Multibooter

Another possible way to get the coupon printer to work under Win98 might be to install it first under WinME/XP to extract the driver (if it's just a printer driver or a virtual printer port). After that, if this coupon printer installs a printer driver, the driver might be installed under Win98 via Printers folder -> Add Printer Wizard. Or, if this coupon printer installs a virtual printer port, the driver may possibly be saved with Driver Magician under WinME/XP and then re-installed with Driver Magician under Win98, circumventing the installation from a .exe which checks for the opsys. Driver Magician for example can back up under Win98 a "USB Printing Support" driver for a USB001 virtual printer port, created by installing an HP USB printer (Win98SE does not come with USB printing support). But I'm not into coupons, and don't want to restore my opsys after testing. There might be something appealing to others, coupon printers apparently have a mechanism to prevent printing a coupon more than once or twice. Good Luck.

I had tried Total Commander v7.04 + the plug-in InstallExplorer v0.9.1, but they couldn't look into CouponPrinter.exe . Kaspersky Anti-Virus however could, so there should be some tool.Without having installed it under WinXP (again, I'm not into coupons), I would speculate that CouponPrinter.exe prints only to a USB printer port (i.e. not to LPT or to an IP/Ethernet port). Win98SE does not have a built-in driver to print to the USB port, that started with WinME. This might possibly be the reason why CouponPrinter.exe requires WinME or later. If one could get CouponPrinter to install under Win98, there might be a chance to get it run under Win98. Maybe it's just a virtual printer driver, like Acrobat Distiller or FinePrint, with some added security features to prevent printing 100's of coupons. BTW, in the link http://couponsinc.com/corp/source/u_uninstall.asp older versions (plural, before April 2008) are mentioned - maybe an older version works under Win98?

I wouldn't be afraid of these cute old-timers, they are just too well known and too easily detected.With Win98 and old applications disappearing rapidly, many of these old worms and viruses should be dying out in the wild.

So has Netgear. This basically makes older hardware by HP, Lexmark and Netgear worthless, unless one is prepared to spend long hours searching for the right driver. Any other manufacturers to add to the list?

Not in California. 2 weeks ago I checked at Office Depot, Staples and the big computer chain store Fry's - they had not a single Win98-compatible printer left anymore, not even old returns or reburbished printers in their back rooms. Zilch. Nothing. Nada.

The last infection I had on my Win98 system was a trojan 5 years ago, but instead of spying on me, it blocked the LPT printer port and was quickly discovered.

Yes, it's the last call to buy Win98 hardware. Win98-compatible hardware is getting harder to find at ebay, ebay has changed, fewer individuals are selling their old stuff there now, it's mainly ebay shops offering new stuff.Time permitting, my current best source of Win98-compatible hardware is -- garage sales/neighborhood sales, but only when I specifically ask: "Do you have any old Win98 stuff?". People usually ask me then "What are you using that for?" After I explain, they look in the house for old goodies. Last week, for example, I got for $40 a hardly-ever used Epson ink jet Stylus Photo 1280 printer, for very large paper size (up to 13"x19", larger than tabloid), works nicely under Win98 (Epson in contrast to HP still has their Win98 drivers on their website ); the successor model 1400 does not work under Win98 anymore. Also a bunch of original Win98 software CDs for 25 cents each: Adobe Photoshop Elements v2.0.2 CD+reg code (probably the last build for Win98), WinME Upgrade CD+reg code, Win98SE OEM CDs+reg code, Win95 CD with USB Support+reg code (25 cents, that's what people apparently think Win9x is worth ). Only about one in every twenty places still has any Win98 stuff left, pretty soon some Win98 items may become rare collectibles. Another source of Win98-compatible hardware may be craigslist.org I went twice to a large swap meet recently, but didn't find there any Win98-compatible hardware of interest.

