Mathwiz

The end (of all this GWX nonsense) appears to be near: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3173040

Back in my Win98 days (and I still use my Win98 PC once in a while), I needed a similar wild-card capability for ad blocking, and used a freeware program called DNSKong for this purpose. I just Googled it and apparently, it still exists - and it seems to run fine on Win 7 (someone will need to try it on Win 8 through 10): http://www.pyrenean.com/Filtering. If you set up DNSKong, add the above domains (w/o the * or "=0.0.0.0" parts) to DNSKong's named.txt file and, in combination with the numerous hosts entries added by Spybot Anti-Beacon, you should be set. Depending on your router, you may also be able to set up the above blocks there; but that process varies greatly from one router to another and isn't possible on all of them. BTW, I agree we should try to avoid telemetry updates in the first place if/when feasible. But for those of us not quite ready to ditch Windows updates altogether, updates with telemetry are likely to sneak through on occasion. (In particular, the latest "Windows update update" appears necessary for updates to finish in a reasonable amount of time, and is likely to include the WU telemetry introduced back in December.) So a combination of strategies - both blocking bad updates and blocking telemetry servers - seems more prudent than relying on either strategy alone.

My concern with 3161608/3161647 is telemetry: presumably all updates to the WU client include 3112343, listed on post 1 as "This update also improves the ability of Microsoft to monitor the quality of the upgrade experience." But if it's the only fix for days-long WU downloads, our only realistic choices may be either to live with it or live without updates. Or maybe not. Has anyone tried this from Safer-Networking.org?

Do you get the same error if you run the Dolphin emulator under KernelEx 4.5.2? Remember 4.5.2015.x is experimental; it is not even a beta release. So it may have some bugs that 4.5.2 does not have.

I think you must have HOSTS and localhost confused. WINSSL has nothing to do with HOSTS files, it simply shakes hands with a server that has SSL encryption and allows Win98 to connect.. Thats it, thats all. There is a batch file that create .pem certs. I guess they could be equivalent to each other.It isn't totally obvious what Nomen is doing, but my guess is he's using a trick I also use: putting the IP address of localhost (127.0.0.1) into my HOSTS file for web sites I don't want to connect to (e.g., banner advertising sites). This can speed up browsing because instead of wasting time downloading ads you didn't want to look at anyway, your browser just tries to download the ad from your own PC. A problem with this trick is that where the ad was supposed to appear, you get an ugly rectangular box with no image to fill it. To get around this, I use a "local only" web server on my PC that feeds small "dummy" images to fill those boxes. However, this only works with blocked http: sites, not https: ones. I thought about using WinSSLWrap for the blocked https: sites. My idea was to use it in reverse, letting it listen on port 443 using SSL, and connect to my local web server on port 80. But then I realized it wouldn't work: it would always serve the same certificate, no matter which site the browser was trying to access, and that would trigger the browser's "site name mismatch" warning.

Fair enough. As I said, there are ways around it if you're creative enough. So, yes, to be completely correct in every detail, to use the full 4GB you would need either a 64-bit OS or one of the 32-bit Windows Server OSes you mentioned. But I don't think server editions of Windows were ever remotely under consideration by either the OP or anyone else. Windows XP was indeed the first Windows with a 64-bit edition, AFAIK.

Reallly? I guess that until 64 bit systems came out the world servers must have been very short of memory. jaclaz Really. At least with Intel's 32-bit architecture. 2^32 is ~ 4 billion, so their 32-bit processors could only address 4 GB. But some of that address space is needed for non-RAM uses, so only about 3-3.5 GB (maybe a bit more) is accessible in the 32-bit address space. The remainder is only accessible with additional addresses; that generally means a 64-bit OS. There are ways around it, if you're creative enough. (Remember "expanded memory" back in the old 16-bit days?) Edit: and now I've read your final post, and apparently you agree! So why the snarky comment?

I'd start with the unofficial 98SE Service Pack 3.nn (whatever version he's up to) and KernelEx 4.5.2; both are in the Windows 9x Member Projects subforum. They'll let you use newer software and hardware than you could otherwise. If your laptop has more than 1 GB of RAM, you'll need to do some extra work to install Win98; see this thread for more info. Edit: Just in case, I should mention that some folks have run into incompatibilities between the 98SE Service Pack 3 and KernelEx. I haven't had any trouble yet, but I only installed the "main" Service Pack 3 updates. If you do run into problems, you can install KernelEx to default to "disabled" and only enable it for the software that needs it, such as Opera 10.x, 11.x, or 12.00-12.02. (Opera versions newer than 12.02 won't work on 98SE even with KernelEx.)

