Foxbat

Welcome to MSFN, hifidelitygaming. Yes, this is the main Windows 9x hub, and probably the only one remaining that has significant activity. I'll start off with some links. Here are two stickies that may be of help: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/97588-modern-motherboards-which-are-working-with-windows-98/ http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/107001-compatible-hardware-with-windows-9x/ Here are some old discussions that are related: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/92454-to-build-a-high-end-win98se-system/ http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/63394-bestfastest-hardware-platform-that-supports-98se/ For 98 era gaming, I say start by picking out the games you are looking to play, and then build the system to meet their needs. Hardware does matter! It's a given that you should not go with hardware that is too old, but it is equally important not to select hardware that may be too recent relative to those games. If you do, your gaming experience can be hindered at the least, or completely break a game and the OS at the worst. You may have issues if you have 1GB of ram or more: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=118097&st=0. Nvidia 7800 or 8800 could be trouble: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/137200-nvidia-geforce-and-win-9xme-relevant-threads/. You'll need to choose the right drivers. Are you going to be running Windows 98 First Edition or Second Edition? The right combination of hardware and software will be dependent upon your choice of games. KernelEX was not designed to work with XP drivers.As for my main Windows 98SE system, the stuff that's worth mentioning is a PIII 1GHz with an nVidia Geforce4 Ti 4200. Depending on how you look at it, it's faster than a speeding bullet, or slower than molasses. Nothing special. Call of Duty: United Front expansion (2004) is a slideshow, Morrowind (2002) is just playable, plenty of power for Dungeon Keeper II (1999), and over the top for F-22 Raptor (1996). But some games will choke on the immense performance of this system. Daggerfall (1996) has timing issues. A slow-down utility helps, but it is not as enjoyable. Tyrian (1996) won't run. I ran it with DOSBox, but it's not optimal. Arena (1994) again won't run, and my system is wayyyyyy too slow for DOSBox with this game. But that's what my Windows 95 system with real 95 era hardware is for. The right system, for the right game. I hope this information gets you started off on your Ultimate Windows 98 gaming build.

That's for rloew's TERABYTE PLUS PACKAGE with the whole nine yards and then some. The listing for the SATA patch by itself is here.

You don't have to stick to version 2.5.3. Beyond Compare 3.x works under Windows 98SE. The minimum OS requirement for Beyond Compare 3.x is Windows 95 OSR2. http://www.scootersoftware.com/support.php?zz=kb_windows

I have been lurking in these forums for four years before finally joining in 2011, when my first minor contribution to this community was to aide in your search for a good Win98SE FLV player. In the past five years, I've seen many Win9x regulars go (and some banned). It's always sad to lose another member of this community, whether it is a partial leave, or never to be heard from again. For some, it's only a matter of time. I do appreciate that you've opted to post your decision. I too have been contemplating if I should post about my leave when my time eventually comes. I know my Win9x days are numbered. It makes me wonder what the Win9x forum will be like in the coming years as the digital world continues to be less Win9x friendly.

WM9Codecs9x is not a general "codec package". It only contains updated Microsoft Windows Media codecs for playback of its associated files, as explained by j7n.

That is because WM9Codecs9x does not contain the codec necessary to play the file.

The filename is "Utopia Windows Exit.wav", found in "C:\WINDOWS\MEDIA\" if you still have an old installation. You can also google it; it's readily available.

These two large threads can act as a detailed changelog: the old thread, and this one that we're currently posting on. It will be a lot of reading, but you will be able to see the day to day developments.

U98SESP3 already contains Dial-Up Networking 1.4, implemented since U98SESP v1.2, eight years ago. At this point, any missing files are likely to be the ones that were intentionally omitted. For anyone who isn't sure if a file is included or not, please read the changelog here.

GeForce Mx 100 / 200 SUPPORTS Windows 98. The RIVA TNT 2 M64 will work for Windows 98, but it would be outclassed by your system. Depending on what you will be using it for, this will most likely be a bottleneck. You're better off sticking to your current video card. For 64MB video cards, you can look at any video card from the Geforce3 and Geforce4 lines, and ATI Radeon 7200, 7500, 8500, 9000... I probably missed a few, but this is most of it. Edited for grammar.

