I - error message reporting not enough memory. Graphic problems in game Warcraft III - Log reporting memory adress which "could not be read" and closing the game Setting it to 32,8 seems to be optimal for system processes (i think it has something to do with IRQ inputs and outputs but i am not sure - the number i choosed is doubled value of IRQs i have in system) Autoexec.bat @echo off cls @CTTY NUL LFNFOR ON set windir=c:\os set winbootdir=c:\os mode con codepage prepare=((852) C:\OS\COMMAND\ega.cpi) mode con codepage select=852 lh keyb sl,,C:\OS\COMMAND\keybrd2.sys rem c:\dos\xmsdsk\xmsdsk.exe 513732 K: /c1 /t /y C:\dos\xmsdsk\xmsdsk.exe 524288 K: /c1 /t /y C:\OS\COMMAND\label K: scorpion lh C:\dos\blaster\sbeinit.com c:\dos\shsucdx.com /d:AADVARK /Q /l:f c:\dos\cmouse\ctmouse.exe rem lh c:\dos\lsl rem c:\dos\e1000odi rem c:\dos\e1000pkt 0x60 rem c:\dos\ipxodi.com /a rem lh vc c:\dos\umbpci\umbfill.com CTTY CON SET PATH=%PATH%;C:\PROGRA~1\ATITEC~1\ATICON~1 setting windir and winbootdir is mentioned in WinME documentation as some kind of help with one bug preventing from crashing during boot. I found out it can help stabilize systems which are extremely overclocked. This may also affect stability at all. also note "rem" setting of xmsdisk and "used" setting. forbidden line has smaller value of memory. this was used to set 1024 megabytes in windows when emm386 was present. Later i found out that this small part of memory is troublesome when it comes to real performance. That setting caused some games to crash especially Farcry which caused BSOD during exiting of game. therefore is necessary to set memory to 524288. Why is Ramdisk labeled as Scorpion? it fools system so this memory can be set as target disk for swapfile. Ramdisks cannot be normally set as swapfile, but labeled ramdisk can. also notice that i use umbfill.com. it has very special function. It stabilizes system while using more than 768mb of memory for windows. with it i am able to use up to 1gb of ram. System.ini [386Enh] MaxPhysPage=40000 ConservativeSwapfileUsage=0 DMABufferSize=64 PagingDrive=K: MinPagingFileSize=523264 MaxPagingFileSize=523264 [vcache] MaxFileCache=32768 MinFileCache=32768 ChunkSize=512 MaxPhysPage also helps to stabilize system while using 1gb of ram. Vcache settings are quite cruel, but Microsoft have never tested system behaviour with values larger than 32768. I tested doubled value and sometimes experienced errors with not enough memory, especially when computer was running whole day. There is also recommended to have"Max" and "Min" values same. System will reserve rigid block of memory for cache and will not change the addressing while system is running so the possibility of colision in ram will be lowered. Chunksize is random. i dont know what exactly it does, i just suspect... also i have good results when setting full paths to some files which are called from system.ini. but not all of them can be called this way.

i tried to extract steam before and it was not able to run. when you run steam.exe1 it will download latest steam engine which is updated and contain WinXP version files. when i try to run steam.exe afterwards i get no error message, but the executable will not start steam service then in steam directory this file is created (failed)STEAM_assert_20081016081121_1.mdmp which seems to me as some kind of error message. also the steam.log contains this: CsComm Session Oct-16-2008 08:11:26.851 [4293961989] ReconnectThread (4293961989) Starting since the clients are updated via server connections we can patch the client, but with any new release of steam the patches we would do will be undone, erased or not functional with newer version of steam. By the way, i am not sure about that, but the steam files which i downloaded today seems identical with those i downloaded two months after the support for win98 ended. steamservice.exe is linked to missing export in Kernel32.dll:GetConsoleWindow and will not start... since i want to make Valve and Steam creators angry i believe that i will start support steamless projects

Fraps 1.9d works correctly for me.