Wunderbar98

Torvald's Linux is now 30 years old though i've only used it for a bit more than half this time. Operating systems from Windows i owned for about 7 years before switching over, aside from Windows usage earlier in the workplace. So to this day Windows is still more of a mystery to me. In GNU/Linux the cat command piped to less is sometimes useful to quickly determine what a binary may be about. I just realized that in Windows this is also easily possible, duh. In DOS just use MORE or EDIT to 'view' a COM, EXE, DAT, DLL file. In Windows just open the file in Notepad or WordPad. The head or tail end of the file will usually contain helpful embedded comments. My Windows 98 hardware (800 MHz AMD) grossly exceeds DOS gaming requirements and some older CPU sensitive games still don't run well despite slowdown software. Mo'Slo and Slowdown have been used here with limited success. One older game seemed to run a bit better when System Cache was disabled in the BIOS, on my system Advanced Chipset -> System Cache -> Disable. I think Slowdown can also do this via software. Though lots of DOS resources are still available i can see why most DOS gamers now just use DOSBox. Memory management for DOS gaming is still 'a thing'. One game i recently tested crashed with a memory error when attempting to view the in-game map. Removing DOSKEY from startup was enough to run the game properly. Loading high and all the other tricks help as 640 kilobytes sometimes doesn't go very far. My seasoned Windows XP install was recently used to repair a FAT filesystem. It struck me how similarly i've configured it to look like Windows 98. This wasn't intentional but must be my preference to keep it simple. The shinier appearance of Windows XP never impressed me. In Windows XP the Display Properties are set to a 'modified theme' with simple options. Appearance is set to 'Windows Classic Style' and Color Scheme is set to 'Windows Classic'. Under System Properties -> Advanced -> Performance almost all visual effects have been disabled. I kept Windows XP's default Start menu, to me it is very nice.

The Hubble Space Telescope was launched in 1990, it is both ancient (modern standards) and awesome. It's provided us humans with so much information and knowledge over many years. I remember reading once that it uses a 486 processor. This intrigued me, makes sense, however, based on it's age. To help put 1990 in perspective, the year the Gopher protocol was developed at the University of Minnesota. Also the year the first search engine 'Archie' was released from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. I'm no expert on the Hubble or old computer hardware. Some of the computer components are discussed on page 5-8, section 5.1.3 (Data Management Subsystem) of the PDF linked below. It reportedly utilizes a 'DF-224 computer' and an 'Advanced Computer'. The Advanced Computer is, in fact, based on the Intel 80486 microchip. It is reportedly 20 times faster with six times as much memory as the DF-224. https://asd.gsfc.nasa.gov/archive/sm3a/downloads/sm3a_media_guide/HST-systems.pdf The Advanced Computer is configured as three independent single-board computers. Each of these has two megabytes of fast static random access memory and one megabyte of non-volatile memory. Only one single board computer may control the telescope at a time. The others boards can be off, idle state or performing internal tasks. Just skimmed so far, haven't seen any mention of the operating system. Probably something custom in-house but what's it based on, curious minds want to know. Computer Hope has really nice computing history information if anyone is interested. https://www.computerhope.com/history/index.htm

Typically i just boot DOS proper for specific tasks (Links web browsing, Gopher access, games) then back to Windows 98 for most everything else. Just tested the latest release of Necromancer's DOS Navigator (2021), described as a clone of the famous Norton Commander. Mouse support, system clock, graphic calendar, editor, dual pane file management, lots of built-in features and helper software. Even has a CD player which didn't work for me, caused system restart, query memory or sound driver compatibility issue, didn't troubleshoot. http://www.ndn.muxe.com/ The software is pretty nifty but takes a while to get used to. It's probably most useful for those who spend long sessions in DOS or have limited hardware that makes running Windows graphics difficult. Does that even make sense, however, since Windows 3.1 has such low system requirements. Nonetheless i still regret getting rid of my 486 and early Pentium hardware. Old games, like original Red Baron, would run so much better than fiddling with slow down software that still doesn't seem to run the game properly after much fussing. Here GRUB Legacy and GRUB 2 are used, however, a new GRUB4DOS (2021) is available if it helps anyone. https://github.com/chenall/grub4dos/releases Still neat to me that DOS related software is being developed. DOS ain't dead (and FreeDOS) is where i seem to find the most recent DOS news. http://www.bttr-software.de/forum/board.php For whatever reason MSFN has very little DOS activity. Recently visited the Windows 2000 section and there's not much activity there either. Come on Windows 2000 fans, help keep maybe Microsoft's best ever alive! Maybe i'm just ignorant, maybe Windows 2000 still works well enough that not much work is needed, doubtful but can dream :)