This may make Win9x safe for the Internet. Which hacker or governmental spy agency would want to develop new malware to attack a tiny disappearing minority of 0.32% ? Furthermore, the knowhow about Win9x seems to be disappearing rapidly.<snip />

I'm not into coupons, when I went to http://print.coupons.com/CouponWeb/NoSuppo...iq37&nid=10 with Opera v9.64 and Firefox v2.0.0.20 under Win98SE, I got the msg: "Unsupported Browser We're sorry, your browser is not supported for coupon printing. Coupon printing is currently supported on the following systems: Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Windows 2000: Internet Explorer 6+ Firefox 1.5+ Netscape 9 Most MSN and AOL browsers" After installing the User Agent Switcher 0.6.11 for Firefox (Tools -> Add-ons -> Get extensions -> in field search for add-ons enter "User Agent Switcher") and then faking to have IE7 & Vista, the following page was displayed instead: "Coupon Printer Installer You’re just a minute away from printing your free coupons!" Opera apparently can only masquerade as a different browser (Tools -> Quick Preferences -> Edit Site Preferences -> Network tab -> Browser identification), not as running under a different opsys. When I tried to install the downloaded Coupon Printer (CouponPrinter.exe v7.0.6.1 of 18-Jun-2008), I got the following err msg: "The following minimum system requirements for this setup were not met: Operating System: Windows ME/NT 3.0/NT 4.0/2000/XP/Server 2003/Vista. The setup will now abort." The download location of the coupon printer program is: http://download1.coupons.com/7/19/7125/145...uponPrinter.exe

Java Runtime Environment Version 5.0 Update 18 of 25-Feb-2009 can be downloaded from: http://java.com/en/download/windows98me_ma...ost=java.com:80 Maybe it should be re-classified as ONGOING, since Sun has released several Updates since it was classified here as LAST.

ABBYY FineReader Professional v7.0.0.543 Multilanguage has worked for me under Win98SE, but I am not sure whether this is the last build for Win98. v8 does not work under Win98 anymore

Security concerns are probably not called for, they were open about it and it sounds like a lot of intellectual effort went into this program:"Our sponsor, the National Security Agency, has ended their support of our program... " http://cmrr.ucsd.edu/people/Hughes/HDDEraseReadMe.txt

Testing completed: IP based printing under Win98 with HP Install Network Printer Wizard v4.0 works fine when printing web pages from Opera v9.60, also when using FinePrint v5.85, which has its own printer icon in the Printers folder. The FinePrint icon just passes any output to it on to another printer icon which has an HP Standard TCP/IP port assigned. Green light for the HP Standard TCP/IP port type installed by v4.0

Also for non-HP printers under Win98? The Readme, accessed via Start -> Programs, states as system requirement: "HP Jetdirect print servers with a firmware revision of x.03.16 or greater". But the HP Standard TCP/IP Port Monitor may possibly also work with printers with an Ethernet connector from other manufacturers since \System\Hptcpmon.ini lists the following manufacturers: Hewlett Packard, Lexmark, IBM, Intel, Canon, Emulex and Xerox. Decision: Which version of INPW to use under Win98? The "HP Standard Port Monitor for Windows 95/98" which supem found is actually a predecessor of the "HP Install Network Printer Wizard" ("INPW"), which adds the port "HP Standard TCP/IP Port" plus creates a printer icon in the Printers folder. I have tested various versions of INPW and have decided to use v4.0 under Windows 98SE instead of the much older "HP Standard Port Monitor for Windows 95/98" [=v2.10]. I chose v4.0 over v3.04 because the installed \USWin98\System\Hptcpmon.dll ("Standard TCP/IP Port Monitor DLL") is v2.50.00.006 of 15-May-2004, more recent than the one installed by INPW v3.04 (v2.40.00.17 of 31-Jan-2003) Experience with various versions: v7.1.04: is for WinXP. The Installer makes an opsys check and stops to install when it detects Win98 v5.0: rejected since I could not get it to work under Win98, even if HP stated Win98 as system requirement. Whenever I right-click on the printer icon created by INPW in the Printers folder (and also at the end of the installation) this err msg comes up: "SPOOL32 caused an invalid page fault in module HPTCPMON.DLL [=Standard TCP/IP Port Monitor DLL]", and the system is frozen afterwards. BTW, this is a typical symptom of last versions of software for Win98: they are full of never fixed bugs. *v4.00: the version I decided to use, works fine v3.06: not test-installed v3.04: rejected: works fine, no system crashes, but older dlls v2.10: is the "HP Standard Port Monitor for Windows 95/98": rejected, works fine, but older dlls NOTE: Before installing/uninstalling a version, ALWAYS delete leftover junk in C:\Temp AND uninstall a previous version Download locations of various versions: v7.1.04: ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softlib/software10/C...1/inpw_enww.exe v5.00: http://h50177.www5.hp.com/local_drivers/27584/hpjsi_en_5.exe v4.00: http://www.surrey.ac.uk/eng/helppoint/ict/...es/hpjsi_en.exe also available at driverguide.com, but with paid membership another download location, different file name, but otherwise identical: http://it.cas.psu.edu/Training/HowTo/util/hpjsi_en_v4.exe v3.06: http://members.driverguide.com/driver/deta...driverid=191177 (free membership required) v3.04: http://www.stat.columbia.edu/~liu/hpjsi_en.exe v2.10: ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/networking/software/hpspm98.exe (="HP Standard Port Monitor for Windows 95/98") Up to now I have identified 2 advantages of connecting the printer to the router (i.e. IP based printing via HP Standard TCP/IP Port) for a home network:- very responsive printing from a Win98 DOS window - easy control of printer status, printer configuration and toner status via the browser (e.g. Opera or Firefox) by just entering the IP of the printer into the URL field. When the printer is connected via USB cable to the computer this is not possible; you have to push a whole bunch of buttons on the front panel instead.

