cannie

No morons at all. They only want you to throw away your computer every 2/3 years "convincing" you of the goodness of anything new, no matter if you need it or not. BTW, I wonder who is behind all viruses which attack always all the latest OS and force users to permanent "security updates"...

The install program is named install.exe and normally resides in the install CD into a folder called Win98. Check your CD and find it (maybe it is called setup.exe or any similar name depending on the language). If autostart doesn't work for any reason, type from DOS: E: cd win98 install (or similar) HTH

Hi chromatic47! For as long as you don't need XP it is better for you to use only Windows 98. Maintenance is much easier and freedom also, repair is extremely easy and if you have one or more clones security is 100%. If you really need double boot mind that you must keep using FAT32 and no logical unit can be bigger than 32 GB, being this dimension an artificial limit introduced by MS to "convince" users to switch to their exclusive NTFS system, which allows XP to use any big HD, instead of the common FAT32. If your HD is bigger than that you need to divide it. You may use Fdisk, but you must format all afterwards. You may use Partition Manager instead of this and this way you don't loose anything at all. You have to create an extended partition and divide it into as many 32GB units as needed until the whole HD is divided. After reboot you may see appear in the explorer as different diskletters the units D, E, F, G etc. Then you clone Windows 98 in one of the other drives and use the clone as main Windows 98 OS, leaving in C only the root files IO.sys, Command.com, and conveniently edited also your Autoexec.bat, Config.sys and Msdos.sys changing all references to D:\Windows. I.e. Msdos.sys begins this way: HostWinBootDrv=D WinDir=D:\WINDOWS WinBootDir=D:\WINDOWS After reboot, when you open Explorer.exe you will see how it starts in D drive (logical units are considered as different drives). You may also use DOS and type: set DOS will confirm you that it is D:\Windows the OS which is working. In this moment you only have to click on C:\Windows and delete it. Then Scandisk C and Defrag C. After that you only have to install XP normally. The install disk will create automatically the file C:\boot.ini, containing both systems and giving you at every start the possibility of choosing one of both. By default XP will be loaded at start after a short delay if you don't choose the other one. You may change it by simply editing the boot.ini file to invert the order or reduce the waiting time. Totally easy. HTH

Update installing Unofficial Service Pack and USB2 generic driver. In case of need an USB2 PCI/IDE card would increase transfer speed about 40x. It works with the generic driver, no need to install. If you use an ATA drive, you may create an extended partition and as many logical units as you like without reinstalling. It would allow you - Cloning Windows 98 to be booted alternatively from any logical unit. - Double boot XP/Win98 and use Win98 to backup/restore XP from a previously saved .rar or .zip copy. Remember you must use FAT and every logical unit must have a size under 32 GB. All that is explained with more details by different members in this forum. HTH

Have you also cleaned and defragmented the registry? Even whe IMO best results are obtained from Windows, you may also do it from DOS typing: scanreg /fix (first) and scanreg /opt (after that) HTH

(This is a wrong entry when trying to edit the precedent post. Please disregard.)

1.- Maybe the problem is in the master boot record. Boot using a boot floppy and type: fdisk /mbr Then switch off the computer, extract the floppy, boot in the normal way and run Scandisk and Defrag from Windows. 2.- Alternatively, maybe the problem is caused by a dirty and fragmented Windows registry. It is always good to have it clean and defragmented, using a good registry cleaner (there are a lot of them and many are freeware) and a good registry compressor (I use Registry Compressor Pro, freeware and easy to find in the Internet). HTH

Try typing instead: Win HTH

Happy to know you've found a solution. You say cloning is new for you. I edit this post to tell you something more about it, because it is not very known, I don't know why. I've used it for years and it is the most important reason why I keep using Windows 98. You need to have at least 2 logical units in your HD. You may achieve it without formatting or loosing anything at all using i.e. Partition Manager from Windows (don't use fdisk from DOS). Some of the many advantages of cloning are: 1- If C:\Windows doesn't work properly you boot the clone and from it you may delete and restore it by only unzipping a previously saved .rar copy, no need even to know what happened and not loosing anything at all. 2.- You may try any kind of program using the clone, and if things go wrong delete the clone and restore it from scratch in a few minutes. 3.- In case that you need XP (maybe eventually something can't be done using Windows 98) you may have double boot using the clone as Windows 98 unit (you only need to copy Autoexec.bat, Config.sys and Msdos.sys from the floppy to C:), deleting afterwards the folder C:\Windows and installing in its place XP. The double boot file is created automatically. 4.- If you have double boot, you may save a .rar or .zip copy of both on a CD, and in case of need use each one of the two OS to backup/restore the other. HTH

Hi jaclaz! We are talking about different things. I explain how to create an alternative Windows to allow ie a backup/restore .rar file of the whole system, or the possibility of using normally the computer if the system fails. You talk about an installer of Windows 98 SE, an excellent tool IMO. Both may be useful. If the system is not still installed the valid solution is the one that you propose. Alternatively, if the system is already installed in C it is possible and very useful to apply what I say. Greetings

Maybe it works by cloning C:\Windows into the USB. Assuming that the letterdrive is A for the USB when using it for booting, the procedure is as follows: 1.- Format the USB and copy in it the C:\ root files Io.sys, command.com, autoexec.bat, config.sys and msdos.sys. Clean all their "Properties". Open the last three (autoexec.bat, config.sys and msdos.sys) and and replace every "C" occurrency by "A". 2.- Copy-paste C:\Windows (complete, except the .swp file) on the USB, and clean all "Properties" in all the A:\Windows main folder files. 3.- Using a word processor (I use Notepad++), open all *.dat and *.ini files at A:\Windows and substitute all "C:\Windows" occurrencies by "A:\Windows". You may open all them at the same time. 4.- Reboot using the USB. You may use all your Program Files, firewall etc. and everything in your computer the same way as if you were using C:\Windows. I've done it many times using different drives in the same HD, but my motherboard doesn't allow booting from USB. HTH

