Mathwiz

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 The supplied Launcher.ini has sections labelled OperaOldWin and OperaNewWin but they're a little out of date and don't quite work right.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.

I don't know if this will help anyone now that xeno86 has ceased development of KernelEx, but I have figured out the problems with opening Internet shortcuts, .html files, etc. when Opera is running are related to DDE. If you have DDE enabled in your Windows shell and you launch a shortcut, Opera opens a new window, but it ends up just trying to Google a long string of garbage. (This problem has also been reported in another thread. At least I'm not the only one!) So just disable DDE in the Windows shell, right? Apparently not. This will force the shell to start another copy of Opera, but apparently, if Opera is already running the new copy just sends the requested URL to the old copy via DDE, then crashes. Dismissing the crash dialog gives the same result as before: a Google search of a string of garbage. (DW2108's suggestion to set opera.dll to Win2KSP4 mode didn't work for me. I'm using Opera 11.61 build 1250.) I also tried disabling DDE via opera:config. That didn't work either. The second copy just complains that "another user is already running a copy of Opera" and refuses to start. This bug is particularly annoying when clicking links in emails. Drag-and-drop isn't an available option in that case. I have to end Opera, then click the link and wait for it to reload.

As mentioned way back on page 1 of this thread, Adobe Reader 7.09 works. And with KernelEx 4.5 Final, the installation program completes normally - no need to edit the .msi file anymore. BUT, when I installed Adobe Reader 7.09, it installed a version of MSVCRT.DLL that broke several programs. Ouch! Luckily, if this happens to you, MGDx has the fix. http://www.mdgx.com/files/Q932590.EXE will install the latest version of MSVCRT.DLL that works with Win98. * Whew! * That was close. Thanks MGDx! Edit: One more thing: Make sure to set not just the install program, but also Adobe Reader 7.09 itself, to Windows 2000 compatibility mode. Otherwise you'll have garbage in many of the dialog boxes.

4.5 Final fixed the bug with the FreeCell solitaire game I mentioned many moons ago. Reversi still has a bug, but it's a new bug. The cursor now works fine, changing to and from crosshairs as intended. But now all the occupied squares are the same color! Rather challenging to play now; oh, well....

Here's an interesting one. DownThemAll (a download manager add-on for Firefox) v.1.x worked with KernelEx 4.5 (every version I tested) and Firefox 3.5, but there were some bugs I noted in the KernelEx thread. I'm happy to report that DownThemAll 2.0.x also works, and without the bugs!

Just though I'd let you know that RP 9.7 works much better with a vertical taskbar (dragged to the left or right vs. the usual bottom or top) than 9.6. The latter left a couple of narrow gaps on either side that tended to accumulate random crud when the taskbar was locked. 9.7 fixed this. Most themes don't look good with a vertical taskbar, but a few do. BlackMesa is my favorite. Edit: I may have spoken too soon. I rebooted (to install KernelEx 4.5 final) and the narrow gaps came back. They seem to be invisible/transparent borders for the taskbar (even though it's locked). But as soon as I resized the taskbar by dragging one of the invisible borders, they both went away. OK, not perfect, but I can live with it.

A search in this forum would have given you the answer. Silverlight & Windows 98SE Very funny, but that thread merely contains a lot of irrelevant descussion followed by (the link I wish you'd posted): SO, I guess the question becomes: Is there any hope of running .NET 3.5 on Win98 with KernelEx? Again, I suspect the answer is no, although I've now learned that merely asking can seem unbelievably naive to some folks.

Is there any hope of running Silverlight (Microsoft's version of Flash) on Win98 with KernelEx? Many radio stations are switching their Web streams to this proprietary format. I suspect the answer is no, but I figured it couldn't hurt to ask.

Is that true for all the other "X" files (XLSX, etc.) as well?

You're not retarded; it's just that the program is mostly invisible. The big difference is that some programs will run that wouldn't run on "vanilla" Win98; e.g. Firefox 3.5. The only other thing you're likely to see is if you right-click on a 32-bit program (or a shortcut to it) and click "properties," there's a new "compatibility" tab on the properties dialog. You can use this to disable KernelEx for that program if it runs in vanilla Win98 but won't run after installing KernelEx; or to customize whether Windows will look like Win2K, WinXP, etc., to the program.

I know the point is moot now, but I noticed the above question hadn't been directly addressed yet. Here's the thing: just because Flash Player 9.0.115.0 has SSE instructions, that doesn't mean it will always use them. Whether or not it uses SSE instructions probably depends on how the video being played was created - from the above, it appears YouTube videos always trigger their use, but many Flash videos from other sites do not. Flash Player will only crash when it tries to use an SSE instruction, causing a Pentium II to say "huh?" This has me curious: has anyone tried YouTube + Flash Player 10 on a Pentium II machine to confirm this? (If you're running Win98 you'll have to install KernelEx to test it, but the latest version is easy for even a novice to install - and to uninstall in case of problems.)

... notice that the third line is commented (that is, has a semicolon which I marked in red before it) and fourth line is not commented. So move the semicolon from the third line to the fourth, thus: After doing it, you may put back usbstor.sys v. 5.00.2195.6773, and when you insert your USB devices they may be detected correctly straight away. If not, enter the device manager with the device connected (one at a time), delete the device with the yellow exclamation mark, then disconnect and reconnect the device, that it will be recognized and mounted correctly. Well I'll be damned. It worked! I just copied a file to my BB without that BSOD. Thanks!