That feature would come in handy playing video recorded by cheap DVRs like the iView, Homeworx, eMatic, etc. On FAT32 HDDs those boxes break recordings at 4GB boundaries and number them sequentially like that.

You'd need a 64-bit OS to use all 4GB of RAM. Not sure about Windows 95, but 98 and ME will use 3+ GB with rloew's RAM Limitation patch. It's not free but it doesn't cost much. Haven't tried NT4 or Win2K but I assume both will use the same 3+ GB. No patch should be needed for them. Win 9x/ME also won't use both CPU cores. Again I'm not sure about NT4 or Win2K.

Batteries? D'oh! That should have been the first thing we suggested. All this discussion and nobody else (including me) thought to mention the obvious, but better late than never.

My M$ wireless mouse and PS/2 receiver have switches, with the positions labeled "1" and "2." I assume that sets the frequency to use. (Unfortunately I couldn't find the actual RF frequencies it uses documented anywhere! I'm guessing maybe 418 MHz and 433 MHz, since those two frequencies are commonly used for these kinds of devices, at least in the US....) I don't know if wireless keyboards in Germany have a similar switch, but if they do you might give it a try. (Make sure to switch both the keyboard and receiver! If they don't match, it won't work.) All these problems could just be RF interference from something else in or near your living room PC.

I haven't looked at keygen.bat yet, but from the sound of it, I'd guess it's used to generate private/public key pairs. (OpenSSL.org is revamping their site and their docs are temporarily screwed up, so I can't tell much more at the moment.) I'll take a closer look tonight and reply back, but if I'm right, you probably only need it to create your own certificates, for one of two purposes: Client certificates (to be used instead of a user ID & password to identify yourself to a server) If you're running your own server and want to secure it with SSL (using wrap.exe in reverse of how you and I are using it)Edit: I was right. It uses OpenSSL to generate a private/public key pair. Technically, it generates a 2048-bit RSA key, which is the de facto standard for SSL certificates today. The public key is included in a certificate that is set to expire after one year. OpenSSL will prompt you for identifying info for the certificate. The batch file then combines the certificate and private key into a .pem file, presumably for use with wrap.exe. (Since the .pem file contains your private key, you should not give it to anyone else.) End of Edit. So most folks probably don't need to worry about it. BTW, here's a definition I found here for the .pem file format: Also of note, from the same page:

I used the default for Telnet; just entered the host name. For my application (an IBM AS/400) I had to add a couple more forwards (insecure port 8470 to secure port 9470, and the same for 8476 / 9476). But that's specific to the AS/400 and its Telnet client software. A generic Telnet application wouldn't need those extra forwards. All the presets looked correct. The HTTP preset is probably unnecessary for most users. It might come in handy for securing a connection to an HTTP proxy, although in that case the port numbers might not be the default. But I'd think anyone using a secure HTTP proxy would know what port to use.

Sounds like U-Verse. Totally locked down to AT&T's equipment. WMC would be pretty useless for anything like that. Anyway, what I like about WMC is how it's such a good "all-in-one" video system, combining the functions of a DVR, DVD player-recorder, media player, and streamer into one application with an easy-to-use 10-foot interface. Sure, you can get good separate apps for each of those functions, but nothing that does it all, and does it from across the room, as well as WMC. But, it's been obvious for some time that M$ has given up on it. So it really wasn't a surprise when they announced no WMC in the Windows 10 they're trying to push on everyone. But despite all that, I'm still holding on to WMC, so no Win 10 for me.

