Multibooter

Thanks jaclaz. I have test-installed VoptXP v7.22 on my 10-year-old Inspiron 7500 laptop (700MHz, 512 MB RAM) under Win98SE and made some preliminary tests. Here the results under Win98SE: - VoptXP v7.22 defragged fine a 192GB partition on an external 1 TB pre-brick Seagate SATA HDD ( ) - VoptXP v7.22 defragged fine when this pre-brick Seagate SATA HDD was in a Kingwin EZ-Dock EZD-2535 docking station connected via eSATA PCCard (Vantec eSATA PCCard UGT-ST350CB [silicon Image SiI 3512 SATALink Controller]) and when connected via USB 2.0/nusb - VoptXP v7.22 processed Ok a 3.99GB file (4.294.967.295 bytes) under Win98SE with the "Unofficial 2-4 GB Files Errors KERNEL32.DLL Fix" - VoptXP v7.22 seems to handle errors Ok: the 192GB partition on the pre-brick Seagate SATA HDD had a free disk space error [Norton Disk Doctor: "The boot area on this drive contains invalid information about the drive's free space. Windows may report the drive's free space incorrectly or slowly."], which seems to be ignored under WinXP, but not under Win98. After defragging for about 10 minutes, Vopt displayed an error message "VoptXP. An error has occurred while attempting to access this drive. Err=Error writing drive -> 268 Source=V.DP.RH.PD.PAD.MFR.SF2.SSMF" Then ScanDisk came up out of the blue with the err msg: "ScanDisk cannot check this drive because the disk is not properly formatted, or a program such as a disk utility has locked it. Format the disk or wait for the utility to finish, and then restart ScanDisk." After shutting down and powering the pre-brick Seagate HDD off-on, I ran NDD under Win98 and fixed the free disk space error. NDD found a lost cluster, probably a leftover from the interrupted defragging. I then ran under Win98SE Partition Table Doctor v3.5 and PartitionMagic v8.01.1312, everything was Ok. I then compared the files on the partition where VoptXP was working on against a backup on another HDD, everything Ok. VoptXP seems to handle well error situations/crashes, no data was lost. BUT: Immediately after VoptXP started to defrag, Win98 became nearly totally unresponsive [a Windows Explorer window open up about 3 minutes after clicking on it to bring it to the foreground]. The clock in the system tray didn't advance anymore, the CPUIdle usage icon in the system tray stayed frozen, and SysInternal's Process Explorer (set to real time) did not responded either. After VoptXP had finished defragging, everything worked fine again and the clock showed again the correct time. This single-tasking behaviour, however, makes VoptXP unattractive to use under Win98.I didn't find any switches or settings to fix Vopt's temporary locking up of Win98; there are no settings for background defragging. Any suggestions how to fix this? BTW, VoptXP v7.22 has not been updated recently. The latest modification date of files in the install-to is 21-Nov-2003, even if the modification date of the installer file VXP_v722.exe on their website is 17-Dec-2006 (=probably date of their last upload to their server). VoptXP v7.22 is still offered for sale, but was last updated 7 years ago.

For the past years I have been defragging my HDDs not under Win98, but under WinXP. I uninstalled Diskeeper Pro v9 from Win98SE about 4 years ago, and since then I have no defragging software installed under Win98, except for MS Disk Defragmenter, which I don't use. I have on my dual-core desktop 2 instances of WinXP, one running on a FAT32 partition, the other running on an NTFS partition. The boot partition is FAT16. A separate FAT32 swap partition contains the fixed-size 3888MB swap files of Win98 and of WinXP(Fat32); the swap file of WinXP(NTFS) is on its NTFS partition. I frequently create under Win98, with Norton Ghost v11.0.2 (standalone) and the switches -z9 -cns -fatlimit -szee in the desktop shortcut, backups of the WinXP(FAT32) partition. Before creating the .gho file of the WinXP(FAT32) partition, I boot into WinXP(NTFS) and defragment from there the WinXP(FAT32) partition with PerfectDisk v8.0.67, then I boot back into Win98 to create the .gho partition image. I would like to defragment the WinXP(FAT32) partition under Win98. Which Win98-compatible defragging software can be recommended for this purpose? The defragging software should work fine under plain vanilla Win98SE with: - big PATA drives (up to 750GB) - big SATA drives (up to 2TB) - primary and logical FAT32 partitions up to 240GB (on external drives and on internal HDDs with patches for the 137GB problem) - HDDs connected via USB 2.0/eSATA I, maybe also via Firewire - other partition types on the HDD (NTFS, Linux) (i.e. the defragmentation software should not damage them) - Unicode/WinXP-compatible file and directory names - files up to 4 GB in size - a dual-core CPU under Win98 There is a very interesting thread at but I am interested specifically in Win98 software which works with modern hardware. I am hesitant about experimenting with various old defragging programs on my HDDs, maybe someone here has already done it already. I only need basic defragmentation and free space optimization on demand, no optimization of file and directory locations, no automatic runs in the background.

