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well.. wll, old or new is very unpredictable. i was unable to find any constant behaviour until today. previously i had Ati Radeon9800. with it worked wll almost perfectly. some months ago i bought ati x850xt. very powerful chip indeed, but the driver has never been released as full version. it was only in beta phase... this caused green stripes with original wll (from rp7) when system has initiated graphics driver on background during boot process. new wll does not have this bug. the trouble when wll drops to dos is a mystery for me. previously i thought it was caused with BIOS settings, and maybe i was partially right... but now i have fixed the trouble just by lowering BUFFERS in config sys... also the freezing during boot is quite obvious... i was creating a boot logo for velvet98... i put there incorrect color format (RGB instead of Indexed color). logo was black and white and the system has frozen. Only wrong bmp format of logo sys may cause freezing during booting... until i dont find the constant behaviour for this program i cannot give full report svgacom has more constant behaviour, but still testing...

to Tihiy: 1. green stripes after initialization of graphic card are fixed. No stripes, but the screen remains black. its not bad while it does not bother so much. i dont know if possible but i would appreciate if the logo appear again - but this problem may be in my graphics driver. 2. I have fixed the problem when wll was not loading image and it dropped to dos instead of executing win. the problem is in "Buffers" parameter in config sys. as you know i was using value 99,8. with this value wll does not load i changed the value to 33, but with it the system has frozen during winboot at usb hub device. i set it to 20 and system was able to boot. without wll was system able to boot even with maximum value, now i had to slow down because it was causing trouble. to drugwash: tommorow i will look at your product

np. i welcome any discussion about win9x software, when related to stability and performance of system.

i dont like tcp or other internet optimizers. i never measured any better performance when these apps were used. instead of that i bought intel lan card . its driver and bundled software is much better as other products i met.

i really needed some neutral Win98 theme. no linux, no vista look - thats why i used old win98 logo as starbutton but also i like way how vista uses its buttons, so i kept them. Black color was used as an alternative to grey and blude - it did not looked so good as black glass. also i like 3d cursor using along with this theme.

i have via chipset... it works perfectly in this case try to follow win upgrades as i have installed them - look at first page... take care on drivers...

i dont use emule. i think that latest versions were not win98 compliant anymore. i use u*******. No problem at all.

If you have Ati Graphics card uberskin may sometimes show pink edges on window skins. pink color is used for overlaying and should be transparent, but sometimes it is not. Therefore i used themes which doesnt use pink overlaying in window - there mostly this error occur so i used graphics with sharp edges with solid nontransparent color. btw this start button can be used with any theme. i tested it with standard AeroBlue.

i like Tihyis black windows 98 bootlogo, but i want to replace XP window logo by embossed win9x logo if i found one suitable (with black frames ) edit: i executed svgacom in windows mode. when startup.bmp was present i get very bad error - system was frozen. after reboot i get bsod about VWin32.vxd. at next reboot scanreg automatically restored backup and later system worked fine...

this is the error message when i execute svgacom without startup.bmp http://www.slayershrine.wz.cz/wll.jpg i cant help more in this phase - maybe later when the svgacom will be "bootable"...

the actual trouble with svgacom was that i didnt know that the file must be named startup.bmp, because in the pack i downloaded was startupOK.bmp. also the error message was not written in english. it was an amount of random symbols with no sense to me. right now i was able to execute svgacom with your bitmap (very ugly ). with this i can test these things: - when or where to execute svgacom while bootup (wll had one error. in some versions of io and command it executed as last thing when dos boot was complete, so user has seen all the dos text underlying, in the italian version of these files i was able to see logo as first thing during boot and user was not bothered by the text) - what about scandisk - what about dos - what about my graphics driver which has currently broken logo graphics during boot edit: a) when svgacom was executed standalone from autoexec it prevented execution of other programs in line. B) when svgacom was execcuted as wll.com i had similar error as before. logo apeared but windows was not starting. this also occurs with normal wll... maybe the problem is in my windows but i dont know where search.