The problem is solved, it just took a little trick I can now print under Win98SE from a DOS window to my HP Color Laserjet 2605dn connected to the router (i.e. IP based printing via HP Standard TCP/IP Port). From a DOS window it works even better than when the printer is connected to the USB port of the computer (The HP2605 printer doesn't have a parallel LPT connector, only USB and Ethernet).The Capture Printer Port button in the Details tab of Printer Properties does NOT work with the port type "HP Standard TCP/IP Port" because there just exists no standard UNC path to the HP2605 printer connected to the router, nothing which could possibly be entered into the field "Path" in the window Capture Printer Port. I was looking for something that didn't exist And here is the trick which allows to print from a Win98 DOS window under port type "HP Standard TCP/IP Port": When you create the "HP Standard TCP/IP Port", instead of using the port name suggested by the "Add Standard TCP/IP Printer Port Wizard" (e.g. "IP_192.168.1.100") use LPT2, LPT3 or LPT4 (LPT5-9 don't work in a DOS window under Win98SE). That port (e.g. LPT2) is then the port name for printing, under both Windows and a DOS window, when the HP2605 printer is connected to the router via Ethernet cable. Using this trick, printing from a DOS window is better with a laser printer connected to a router (via Ethernet cable) than with a laser printer connected to the computer (via USB): - printing from a DOS window starts immediately - the last page of a DOS printout (e.g. DIR>LPT2) prints immediately, it is NOT stuck anymore for a minute or more in the printer buffer; instead it gets printed immediately - there is no need to Capture Printer Port to enable DOS printing, which may be cumbersome since an entered Capture Printer Port setting is in effect only until Windows shutdown, unless you select in the "Capture Printer Port" window "Reconnect at logon", which may have its own issues. - in short: when printing from a DOS window, the laser printer has become as responsive as an old dot matrix printer connected to LPT1 Maybe this trick also works for the automatically created port names USB001 and USB002 (Virtual printer ports for USB), by renaming their occurences in the registry. Maybe this could bring about more responsive printing from a DOS window, when the laser printer is connected to the computer via USB cable ...

Thanks Roman. My main concern is not DOS printing, but that I may have entered a wrong network setting into the printer or the router, and that this wrong setting may raise its head somewhere down the line.I am able to print under Win98SE, with the printer driver extracted from the HP CD, from a DOS window to a local (=physically attached) printer and to a remote Network printer attached via USB cable to a peer-to-peer print server computer. But I cannot print from a DOS window, by means of the HP Standard Port Monitor, to a network printer attached to the router. I assume I did not properly enter the network settings for the HP2605 printer or for the router, and it might just take a few tweaks to get it right, but I am at the end of my know-how. Eventually I will look at a Win98 version of "Install HP Network Printer Wizard', maybe it's the successor version to HP Standard Port Monitor for Windows 95/98 and just requires the entering of the printer IP for IP based printing?