Please stick around @Drugwash if you can. The world is a miserable place right now, not just where you're at. So many people suffering so badly, praying they can take another breath. Reach out to anyone in your community that is able to provide assistance. Don't feel guilty for requesting help, you can always pay it back (or forward) later :) Thanks @siria, downloaded aida32-3-94-2.zip from your last link (aida32.en.uptodown.com), thanks for confirming md5sum. Small download, no install needed, runs great, provides lots (too much) system information including Windows 98 install date. Note when launched creates a AIDA32.vxd file in the parent directory of the extracted executable. Keeper software. I don't work in IT @UCyborg but volunteered lots with two GNU/Linux distributions and have many personal projects. I've tapered over last two years. No longer volunteer, this is my only active computer forum, personal projects are maintenance now. Unplug good, thanks. Been reading more (real books) and played through three old-school console games this summer that waited too long (Sega Genesis' The Humans, Lost Vikings, Jurassic Park). For whatever reason the OS is the most fun for me, not games or applications. Whenever an OS gets installed here, more time is spent tweaking it than using other software. Similarly with Windows games, often more tweaking than playing. I've read and seen numerous videos similar to 'Using DOS or Windows 9x in 2020'. The reviewer typically installs DOS or Windows 9x, often not on real hardware, slags the age of the system, fumbles some DOS commands and feebly attempts to go online using default Internet Explorer v5 or old Arachne (DOS). Old HTTP-only Google loads but attempts to access anything HTTPS fails. The system is then slagged again as it can't stream YouTube or access Facebook. Now i understand most users are just going to use Windows 9x to run legacy software and already use something newer as a workhorse system. I also realize that everyone computes differently, with different expectations and preferences. Still this bugs me. Most 'reviewers' don't take the time to learn that connections can be tweaked for highspeed and HTTPS capable web browsers are presently available in DOS (eg. Links) and Windows 9x (eg. RetroZilla, K-Meleon) that work okay. Logging into this forum and even using HTML-only Gmail still works. With further tweaking, and sometimes a little code, it is still possible to stream music, access MSN video and YouTube. Considering Windows 98 is more than 20 years old not too shabby. Modern operating systems don't do much more, requiring so much horsepower to perform similar tasks. Even though not on this forum as much i still use Windows 98 SE (Spectacular Edition) daily for at least an hour (forums, news, YouTube, MSN video). As the world is so sucky lately i'm still streaming Christmas music daily, despite record summer heat waves, makes me feel a little better. Not sure why, in Windows 9x and XP i always tend to turn on sound. Generally like the clicky-clicky mouse sounds and such. In GNU/Linux sound is just activated to play music or videos. Also in Windows, i have always kept my 'real application' shortcuts in the system tray with all 'gaming' related shortcuts on the desktop. In GNU/Linux i just use a simple Window Manager (Fluxbox or OpenBox) and don't keep anything on the 'desktop' aside from Conky (system information). Our family's 1990s era sewing machine broke this week. The foot would no longer spring down into position when lowered. After removing many screws and much dismantling it turned out the be a gummed up spring at the top of the assembly, hidden under two covers. Similarly i had an issue with gummed up white grease on a computer DVD player not that long ago, reported earlier, also fixed by removing the old gummed up grease. Over time it becomes almost like a firm glue, no longer providing lubrication, causing moving parts to seize. Interestingly i was reading up on sewing machine repair and someone suggested the gummy white grease issue may be a 1990s era problem, not present in newer machines. Maybe there's something to this 1990s (Windows 9x era) white grease issue, don't know for sure but that seems to be my experience too.