Thanks for the suggestions, but no joy. I installed IOSYS98 but it didn't make any difference. Then I installed USB20DRV, but after that it wouldn't recognize my BB at all! I opened up the control panel device manager and it reported a problem with the USB mass storage device driver. Looking at the driver files, I realized one (USBSTOR.SYS) was replaced by the USB20DRV update. So I rebooted into MS-DOS mode, restored the original USBSTOR.SYS, and rebooted. (I still have the new version in case I want to try it again sometime.) That fixed the driver and Windows recognized my BB again, but it's back to the same problem: BSOD if I try to write to the BB. So neither update helped, but (except for USBSTOR.SYS) they didn't seem to hurt anything, so I'll leave them installed for now. FYI: the version of USBSTOR.SYS that (sort of) works is 4.90.3000.1. (I assume NUSB 3.3 installed this version.) The version that USB20DRV installed (that didn't work with the BB) is 5.00.2195.6773.

Sorry for the confusion. I meant I hadn't installed Tihiy's USB 2.0 stack (mentioned in Bristol's post). Without wanting to sidetrack you from your investigations (and provide irrelevant information): is the file usbccgp.sys present in your system (in %windir%\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS)? RetroOS found that he required that file from XP Service Pack 3 in order for composite devices to work: Windows 98SE (with 98SE2ME) and a recent USB composite device The file can be found in the USB 2.0 Stack installer at MDGx's site: http://www.mdgx.com/files/USB20DRV.EXE Thank you both. I've downloaded both files and will try installing them tonight. I'll let you know the results.

Copied from the USBView screen on my Win98SE machine with the BB attached: idVendor: 0x0FCA (Research In Motion, Ltd.) idProduct: 0x0004 This matches the registry key from the XP machine. I have NUSB 3.3 installed, but not the USB 2.0 stack.

Yes, it's version 3.3 (the latest). Sorry, but I'm a bit ignorant about USB. How do I determine these? Wait: I found the following registry key on my XP machine: My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\USB\Vid_0fca&Pid_0004&MI_01\6&1b9c87ee&0&0001 The description in the registry is USB Mass Storage Device. So if I'm reading that right, the VID is 0FCA and the PID is 0004. One problem might be that the BB is a composite device. Is that what the &MI_01 is for? There's another key with &MI_00 which I assume is the other device (that I don't expect to work on Win98SE).

I installed it on my WinXP machine and like it. Unfortunately it doesn't run on Win98SE even with KernelEx 4.5 RC1 (missing shell32.dll export).

And when I press Enter, here's a (blurry but legible) pic of the BSOD. When I "press any key," the desktop reappears but Windows is locked up.

OK. First, here's a screenshot of a 4DOS session showing me about to copy a file to the BlackBerry. (Same problem happens with, say, Windows drag & drop, but it's easier to show what I'm doing this way.)

I have a question about using NUSB with a BlackBerry. I tried this and it does let me access the micro SD card in my BB as a disk drive. (It doesn't support the BB completely, but I didn't expect that. I just want easy access to the micro SD card.) Trouble is, I can only read from the BB - I can't write to it. If I try I get a blue screen saying "Cannot write to E:". This doesn't happen with other USB drives (memory sticks, etc.). Does anyone know of a way to fix this so I can write to the BB?

Probably the simplest way is to have them try to install and run Firefox 3.5.11. (Ignore Flash 10 for the time being.) If that works then KernelEx must be installed and functioning. If Firefox 3.5 doesn't work, then have them download at least version 4.0 Final 2 of KernelEx uninstall whatever version they have on their PC reboot (very important!) install the downloaded version reboot again. Once Firefox 3.5 is working they can move on to Flash 10. Installing that requires some temporary registry hacks, unless you are using the latest KernelEx version (4.5 RC 1). Check the first page of the KernelEx thread for the info you'll need to fool the Flash 10 installer.

Well, after all that sturm und drang Alt+PrtSc worked! And this site let me upload a .jpg of the freecell game showing the corrupted display. The top left cell should be blank, but instead shows weird partial card images. I found a pattern in the lockups: they occur when freecell tries to display a dialog box (select game, move column vs. move single card, etc.) Dr. Watson log is at http://www.speedyshare.com/files/23706735/freecell.wlg

Have any of the crack programmers on this board taken a close look at the conflict between the new IO.SYS and SCANREG.EXE (the DOS version)? In brief, if you replace IO.SYS with Microsoft's fixed version (included in all these 98 SE Service Packs since at least v1.6.2, I believe), then SCANREG.EXE will think your registry is screwed up, replace it with a backup, and reboot. To prevent this from happening every time you boot (which would result in a loop), the service packs just turn off running SCANREG.EXE at boot. (SCANREGW.EXE, the Windows version, still runs and backs up your registry once a day.) Does anyone know why this happens? The fix to IO.SYS supposedly had nothing to do with accessing large files like the registry. I thought it was just supposed to handle disk errors better. That's the only concern I have with the service pack so far. It'd be nice if both disk error handling and SCANREG.EXE worked correctly!