Multibooter

SDHC & micro-SDHC card readers are essential add-ons for Win98 SDHC cards are removable media, comparable to Jaz, zip and plain floppy disks, in sizes currently from 1-32GB. Now is the last moment to buy card readers which have manufacturer-provided Win98 drivers, eventually they will be gone. I don't expect large capacity USB-sticks with manufacturer-provided Win98 drivers to be available in 1-2 years, but SDHC cards for your Win98-compatible card reader will be around for many more years. The media wears out, maybe after writing 10.000 times the capacity of the card/stick. How to buy an SDHC card reader for Win98 1) The box of the card reader MUST have the logo "SD HC ready", otherwise the reader will probably not work with cards >2GB. SDHC is a different format, it is not SD 1.0 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Digital_card The websites usually do not indicate whether a card reader is SDHC ready or not, you have to look at the box in the store. 2) The box should also list Win98SE as system requirement, but this is not reliable: the manufacturer-provided drivers of most SDHC card readers described as for Win98 wouldn't work. It is amazing how many models come in boxes with "Windows 98" printed as system requirement, but then the provided driver doesn't work. When manufacturers started to switch over some time ago to SDHC-compatible chips, they may have put the new chips into the same old enclosures and boxes, which still said "Windows 98". The hama 55310 for example has V1, V2 and V3, each with a different chip inside. 3) An included mini-CD, with the Win98 driver on it, is the best indication that the card reader works under Win98. But careful: one card reader came with a mini-CD, but had only software on it, not a Win98 driver 4) Multi-card or single-card reader? A multi-card reader has several slots and uses up several drive letters (in most cases 4), so you may only want to own one. Single-card readers, on the other hand, use only one drive letter and usually have only one slot. You may want to own several single-card readers, but all different models/makes (exactly: different VID/PID), so that you can use them at the same time, as additional storage media. 32 GB SDHC cards, for example, are still substantially more expensive than 2x16GB SDHC cards, so using 2 single-card readers may save you money. The MSI card reader is a hybrid, it has several slots for different types of cards, but it uses up only a single drive letter, the best solution because drive letters get scarce if you use many partitions and USB mass storage devices. List of Top Card Readers (SDHC compatible, working manufacturer-provided drivers for Win98SE) 1) MSI StarReader mini II (single-card reader) VID=04CF PID=9920 (Myson Century) http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=pr...mp;prod_no=1161 , which comes with a very handy USB extension cable and can also accept SIM cards of your mobile phone. It also includes SIM card editing software (under WinXP). It is a single card reader, with 5 slots for different card types. It's sturdy, the big metal ring around it can be removed easily. The MSI Win98 driver on the mini-CD also includes an Adaptec ASPI Installer. Currently my TOP CHOICE as a single-card reader. 2) hama Easy Line 55745 (multi-card reader with built-in USB hub) VID=05E3 PID=070E (Genesys) Not listed at the hama website. The Genesys driver of the card reader adds 4 drive letters to My Computer, each one nicely identifyable by specially marked 2-state-icons (card inserted/no card) CF, SM, SD and MS. You easily get around a multiple-drive-letter bug, which occurs only when you use other Genesys-driven USB devices, by plugging them into the built-in hub (the cause of the bug is unclear, it may be a MS Windows bug or a bug of the Genesys driver). Very sturdy construction. The Genesys driver has its own safely-remove-utility in the system tray. The hama 55745 complements the MSI card reader very nicely (SmartMedia, CompactFlash). 3) Wintech CardReader SR-06 (single-card reader) 2 identical-looking models but with different chips inside, VID=05E3 PID=0717 and VID=05E3 PID=0723 (both Genesys) http://www.wintech-products.de/index.php?listing=7 The Win98 driver from their website didn't work, use the Genesys driver from the Toolbox, with manually updated VID/PID Pro: sturdy construction; 2-state-icons of Genesys driver. Cons: It does not have a protective enclosure of the inserted SDHC card; the SDHC card is inserted at the side of the reader, instead of at the back and may block the USB connector next to it; you have to manually add 2 lines to the .inf driver file. Toolbox for SDHC cards 1) Panasonic SD Formatter v2.0.0.3 (for WinXP, does not work under Win98SE) To restore an elsewhere formatted card to a fast, near-original factory condition, especially after having used other partitioning and formatting software. Can be downloaded from http://panasonic.jp/support/audio/sd/downl...tp/sdfv2003.exe The Panasonic Formatter creates a single partition on SD/SDHC cards and formats it, only very few choices possible. 2) Manufacturer-provided Win98 drivers (alphabetically by chip manufacturer): Alcor http://www.emtec-international.com/drivers.../k101_win98.zip Genesys http://www.hama.de/webresources/drivers/00...350_win98me.exe Myson Century http://download1.msi.com.tw/files/download...mini2_Win98.zip Realtek Semiconductor http://www.cnsupport.de/files/de/treiber/w...ader/popart.zip US Best no download location found yet (I wasn't looking), driver is on the mini-CD which came with the multi-card reader hama 55350 with the SN 32822630800 on the box 3) ChipGenius v2.64 (for WinXP, does not work under Win98) Displays info about USB devices including SD/SDHC card readers, incl. Vendor ID, Product ID, USB serial number. The displayed Vendor ID and Product ID may be used to manually update .INF files of manufacturer-provided drivers. For some card readers it identifies the chip used. Does not tell whether a card reader works with SDHC or just with SD cards. Very handy for documenting your card readers: in contrast to ListUsbDrives v1.7.8, the displayed info can be transferred into