compiler work, for most people it will be unusable - just because they dont know how to compile, or not willing to download any assembler. 1. standard wll does not work for me now. i dont know why. 2. svgacom does not work at all. i get some unreadable message and later "press a key to start windows". I am not sure if i did things correctly. first of all i compiled svgacom, then i put it in c: with your logo. then i executed svgacom in dos mode, but i get no image - only the message. than i tried replace logo sys with your logo but still no effect and same err message later i tried to replace wll by svgacom files but with same effect

so i have some things to report this early morning 1. GTA III I was playing the game and in the middle of one mission DVDrom lost the track, or better say it was losing it slowly. The game freezed but system was able to fully recover by CTRL+ALT+DEL and later closing the GTA 3. it took several minutes but i would prefer other behaviour with cdroms... Maybe hw and sw related... 2. IFS for EXT2 Linux filesystem is available for NT based system throught IFS http://www.fs-driver.org/ seems interesting to me, but this bring us closer to linux at all. i tried the driver with win98 but i was not sucessful. also the inf files are in windows NT signature and i am unable to translate them into chicago... 3. Crashes history... The system stability is still improving. even serious app crashes can be recovered safely. their occurence is smaller. when i look at crash history on first page i see that major trouble (especially unexpected errors) are quite few. right now i am running my system for approximately nine hours without reboot. yesterday i tried some critical apps such as oblivion, but the stability was not affected. 4. kernel EX, xp compatibility , wll and other projects I hope that wll upgrade will be soon here classical wll is really littlebit mystery for me. i cant predict its behaviour. minor things as bios settings or config sys are indirectly affecting its behaviour, and i dont want to use english io.sys and command.com also i hope that in some time there will be possibility to improve compatibility even for apps which are generating error messages when executed. these are really big problem to me.

when combining vxds use new vmm32.vxd. backup your old vmm32.vxd and put in system directory fresh and new from CD (and erase vmm32.tmp. i really dont know if it remains or not during combining) HTH. for future discuss this in VXD patcher topic and sory for nonsense, i am little bit tired

check the paths at first. also be sure that vmm32.vxd is not in vmm32 directory. it must be in system directory...

This is basically modified vista theme with very special start button Pink edges which sometimes occur with other themes are here fixed. Preview: http://slayershrine.wz.cz/velvet98.jpg Download: http://slayershrine.wz.cz/velvet98.zip Filesize: 80 890 bytes

try SP2.1 for now. for other things check devices and bios.

this is list of files which have been in my VMM32 directory originally: configmgm.vxd - 4.10.2225 - dated 8.12.2000 ntkern.vxd - 4.10.2224 - 21.2.2001 qemmfix.vxd - 4.10.1998 - 5.5.1999 (not included) vcomm.vxd - 4.10.2225 - 2.3.2001 vmcpd.vxd - 4.10.2223 - 2.5.2000 vmm.vxd - 4.10.2226 - 5.3.2001 (not included) vmouse.vxd - 4.10.2225 - 4.4.2002 vpicd.vxd - 4.10.2224 - 21.07.2000 udf.vxd - 4.10.2223 - 5.3.2003 vfat.vxd - 4.10.2223 - 19.10.2000 ifsmgr.vxd - 4.10.2225 - 19.9.2000 ios.vxd - 4.10.2225 - 9.1.2001 the list of file in first post shows vxds which vere included. all of them are dated 5.5.1999 except those which are in this shorter list - i used the newer ones. the following files have not been requested by my system (when skeleton vmm32.vxd with empty vmm32 directory was used during boot up) so they were not used for compiling of this vmm32.vxd which i put here for download: dosnet.vxd qemmfix.vxd vmm.vxd vmm32.vxd vshare.vxd vmd.vxd vmm32.vxd cannot be inlcuded because it will be compiled into itself rest of files seems unnecessary for my system but the question is if they are necessary for other users... i am not sure about it so as a first step i recomend the test with skeleton vmm32.vxd and empty vmm32 directory to detect it. PLEASE REPORT ANY CHANGE IN BEHAVIOUR AFTER APPLYING THE VMM32.VXD i need feedback to correct all possible errors or confirm improvement.

