dajhorn

Yes, the .NET installer for Windows XP does update some DirectX components. For example, it installs enough of the media runtime to provide the EVR filter.

Windows Update will glitch if the current Office 2016 beta is installed over an earlier version. At the moment, completely uninstalling earlier versions ensures that Office 2016 will be automatically updated.

This file was usually installed with Internet Explorer or the Visual Studio runtimes. Although it was not bundled in early releases, it eventually became a standard system component, so avoiding it will be difficult. The oleaut32.dll file in POSReady 2009 was updated by this patch: * https://support.microsoft.com/kb/3006226 File: C:\windows\system32\oleaut32.dll Date: Friday, October 17, 2014, 8:17:56 PM Version: 5.1.2600.6663 MD5: 02e2f13ba0e52e41f5e0fb768e11b604 SHA256: 43a4d942709dac1059c89dcd5239448bfad155e5b7cb2fc49a3539b8c93473df The schannel files were updated last Patch Tuesday too. Watch for it here: * http://www.htasoft.com/u98sesp/

Yes, you need this trick because POSReady defaults to sector 63. The bundled diskpart.exe does not implement the 'offset' or 'align' parameters. POSReady 2009 is identical to Windows XP in all the ways that matter.

Microsoft Security Essentials can be installed on POSReady 2009 by merging the attached stub into the registry. This resolves MSSE installation error 0x8004FF04.

It looks like the default memory area for this card isn't sensible, but Windows 98 doesn't know how to remap devices on the Intel 945 chipset. You're probably stuck because Intel didn't publish a Windows 98 chipset update for this motherboard. Try your luck with a regular PCI video card instead.