Thanks supem, this is a major find. The HP Standard Port Monitor for Windows 95/98 works great on my HP Color LaserJet 2605dn under Win98SE. The network printing software for the 2605dn (dn=duplex+networking) on the HP driver CD is not for Win98SE, only for WinXP. For Win98SE Hewlett Packard had provided only printer drivers for a USB cable connection of the HP2605dn, which I could only get to work Ok after extreme fiddling.Up to now, in order to have a Network Printer, I had the HP2605dn connected to my eMule computer, which is continuously running, and had it set as shared in a peer-to-peer network and then set up Network Printer icons in the Printers folder of the printer clients with the Add Printer Wizard. Now, with the HP Standard Port Monitor, I can print to the HP2605dn connected via an Ethernet cable to the router, after assigning an IP to the HP2605 (via the front panel of the printer). Printing to an IP under Win98 works fine: duplex (=automatic 2-sided printing) works fine, color and B&W work fine. One question: What are the benefits/disadvantages of printing to a printer connected to the router vs. to a printer connected to a print server computer? Up to now having the printer attached to a print server computer has worked fine for me, but now there are 2 choices Another question: I am trying to enable printing from a DOS window under Win98 with the HP Standard Port Monitor by clicking on Capture Printer Port in the Details tab of Printer Properties. What exact UNC Path should I enter into the field Path? I always get the msg: Cannot access + entered UNC Path. I have set the IP of the HP2605 to 192.168.1.100. Network Neighborhood displays the HP2605 printer as NPI191D57 (displaying a computer icon for the NPI191D57, not a printer icon). My router, a Netgear WNR854T, in its router-control html page, under Attached Devices, does not list the HP2605 printer, only the other computers in the peer-to-peer network, but the printer can print ok under Windows. I have tried many combinations, like \\NPI191D57\192.168.1.100 or \\192.168.1.1\NPI191D57 (192.168.1.1 is the IP of the router), but they just gave me the above error msg. The question is: what is the print server name, and what is the share name of the printer. The HP2605 has still the defaults: Host Name=NPI191D57, Domain Name=blank, WINS=0.0.0.0 (nothing entered). HP Standard Port Monitor hat added the port "IP_192.168.1.100 (HP Standard TCP/IP Port)". When I double-click on NetHood, then double-click again on NPI191D57, an empty window "NPI191D57" comes up, no printer icon with a share name. When I enter in a DOS window: net view \\NPI191D57, the reply is: Shared resources at \\NPI191D57 There are no entries in the list BTW, the HP2605 came up in Network Neighborhood, under the name NPI191D57 and as a computer icon, about 10 minutes after I changed in the router setting: - RIP (Router Information Protocol) Direction from None to Both - RIP Version from Disabled to RIP_1 Maybe the appearance of the computer icon in NetHood was enabled by the above 2 changes. When I printed to the HP Standard Port Monitor under Windows before, I had not noticed this icon. Any ideas on how to solve this problem, so that I can get the HP Standard Port Monitor to print from a DOS window?

Thanks jaclaz, I'll give it a try during the next deployment of HDDs to my laptops.

Oh me oh my, that looks involved. Any suggestion which byte to change with a disk editor? Or is it maybe easier just to continue cloning the internal HDD to another HDD in an internal drive bay, and forget about cloning to a USB drive?What about another method of cloning the internal laptop HDD, if I - insert the laptop drive into a USB enclosure, then - connect the USB enclosure to my modern desktop with a recent BIOS, then - clone the laptop HDD in USB enclosure#1 to a HDD in a 2nd USB enclosure (i.e. USB to USB), then - insert the cloned HDD into another Inspiron Will the cloned HDD, when inserted into another Inspiron, NOT have disk geometry errors when PartitionMagic is run? BTW, I have been using Acronis Migrate Easy 7 for disk cloning under Win98. Is that Ok, or any better suggestions?

