Multibooter

I only use on-demand scanning, and I also reject real-time scanning. But the main problem is that it is getting difficult to do ANY virus checking under Win98, anti-virus vendors are dropping support for Win98. Food for thought. Nearly all the malware detected in my current downloads are trojans etc. But it's just a matter of how you call these critters. Kaspersky Anti-Virus would in this sense be a misnomer, since most of the stuff it detects are trojans. Myself, I quite often use the word 'virus' to mean 'trojans, etc', even if it's not correct. And when I run a virus-check, I am checking for all kinds of malware, not just for viruses. In my personal experience, firewall software has had only marginal value in protecting me from malware. The main use of firewall software is to protect me against nosy software vendors trying to call home.The best thing I have done for my computer in the last couple of months was to throw out ZoneAlarm v5.5 and install ancient Tiny Personal Firewall v2.0.14 instead, my computer has become REALLY crisp and fast afterwards. I disagree, unless you meant OS=open source/Linux. I consider my Win98SE system to be safer because I have tried to stay away from updates released after Sept.11, 2001 It has worked for me, because I have a long backlog. In general it's wise not to install dubious downloads for about 2-3 months, the signature updates eventually catch up with newer malware. Kaspersky doesn't have too many false positives. But that doesn't really matter, in most cases there are many sources for the same stuff, anything which Kaspersky flags as infected or which otherwise looks fishy, gets deleted.

2 days ago Autoruns v9.13 only tried to call come to the above IP, and I had repeated it quite a few times. Today, autoruns.chm tries to call home only to 64.4.52.169, port 80 - TCP. File hippo only goes back to Autoruns v8.53 of 10-Jul-2006. When checking the mule, the oldest version seen, with autoruns.chm in it, is v5.01 of 10-Sep-2004. This old v5.01 calls home to the same IP as v9.13. With both versions, whenever one selects Autoruns -> Help -> Help, autoruns.exe tries to call twice. Whenever one double-clicks on autoruns.chm, hh.exe tries to call home twice.The next lower version checked, v4.32 of 26-Jun-2004, did not have a menu selection ->Help -> Help and did not come with a .chm file, and did not call home either. So sometime between June and September 2004 the calling-home-feature was added, possibly starting with Autoruns v5.00. Maybe other software also had such a feature added after summer 2004. Autoruns v4.32 already detects webcheck.dll (but Autoruns v1.2 of 29-Sep-2000 does not). Since it's only a .chm file, it should be possible to identify what kind of information is being transmitted, probably nothing really important.

Kaspersky Internet Security v6.0.2.621 still updates fine under Win98SE as of today 5-May-2009

Thanks Queue. Autoruns v9.13 links fine to Process Explorer v11.11 http://www.filehippo.com/download_process_explorer/3854/ under Win98SE. http://www.filehippo.com/ looks like an authorized site with lots of freeware.procexp.chm of Process Explorer v11.11 calls home to 64.4.52.169, port 80 - TCP

Autoruns 9.13 Under Win98SE when right-clicking on an Autorun entry in Autoruns v9.13, one can select Process Explorer. What is the last/best version of Process Explorer for Win98SE and its download location? Galahs page http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=105936 lists v11.03, but his link goes to MS v11.33, which doesn't list Win98.

Thanks for the link. Thanks for the big screen shot. In order to display in Codestuff Starter stobject.dll of Tihiy's IPTest, one has to select -> Options -> Miscellaneous -> Show Expert-only items. I have been using up to now Startup Organizer by Metaproducts http://www.metaproducts.com/mp/Startup_Organizer.htm which handily displays/warns when a program has been added or deleted from startup, with a rollback option. But Startup Organizer doesn't display Tihiy's stobject.dll, nor a msg after its installation. Startup Organizer, however, does show correctly the path to one startup item, hpjsira.exe (HP Install Network Printer Wizard v3.04, for IP based printing), while Codestuff Starter just displays File not found (Autoruns v9.13 displays the startup info ok for hpjsira.exe). I don't have nusb 3.3 currently installed, does Codestuff Starter also display nusb?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VolkswagenYes, it does not matter whether you use an old or new OS to do a thing, as long as you get your desired results. BenoitRen may do comfortably whatever he needs to do -- riding his dinosaur Win95 It does not matter what the computer can do, but what you can do with the computer.

Thanks Drugwash, what's the best/last version under Win98SE?

I have been amazed at how adaptable my 9-year-old Dell Inspiron 7500 laptop has been with PC CardBus cards, especially USB 2.0 and Ethernet/WLAN cards.Here a comment regarding the interface potential under Win98 of the dinosaur Ethernet: I got my HP2605 duplex color laser printer (USB+Ethernet) to work fine under Win98 when connected by Ethernet cable to the Ethernet CardBus card of the laptop, via IP based printing, something I have not seen in the HP printer docu. The HP2605 printer actually works fine under Win98 when it is simultaneously connected by cable to 2 running computers: with the USB cable to laptop1 and with the Ethernet cable to laptop 2.