Alpha version: http://slayershrine.wz.cz/VMM32.rar backup your vmm32.vxd file and vmm32 directory, then unpack this archive and put it to system directory. then erase all files in vmm32 directory and reboot. this file is intended for Windows 98SE. list of used files is in previous post. for me it has fixed some bugs and improved boot up time little bit. (hosting is little bit lazy so maybe you will need to download it more than once until it is ok. file has 1 020 018 bytes) if you get error message or bsod during boot restore your files and send report here which files were missing.

VXD analysis Finished: Methods: i have compiled my own vmm32.vxd file including ios.vxd and ifsmgr.sys, excluding vmm, vmm32, vshare, qemmfix and dosnet.vxd file, then i have completely erased vmm32 directory from system. then i have compared system performance and stability with same windows installation with standard vxds which is located on other hardrive. on both systems i tried some vxd related tricks to cause system crash. New VMM32.VXD seems to be more stable. Ultima Online + Media player classic caused error related to afvxd.vxd causing BSOD or system freeze on old system. on new system with new vmm this error was fixed (partially with client update - freezing, and partially by vmm compilation - bsod on logon). also i was trying to crash system for three hours without any sucess in this phase i need help from someone who has standard vmm32.vxd and can measure any vxd related errors on his system, and is willing to test which vxds his system needs and later compile new vmm32.vxd from these files... it seems that if we can detect which vmm32 related vxds are needed and later compiled we can improve system stability, while vxds in vmm32 directory may cause more trouble as precompiled vmm32.dll i will appreciate some kind of patcher which can analyze vmm32.vxd to report which files it contains, than extract them from CD, while keeping newer vxd files available and then create new vmm32.vxd with most recent vxds, and adding there ios and ifsmgr ... necesarry files has to be compiled to vmm32.vxd, unnecessary must stay away from system, and VMM directory must stay empty to improve stability... more references are now in Immolator project topic and i shall move them here. Required VXD detection - IMPORTANT 1. Backup your VMM32 directory and VMM32.VXD file. 2. Erase all files in VMM32 directory. 3. Replace VMM32.VXD in System directory by basic VMM32.VXD file from Windows installation CD (dated 5.5.1999 for win98se). 4. Reboot 5. System shall not boot up, but write down list of all missing files which windows requests. 6. system shall shut down (in normal case). 7. restore your VMM32 directory and VMM32.VXD file and bootup normally. 8. Check the list of *.VXD files and remove duplicate entries - each file is needed only once. 9. Write down list of all *.VXD files which are in your VMM32 directory. 10. sent the file lists here for comparation. i will add my own list when i shall have it available again. I need to know if each system require same vxds or there are differences, so this information is crutial in creating of this patch. Also i dont want to include all vxds - only these which are really needed. this is my list of necessary vxds: biosxlat.vxd combuff.vxd configmg.vxd dosmgr.vxd dynapage.vxd ebios.vxd int13.vxd mtrr.vxd ntkern.vxd pageswap.vxd parity.vxd perf.vxd reboot.vxd shell.vxd spooler.vxd udf.vxd v86mmgr.vxd vcache.vxd vcd.vxd vcdfsd.vxd vcomm.vxd vcond.vxd vdd.vxd vdef.vxd vdmad.vxd vfat.vxd vfbackup.vxd vflatd.vxd vkd.vxd vmcpd.vxd vmouse.vxd vmpoll.vxd vpd.vxd vpicd.vxd vsd.vxd vtd.vxd vtdapi.vxd vwin32.vxd vxdldr.vxd ios.vxd ifsmgr.vxd all these including ios and ifsmgr have been sucessfully compiled into vmm32.vxd. all these which i dont have in this list were not requested by system during test. right now i have removed at least one critical bug which was caused by one app with this updated version of vmm32.vxd thanks passingby