your notes with copy & paste. No installation, just double-click on the .exe Download location: http://www.mydigit.cn/mytool/chipgenius.rar 4) Reggel's List of card readers http://www.hjreggel.net/cardspeed/info-readers.html For information about chips inside card readers, more reliable than ChipGenius, but use ChipGenius to get the VID/PID. Careful, card readers with the same model number may come with different chips, but then they should also have a different VID/PID. Also useful for finding additional card readers which use the same Win98 driver, but have a different VID/PID (so that you can use them at the same time) 5) USB extension cord A USB extension cord (not a USB connection cable) allows you to have your SDHC card reader in your hands while inserting or removing the tiny but expensive SDHC or micro-SDHC cards. If your SDHC card reader is directly connected to your PC, not via an extension cord, you may have to creep under your desk to insert or remove SDHC cards. Also, the USB connector of your motherboard might get worn out when the card reader gets moved upwards, downwards or sideways while you insert or remove SDHC cards. Then there is the risk of electrostatic damage while fiddling around at a USB port of your precious/irreplaceable Win98 compatible motherboard; the USB port is one of the components of the motherboard which is most susceptible to damage. 6) HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool v2.18 (runs under WinXP, not under Win98SE) To make an SD/SDHC card bootable. By selecting in this "HP Format Tool" the boot file on a floppy, one can possibly create an SD/SDHC card which boots into the XYZ operating system. I can create only a single partition on SD/SDHC cards and probably does not adhere to the SD Memory Card Specification since it was made for HP flash sticks, so your SDHC card will become much slower. Can be downloaded from http://www.bay-wolf.com/utility/usbkey/usbmemkeyboot.zip 7) Paragon Partition Manager 9.0 RecoveryCD v8.08 (CD with its own Linux operating system) Creates the fastest multi-partition SDHC cards in town, if you leave the boot record by Panasonic Formatter in its own partition. 8) Hitachi Filter Driver v3.20 (runs under WinXP, not under Win98SE) To access, under WinXP, multiple partitions created under Win98 on an SDHC card. On removable media WinXP can access only the first partition, it cannot access data on other partitions. By setting a specific SDHC card reader as "fixed" under WinXP, the Hitachi Filter Driver allows you to access data on other partitions. Can be downloaded from http://www.uwe-sieber.de/files/xpfildrvr1224_320.zip Good instructions on how to modify the WinXP registry for the Hitachi Filter Driver are on http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbtrouble_e.html#partitioning Once you have entered these lines into the WinXP registry, the so-identified SDHC card reader will always be seen under WinXP as a fixed drive. 9) Hard Disk Drive Low Level Format Tool v2.36 (runs under WinXP, not under Win98SE) For your privacy. Can be used for low-level formatting of SDHC and flash cards. Wipes SDHC cards including partitions and MBR. After wiping an SDHC card with it, a msg pops up: "Low-level format is done. You will have to create partitions and format this drive." Use the Panasonic SDFormatter, not WinXP for formatting/partitioning. Freeware, can be downloaded from http://hddguru.com/content/en/software/200...el-Format-Tool/ 10) Special multi-partition card reader for WinXP In my own toolbox I have a separate card reader on which I pasted a label "multi-partition card reader WinXP". I have entered the details of this card reader into the WinXP registry (see Hitachi Filter Driver). With this card reader I can access under WinXP the data on all partitions of an SDHC card. This special multi-partition card reader "unhides" under XP data which is visible/accessible under Win98. 11) Disk flusher Sync v2.2 by Mark Russinovich of SysInternals (Win98 and WinXP) Is a near-substitute of a Safely-Remove-Hardware utility in the System Tray, for removable devices which do not have their own(e.g.the emtec SDHC card readers). Also to make sure that modified data on an SDHC card is safely stored, e.g. in case of frequently hung systems or frequent power failures. Can be downloaded from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinte...s/bb897438.aspx ListUsbDrives v1.7.8 (for WinXP, does not work under Win98) Displays info about an USB SD/SDHC card reader, incl. Vendor ID, Product ID, USB serial number. Indicates the string to be placed into the registry for making an SDHC card appear fixed under WinXP with the Hitachi Filter Driver v3.20 Download location: http://www.uwe-sieber.de/files/listusbdrives.zip Items removed from the front page can be found here: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...st&p=806633 No unique USB serial number One cannot use 2 USB card readers of the same make and model at the same time since they have the same USB serial number. I could not find a card reader model where each individual reader sold had a different unique USB serial number. Several SDHC card readers in a USB hub I wanted to use several card readers at the same time, plugged into a 7-port-USB hub - but this would work only if they were all different models with different USB serial numbers. So this is another reason to buy several Win98-compatible card readers of different makes: to be able to use several card readers at the same time. When SDHC cards have become cheap and faster, I could imagine using 7 USB card readers connected via a USB hub to Win98, giving a max. of 7*32GB=224GB hi-speed. Because of the requirement to have different Vendor ID/Device ID/USB serial number for simultaneous use, it is essential to get feedback for the list of card readers above with working Win98 drivers. SDHC card readers and eMule Software which requires huge directories could use such a group of card readers. eMule, for example, already allows multiple directories/disk drives for its Temporary files. eMule has worked fine with a 2nd \Temp\ directory on a 4GB SDHC card (class 4), connected to an old USB 1.1 port.