When I used the term "mature product" I was thinking of an S curve in economic theory. Although a lot of little improvements have been made between Hitler's Volkswagen design and todays Volkswagen beetle, functionally they are quite similar: they take you from point A to point B. Maybe twice as fast today.Similarly, you can do most things nearly equally well on a 10-year-old Win98 computer as on a state-of-the-art Vista machine. This small improvement in the functionality of a product type, over 10 years, I would call the hallmark of a mature product. My 8-bit HP125 CP/M computer of 1982, in contrast, was not a mature product yet, it can hardly do a thing which my Dell Inspiron 7500s of the year 2000 can do. Mature products have low profit margins; there is market saturation, like 3 TVs, 2 cars and 3 PCs per household. At the end of the industry/product/innovation life-cyle of a major invention, economic history tells of big bankruptcies and economic crises, as happened decades ago to US railroads, or to US airlines. Now it's the turn of cars and personal computers. Win98SE will not disappear as quickly as CP/M, because Win98SE is functionally a mature product.

On my dual-core desktop, which I started to set up very carefully about a year ago, webcheck.dll under Win98SE is 259.344 bytes, v5.50.4522.1800, modification date 20-Oct-2000. The modification date looks Ok, it's from Internet Explorer v5.5 SP1.Since in general I try to stay away, under Win98SE, from US software created after Sept.11, 2001, a file with a modification date of 10-Oct-2003 raised a red flag with me. BTW, under Win98SE, when you run Autoruns v9.13 [digitally signed 25-Feb-2008] then click on -> Help -> Help, then on the first item "Autoruns" in the list of contents, autoruns.exe tries to call home to origin-codecs.microsoft.com [65.55.13.243], port 80-TCP. What is the last version of Autoruns/autoruns.chm [file modification date 14-Dec-2007] which doesn't call home?

Under Win98 there are 4 tabs of autoruns/vulnerabilities displayed by Autoruns, but when double-clicking under WinXP on the same Autoruns v9.13 16 (sixteen!) tabs of autoruns/vulnerabilities are displayed. 2 screenshots could explain the key advantage of Win98 better than a 1000 words.

Webcheck.dll was also displayed by Autoruns on my laptop, which runs Internet Explorer v6.0.2600, downloaded on 20-Sep-2001 from MS and re-installed after a clean install of Win98SE on 10-Oct-2003. Webcheck.dll on my laptop has 258.048 bytes, is displayed as v6.00.2600.0000 - but with a file modification date of 10-Oct-2003, 2 years after the original download. Iexplore.exe is v6.00.2600.0000 but has the modification date 17-Aug-2001 and ie6setup.exe is digitally signed 20-Aug-2001 [i.e. before Sep.11, 2001] IE probably called home during the installation on 10-Oct-2003., but why would webcheck.dll have a much later modification date than Iexplore.exe?BTW, are the excellent postings about webcheck.dll (of 2005) http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=46066&st=0 still Ok with todays new hardware?

The PC has become a mature product, an applicance like a refrigerator or a washing machine. Since it's getting hard to make a fast buck with PCs, people have lost their interest in PCs here. I have met several people during my search for old Win98 stuff at garage sales, 8-10 on Saturday mornings, who were MS certified professionals years ago, until they changed to become real estate agents. In my neighborhood CompUSA went bankrupt over a year ago, PCClub has closed, and the last little computer repairshop in my high-tech area is gone. The only big computer+electronics store left here is Fry's.

Epson still support Windows 98... and on Epson site is possible to download Windows 98 drivers http://esupport.epson-europe.com/ProductHo...PV41&tc=6#7 Great info Rjecina. And great that Epson supports their Win98 customers. I had no problem getting the latest Win98 driver for the my Epson Stylus Photo 1280 from the US website, but this is apparently a US model not sold in Europe, it's not on their model list of Epson Europe at http://esupport.epson-europe.com/SupportHo...2FzEJ1ZP6LGPV41 only models 1270 and 1290 are listed.It is very interesting that the US support page for the Epson Stylus 1400 (apparently a model sold in both markets) does NOT have Win98 downloads http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/support...latform=Windows while the European support page DOES list Win98 downloads http://esupport.epson-europe.com/ProductHo...LGPV41&tc=6 When I was in Germany and Switzerland 6 months ago Media Markt, ProMarkt and Saturn still had plenty of Win98-compatible printers. The United States is rapidly becoming the boondocks of personal computing, the backcountry, the outback. In Europe, for example, stores have a rich choice of Win98 compatible SDHC card readers, at Fry's in California I couldn't find one, but plenty of SD readers which didn't indicate whether they were for modern cards>2GB. The U.S. PC Magazine has vanished into virtual nothingness, at the magazine stands in the U.S. one can find maybe still one or two lone PC-oriented publications, next to about 30 publications about cars, SUVs and motorcycles. In Germany in contrast there are maybe 7 really good PC publications, of which my personal favorite one is PC Praxis. all at a level never reached by a single US publication available at newsstands during the last 5 years. One of the nicest things ever made in the U.S., the Mickey Mouse and Uncle Scrooge comics, cannot be gotten anymore in the U.S. (except for very hard to find reprints for a handful of adult collectors), and Disney Channel in contrast to 10 years ago doesn't show these Duck Tales cartoons anymore. But in Europe you can still find these Americana at every newsstand. Possibly Windows 98SE will become as legendary as Mickey Mouse, but hard to find in its country of origin.

