horsecharles

azagahl: Thank you for those detailed insights-- & that drivespace move, wow! Here comes my next project. I wonder what the consequences are if say, 98 sizes pagefile(smaller), reboot, XP would then just automatically re-size it upon start?? That's one of the things i told my computer guy-- but he wouldn't hear any of it. I actually do it thru MSConfig/advanced/ limit memory to xx mb-- same difference, no? You didn't mean manually right? Those instructs can all go in the startup files? In my specific case for the investment programs-- My understanding for data-intensive programs that use a lot of writing to disk in their calculations as opposed to working in ram: the 9x platform vastly outperforms the NT platform, further-- Amd kicks Intel butt. As we speak, the programs are being re-compiled for NT platform-- which i disagree. I'd much rather see them re-compiled for 64-bit workstations. I'd rather spend more money to buy those supercomputers and be forced to learn Solaris, etc., since some processes presently take a few minutes to half an hour each-- this ain't gonna change on 32 bit windows XP, and it will be years from now by the time the next Windoze for it comes out(stable release!!!) & subsequently the software is yet-again reworked for it. As it is now, i don't see any u$e/rea$on for buying 64bit chips for pc's--- and to boot regular Athlon 2800-3000 systems can be had for almost nothing-- i'd rather run two or three separate computers simultaneously, each for it's own set of programs It's like why get a 20"+ LCD screen, when for the same money i can get two 22"CRT's...

uuhhh, battle's a bad word up your way these days, no?

And i should add, if the resource drain tends to happen only while browsing, & on a DSL connection-- then there's a ton of fixes & settings changes we can try.

You have nut'n to fear with the WMP10 conversion, or anything once MDGx has recommended it. He won't mention something until he's sure-- standard caveats nontiwithstanding-- he's like money in the bank. IMHO

If you have plenty of time, http://www.nirsoft.net/ has a ton of very useful apps-- many more than listed on that first page: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/index.html I recommend you first get: ZipInstaller, which like all the others, can be run withouf installing, I'd do this: Open it, enable its Explorer context menu option, then use it to officially install it & all other with windows: ALWAYS choose the Nirsoftbackslashprogname option for both the program AND programs\start folders., & any of the other options you wish. You'll have them all in one place, won't lose track of them.... I use Zipinstaller with ALL zip & run programs(right-click your downloaded file, select ZipInstaller)-- it auto-creates desktop & start menu shortcuts among other things. We all have tons of little such apps that we even forget are there, let alone quickly find them in a pinch. Noeld http://noeld.com/ also has scads of useful utilities, as does XTTeq http://www.xteq.com/downloads/ and here: http://www.321download.com/ you may find the ones here helpful(i give them a B+, not an A... but YMMV: http://www.freshdevices.com/ you'll need a valid email addy for the reg codes. Think about paying for a PCMag subscription & download ALL their pcmag Utilities(hundreds)-- very useful. if you're willing to give name & email, then OfficeReadyEssentials can be downloaded free... it's got some useful stuff-- including a pdf converter, templates, etc. added to your MS Office toolbar.. go to www.betanews.com and just download anything with higher than 4.5 rating: anything garnering so high a number i guarantee you will find some use for-- scroll as far down the list as you've got time. In fact, the converse is also very useful: say a new apps is out & you're thinking of getting it-- anything below 4.2 is not worth getting(as there'll usually be an equivalent app rated much higher)-- and even better, in the reviews, when a product is so panned, there will usually be a mention of the best app or two in that category & how it doesn't compare.... if you've got the time, we've got the beer: Miller Beer....... PS if anyone is interested in free phone calls anywhere, also free fax & voicemail-- almost-free cell phone.... the real deal: usually your choice of area code US / UK(it does involve extra steps-- which is using one number to call or fax, a different one to receive incoming calls, etc.)-- i have a comprehensive solution of which utilities you install & which providers you sign up with. It's the real deal: real numbers, no fees, no credit cards, no spam, no credit check, no bs free for a little bit, then lose the number if you don't buy a plan. If anyone's interested, i'll start a separate thread with that and maybe free multi-gigabyte(giga, not mega) web storage, free 2 & 3 gb email, etc. And these are plans from companies you'll recognize-- between de-regulation of VOIP & new web ads revenue stream formulas, some good things are coming our way(I'm self-employed, so i'm always researching the cheapest services to use).