R4-III Upgrade Revolution for DS (NDSL/NDS) This is an adapter which is inserted into the Nintendo DS. Into this adapter you can insert a micro SD or micro SDHC card with .nds files (=images of Nintendo DS games), and you can play the games, without the original Nintendo cartridge. The .nds game files can be downloaded from the internet under any opsys, e.g. Win98, but must be transferred then from the HDD to the micro SD/SDHC card via a USB card reader. The micro SD card reader which is enclosed with the R4-III Upgrade works under WinXP, but NOT under Win98, no driver (the Windows 98 SE Generic USB Mass Storage Device Drivers v3.3 nusb33e.exe downloaded from http://www.technical-assistance.co.uk/kb/w...age-drivers.php did not work). I purchased separately several USB SD card readers, until I got one which actually does work under Win98 (a hama 55310 v3, works with a micro SD/SDHC card plus a "microSD ==> SD adapter"). On www.hama.de they have listed separate drivers for v1 & v2, but nothing for v3; the driver for v1 worked, but not the one for v2. When you replace the WinXP card reader in the package, the R4-III Upgrade is fully compatible with Win98. The R4-III adapter is a link between 3 worlds: PC, mobile phone technology (micro SD card) & the Nintendo DS. On a 4GB micro SDHC chip there is space for about 50 different games, depending on their size. The R4-III Upgrade is a killer piece of hardware. The mule has 25 packs of fully working .nds files, with 100 game cartridges per pack, about 60 GBs altogether, which take less than a week because the files are not rare, heavy downloads currently, about 100-200 sources each. The R4-III http://www.r4dsl.net/ is a must for Nintendo DS gamers and a reason for getting an SDHC card reader for Win98. Probably the most appreciated Xmas gift in a long time, costs about EUR 35. Addendum: The R4 adapter canNOT be found at ebay (there are exceptions: http://cgi.ebay.com/Nintendo-DS-Lite-PINK-...1QQcmdZViewItem ,another exception at ebay Spain, where r4 ds is not in the item title, http://cgi.ebay.es/para-nintendo-ds-mas-2g...1QQcmdZViewItem , also ebay Germany and ebay Spain make money selling sponsored links for "R4 DS" searches, without offering R4 DS themselves, e.g. sponsored links to http://www.dsflash.es/index.php?cPath=21_31 ). In the US there is for example an online store http://www.stuffs4kids.com/R4DS_Revolution_s/4.htm (only older versions?). In seaside resorts in Spain they are in the shop windows of many electronic stores. I guess it's Nintendo fighting for their life, just as if the music industry tried to prohibit mp3 players.

