PassingBy

Hmmm ..... As to assist the community to make an informed decision, I offer answers and/or opinions (as objectively as possible but I may have a slight bias) to issues raised in this topic according to post # : Post #2: 1. Hidden file issue : issue raised is unfounded. Ability to hide files exist and is fully functional within the folder options tabs. 2. Webview issue : resolved by yours truly in : http://www.msfn.org/board/Revolutions_Pack...142#entry703142 This issue is a moot point as webview customization only requires one to have basic html knowledge together along with some common sense. 3. Exit to DOS issue : insufficient details was provided. This has several possibilities which requires analysis between software and hardware interaction. Various causes may have a play such as : a. failure to invoke the initial "exit to DOS" to create the required pif file b. hardware related failures such as unstable hdd sectors or degraded cable quality or etc etc etc c. incorrect or mismatched system drivers d. etc etc etc An advanced (please emphasis on advanced) and experienced user will be able to diagnose and identify the root of this issue if they understand their hardware and software. Post #5: Incorrect. RP is a windows customization tool. It makes changes which requires advanced users (please emphasis again on advanced) to know where and what is being customized. Even the lameskin portion is now able to be customized to one's taste (if the person is up to it). Incorrect. Tihiy did not raise Win98 from the dead as Win98 is not dead yet. What he did was to have made a wonderful job of making Win98 look up-to-date. Another misdirection. Features being refered to are hidden files functions and webview functions which has been addressed above. These features are available and functional even with RP installed. Post #10: One man's medicine is another man's poison ... Possibly the reason for all this hoopla and mental games he is playing here .... That will be a very interesting scenario. It will probably break a lot of compatibility and may possibly loose more customers that way ... Ruffled feathers ? If we go through Forum Rules 7.b and follow the rule, we won't have any feathers ruffled. 7.b This community is built upon mutual respect. You are not allowed to flame other members. People who do not respect personal opinions and/or personal work will be warned in first instance. If you ignore the warning and keep on flaming, you will be banned without notice. It is a fact that Win 3.1, Win 95 and Win98 has been deemed "End-Of-Life" and unsupported by MS. However, end-user community support still exists and is very likely to exists until the community itself declares it "digitally dead". Windows98 is never a miracle from god. Heaven forbids it. MS has never been able to and unlikely to be able deliver a 100% perfect OS. However, users and the community of windows98 understand its weaknesses and its strengths. Windows98 is still a viable OS and will likely to be a viable solution until such time it is no longer able to meet the basic needs of the ordinary users. My conclusion: All issues raised were trivial and without much substance. I advise the win98 community to look at the raised issues objectively to see if any of it warranted further discussion, as I myself sees none. Rgds

Hmmm ..... Revolutions Packs is done exclusively by one person who contributed it for FREE to the windows98 community for the last several years ... From my experience, its hard work with sleepless nights when one wants to understand the ins-and-outs of just one areas of a proprietary software that is as complex as windows. Besides, any experienced windows users knows that they're not suppose to install software for experimentation on their daily production system. If you happen to do precisely just that and got burnt ..... well, now you know better and hopefully have learned enough to expand your horizon ..... I was amazed at how RP6 back then managed to make those visual changes with almost no impact on the overall performance of a windows98 system even with minimal hardware. I was awed by the fact that lameskin is sooooo small to be able to pull those kind of skinning tricks. I have experimented with other commercial and free desktop skinners, RP still comes out top on my list. Even with some of the quirks and rocky patch here and there, I find it suitable for my daily use. If you find that RP is not for you then you better move on. It is definitely not for you since you have issues with it. If you still keen on RP then you must learn to contribute positively ... negative attitude never gets anyone anywhere ... Constructive criticism is always welcome as it will help any developer improve their software. Critism without much substance devoids consideration ... BTW, did you read the notice in Tihiy's first RP post that says : "For advanced users only" . . . Windows Vista or even Windows XP costs more than the average monthly salary from where I come from ... So, you're telling us that we should go on hunger for a whole month just to have those so-called "beautiful makeups and eye candies" with the so-called "90 days tech-support" and "web-support" ? All these unofficial packs/updates gives us hope that our existing systems is still a viable solution for the next few years untill we really can afford something better ... Rgds

Hmmm ..... Windows 98 without command.com ..... well, that will be interesting to see ... yes, very interesting ..... very interesting .... Perhaps the cloud is moving over to windows cloud ? ...... (sorry for the pun ....) I hope you understand what you're trying to do to poor command.com, shell32.dll and explorer.exe ..... Anyways, applying LameSkin onto windows is not difficult ... making LameSkin over the years is .... Out of respect to Tihiy, I'd be keeping mum over this ... Rgds