You may download the old version here: http://www.sulaco.co.za/downloads.htm HTH

Maybe the solution could be: 1.- Clone Windows in a different drive (ie D). 2.- Boot the clone instead of Windows C:. 3.- Install IE6 and after that install LG's Forte Manager in the clone. 4.- Save all *.dat and *.ini files from the clone in a new folder (we may call it "back-d") and eliminate all their "Properties". Using a word processor (I use Notepad++), open them all and substitute all "D:\Windows" occurrencies by "C:\Windows". 5.- Save all *.dat and *.ini files from C:\Windows in a new folder (we may call it "back-c")and eliminate all their "Properties", so that you may restore all them to their original place in case of need using DOS. 6.- Substitute all *.dat and *.ini files in Windows C: by the saved in the "back-d" folder 7.- For additional security, scandisk C: and defrag C:. 8.- Reboot (without the floppy), clean the registry and compact it. If everything goes well, you may have LG's Forte Manager installed, but use the firewall to avoid it calling home. If things go wrong, xcopy all "back-c" files into C:\Windows and scandisk C afterwards using DOS, and everything keeps being as if you had done nothing at all. BTW: in case you have not done it before, cloning Windows in a different drive, ie D, is done as follows: 1.- Copy-paste C:\Windows (complete, except the .swp file) into D:\, and eliminate all "Properties" in all the D:\Windows main folder files. 2.- Using a word processor (I use Notepad++), open all *.dat and *.ini files at Windows D: and substitute all "C:\Windows" occurrencies by "D:\Windows". You may do it to all them at the same time. 3.- Copy in a free floppy the C:\ root files Io.sys, command.com, autoexec.bat, config.sys and msdos.sys. Eliminate all their "Properties". Then open the last three (autoexec.bat, config.sys and msdos.sys) and and replace every "C" occurrency by "D". 4.- Reboot using the floppy as boot floppy. This way C:\Windows is not used at all and you may clean or modify everything into it, or create a .rar file to be used as complete backup to restore the whole OS in case of need. HTH

Hi Multibooter! Just at the moment when I already had decided to discard and throw away my HP, being the cause of all problems an overflow of old waste ink which caused short-circuits, I thought I could do a last try. After spraying with a circuit cleaner spray all ink-covered parts, I brushed deeply, put them under the water fawcet and left water run for half an hour, dried with a hair dryer, swept with the vacuum cleaner and left the printer stay for two days at open air. At the third day I connected it and...incredible! It works perfect! Nevertheless I'll keep on searching for a spare printer. I agree with you Windows 98 is becoming a luxury. I dare say it is already a privilege because it means a lot of freedom for its owner and only a few people have the possibility of using it. It seems to me excellent that anybody who has XP or Vista enjoys it, and that anybody who enjoys them have both, but even after installing double boot I'll keep using Windows 98 SE for as long as I can. Thank you for your understanding and your help. Well, I'll feel happy if my "waterflow" experience is useful for others!

When running Win98 you may use Opera or Firefox to load normally the pages optimized for Vista, but if you use IE6 the load is slow and difficult. This problem may be fixed by tweaking two register keys: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Version Vector] "zIE"="6.0000" (instead of "IE=6.0000") [HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings] "User Agent"="Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.6)" (instead of "Mozilla/4.0...") HTH

Hello, dencorso and Multibooter! Your help has a great value for me. If you try to buy a printer for Windows 98 the salesman looks at you as if you were just arrived from Mars planet. I use dual boot XP/Win98, but I feel more secure and at ease using the "oldie", which is also very helpful to backup/restore XP having a .rar copy of it on a CD. Most users buy what is offered to them "as is". IT advances mean no doubt a big effort, but I love to be the real and effective owner of my computer. As I'm sure you know, only a minority of users knows the true value of Windows 98 SE in this point. Thank you very much!

Thanks, whatever420! Neutron is an excellent program.

I keep using a hp deskjet 940c since 2003. Now I'm having problems with it, and AFAIK it is difficult to find a new HP printer with drivers for Windows 98. What are the available printers to substitute it? Thanks.

I've used for years Thunderbird. Since two years ago I use Foxmail 5, which may be downloaded here: http://majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=2055 It allows you to use not only your POP3 server but also HTTP services like gmail and others. There is a Foxmail 6 beta version, but I keep using the stable old one. HTH

I left Outlook Express long ago, using instead first Thunderbird and since two years ago Foxmail 5, an excellent freeware tiny chinese program, in english of course, which allows you to use freely not only your normal account but also gmail and many other internet mail solutions. Even when I use Windows 98 SE, maybe Thunderbird old versions or Foxmail, which I think is compatible (I'm not sure) could be useful to fix your Windows 95 Fax problem.

You may download the excellent old program for Windows 98 SE from here: http://www.worldtimeserver.com/atomic-cloc...sion/atomic.exe HTH

I keep using Registry Compressor Pro 2. There are also versions 3 and 4 and all work perfect because they were made when Windows 98 was the most used OS in the world.

I have not found any mention to it in this forum, I use it since 2001 and iIMO is the best registry compactor. The old program is Registry Compressor Pro. I've tried several new substitutes and none is so simple and well adapted to Windows 98 SE as this. HTH

I didn't notice it. Sorry.

An excellent new registry cleaner tool for Windows 98 SE is Blary Registry Repair 2: http://www.Glarysoft.com/