The Win98 version of the HP2605dn sold for $227, the Vista version for $130. Either just a fluke, or Win98 is becoming a luxury.Actually this is a big minus for Win98: The hardware for Win98 is hard to find, and if you find it, it's much more expensive than WinXP or Vista hardware.

Try http://www.ax-soft.com/Security/27232.htm or just google for "Relevant Knowledge" & "virus". You get what you pay for. I am using Kaspersky anti-virus, although they seem to have deteriorated lately.If you are not interested in what kind of infection there is, restore a backup of the \Windows\ directory from a time when the suspicious behaviour did not occur, & you'll most likely have gotten rid of the bugger. There are exceptions like boot sector viruses, but deleting \Windows\ & restoring a good backup of it has worked well for me in malware situations.

Sometimes (as right now) still available at ebay:Win98 model http://cgi.ebay.com/Hewlett-Packard-LaserJ...1QQcmdZViewItem Vista model: http://cgi.ebay.com/HP-Color-LaserJet-2605...1QQcmdZViewItem

I am using a HP Color LaserJet 2605dn. In January 2008 I stocked up on Win98 compatible hardware & I bought 2 of them at Staples in the US (one as a spare). The 2605dn is now discontinued. There are 2 submodels of the 2605dn: one which is marked as Win98-compatible on the box, the other model is marked Vista-compatible, they have different firmware, the boxes are identical except for the text under "system requirements". In January I went to at least 10 Staples/Office Depot stores looking for this printer with the the older firmware. Hewlett Packard has removed ALL their Win98 drivers from their website [i checked in Feb.2008], it's a shame. If you can still find an HP 2605 make sure it has the Win98-compatible firmware & comes with the driver CD with the Win98_ME driver. I doubt that it is possible to downgrade from the Vista-firmware 20071108 (8 Nov 2007) to the Win98-compatible firmware. Any firmware date code prior to 20071108 should work fine with Win98 http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechS...Item=ly-40741-3 I am quite satisfied with the 2605dn, except for the expensive color toner. The built-in duplex is extremely useful. I miss the "save toner" option which HP had in earlier B&W laser printers. My feeling is that when a page counter of the firmware hits a certain page number, you have to replace the cartridge, even if it still has a lot of toner in it. Also I am not aware of any no-name cartridges for the 2605. Printing in color is a pipeline from your wallet into HP's. The built-in print-server of the HP2605dn (dn stands for duplex+networking) does not work with Win98. But the HP2605dn can serve as a network printer: I have it connected to the USB 1 (!) port of an old laptop dedicated to eMule, which is part of a peer network & is up 24 hours. So instead of connecting the HP2605dn to the router, it is connected to a computer in the peer network. Overall: very good quality color laser prints under Win98, but expensive to use (actually I was so satisfied that I bought 2).