@duffy98 ... Thanks for posting the info about K-Meleon, it made me curious about K-Meleon and I tried it out http://kmeleon.sourceforge.net/download.php K-Meleon v1.5.4 works fine on plain vanilla Win98SE and has the touch and feel of Firefox, but loads pages faster. I made this posting under K-Meleon and will definitely keep K-Meleon on my computer, it looks good.

Both website are on my favorite top-10 list, great content. msfn.org works fine even if JavaScript is turned off (I made this posting while JavaScript was off). To post at the www.nzz.ch forum I have to turn JavaScript on unfortunately.JavaScript is one of the greatest threats to privacy. With JavaScript on and Flash Player installed, Big Brother Adobe may be watching and logging activities. There may be some control over what is communicated by customizing one's personal Flash Player preferences stored on Adobe's computers, accessible at http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager05.html There is no need to log in, they already know who you are. "If you select Always Deny and then confirm your selection, any website that tries to use your camera or microphone will be denied access. You will not be asked again if a website can use your camera or microphone. This action applies both to websites you have already visited and to those you haven't yet visited." http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager02.html Perhaps the expense incurred for providing a free player is made up by revenue from the Big Brother in government. A free honey pot for everybody, thanks to JavaScript.

I changed dom.max_script_run_time in Firefox from the default 10 [secs] to 1. As a result I got a lot of msgs "Warning: Unresponsive Script". Is there a setting in Firefox which suppresses this msg, it's a nuisance to click on "Stop Script" continuously. A good (or rather bad?) test example of a slow-loading website, probably because of tons of advertising scripts, is www.nzz.ch Script-heavy websites load slowly mainly on my 10-year-old 700 MHz laptop with 512MB RAM, much less on my dual core with 1250 MB RAM.

With TweakUI (v1.33, for Win98, digitally signed 29-Aug-2000 by MS, no idea where to get it now) you can prevent any drive letter from being displayed in My Computer, but not in Windows Explorer. Since WinBoost (I just checked with old v4.6 of 2-Sep-2003, v4.9 is the current version at http://www.magellass.com/index.html ) can hide selected drives in both Windows Explorer and My Computer, there must be a way to hide the floppy drive letter with a registry patch. WinBoost requires a reboot after hiding/unhiding drive letters, TweakUI doesn't.

Is there such a MaxScriptStatements tweak also for Opera or Firefox?

When file-sharing has not yet been enabled on the WinXP computer you get this message on the Win98 computer: "Enter Network Password. You must supply a password to make this connection. Resource: \\xxxxxx\IPC$. Password:". To enable file-sharing on the WinXP computer: - Right-click on a partition in My Computer -> Sharing and Security -> click on the text "I understand that" - in the next window in section "network sharing and security": -> click again on the text "I understand that..." - in window "Enable File Sharing": -> select "Just enable filesharing" -> Ok After file-sharing is enabled on the WinXP computer, there is no more "Enter Network Password.... IPC$". But I don't know how to turn off file-sharing under WinXP. On my Win98/XP network I have the Win98 computers set in Control Panel -> Network to "Windows Logon", to get rid of the annoying "Enter Network Password. Enter your network password for Microsoft Networking" message when Win98 starts up.

I am using a bfg 7800 GS OC AGP card under Win98SE. This card has a very noisy fan, which has made me think more than once about downgrading.

Hi Jolaes,A little off-topic: I had decided to use the Win-98SE compatible Thunderbird v2.0.0.24 under both Win98SE and WinXP so that I could use the same Profile folder under Win98 and WinXP (which unfortunately contains both the emails AND the software settings), to be able to check/access emails under both Win98SE and WinXP. I am not sure what the result would be if I used the same profile/software settings for Thunderbird v2 under Win98SE and Thunderbird v3 under WinXP. This file-sharing between 2 operating systems increases the risk of cross-infection, so eventually I have to find a better solution. Since Firefox v3 runs on your Win98SEME with KernelEx, Thunderbird 3 should also run Ok. Thunderbird v3 is a little bit sluggish on my old 700 MHz laptop when compared to v2. I tend to prefer smaller software, even on my dual core desktop, the installer of Thunderbird v2.0.0.24 is 6.83MB, that of v3.1.4 is 8.98MB.