Very useful. Thanks. BTW, I've used a similar product called "stunnel" on Windows XP. This app does the same thing, and is easier to set up (stunnel required manually editing a configuration file, but this one can be configured right from the GUI). It uses a current version of the well-regarded OpenSSL platform (specifically, 1.0.1p) so it'll support all the latest SSL and TLS protocols and features. It could use a little more explanation, but it's not hard. For those who are lost; first, start the program. It's installed in "C:\Program Files\SSL Protocol" and is named wrap.exe. You'll probably want a shortcut to wrap.exe in the Startup folder of your start menu so it starts every time you boot up. Once it's running you'll see a "WIN SSL" icon in your system tray. Next, say you want to set up secure email on a client such as Outlook Express. Set up an account on OE with "localhost" as the server names for POP, IMAP, and/or SMTP (whichever protocols you want to secure). Tell OE the connections to "localhost" are not secure. Then click the "WIN SSL" icon in the system tray, click "Services," put the real server names in the corresponding protocols (and if you use gmail, they're already filled in for you), click OK, then minimize (don't close) the window. Now OE will connect to wrap.exe, which listens on localhost, and wrap.exe will make the secure connections to the actual server(s), avoiding the problems of Win98's schannel.dll not supporting new certificates and protocols. Secure email is the most obvious app, but you can use it with other TCP/IP protocols too. I used it to secure a Telnet connection and it works fine. Its only weakness is HTTP (e.g., web browsing). With email, you usually have only one server per protocol to secure, but with HTTP, there are millions (billions?). Luckily, for straight browsing, there are good alternatives to IE6, so a program like this isn't needed. But if you're using Outlook or OE, Win98 is still using IE6 to open linked images and the like, so email will work but you may see a lot of blank image boxes in some of your emails.

OK, I get it. The receiver has a USB plug but that's plugged into a USB-to-PS/2 adapter, and the PS/2 end of the adapter is plugged into your PS/2 port. Seems like you've eliminated the keyboard itself as the problem (you tried another one) as well as the OS (same problem with 98 and XP). That leaves the keyboard receiver, the USB-to-PS/2 adapter, and the motherboard as possibilities (although to me, the motherboard seems unlikely to be the problem). Assuming you have two USB-to-PS/2 adapters, one for the keyboard and one for the mouse, try swapping them. If that's the problem, that will either fix it, or change the symptoms (the mouse may start acting up instead of the keyboard). If that happens, you'll know the problem is one of the USB-to-PS/2 adapters. If not, well, I don't know if you have another keyboard receiver to try....

I'm not sure about a wireless keyboard, but I do have a wireless mouse (Micro$oft's!) whose receiver hooks to a PS/2 port, so it wouldn't surprise me. Was the different keyboard also wireless, or was it an ordinary, wired PS/2 keyboard?

Well, I don't want Windows 10 on my home PC because I'm a WMC user and Windows 10 doesn't have WMC anymore. (Actually I'm surprised nobody has mentioned WMC yet as a reason not to "upgrade.") So I removed the Win 7 updates listed by NoelC and confirmed that the GWX*.* files are now gone. But oddly, I was never offered my "chance" to "reserve" Windows 10. I wonder why? Have I just been lucky? My copy of Win 7 was a "system builder" copy because I built my PC from components (case, motherboard, etc.) bought separately (like in the "old" days). Even came with a "Genuine Windows" sticker I got to put on the case! Does the "free" upgrade not apply to OEM or "system builder" copies of Win 7? They did let me get the Windows 8 Pro upgrade for only $15, and WMC for that for another $10 (but Win 8 is on a separate HDD; I decided to go back to Win 7 until I "needed" Win 8, and I haven't needed it yet). Or did M$ detect WMC's daily downloads of TV guide data and decide I wouldn't be interested since I obviously use WMC?

One thing y'all may have forgotten: many https: sites have blocked SSL 3.0 connections since the POODLE attack was discovered. By default IE6 only supports SSL 2.0 and 3.0. You need to go to "Internet Options / Advanced," scroll down to the "Security" section, and check the "Use TLS 1.0" box to work with these sites. While you're there you should probably also uncheck "Use SSL 2.0" and "Use SSL 3.0" since there are exploits known for both of those protocols. It's not a bad idea to do the same thing with other browsers. The details vary from one browser to the next, but the basic idea is the same.

Just upgraded to Opera 11.62. Everything seemed to go smoothly except for one thing: the Opera installer insisted on making Opera my default browser (and overwriting my launcher.exe registry entries), even though I made sure the "Make Opera my default browser" box on the installer options screen was unchecked. Of course I only found out later, when I clicked a link in Outlook and got Chinese Googled again So I saved my registry changes to a "fixopera.reg" file to simplify the next upgrade.