Thanks for the info. I am still using the really old KAV v4.5 under Win98, the key is valid until 2010, I had no problems with a signature update today. In the info they did not mention v4.5, they only mentioned non-supported versions 6 after Oct.1, let's see whether v4.5 will still get signature updates after Oct.1

I just came across a rootkit for Win98 for the first time in the wild, on eMule. Kaspersky calls it Rootkit.Win32.Agent.ajn. It is currently available as a 6.01MB file under the name "infoselect 2007 keygen(1).exe" via eMule on the Kademlia network.It would be interesting to know if this rootkit really works under Win98.

If I remember right, in the window "Select Directory" of Windows 98 Setup no menu selections (e.g. 'Other directory') have an underlined letter, using the cursor keys and pressing Ctl+Space is the only way to make a selection there without a mouse, and no idea why MS did not allow the hitting of an underlined letter (maybe the keyboard driver is necessary for entries of Alt+Character and is not yet installed at that stage of the installation). Please correct me if I remember wrong.

This is a perfect recipe for wasting many hours, or for a long learning experience. Since you have already thrown out the old computer, I would also throw out the old HDD. Only a few modern motherboards work with Win98. If the motherboard of your Acer M5630 does not officially support Win98, then you will get from one mess into the next with this HDD.

With Tab & Space you can move the focus, but you cannot make menu selections (=make a black dot appear to the left of the selected menu item). Use cursor keys and select items by pressing Control+Space. I also had encountered this mouse problem a few times during a Win98 installation, just after ScanDisk and before the Select [Windows] Directory comes up. I don't quite remember, I think it depended on the type of mouse I used, either with a round PS/2 connector or with a regular serial connector. Win98 at the problematic point during installation has not yet loaded the required (serial port?USB?) driver; if the cursor of the USB mouse could be moved before that point, I would assume because of a setting in the BIOS to support USB devices with legacy operating systems. In any case I would rather not use a USB mouse for the installation of Win98.

Just paranoia. herbalist gave an excellent answer:http://www.msfn.org/board/Last-Versions-of...808#entry767808

No, primarily security in the internet. Hiding stuff on old 5.25" media with CP/M format can be done under DOS 6. On more readily available 3.5" floppies data can be secured/hidden with a modded Win3.x using a modded code page. BTW, DOS 6 works fine with Core 2 Duo.

I still use these apps that do not work very well with 98se... Digital Editor Plus, Cakewalk Pro 3.0 Samplitude Master 3.21, Micrographics Picture Publisher 4.0 (faster than any version of Photoshop), Aldus Photostyler (best digital airbrush ever made) Are these Win 3.x applications? It is a good idea to create a list of good Win95 applications which don't run well under Win98. BTW, my single most-used and most-important software is a Win 3.x application: InfoSelect 3. It is a free-form personal information manager & contains my personal notes, computer installation & usage notes, diary, contacts, whatever one would write down on paper - of the last 18 years. I upgraded in 1995 from the DOS-version to v3. It works under Win95, 98, XP without installation, all personal notes in a single set of files & updatable/accessible at the tip of my fingers under various opsys, ideal for a multibooter. I would give Infoselect 3 my personal rating "most useful software ever written" - even if it cannot be found anywhere anymore, not on eMule, nowhere. Other top software might have been forgotten & buried like Infoselect 3 - I appreciate comments like "Aldus Photostyler (best digital airbrush ever made)". I am a multibooter because I like to be able to continue using my old software, just as I like to be able to read old books. When M$ fanfares a new opsys, M$ basically says: "Now you can throw away all your old books" - not with me.