The last version of Firefox to work with Win98SE is v2.0.0.20 of 18-Dez-08. You can download it from http://www.oldapps.com/firefox.phpFirefox v2.0.0.20 still works fine under Win98SE, although under WinXP I have installed the currently latest v3.6.9. The email counterpart to Firefox is Thunderbird. I am using the last Win98-compatible Thunderbird v2.0.0.24 of 15-Mar-2010 under both Win98 and WinXP. I had briefly used the currently latest Thunderbird v3.1.4 under WinXP, but then reverted to older v2.0.0.24. Newer does not necessarily mean better.

A very good article about a single multiboot swap file. Food for thought.Until my experience with the Tenga .exe infector, I have shared many files (stand-alone programs, dos programs, data files) between different operating systems, e.g. a desktop shortcut under WinXP had as target the same .exe file as a similar shortcut under Win98. This sharing of files between operating systems was basically a relict of those days when HDD storage was expensive. When the Tenga .exe infector virus struck my computer 6 months ago [even Kaspersky Anti-Virus avp.exe and the System Commander boot manager got infected, and 1 TB of downloads on a USB drive was destroyed], this shared .exe arrangement may have resulted in an infection across various operating systems on my computer. WinXP on FAT32, for example, may have become infected because I may have used under WinXP desktop shortcuts pointing to infected Win98 .exe files. But how the infection actually spread across operating systems is still not clear to me. As a precautionary measure against the undesired interaction of various operating systems on the same computer I have now created duplicate identical folders, e.g. one Ghost v11.0.2 stand-alone for Win98, another one for WinXP. I have reduced the number of files shared between operating systems to the minimum possible. I am not aware of malware capable of spreading between operating systems thru a shared swap file, but I would need now good reasons for acting against the principle: "Share as little as possible between various operating systems on the same computer"

Please update: Mozilla Thunderbird v2.0.0.24 of 15-Mar-2010, download location: ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/thunderbird/releases/2.0.0.24/win32/en-US/Thunderbird%20Setup%202.0.0.24.exe is the currently last version for Win98, NOT v2.0.0.23 of 19-Aug-2009. Description and alternative download location is at http://www.oldapps.com/thunderbird.php?old_thunderbird=47

After having installed the "October 2001" MSDN Library collection, is there an incremental benefit from also installing the older (around August 1998) "Visual Studio 6.0a" collection? Or will I just fill up my HDD with near-duplicate stuff? My main interests are Visual Basic 6.0 and the Knowledge Base around Win98. MS often deletes stuff in newer collections and deletes information when revising articles.

Hi schwups,I suspect that the slow CPU of my 10-year-old laptop (700MHz, 256k L2 cache) is the cause of the heating up of the CPU. The Tualatin has 1.0-1.4 GHz, the Northwood 1.6-2.2 GHz and the Prescott 2.2-3.8 GHz. Another contributing cause may have been the current high room temperature (28-31 degrees centigrade), which may have brought the issue to my attention because of the fan making noise. mdgx lists on his indispensable website the latest versions and updates under Win98SE and other operating systems, but I assume that his testing has been on a fast machine, not on a slow-coach like my old Inspiron laptop. In the excellent "Last Versions of Software for Windows 98SE" galahs does not indicate whether there are issues with slow CPUs. Some software may have a last version for slow machines, and another last version for fast machines. Older and newer versions of software may differ in their minimum CPU requirement. Software and updates which have problems under Win98 with a slow CPU (e.g. <1 GHz) should be marked as such. MS Java VM is another example of a software where the last version has a CPU issue. MS Java Virtual Machine v5.0.3167 comes with the original Win98SE and does not cause the CPU on my old laptop to heat up. Immediately after updating to v5.0.3810 (or builds 3805 and 3809), however, the fan in my old laptop starts to blow and Resource Meter displays a substantial decrease in free resources. System updates with issues under Win98SE on slower machines (<1 GHz): MS Java Virtual Machine v5.0.3805 to v5.0.3810 (Ok version: v5.0.3167) MS MDAC 2.8 SP1 [displayed by Component Checker as "MDAC 2.8 SP1 ON WINDOWS XP SP2"] (Ok version: MS MDAC 2.8, displayed as "MDAC 2.8 RTM")