Excellent! The blank URL opens up speed dial! I've been looking for a way to do that (Opera left out anything like an about:speeddial or opera:speeddial shortcut).

I found a solution!! Go to http://www.coises.com/software/launcher.htm and download the freeware "Launcher" program. The .ZIP file includes source, but if you just need to fix Opera's Chinese Google problem, all you need is Launcher.exe and Launcher.ini. Save them both to the same directory; e.g., C:\Program Files\Launcher. Launcher is a tiny program that does basically the same job as the Windows Shell, but has a bit more flexibility - just enough more to get Opera to open a link properly in Win98. The supplied Launcher.ini has sections labelled OperaOldWin and OperaNewWin but they're a little out of date and don't quite work right. Replace them thusly: [OperaNewWin] command=""C:\Program Files\Opera\opera.exe" "%1" /nowin /e" ddeexec="%1",,0 application=Opera topic=WWW_OpenURL IfExec= request=1 ActivateTopic=WWW_Activate [OperaNewPrivateWin] command=""C:\Program Files\Opera\opera.exe" "%1" /nowin /e" ddeexec="%1",,-1 application=Opera topic=WWW_OpenURL IfExec= request=1 ActivateTopic=WWW_Activate Now, you have to edit the registry. Go to the key [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\http\shell] and expand it. There will be a command subkey and possibly a ddeexec subkey. Delete the ddeexec subkey and its subkeys if it exists, and change the command subkey's default value to: "<path>\launcher.exe" OperaNewWin %1 (where <path> is the path where you saved launcher.exe and launcher.ini). Do the same for the key [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\https\shell] so you can open secure links too. You can make the same changes to [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\htmlfile\shell\open] also, if you want .htm files to open in Opera as well. And that's it! Now clicking a URL shortcut from the desktop or a link from your email client will open properly, whether Opera is already running or not. Edit: This may go without saying, but make sure neither Opera nor any other browser checks whether it's the default browser. Otherwise, it'll think Launcher is your default browser and change your registry back the way it was. (OTOH, this is a quick way to reset the registry keys if you screw them up or just decide you don't want to use Launcher.) The differences between what Launcher does and what the Windows shell does are minor, but they fix the problem: The IfExec= line tells Launcher not to start a DDE conversation if Opera isn't already running. I wish the Windows shell had that feature! The request=1 line tells Launcher to use DDE "request" mode instead of "execute" mode. This not only solves the Chinese Google bug, it gets rid of the annoying "Cannot start Opera.exe" message that comes up (even on WinXP) after the link successfully opens There's one minor bug I still haven't squashed: the ActivateTopic key is supposed to switch the focus to Opera if it's already running. But it doesn't seem to work: you have to switch to Opera manually. But I can live with that.

According to the release notes, Office 2003 Word and Excel have had "experimental" support since KernelEx 4.5 RC 5, but haven't seen anything about other Office apps (e.g., Outlook). You might try installing only Word and/or Excel and see if you can get through the setup. I'd also recommend not setting any features to "install on demand." HTH - I haven't tried it myself

I happen to be using Outlook 2000 (reason is complex and I don't want to go into it here), which doesn't have a copy link, copy shortcut, or the like in the right-click context menu, so the only way to do what you suggest is to highlight the actual URL text and Ctrl-C (or right-click and select Copy). I can do that in plain-text emails, of course, but not in HTML emails. Other email clients are probably not so limited. I've done some more research and have a guess about what's going on. I think Opera is using raw DDE instead of the ddeml.dll library. Ddeml.dll will translate between ASCII and Unicode appropriately, but raw DDE doesn't. I think Opera is assuming the DDE string it's reading is in Unicode, which is probably true in Win2K/XP; but in Win98 it's getting ASCII and interpreting it as Chinese Unicode characters. I even tried replacing the ddeml.dll library with the WinXP version, thinking maybe it'd translate the ASCII text coming from the shell into Unicode. But even with KernelEx, all I got was Windows crashing at startup, so I had to put the Win98 version of ddeml.dll back. So it looks like the only solution is not to use Opera as your default browser on Win98. Oh, well, you can't say I didn't give it a fair try.