Yes, Rloew's very tiny USB Mass Storage Driver works on pen drives. It lacks the sophistication of NUSB, such as the ability to handle multi-card readers.

Pale Moon has been mentioned long before on rare occasions; there are some old threads on this. However, very, very few people on this part of the forum use it.

There's a license.txt in the package. It is just a basic description. Although you can experiment by installing SP1 and then SP2, based on my experience with Win98SE service packs, I would say that installing just SP2 would result in a cleaner installation. The reason is SP1 may contain files/fixes that were be out-of-date or superseded by better ones in SP2. This certainly true for Win98 SE's service packs, where if a user were to install official updates first before a service pack, some of the outdated files would still remain active in the system, even though the service pack installed a newer/better fix (and one of the reasons why files are removed from the SP because it may have been superseded). Go to Start, Run, type qfecheck, click OK. This lists some of the updates you have installed. Use it as a guide only; it does not include everything. You can also use NirSoft's WinUpdatesList, which lists pretty much the same files as qfecheck.

SP1 is the official service pack released by Microsoft. The unofficial SP2 by erpdude8 contains SP1, and the official and unofficial updates released after SP1. MDGx's page contains a link to the main thread: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=44732. Be prepared to do some reading. Files in this section were probably out of the scope of the SP, did not make it to the SP, or were not included for a specific reason, although some files may already be included in the SP. I don't have Windows 98 FE and haven't tried this service pack. All the information I currently have is from reading the links, but I hope this helps.

Also a pretty comprehensive list here: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/149063-requesting-windows-95-updates-tools-etc/.

Opera will solve most of the Javascript issues, while bringing with it some bugs/annoyances of its own. Win some, lose some. Google doesn't freeze up for me on IE6 SP1. I now use 3 browsers daily: Firefox 2.0.0.20, Opera 10.10, and Internet Explorer 6 SP1, in that order. It does a satisfactory job of avoiding some of the mentioned annoyances. If a website has trouble with one browser, I rotate to another. Having been rotating long enough, firing up the appropriate browser before visiting a particular website has become second nature, such as Opera for this forum. Then there are websites that require a voodoo ritual. I will browse for videos on YouTube using Opera (the preview image is cutoff in the search results on Firefox), and watch the videos with Firefox (some videos can crash Opera). At one time, I've sampled other browsers to see if I can add anymore to the mix, but they're mostly just front-ends or forks of IE and Gecko, which doesn't offer any new benefits, and it would be diminishing returns to maintain 4+ browsers just to surf the web. I would move to Firefox 3 with KernelEX, but I can't stand the problems with the images when scrolling. For Opera, Java support is gone starting with 10.63. There are drawbacks if I stick with the old, and drawbacks if I go with the new. The Web isn't going to wait for us. We'll all have to move up sometime.

It looks like that list is from the Add/Remove Programs, at least the ones that do have installers. I suspect Giant2011 may have installed and removed at least twice as many programs to get to the current list of about 450. What would the registry look like? I may have to start a feasibility study on the maintenance requirements and level of organization necessary to handle this many programs in case I ever turn out like this. And I'm the kind that formats from scratch every year.

I made a post about the Epson Stylus C88+ in the Compatible Hardware with Windows 9x thread last September, post #125. It was the only active-lineup printer I can find that supports Windows 98 SE/ME. Epson has finally dropped the C88+ from the product line around December, so that is it. There are still sufficient quantities in circulation, so if you need a printer, now is the time to get it.

I made a brief attempt to look for such an extension last year. When nothing turned up, I tried to see if a function can be added to 98's webview via JavaScript to display those attributes. Unfortunately, 98 does not support Date Created and Last Accessed, although ME's webview does. As an alternative, a third party file manager such as 2xExplorer can be used to display these attributes, but I would still prefer to display it natively in Explorer. By disabling active desktop, you also gain the benefits of freeing some resources and a more stable system.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Happy New Year.

Tihiy never mentioned support for 32-bit cursors in RP9, so attempting to use 32-bit cursors will not make it work. Until such a feature is implemented, there is no known way around it.