I am not into benchmarking, any suggestions for a good benchmarking software, which runs under Win98 & WinXP?Also, my objective is not to run a top Win98 system. My objective is rather to run WinXP (and later a Unix-variant and maybe Vista) with recent hardware; but on the same hardware I also want to be able to run Win98. In a combo WinXP/Win98/DOS/Linux/Vista you have to make compromises somewhere, it starts with the motherboard. I am using the Asus P5PE-VM, which only allows 2GB of RAM; only AGP, no PCIe; Core 2 Duo up to X6800, no quad core; only 3 PCI slots; only 1 floppy drive from which you can boot. The difficulty of getting a combo to work continues with finding drivers/workarounds to get other hardware to work (PCI-cards, printer, scanner, etc). The overall strength of such a combo is more in its ability to use the opsys best fitted to specific tasks (e.g. secure access of the Internet). The results of a benchmark software will not reflect this. Here an example of some simple tasks: try to transfer an encrypted file from a 5.25" floppy disk, written in Osborne CP/M format, to Win98/XP and decrypt it then. Or encrypt a file under Win98/XP, then save it onto a 5.25" floppy in, for example, the KayPro 4 CP/M format?

Is IE 5.5 any better?Do you have a version of IE6 which is definitively pre-Sebt.2001? I only have v6.0.2600.0000IC which (according to my personal download notes) I downloaded from MS on 20-Sebbt.2001 "Internet Explorer 6.0 was released on August 27, 2001" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Explorer

Thanks for the correction. Somehow I was under the erroneous assumption that Nero 7 didn't support Win98 anymore. Here the download link for the trial version for Win98: http://www.nero.com/eng/downloads-nero7-98me.phpDo you know why there is this comment in parentheses? "LAST - $$$$ - Nero Burning ROM 7.2.7 (6 offers greater stability)" http://www.msfn.org/board/Last-Versions-of...98-t105936.html Taiyo Yuden CDs & DVDs are top.In my previous posting #20 I mentioned archiving my old software CDs, and they were quite old (1994-1996, i.e. 12-14 years), somewhat older than your first CDs (8 years). Before archiving, I ran a CD quality test on the first batch of 18 (avg.age: 13 years) with Nero CD-DVD Speed v4.7.7.15, producing the following interesting results: 1 CD had an unrecovered read error 4 CDs had a quality rating of 0, with a C2 total between 94 and 1454 13 CDs had the following quality ratings: 74,76,80,84, 87,88,89,91,92,93,2x94,97 giving an avg of 88 The best CD had Q=97, C1 avg= 1.20, C1 max=20, C1 total=5226 These were all golden CDs by TDK, Mitsui & 1 bad Kodak. They were stored at room temperature, except for 3 summers in an attic with temperatures reaching 40-45 Centigrade. The golden CDs were part of the Fate series, burnt by Numbers, so probably with the best burn quality possible in those days.

If you install WinXP on a FAT32 partition, you can even virus check WinXP while under Win98. Of the whole Nero software-accumulation I only use Nero Burning ROM & the standalone Nero CD-DVD Speed, and I am quite satisfied with Nero. For rare special burns I use (under Win98) old ClonyXXL v2.0.0.6/CloneCD v5.2.1.1 (e.g. Oxford English Dictionary v3.0) and old Alcohol 120% v1.95 (build 2802), both can co-exist with Nero. The burn quality of Win98 vs WinXP differs substantially for DVDs, less so for CDs, maybe under Win98 4GB are harder on the cache than 700MB. When Nero CD-DVD Speed indicates a DVD burn quality of less than 95, I throw it out as a coaster, my target is 97-99%, I use Japanese DVDs (Panasonic, taiyo yuden). A DVD displaying a quality of 95 shortly after the burn, usually will have deteriorated to a quality around 75 after 12 months, etc. On one of the older CDs (10+ years) which I recently archived, after successful archiving with repeated read-attempts & cleaning, a flake of the golden layer had just fallen off, producing a CD with a small hole in the golden layer to look thru I have seen quite a few old gold CDs where the golden layer had fallen off at the outside rim, but maybe ammonia-based Windex was too strong (I have seen Windex only in the US, not in Europe) My concern about outdated browsers is less the security aspect. My major concern is that some websites (often those where money transactions are involved) don't work properly with older browsers. Under Win98 www.youtube.com/user/CSPAN for example displays Ok with IE6, but nothing is displayed when you use IE5.5, even if Flash Player 9.0.124.0 (!!) is installed