I had MDAC 2.8 working fine on my 10-year-old 700 MHz laptop under Win98SE since 2003. Then, after having seen MDAC 2.8 SP1 listed by galahs as the last version for Win98, I got the idea of upgrading. Immediately after the installation of MDAC v2.8 SP1 the fan of the old laptop started to blow and the bottom of the laptop, where the CPU is located, started to get really hot. CPUIdle, however, didn't indicate a much higher CPU usage than before. The fan kept on blowing maybe for an hour, even after rebooting or booting briefly into WinXP. I was not running any data base software. The system under Win98SE, however, and perhaps eMule also, seemed to have become a little crisper under SP1. MDAC cannot be uninstalled, so I had to restore \Windows\ and \Program Files\ from backup in order to revert from MDAC 2.8 SP1 back to MDAC 2.8. After having restored MDAC 2.8 the laptop worked as usual, no heating up or noisy fan. MDAC 2.5, 2.6 and 2.7 had CPU usage issues: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/320700 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/320698 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/320696 which were apparently fixed with v2.8. Could it be that the CPU usage issue came back with MDAC 2.8 SP1?

I would first check the HDD with Partition Table Doctor v3.5, which might be able to fix the HDD if something is wrong with it. As 2nd step I would run PartitonMagic v8.01 Build 1312 and see whether it loads without any error message. Finally (in the indicated sequence) I would run Norton Disk Doctor 2004 (standalone). If all 3 don't report any errors, it's a false positive by Disk Minder. I removed Nuts & Bolts from my computer a long time ago. BTW, I would put the HDD into a USB enclosure/docking station and then check the HDD under Win98 with my main computer with the 3 programs, so no need to install the programs on the HDD to be checked. Also, since Disk Minder/Nuts & Bolts is really old software, the message "1 Extended Boot Sector Errors" may be flagging something which may cause problems under Win95, but not under Win98/XP.

LAST - SHAR - FTP Voyager v13.0.0.5 --- http://ftp.rz.uni-wuerzburg.de/pub/MIRROR/simtelnet/winxp/inetftp/fvsetup.exe FTP Voyager v13.0.0.5 of 1-Nov-2006 (shareware) is the last version and built for Win98. The main advantage of FTP Voyager is its ease of use and a near-zero learning curve. v13.0.0.5 is very hard to find. The program description of v13.0.0.5 can be found at "http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/win/7925&vid=354224&mode=info" A Registration ID (= key) of some older versions (e.g. of v12.3) also works with v13.0.0.5 Home page: http://www.ftpvoyager.com Here some usage notes: The file ftpvoyager.ftp contains the FTP access codes (e.g. user name, password, etc) to FTP sites/web servers. With the setting "Automatic ASCII" [-> Tools -> Transfer Mode -> Automatic ASCII] CR and CR/LF gets handled properly. FTP Voyager v13.0.0.5 can be kept from calling home by blocking IP 97.88.242.106 port 80 for ftpvoyager.exe. FTP Voyager has been my favorite FTP program for the past 12 years.

Question about updating Visual Basic 6: After installing under Win98SE Visual Basic 6.0 or Visual Studio 6.0 should I run VS Service Pack 5 vs6sp5.exe (7-Feb-2001, 130 MB) and then the Unofficial Visual Studio 6 SP6 (Win9x) by mdgx (1.9 MB http://www.mdgx.com/files/VS6SP6U.EXE ), or should I skip running vs6sp5.exe and just run mdgx's VS6SP6U.EXE? mdgx indicates in his info file http://www.mdgx.com/files/VS6SP6U.TXT "This fix/update is cumulative. This means it includes ALL BUG fixes from all previous official + unofficial patches/(hot)fixes/updates." Because of the difference in file size it doesn't seem to be right that mdgx's SP6 update file (1.9 MB) obviates the stuff in SP5 (130 MB). I assume that SP6 from MS (Vs6sp6.exe or Vs6sp6B.exe) is not for Win98.

There is another article by Microsoft http://support.microsoft.com/kb/193833 "This error message can occur if you already have six (or more) network adapters installed, and Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) is bound to six of the existing network adapters. Windows 98 can bind TCP/IP to only six network adapters at one time." This info applies apparently only to Win98FE, so possibly there are differences regarding the maximum instances of TCP/IP (=bindings) between Win98FE and Win98SE.

