sybesma

MDGx, I have noticed a bug for sometime which I wonder if you knew about and has been fixed already. This happens when I want to do a Search and do a "Browse for Folder". I always see two "My Documents" folders in the list. Don't know why. Probably a registry thing. Maybe one of them represents the folder from 'pure' Windows 98 SE and the other represents the folder created by components in the 98SE2ME update. Steve

MDGx, I've noticed a problem with the FORMAT command in one of the latest releases that I'm using. It doesn't provide for me to copy system files, which some programs (like Partition Magic Pro 7.0) will pull up that FORMAT window in order to make a boot disk. I guess when the FORMAT command was substituted for the ME version, they dropped that feature out of the dialog box. Thanks, Steve Sybesma

The solution seems to have been to uninstall and reinstall a program called PeerGuardian, which is a firewall for P2P software that blocks the 'bad guys'. Now, the leak is extremely slow. Probably what it was before, but I really didn't pay much attention before PG crashed and started eating up memory every time I tried to use it. However, I would like to perform some tweaks that will enhance the giving back of unused memory to Windows. There are always programs that we use that don't make the best use of memory. I have 512MB on my home machine, so it takes a long time to leak to the point where Windows crashes.

How many programs do u have open when this happens?What "couple things" did u install? Did u install SP 2.0 RC3 [before or after 98SE2ME]? Did u install 98SE2ME [before or after SP 2.0 RC3]? U may need to (re)install SP 2.0 RC3 and only after that install 98SE2ME. I don't think WinME DLLs installed by 98SE2ME created this problem, I'm using them for more than 4 years, and never had a memory leak like yours. SP 2.0 [all editions] modifies your system.ini [found in %windir%] and adds a couple of lines: [vcache] MaxFileCache=524288 to make Win98SE compatible with computers with 768 MB or more RAM installed. You may want to remove [remark with a semicolon ( ; )] this line, and then reboot, see if your problem goes away. This setting is handled by VCACHE.VXD which by default is contained into VMM32.VXD, but 98SE2ME replaces it with the newer WinME version of VCACHE.VXD into %windir%\SYSTEM\VMM32 , which overrides the ones from within VMM32.VXD. Try to rename the VCACHE.VXD WinME file [if u intalled 98SE2ME] to let the 1 from within VM32.VXD take over, and then reboot, see if that fixes your problem. Also: make sure your programs are the most current versions and they have latest patches/updates installed. Poorly written programs *can* attract memory leaks. Try to close all programs except DDHELP.EXE, EXPLORER.EXE, KERNEL32.DLL, MSGSRV32.EXE, MPREXE.EXE + MMTASK.TSK. To do this, 1 of the best tools is CoolKill [freeware]: http://www.prowebsitemanagement.com/downloads/coolkill.zip Install it and then right-click on its Taskbar tray icon [skull] to see the entire list of open programs/processes/TSRs/services. Select a particular program to close it, then repeat with others (if any). If u don't like CoolKill, the built-in 3 fingers "salute" [Alt+Ctrl+Del] does the trick too. Then u can use the built-in 98SE Resource Monitor [RSRCMTR.EXE] found in %windir% to display memory resources. Other things u can try: See this excellent guide maintained by a buddy of mine [MS MVP]: http://www.aumha.org/win4/a/memmgmt.php More info here: http://www.mdgx.com/newtip1.htm#THRASH More stuff: http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/Speed_Demon...mization_01.htm <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I'm beginning to wonder if I caught some kind of virus or nasty spyware. I'm going to do some cleaning for a while. This problem is definitely pronouced and noticeable as of last night. When I installed the latest 98SE2ME it made no difference whatsoever. I started with a pristine system last weekend and haven't installed much other than a few things I routinely use (WinMX, PeerGuardian, Siren Jukebox, Tugzip) but what I did install was running perfectly for several days with no problem. The problem started yesterday when my system started crashing and getting out of memory errors. I've been running somewhat unprotected, but haven't been foolish about going to bad sites or anything.

I have developed a severe memory leak. I notice that with the same two progs running, all of a sudden I have developed a situation where the memory resources continue to go down, down, down until the program crashes. Not sure what's causing it, but I did install a couple things that may have replaced a couple DLL files.

You've got an interesting animal there that I would like to work on. Do you have a picture of it that you can post? Front, back, sides, top, bottom? Do you know how old it is? I would like to take a stab at this. There might be a way to find out what kind of chips are in it also, which could be a giveaway as to what driver should be used with it.

koo-el

I had to run the *.REG file by itself, but yes the bug is fixed. Just one bothersome bug to go, and that's when I execute a drive letter from Run, it brings up a Search window. I'm going to have to hit at that one when I get home tonight. I thought I knew how to fix that kind of stuff, but I must have forgotten, or the upgrade changes some things in the Registry to a different place than they were when it was just plain Win98SE.

Question: I have both the Unofficial Win98SE (SP) 2.0 RC1 as well as the latest 98SE2ME installed. Got a problem with a few things and hoping someone can point me to registry fixes for some of this stuff. Number one on the list: When I go to Start/Run and type in the letter of a drive (for instance, C:\) and hit <Enter>, it opens up a Search window (in which the title bar is always empty, and that happens when I open up Seach in the normal way also). I want it to instead open up Explorer like it used to. Number two on the list: The Programmer's File Editor (the new replacement for Notepad) does not always open up the *.txt file I double click on (right now, it does). Instead, what happens sometimes is that the program will say the file does not exist and asks me if I want to create it (as if it's not getting the path information passed to it of where the file I just double-clicked on was located). Other than these two things, I really have any noticable or annoying issues that I can find. I will try on my own to find and post solutions to these, but if someone beats me to it, please post the solutions here.