Hmmm ...... What spurs my modification of NUSB : Native USB 3.20 for Windows 98 First Edition English Release & mirrors : NUSB 3.20 English for Windows 98 First Edition - mirror NUSB 3.12 Beta for Windows 98 First Edition - mirror & info Changes/updates for 3.12 beta: 1. Usbstor is now working on windows 98 FE. Previous plans of using Umss have been dropped. 2. Usb 2.0 support is now working on windows 98 FE. Test runs on via usb2.0 indicates everything is functional. 3. Updated explorer ver 4.72.3612.1700 4. Corrections to ATI usb2.0 inf section. 5. Patched disktsd.vxd 4.90.3000 update. 6. USB FDD support re-enabled. Test runs on mitsumi usb fdd confirmed it to be fully functional. Updates for 3.20 (stable): 1. Powerbutton not working on ACPI systems. Fixed by replacing acpi driver. 2. Minor changes to usb controller and storage classes.

Hmmm ..... Those mega hdds you're referring to are the result of stiff competition and end-user demands for mega storage .... One basic reason why there's no longer 10/20GB hdds being produced is due to disk surface density ... I have not seen desktop drives with surface density lower than 80GB per platter in production (1 platter = 2 surface; each surface approx 40GB) in the last two years ... Newer drives are made using 200GB platters ... It is simply not cost effective to mass produce smaller drives where there is little demand ... If you really do feel strongly about monstrous mega hdds, then there is one alternative that I can think of ... get a new hdd make and model that you trust and perform LBA cut-down to the size that you like .... Perhaps making brand new 80GB hdd into a 10GB/20GB/30GB that you want ... There's several freeware tool that can do this ... This may be usefull on older systems with BIOS with certain usable hdd limits (ie. 32GB or 128GB) ... Rgds

Hmmm ..... That winimize thing is for installing minimal version(s) of windows 98 (called mindows by the author) without IE integration ..... and for that to work it needs some win95 files as listed on its site there ... Rgds

Hmmm ..... Perhaps this gem will be useful to you : http://www.winimize.com/ HTH Rgds

Hmmm ..... Many free AVs are still supported by their providers ... I have multiple AVs installed (but inactive) just for kicks ... The ones that I'm currently using is AVG & AVS (aol activevirusshield by Kaspersky) ... The paid ones that I've used in the past includes nortonAV, nod32 and kaspersky ... The oldest AV I'm using (also just for kicks) is NAV5 for win95 and the updates are still working ... Rgds

Hmmm ..... I agree with Sfor ... you'll have to ensure that the yamaha opl3 is not sharing its irq ... The yamaha opl3 wdm driver IS included with win98 ... the toshiba provided drivers are vxd for win95 and gives less satisfactory results ... you will have to remove the vxd drivers and use the ms wdm drivers instead ... To manually remove the vxd drivers, remove the appropriate inf files from inf folder(s) then remove the yamaha audio from hardware properties page .... and finally refresh to enable win98 pnp to find and use the wdm drivers ... The driver wdm details can be found in inf folder (WDMA_YMH.INF) ... HTH ... Rgds

Hmmm ..... From my experience, VIA based boards works fine with win98 ... The last successfull win98 install I did was on MSI K9MMV with a sata hdd. One wil have to enable compatibility mode for the sata interface and it will run fine with win98. The MSI board was using an agp card so that's not a problem. I patched a lite nvidia driver that only installs the driver portions minus utilities and it seems to works good till now ... Performance between ide and sata drives on win98 completed installs seems to be similar. Perhaps because of the faster processor and faster sata hdd performance ... I will be building another with Asus M2V (pci-e) and from what I've read and heard so far, it will work with win98. I have stayed away from nforce chipsets all this while for this one reason, compatibility with win98 and dos. I still have to perform daily tasks with these two as I need low-level hardware access for certain devices ... Rgds

Hmmm ..... There's a guide on bootix on how to make diskless win98 which can also be used to build a minimal win98 system ... take a look here : http://www.bootix.com/support/sample_confi...iskless_en.html In appendix C, the setup config file will allow you to trim down to roughly between 140mb ~ 160mb ... HTH Rgds

Hmmm ..... May be old news to some but .... I'd like to confirm that win95 osr2.1 drivers for usb disks are indeed available and working (at least for me). First tested much more than a year ago and last tested a month ago with a new 1GB generic usb disk ..... Please refer to : http://toastytech.com/files/cruzerwin95.html Anyone who's using the driver may have to manually add the PnP IDs .... Rgds