FishBowl

Even more would change system files and / or networking related stuff, to log your keyboard and steal passwords and phone home, or even to interfere with your online banking. Several also manipulate the system restore mechanics, to re-appear even after being removed by safety software. And worst is, they often try to get auto started extremely early after reboot, before any of your shields are up. And manipulate those then... In most cases, damaging the system to not boot anymore would not be in the interest of a bad guy, as this would also stop his misuse of your machine. This often includes spreading the malware even more over your machine, like to all of your contacts, or stealing even more critical data from you... So killing your machine kills his worthy tool. Keep in mind, after mistreating you, they may like to sell their access to other criminals, that would like to continue with hurting you and others. The first one may steal some of your internet accounts for gaming sites or e-mail, next may want to steal your bank account or attack your money transfers, third may want to spread <real dirt> or other illegal stuff over your machine. Then there are people attacking web servers they don't like. Most of all would like your system still to be up and running, at least until all they want is done... So it depends on the intention of the criminal. No more, no less.

Search here for NUSB NUSB 3.3 also works fine for all USB2.0 HDDs I have. Once NUSB being installed completely, each time Win98 asks for a driver, point to <WINDOWS>\OPTIONS\CABS Select usbstor.inf Or read about maximus decim

I am using Norton Ghost 7.5 from inside of Win98SE, to make and write back (compressed) image copies of the NTFS partitions. Also works for some Linux partitions I've used, though on those, it would not show file names on processing. Cosmetic issue, no more. BTW, it's also good for W9x itself, as it won't have issues with index.dat files, nor would it ruin / misplace the boot routines of 2k / XP in C: drive. Of course, writing back to a partition means, an OS inside must not run that moment. But if not using USB2.0 or controllers you don't have DOS drivers for, you can rewrite from a DOS diskette. Had to do things like this more than once, e.g. to move everything to bigger disks. Fast as lightning, if not under plain DOS. And in Win98SE (with latest NUSB 3.3) it also works well from / to USB2.0 drives. If image files are getting to big for FAT32, Ghost splits them up. Usually Linux Live CDs / DVDs (like Knoppix) also come with disk imaging software, but I did not test that yet.

Win9x normally won't get 'married' with a machine in any way. Can later be moved from a machine to the next one, as long as you can manage driver issues, know to treat devices properly in the device manager, safe mode. Never did another fresh install here, although I exchanged the main computer for a better one around 10 times already, since late 1999. Got to admit, I've ruined the system with nasty experiments several times, but as I always have my backup images... You don't even have to place the license sticker on the case, 'cause as a private person you don't have a valid system builder contract with MS. So leave the sticker where it is... BTW, you don't even have to register 9x these days. Won't bring any real benefits. Simply search the registry for "regdone" and set value to "1". Editing plain text is not illegal in itself.

As Win98SE is still my favourite OS, I've decided some years ago, I will always use a boot manager I can access and control from it and DOS as well. Also had quite some trouble with LILO in the early years. And more than once, I've had a Linux CD with bad behaviour, partitions and boot manager related. So I am using the boot manager, that comes with XFDISK, my favourite partitioner for years. It resides in the MBR of the first physical HDD, could be removed easily by FDISK MBR. Linux start routines are advised, to reside in the boot sector of their partition, not the MBR of the harddisk. Anyway, Win2k and XP can't be handled this way, so they may use their own start menu in the W98 partition. But I can even modify the BOOT.INI from DOS BTW, all system backups are made with Norton Ghost 7.5 here. Won't misplace or forget the boot files, won't complain about index.dat dirt, and it can as well run on plain DOS. Images can be compressed, and on FAT32 it splits and joins it's big images automatically.

Missing the option 'both' Needing it permanent or cheap, it's the laser. But as sometimes I like to have colours, it's ink then. Both are Brother. Old laser 1030 I've got for free one day, will last as long as the cylinder and toner inside. DCP-115C with cheap but good substitute ink.

Two Samsungs on the older machine, that does not like to many partitions on big IDE disks, 120 + 250 GB Two Seagate ST 340062, taken out of Maxtor Basics Personal Storage 3200. Were cheaper than similar internal IDE drives at that time. Several USB2 drives, including a HDD media player

Think about using 'send to' instead. This in fact is a folder, that already exists on your systems and contains a few links to applications. Once located that folder, you may want to add some more links there, to your favourite applications. For example, copy those from the start menu there to. Won't interfere with the registry in any way. First of all, your favourite editor belongs there. And maybe a HEX editor, QuickView, an alternative browser, media players, whatever you like. As I'm running W98SE right now, and only German versions anyway, I can't tell you the location precisely, but on XP it should be within the user specific structure. In 98SE it's 'SendTo' inside of your WINDOWS folder. And there in it's even possible, to implement an extra folder structure, to sort up things perfectly. Have fun FishBowl

...but there's only one real reason for this, people not taking care...Removing the whole quote needs around one second of your life time. Right click, select 'mark all' and hit DEL or right click again, delete. Carefully editing instead may need a bit more time but surely often makes sense. Regards FishBowl

I've got a FAST AVMaster (fully hardware based audio/video I/O, VxD drivers only) and I still need it. Never got it working on 2k, XP or Linux. That's one good reason for me, to keep 98SE alive. And I am using Norton Ghost for image backups of all system partitions, including 2k SP4, XP Pro SP3 and Linux. The fastest way I've ever seen. Works fine in the DOS box of '98SE. Of course, I am not placing movies, disc images or other GB consumers on system partitions. I am using the latest unofficial update from nandlstadt.com and nusb for years now. Planning to put specs into my signature occasionally.