Why stop here? USB pin 1 provides 5V max. If the USB specifications were modified to be driven at 12V (volt is a unit of pressure), we can utilize the VBUS to additionally accelerate the data rate by 2.4 times faster over the existing rate. With bit compression, we can further reduced reduce the size to its most basic form. 0, 1. Any advantage of transmitting them lengthwise is negated by their adjacency to each other which allows them to take advantage of aerodynamic drafting (a la stock car racing). Transmitting them as originally diagrammed always result in shorter data length, and therefore faster rate.Tightness of the pipe can be resolved with a wider gauge cable. USB data conductor wires use a twisted pair (figure 1). The problem with this configuration is twofold. Transmitting data through a swirly twist as opposed to a straight line is inherently slower. The gauge is also narrow. Data can only flow in single file (figure 2). Rather than have each pin in its own wire, all pins can be propelled en mass over a multi/fat pipeline, and applying multi-quad shielding to compensate for not using twisted pair, which also helps stiffen the cable, thus avoiding sharp bends or kinks (figure 3). USB Type A Connector __________ | ______ | | [______] | 1 5V --> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | _____ | _ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ _ | [_____] | 2 Data- --> \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ | [_____] | 3 Data+ --> _/\__/\__/\__/\__/\__/\__/\__/\__/\__/\__/\__/\__/\__/\__/\__/\__/\__/\_ | ______ | Twisted Pair | [______] | 4 GND --> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |__________| Figure 1: USB data lines in a twisted pair ================================================================================================== USB Type A Connector __________ | ______ | | [______] | 1 5V ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | _____ | | [_____] | 2 Data- 01 11 00 10 00 01 00 11 00 01 10 00 00 11 00 01 00 00 | [_____] | 3 Data+ --> 01 00 01 11 01 00 01 10 01 01 00 00 01 11 01 10 01 11 | ______ | Twisted Pair | [______] | 4 GND ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |__________| Transmission Order: ...............................................................987654321 (using dots to represent two digit numbers due to lack of space) Figure 2: Data transmitted slowly over 72 individual bits through a twisted pair ================================================================================================== USB Type A Connector Extra Shielding ======================================= __________ ======================================= | ______ | ------------> 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 | [______] | 1 12V ------------> 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 | _____ | ------------> 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 | [_____] | 2 Data- ------------> 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 | [_____] | 3 Data+ ------------> 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 | ______ | ------------> 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 | [______] | 4 GND ------------> 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 |__________| ------------> 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 ======================================= ======================================= Extra Shielding Transmission Order: 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Figure 3: Data transmitted quickly in 9 bytes yielding the output of: 01010011 01001110 01000001 01001011 01000101 00100000 01001111 01001001 01001100

It boils down to line capacity. 0's require more bandwidth than 1's going through the line. USB wiring specifications lack 0-bit compression. USB nominal transfer rate bit 0 Type A Connector __________ ____________________________________________________________ | ______ | ________ ________ ________ ________ ________ | [______] | --> / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ | _____ | --> | | | | | | | | | | | [_____] | --> | | | | | | | | | | | [_____] | --> | | | | | | | | | | | ______ | --> | | | | | | | | | | | [______] | --> \________/ \________/ \________/ \________/ \________/ |__________| ____________________________________________________________ Result 0 0 0 0 0 =============================================================================== USB nominal transfer rate bit 1 Type A Connector __________ ____________________________________________________________ | ______ | | [______] | --> /| /| /| /| /| /| /| /| | _____ | --> / | / | / | / | / | / | / | / | | [_____] | --> | | | | | | | | | [_____] | --> | | | | | | | | | ______ | --> | | | | | | | | | [______] | --> __|__ __|__ __|__ __|__ __|__ __|__ __|__ __|__ |__________| ____________________________________________________________ Result 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

That's what we're trying to find out, and we now know that the bootlog is not one of them. Did you try PROBLEMCHYLD's suggestion?

I've looked over BOOTLOG.TXT. There's nothing wrong there. Those failed entries are normal. For details: KB127970.