Except for the trojans Just try to burn 2 identical DVDs with Nero v6.6 (the last Win98 version), one under Win98, the other under WinXP. Then run Nero CD-DVD Speed. Disk Quality Test: The DVD burnt under WinXP will most likely have a better/higher score than the one burnt under Win98.By the way, I am currently archiving my old software CDs (about 200) dating back to 1994 - onto USB HDD!! Don't trust plastic, about 20% of the old CDs would have been unreadable by most current CD/DVD-burners! I am lucky to own a LiteOn SOHR-5239V, a CD-burner with exceptional error correction, and was able to recover about 99.95% of the old softwares, with the help of Beyond Compare [it doesn't stop copying after the first bad file, and you can easily repeat the copying attempt of individual bad files]; Windex ammonia-based glass cleaner also helped in a few instances.

I am using Kaspersky only as an on-demand scanner, mainly for checking eMule software downloads, not for securing Win98. About 10% of eMule software downloads are infected, so a top AV is essential.The Internet is the principal source of malware. The major reason for using Win98 with new hardware is its limited malware/spyware/etc vulnerability in the Internet. So I stick to my crystal ball, which says that Win98 will be dying when there are no more new Win98 browser versions OR when there is no more anti-virus support under Win98. Whenever there will be no more anti-virus support under Win98, the task of on-demand scans of internet downloads could be done under another opsys (e.g. WinXP, Linux). This is not convenient, but it could be done. The task of burning CDs/DVDs, for example, I have moved from Win98 to WinXP, because the burn-quality (and longevity of the CDs/DVDs) under WinXP is much superior. As a multi-booter, I am using the opsys best fitted to the respective task.

My experience has been an average uptime of eMule under Win98 of 2-3 days, with a wide range from an hour to about 7-8 days. It seems to depend on what you are downloading: If you are downloading for example M$-stuff, the system may crash/hang every hour, I guess their IP-etc-software is not Win98 compatible Also, frequent attempts by unruly hackers and by maliciously modded eMule-versions seem to cause quite a few eMule hangs.So a frequently crashing Win98 may actually be something positive: Win98 may just keep unwanted guests out and give them the boot.

I can recommend the Asus P5PE-VM. It is compatible with Core 2 Duo CPU, even with the X6800. Its major disadvantage is that it has only 3 PCI slots and a 2 GB memory limit. I was so satisfied with this board that I bought at ebay 19 of them, as spare parts for several identical computers. Sounds eccentric, but I intend to use a Win98/WinXP combo for another 8-10 years.The end of Win98 will come when Kaspersky will not provide virus updates for v6.0 (last version for Win98) anymore and when Opera will not provide an updated browser for Win98. By the way, Kaspersky is still providing current virus updates for the really old v4.5 (2003), which I never bothered to upgrade, and their v6.0.2.621 (Win98 compatible version) is still available for download/purchase at their website.

US software released after Sepptember of that year may or may not contain special goodies. In any case, the US official agencies must be pleased that the relative secure Win98 has come into disuse.

Welcome to this forum. Win98 on new hardware is a great luxury: it cost a lot of time getting there. The reward is a highly secure system, where Big Brother has a hard time listening. A new WinXP or Vista computer costs very little, but Win98 on new hardware money cannot buy.

eMule has under Win98 a [recommended] connection limit of 100 (eMule - Options - Connection - Max.connections). If you set the Max.Connections to >100, eMule produces the following warning msg:"The number you have selected for "Max.connections" is larger than your OS supports: 100. This may cause your system to become unstable. Are you sure you want to do this?" Do you have any experience with settings >100?