You are missing the motherlode of all tweak sites: http://www.mdgx.com You could spend weeks on this site and not make use of everything.

It only took one e-mail and one day to get Q192425. Just got it a few minutes ago. I will now request the last hotfix that Gape is looking for.

I know Gape needs two hotfixes to complete his list. I just requested Q192425 and as soon as I get that, I will request Q246615.

USE THIS INFORMATION VERY, VERY JUDICIOUSLY AND ONLY WHEN YOU ARE HAVING GREAT DIFFICULTY OBTAINING A HOTFIX. DON'T USE PERSONAL E-MAIL ADDRESSES ON THE FIRST COUPLE FAILED ATTEMPTS. PLEASE USE ONLY AFTER YOU'VE BEEN DENIED THREE TIMES. Cool Microsoft people that send the hotfixes: Bala (manager is Lahar Tahbildar) Corey coreysq@microsoft.com (manager is ???) Erik erikwi@microsoft.com (manager is Randy) Kathy a-kathye@microsoft.com (manager is Shawn Brewer) Ranjana (manager is Hemanth Kumar) Selva (manager is Hemanth Kumar) E-mail address for managers is: managers@microsoft.com Other e-mail addresses used by Microsoft to send fixes: comprule@microsoft.com support@microsoft.com wrhelp@microsoft Microsoft people that don't send the hotfixes and give you a line of bull: Abhiranjan *** (THIS GUY WILL WASTE YOUR TIME) *** (manager is Dennis Mathen) Ajay (manager is Anurag Yadav) Sandeep (manager is Prabhu Narayanan) Subramonian (manager is Ranjith Chakkambadh) Uday (manager is Prabhu Narayanan)

5th time is a charm. Just stay away from some guy named Abhiranjan who denied me 3 of the 4 times I was denied on that one. Got the 242941 fix, FINALLY, and my batting average is back to 1.000 again. Whew! Didn't think it was ever going to happen for a while there. ;-)

I must have jinxed myself now that I've had to ask for 242941 four times now.

India support is giving me tons of grief over the 242941 hotfix you were asking for. The same !@#$% (Abhiranjan) keeps replying to my e-mails denying my request. It's like a broken record. I don't think this !@#$% sends out hotfixes to anyone.

In fact, you often have to ask them twice because it's a 'training issue' shall we say, with India tech support. Some of them think they aren't allowed to send them and some of them that have been around for a while will send them to you on the first request. I have never had to ask them a 3rd time yet. BTW, erp: I got the hotfix you requested, both the server and workstation version were sent to me on the 2nd request. Never, never allow a first refusal to discourage you. Like I said, I have never had to ask a 3rd time. You just have to get to another person there sometimes that is allowed to think for themselves.

I found some links to sites that propose to tell you how to make a CD that you install Windows 98 ONTO and run Windows 98 FROM (this would be extremely cool in case you have a machine that's down and need a guaranteed way to be able to get up and running immediately without a hassle, and have all the tools at hand [including internet access] in order to salvage your machine later): http://www.heise.de/ct/english/99/11/206/ -- 1st article on the subject but not a successful attempt, yet it got the ball rolling http://www.lachiesadicristo.it/w98cd/default.htm -- 2nd article on the subject which mentions the failures of the 1st article and appears to have been successful

I have heard of people doing this with WinXP and WinServer 2003 -- see BartPE page at http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/ I wish this could be done with Windows 98 SE. Think of the advantages of having a stable, guaraneed to boot GUI on a CD-ROM that you could run 32-bit utilities from. Could be a really nice "rescue CD on steroids" if you know what I mean. Steve

Explorer hack: Make Win98 SE Explorer have more columns for things like Created date and Last Accessed date. Currently, Modified date is the only one of the three possible date columns that is employed. There is already a registry hack for Attributes, but a hack involving what I'm mentioning would require a reworked core file, I believe. Later versions of Windows have this capability in Explorer, just not Win98 SE. Don't know about WinME having this capability.

Just put "Request for hotfix Q######" or something like that. It's taken them three weeks since I last sent them a request also, and I've gotten no reply yet. Almost makes me wonder if M$ is reading this forum. I'll prompt them for a reply and see what happens. -- ALSO -- Gape, I need the update for the CD-ROM folders which are nested more than 7 levels deep. Apparently, you just got that one.

Looks like the top page has a lot of useful tweaking options. No memory optimizers here. The second page is on one of the most useful tweaking sites on the web I've ever seen. Highly recommended.

Anyone know of any editors which will allow you to copy and paste COLUMNS rather than most editors that only allow you to copy and paste ROWS? This would be very useful to me.

Correction: it's free only up to 145GB. If you want to get more space out of your 160GB or larger drive, you must then pay.

Your next update will include the ability to view Attributes in a Windows Explorer window. Very good. What I wish could be done is to view all three different file dates (not just Modified) by adding these two columns to Windows 98 SE Explorer: Created Last Accessed These could be particularly useful when one of the dubious websites we occasionally stumble upon barfs up a bunch of spyware onto our hard drives that SpyBot and AdAware don't seem to find because the file names are always changing in an attempt to escape detection. However, dates cannot escape detection, because Windows records when the file is being written to the drive. By being able to display files in Created order and Last Accessed order, it adds to the control you have over your files.