Thanks dencorso, somehow I hadn't seen the link

Thanks CharlotteTheHarlot. I had noticed that the higher versions stayed in Task Manager, but wasn't aware of possible dangers to my USB HDDs, which I luckily hadn't attached.Very often the last version of a software for Win98 is full of new and unresolved/hard-to-resolve issues (e.g. NVidia GeForce driver). I have also come across Autoruns v9.00, digitally signed 14-Dec-2007 (v9.13 is digitally signed 25-Feb-2008). Is there a v9.12 or something between v9.00 and v9.13? Maybe the second-to-the-last version would be safer, especially given this USB warning.

Thanks. v9.13 with the digital signature of 25-Feb-2008, runs fine under Win98SE. I also tried v9.35, but this version didn't run anymore. Are there any versions inbetween which still run under Win98SE, or is v9.13 really the last one?Addendum: just tried v9.21, it doesn't run either under Win98SE

Quick View Plus v9.0.0 (of 30-Sep-2006, now by Avantstar, v8 of 21-Nov-2003 was by Stellent) seems to run fine under Win98SE, even if its readme.doc says: "for Microsoft® Windows® XP and Windows 2000. System Requirements: Quick View Plus 9 requires Windows 2000 or Windows XP with Service Pack 2 installed." Quick View Plus is a classic, but not free. Unfortunately this v9.0 is hard to find, they only sell v10 at their website http://www.avantstar.com/Products/Quick_Vi...iewPlusOverview I haven't tried all the file types which v9.0 can open, did anybody experience problems with v9.0 under Win98SE?

Thanks Tihiy. I downloaded v9.41 from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinte...s/bb963902.aspx but under plain-vanilla Win98SE its program window doesn't appear on the screen, even if the Task manager shows Autoruns. Instead, it tries to call home to Microsoft and in the process it attempts to hang my old Tiny firewall.What could be the last/best version which works under plain-vanilla Win98SE?

Tihiy has written a very interesting Network activity indicator, described in http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...mp;#entry854139 and downloadable from http://tihiy.ahanix.org/IpTest.zip I like it, its system tray icon looks really great, it can shut off the connection to the internet. But what is really interesting is that it doesn't show up in Task Manager (alt-ctl-del), or in the process viewer PrcView v3.7.3.1, or in Startup Organizer by Metaproducts. If there weren't an icon in the system tray, I wouldn't know it was running. Is there some software which readily indicates under Win98 that programs like Tihiy's were added/installed/are running? (Well, STOBJECT.DLL is indicated in MS System Information -> Software Environment -> 32-bit Modules Loaded, but who's looking there regularly?)

Yes, a 2nd opsys puts you in control of your software environment. The next higher level of control is if you have 2 nearly-identical computers, with nearly identical HDD content. Then you know whether a problem is caused by bad hardware.Old computers eventually wear out physically, one should be ready for it. I have 8 working Dell Inspiron 7500 laptops, about 10 years old. Some of the laptops are used heavily, the dedicated eMule/print server computer, for example, is running under Win98SE 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. To reduce physical wear on the HDDs I have built myself an external USB drive with SDHC cards. A USB 2.0 CardBus card of mine (the old Inspiron 7500 only comes with a built-in USB 1.1) sometimes smells a little burnt, but hasn't broken down yet. I even had a new Netgear router and 2 new cable modems die within a year, maybe because of a heavy load or just bad quality. My experience has been that about 1 old laptop dies per year, but that's no problem, I then just take the HDD out and put it into a spare laptop.

Never said that I download executable code. eMule has usually rars, zips, mp3s, avis etc. There might be even some nice old Win95 stuff

Yes. Yes. Kaspersky Internet Security v6.0.2.621 still updates nicely under Win98SE, my last update was today 1-May-2009. I have purchased a supply of 3 keys, on ebay as old unopened retail boxes of KIS 6, which should keep me going for another 3 years or until Kaspersky Lab stops providing new signature updates under Win98. I have de-selected, after installation and before the first signature update of KIS 6, the selection "Update application modules", to make sure Kasperky Lab doesn't kill my installation by updating parts of their program with stuff which is incompatible with Win98, as happened in Dec.2008, when they killed v4.5 on my computer in this way.

Sorry, a little off-topic. But one of the reasons I am still using Win98 is the mule. Somehow things look safer using the mule under Win98 than under WinXP.I am also migrating away from Win98, application-by-application, but it's a very slow process and will probably take years. My game plan are dedicated computers, i.e. computers whose main function is to run a single application. Currently I have an eMule computer, next month I'll add a bittorrent computer. On some dedicated computers I'll expect to keep Win98 running for years to come.