I had actually set MaxInstance to 16 under Win98SE last week, and everything works fine. But I have only 6 instances of TCP/IP displayed by the Network applet, even if 8 TCP/IP devices are currently installed, i.e. I have deleted in the Network applet 2 instances of TCP/IP (i.e. entries beginning with "TCP/IP -> ...", but not their corresponding device entries without the "TCP/IP -> ...").Eventually I will install more TCP/IP devices, e.g. WLAN PCCards, but I will make sure that the Network applet displays only 6 or fewer instances of TCP/IP. I suspect that MaxInstance could be set to any number, provided that no more than 6 TCP/IP devices are currently "active", i.e have a TCP/IP entry displayed in the Network applet. If I should come across problems because of the additional TCP/IP devices with the setting MaxInstance=16, I'll report it here. About 2 1/2 years ago, when I was looking into this issue of max. 6 Instances of TCP/IP I came across "http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,1162371,00.asp": "The new TCP/IP software built into Windows Me removes this limitation [max. 6 instances under Win98], and you can install as many networking features as you want without being forced to remove existing ones." I had also seen 2 1/2 years ago the trick with modifying Nettrans.inf http://www.carricksolutions.com/pppoe/windowspppoe.php#8 but somehow I never followed thru, and it just got buried in my InfoSelect notes Maybe replacing some Win98-dlls with WinME-dlls might overcome the limitation of 6 instances of TCP/IP.I don't doubt that Microsoft had good reasons for setting MaxInstance=6 under Win98. One would have to identify what specific problems occur with more than 6 active instances and could then see whether replacing dlls might permit more than 6 instances of TCP/IP (maybe 10?) under Win98.

Thanks a million wsxedcrfv. I have changed MaxInstance from 6 to 10, then rebooted, then added the TCP/IP protocol in the Network applet. Upon rebooting all current 7 TCP/IP devices had a corresponding TCP/IP instance, i.e. the Network applet displayed 7 instances of TCP/IP. To conform to the apparent working limit of 6 TCP/IP instances, I removed then one currently not needed instance of TCP/IP in the Network applet. The problem of selectively adding TCP/IP bindings appears to have been solved with the following 3 steps: 1) increase the MaxInstance in the TCP/IP section of Nettrans.inf 2) have the Network applet automatically add TCP/IP Bindings to ALL TCP/IP devices, even if this results in more then 6 instances of TCP/IP 3) manually delete currently unneeded instances of TCP/IP, until there is only a maximum of 6 I will try whether after installing the webcam, which adds "TCP/IP -> Microsoft TV/Video Connection", I can in this way create a set of 6 currently active TCP/IP instances. This seems to be a very elegant workaround, one only has to make sure that there are no more than 6 instances of TCP/IP listed by the Network applet, to avoid unknown problems. Thanks again wsxedcrfv.

This seems to be a good starting point, maybe modifying some .inf may modify how the Network applet assigns TCP/IP bindings.Here the section in Nettrans.inf: ;**************************************************************************** ; TCP/IP ;**************************************************************************** [MSTCP.ndi] DelReg=MSTCP.ndi.delreg AddReg=MSTCP.ndi.reg DeviceID=MSTCP MaxInstance=6 NETBEUI has the setting MaxInstance=8

I have checked various shareware sites, but didn't find a software tool to juggle around TCP/IP bindings The only working solution seems to uninstall TCP/IP devices via Add/Remove until 5 TCP/IP devices are displayed in Control Panel -> Network, then to install a 6th TCP/IP device The problem seems to be that the MS Network applet automatically binds the TCP/IP protocol to all network card drivers, starting with the driver of the first TCP/IP device at the top of the Network window, going towards the bottom, until it reaches 6 instances. The automaticity of the MS Network applet does not let you choose which drivers shall be bound to the TCP/IP protocol. BTW, since the infection with the Tenga virus I have StartUp Organizer continuously monitoring changes in the StartUp settings. When the MS Network applet adds the TCP/IP protocol and wants to reboot, StartUp Organizer reports changes in the registry as follows: Run Registry\All Users\RunOnce grpconv.exe -o

I had looked at the registry, one key with the 6 instances of TCP/IP is HKLM\Enum\Network\MSTCP, but this looks like a tricky procedure. It's probably the last resort if I can't find a special software tool.Maybe there is a software tool which displays the TCP/IP devices installed plus a box for each device, with a checkmark which TCP/IP device should have TCP/IP bindings . Such a tool could also be used for temporarily de-activating TCP/IP devices, e.g. during the installation of software. For temporarily disabling network cards I am using Tihiy's excellent IPTest (Enable/Disable button) , but this program does not remove/add TCP/IP bindings. When I use Device Manager to "Disable in this hardware profile" the network card, the network card gets a red mark, but its TCP/IP instance stays in Control Panel -> Network.