Hi jaclaz, Great idea. For my next deployment of an internal main HDD to my old Inspiron laptops (in about 2 months) I will try to: - clone the internal HDD to an external USB HDD - then change the partition type from currently 06h [= FAT 16B greater than 32MB] to 0Eh [=FAT 16 LBA] while the HDD is still in the external USB enclosure - then insert the cloned HDD from the USB enclosure into another Inspiron, as its main HDD In about 2 months, after my next deployment, I will post here whether PartitionMagic still reports a disk geometry error when the USB-cloned-HDD is inserted into the Inspiron laptop as main HDD. On the HDDs which I am currently using I don't want to try changing the partition type, I don't want to get into trouble now. PartitionMagic v8.01 build 1312 cannot change partition types. Acronis Disk Director 10.0 build 2117 can change partition types, but does not list 0C or 0E in its partition type menu. Paragon Partition Manager 9 (is about the same as V-COM Partition Commander 10) and Partition Table Doctor 3.5 CAN change to partition types 0C [=FAT32 LBA] and 0E [=FAT16 LBA]. Which of the 2 tools would you recommend for changing the partition type to 0E? My gut feeling is that PTD works better on partitions used by Win98 than Paragon Partition Manager. BTW, I have been using in the extended partition of the cloned HDD a mix of FAT16 [type 06] and FAT32 [type 0B] partitions. Should I also change for the next deployment the partition type of the 2 FAT32 partitions inside the extended partition from 0B to 0E? On one of these FAT32 partitions inside the extended partition I am using WinXP. Or is it sufficient to change the partition type only for the FAT16 boot partition C:? Another complication may be that I am using as boot manager on the Inspirons old System Commander 2000 v5.01 (on my desktop I have installed newer v9 for Windows Vista), which installs its own MBR. @joe tweaker: Did the partitioning of your HDD inside of the USB Acomdata enclosure solve your problem?

When I clone the main 120GB HDD of my Inspiron 7500 laptop to a another HDD in one of the 2 drive bays of the laptop, and then put the cloned HDD into another nearly-identical Inspiron 7500 as main drive, the cloned HDD works fine, no errors detected by PartitionMagic 8.01 or Partition Table Doctor 3.5. But when I put the cloned HDD into a USB enclosure, PartitionMagic reports disk geometry errors (255 heads vs 240 heads) and displays the cloned disk as Bad, even if Win98 Explorer can handle it Ok. Partition Table Doctor 3.5 also finds unrepairable errors in the partition table of the cloned HDD put into the USB enclosure. Acronis Disk Director 10 finds no errors. The BIOS of my old Inspiron 7500 reports at POST the internal 120GB HDD as 65535 MB.When I clone the main 120GB HDD of the laptop to a USB drive, and then insert the cloned HDD into another Inspiron 7500 as the main drive, the Inspiron will not load Windows and has an error msg on a black screen. Again, as long as I clone the internal HDD to a HDD in a drive bay module, the cloned HDDs work fine as the internal HDD of another Inspiron 7500. But I never clone (or partiton) a HDD in a drive module for use in an USB drive. This may be related to joe tweaker's problem, since he has partitioned the HDD inside his desktop, and then uses it in his USB drive. Maybe joe tweaker should partition the Acomdata HDD in the Acomdata enclosure, not inside of his desktop.

I doubt the surface scan will be of much use. How about clearing the USB disk & then partitioning it into a single logical partition, 160GB is Ok on USB? My partitioning tool of choice for Win98/FAT32 is PartitionMagic 8.01, which can partition external USB drives.My next step would be try the shutdown/restart sequence with another make of external USB HDD. You could also check whether it's the fault of nusb, which I would doubt: 1) with your Acomdata USB drive connected, rename Windows\INF\USBSTOR.INF and USBSTOR.PNF to something like\Usbstor.inf.deactivated and usbstor.PNF.deactivated New devices will not be detected by nusb anymore 2) go into Control Panel -> System -> Device Manager select (probably under Disk Drives) the Acomdata USB drive -> click on Remove 3) reboot 4) install the Win98 driver from the Acomdata CD 5) reboot again, when your system is up again, plug in your Acomdata USB drive, Win98 should detect it Ok 6) shutdown/restart again, with the Acomdata drive connected: do you still have the same problem? To re-activate nusb for installing other devices: just rename the renamed USBSTOR.INF & USBSTOR.PNF to their original names.

The mule may surely help, even with ancient Hard Disk LED 1.1, which may be the only utility of its kind for Win98. Any other experiences or issues detected after testing for more than 30 minutes?

If I understand right, you have a shutdown problem when your Acomdata USB drive is connected. Have you tried ScanDisk on your USB drive?

Hi dencorso,I tried their latest version v1.09.0006 of 23-May-2008, its installer states that it's only for WinXP/2003 and Vista. It installs under Win98, but does not run. Any idea where there are older versions which run under Win98? v1.6.002 seems to have run under Win98 http://www.sharewareriver.com/product.php?id=8494 but its not there anymore.