i tried to compile my own new vmm32.vxd but i failed. in one case it worked but the resulted file had 4 mb and causing some behaviour. i use startup sound as a diagnosis tool. if the sound is clear than booting process is ok, if it is choppy it may indicate trouble in system. with vxds just erased from vmm32 directory the performance was little bit improved and sound was clear. with self compiled vmm32,vxd the performance was great but the sound at startup was terribly choppy, also the vmm was too large. the original vmm32.vxd on my system has 930kb. i want to perform separate import of newer vxds while not adding unnecessary files... also newer does not mean automatically better. edit: i have isolated the problem. here is the list of unnecessary files for me: dosnet.vxd qemmfix.vxd vmm.vxd vmm32.vxd vshare.vxd vmd.vxd (i have erased vmm32 directory and added base vmm32vxd from cd and writed down the list of files which are necessary and required) also if vmm32.vxd is present in vmm32 directory it may cause trouble with compiled file. then i included ios.vxd and ifsmgr.vxd into vmm32.vxd for compilation and they seem to work. i have to test system performance and stability. edit: althought i encountered minor graphical errors and one system crash these can be described as error due overclocking and error of graphic driver. i really have no ideas how to cause crash on this system right now, except some cases which are sure.

ntkern, msmouse, configmgm were listed as a part of driver in device manager. when i removed it it was replaced with vmm32.dll - instantly. i have tested mouse in command line and it works correctly. also during boot in mode where i have to confirm execution of all system parts there is a line like this: "supress *.vxd standard?" while * marks the name of file... it seems like windows standardly uses vmm32.vxd but when those files are present in directory it will automatically run them to replace vmm32. i ask why, when vmm32.dll is acting as single executable instead of 8 executables. right now have tested only mouse and it works. i dont use any com device so i cannot say if it acts... by udf and vfat i am not sure what it does. i dont see slowing down of system. it works same like before. look here: http://www.sysopt.com/forum/showthread.php?t=84081 and read the article where is mentione that vfat.vxd is embedded in vmm32.vxd. if it is so i have no trouble without it, but the question is if it is older or newer version... it is written there that first are loaded vxds from directory, and later the vmm32.vxd. if the driver from directory is loaded first, vmm32.vxd section for this file is ignored... previosly i tried to import other vxds from cabinets to vmm32 directory. in that case i have seen some errors - mostly related to graphics...

1. TaoFramework these are parts of opengl, openal and other API libraries combined with .NET Framwork 2.0. they work on my system, they require net2, but apparently they contain quite large amount of bugs which lead framework to crash sometimes. i am not sure if i would reccomend it because. it works with expample files which are in package, but i really dont know if it affects some games or not. 2 VXD files in VMM32 directory. i was experimenting with their presence or absence. if they act as 16bit executable or some kind of library. most of these libraries are already included with vmm32.vxd in system directory, so i tried to remove them and see which are really needed and which can work within vmm32.vxd. i have sucessfully removed these: configmgm.vxd ntkern.vxd qemmfix.vxd vcomm.vxd vmcpd.vxd vmm.vxd vmouse.vxd vpicd.vxd udf.vxd vfat.vxd system is working correctly without them, but now it is only in short time to say if this change helped or not. only these were necessary for system: ifsmgr.vxd ios.vxd but it may vary depending on hw. what are your opinions about this method? practically it will remove some libraries and most work shall be done by vmm32.vxd. edit: corrected list

glut32.dll this api has been developed years ago to ease opengl applications. here is the link, http://www.opengl.org/resources/libraries/glut/ when i read about its features i realized that many apps are sometimes sufering of its missing, so i added it to my system to test it. really i dont see the difference also on this page you may find info about freeglut variations and methods how to use opengl in skinning engines, windowing and UI at all. http://www.opengl.org/resources/libraries/windowtoolkits/ also some other tools for opengl. http://mark.michaelis.net/Blog/OpenGLSuppo...anagedCode.aspx if it shall help improve functionality or performance i am interested... so have some testing to do on weekend opengl has still potential even for legacy systems...

if you mean WIFI network card i was using one for few weeks. until i returned to wired net. the manufacturer was Canyon, but i dont remember the type...