You've likely gotten most of this, but in case something slipped thru the cracks.... I'd also install Xteq, mentioned by MDGx, and spend a day enabling / making sure you haven't missed something. Bios optimized settings enabled? Look at everything, processor cache, usb support, etc. Hardware--computer heating up after a while? Maybe an issue w/ some usb peripheral, underwhelmed PSU, hard disk acting up... Do you have things enabled like DMA, 32-bit disk access, asynchronous mode transfer(careful, your hardware MUST support these, or you can totally trash all your software & possibly even hardware. )emmexclude, defragged/aligned, etc.? Looked at all settings re computer role, various caching settings: icon/path/file, write behind, disk cache, virtual mem, swap sizes?? You've cleared systray & startup of all unnecessary hogs? Depending on which apps you use frequently, you may not need the following background processes: auto play & auto detect removable drives(cd, floppy, etc.) burning apps ocr & scanner apps ms Office Start printer control program photo software audio settings apps auto-sync / update apps, including windows update I use PCForrest Startman 1.3.96 to help in this area. Here's an example of how i've disabled more than half the stuff with it: i'd install wintop from your win98 cd's resource kit or ms power toys-- or even more comprehensive, Sysinternals Process Explorer & other helpful troubleshoot apps to see what's using up resources... maybe something in the local network or web connection(multiple different connections going). Any Norton Doctor AV or other such apps-- esp. real-time file protection, protected recycle bin & mail scanning can really take over... Enable faultlog.txt in TweakUI, view it with BootLogAnalyzer for clues: http://www.woundedmoon.org/win32/bootloganalyzer123.html SystemFaultAnalyzer is even more comprehensive. Even if you've gotten all spyware out-- do a Find for net*.vxd.. there's a planted spyware file called netut80ex.vxd in your %System folder, which most spycleaners miss-- and causes different malware to keep coming back. Using JV16, etc. peruse all installed apps one by one... Post any logs here from any previously named utilities, hijackthis even: other pairs of eyes may catch something missed. Good Luck

you can always prove to yourself how thorough SeSp is by running BixFix, which provides all windows & office updates through its own site/client: http://download.bigfix.com/update/bf1760.exe main: http://www.bigfix.com/download/download.html and btw the patches download/install much faster thru BigFix than thru MS.

he didn't become a great qb....

I like using this program, esp. because of its easy auto history / undo / search functions: http://www.vsft.com/regexp/

Thanks for all the answers(hey! what's up, Often? happy 2005)-- too bad i didn't stumble upon here until recently-- there's just so much misinformation out there-- esp. bad when parroted by some who've been 'in the business' for a long time... I did know a tiny bit of Amd64's legacy support-- why was really excited: because it presently runs those legacy apps a bit faster than other processors.. It does say right on the box though, no win98 sic.... This also shows me how useless my local guy is: I put together "tweaked" systems for others, with diverse hardware, network, OS reqs. So, i'd rather pay extra & save the time/potential hassles by having the base components & OS pre-installed. The guy i've used in NY for years now, gradually became big-- with a chain of outlets-- but he's become kind of useless: he sells lots of those 64 bit systems, but he refused to even try installing win98 on one of them. And silly me, he talked me out of putting in in more than 512mb ram(768 i thought i could do hassle-free, since i then ship off the systems to other locales) for the dual-boot systems-- in spite of the settings changes i told him of. I've now got the multi-OS-booting folks using way too little ram-- for when they boot into win2k3 / xp & use office2003, photoshop...... azagahl I do habitually use the 512 max cache, the emmexclude, unofficial SE sp 2b, etc. You've now taught me 1gb shouldn't be a problem-- thank you very much! And you've got me thinking re swap size & ramdisk, hmm... The swap i do a bit different: i usually have all OS use the same swap, which i migrate to another hard disk, not often used, placed at the beginning--- & esp. because of the different OS requirements-- set it at min 512- max 4gb. Hopefully that's not bad, esp when upping ram amount?? Ramdisk... i'm still on the fence about(and would want to use a much larger one??): some systems, no matter how one tweaks /debugs hardware, bios, OS, etc.-- periodically freeze... some almost never have that happen to. I suppose i should be better at benchmarking & interpreting such results & other error logs... Maybe using MDGx's FMM tip(what doesn't he have a solution to?<g>), w/ its link to Rampage, etc. will make the difference.

MDGx, you're way beyond awesome-- the usual thanx seems so inadequate

quote MDGX: There used to be more info at http://www.walbeehm.com/ [http://home.tampabay.rr.com/walbeehm/], but Ben Jos's site is gone. I have Ben Jos's FixReg files [54 KB] for further reading: http://www.mdgx.com/files/FIXREG.ZIP archived main site his win95 direct link and win98 direct link

Thank your for your kind answer, MCT!!! I get all kinds of such goodies from the MVP program... but I was just curious from the win98 viewpoint-- i have a couple of custom investing programs(Clarion is the programming language) that run way faster on win98, winme is a distant second, way further in back of ME is win2k, closely followed by winxp (athlon beats the pants of intel, too)-- and yes, everything properly tweaked, like udma enabled, file indexing off, intel app accelerator, swap file on its own disk-first partition, yaddah, yaddah, sis boom bah <g> I've been told that performance on xp & ath64 didn't improve(for that particular software), so i'm leery of springing for such a system-- esp. when they're almost giving away regular athlon systems. (At least with win98 loaded, it wouldn't be just an expensive paperweight) Ehh, what're you gonna do?

Thanks. I did a search here, btw, before posting this query.

Happy & prosperous 2005 all. Who was it that used to call this Úber Windows, before kow-towing to MS cease 'n desist? Quote azagahl : BTW, I noticed that the XP bonus pack for WMP can be installed on 98 SE... Thanks for that. Just in case, if anyone needs it: http://download.microsoft.com/download/win...S/WMBonusXP.exe Could someone please describe how to install WMP 10 on 98 SE? Thx. i second that... and if anyone's also gotten any of IE's latest to work in 98... though I'm really, really ready to ditch IE & Explorer for Firefox & some other File Manager, but that's another topic. there are still these ME-related updates that can be installed and aren't included in your batch file... my route will be to create a small ME partition, update it, then copy over all the files from it instead-- while booted in it... ehh, why not: six of one, half dozen of the other?