Good to hear from you @siria. Seems we're getting funneled towards something that may not end well. I've been able to avoid most of this but in reality things change and appear to be slipping away. And yes, no public outcry. The general populace is too busy or distracted and leadership is pre-occupied with emergencies. The 'no big deal i have nothing to hide' argument no longer applies. Everyone has an identity to protect and most have digital bank account(s) linked to either a phone or email address. This article was long but pretty good, 'Why we will win the war for general-purpose computing'. https://cheapskatesguide.org/articles/war-on-gp-computing-farnell.html As per this 'technological optimist', there is hope. For sure there will always be a need for 'general computing'. There has never been more hardware available, across many generations of computing. And there have never been so many non-mainstream operating system choices, many open source, covering a broad spectrum of hardware requirements. Still with the printers @Gansangriff, very cool - dot matrix. Now you just need to convert images to ascii before printing. Regarding Row Hammer, chip density i think yes, thank goodness for good old RAM. To me the 'grannies and gramps', as you say, will eventually pass on and the new(er) generations will already be indoctrinated into the 'new' era, just a matter of time. Thanks for your input @Mr.Scienceman2000. I don't care for a 'smart' world either. To me it generally means 'users' are actually getting dumber, in a sense, trusting (often unaudited) software to take care of their needs. Replacing batteries on older stuff is for sure true, easier and often cheaper. Don't know why the 'right to repair' has become such an uphill battle. Oy yeah, product churning means higher corporate profits. Thanks for the smartphone usage link @UCyborg, based on this i must be 100 years old :) Sad Firefox usage is dropping. To be honest i don't use it directly but my go-to 'modern' full-featured browser of choice uses much of the code and security fixes. The chart linked below (PNG image) appears to say it all - you will be assimilated. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_web_browsers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:StatCounter-browser-ww-monthly-202011-202011-bar.png Just did another full Windows 98 backup, it's been several months. The system is stable, most software is now installed and tweaked so not much will likely change. Still the best Windows 98 system i've ever set up and utilized. Aside from internet facing limitations, not much excites me anymore with newer operating systems, not even the GNU/Linux side. I was reading up on some proposed Windows 11 stuff. Some changes include rounded corners and the blue screen is now black, how terribly exciting. If you've got your ears on @Drugwash - hang in there my friend :)

Drugwash said: 'Fact is the utopia in my head clashes hard with the dystopia of the real world, and I just can't take any more of it.' This hits me hard every day too, more bad news, more dysfunction and problems. Hang in there Drugwash. If you have the strength, keep digging, ride things out day by day and have hope for tomorrow. I was going to state the obvious, like try to find help (friend, neighbour, agencies, landlord, etc) but i'm sure you've been down this path. You have been a blessing to the Windows 9x community, sure would be nice to have you around longer so we can all get old and cranky together.

As usual thanks for all responses. From what i've read it seems John McAfee had good reason be be paranoid, the charges were serious including murder. Depending on your belief system and what actually happens, man's judgement wouldn't be my biggest concern. Your old bug collection sounds interesting @Drugwash. I remember a YT video once, something like destroying your Windows 9x system with viruses. Entertaining only if it's not a production machine. I remember commenting a while back that i don't typically re-install an OS on the same system, just repair and move on. The exception, setting up Windows 9x on unsupported hardware which may require much trial and error. The other exception to me would obviously also be if the system was exploited or suspect compromised. I wouldn't trust a 'fix' and would start fresh. It's been too long, can't remember exactly how my Steam account was cancelled @UCyborg. From poor memory i think it was an internal Steam message requesting same, then confirmation via the email account associated with the Steam account. Sorry if not helpful. To me it's amazing the slippery slope. If i hadn't mentioned before i remember Richard Stallman speaking once. Something like, imagine in the 1970s if someone told you to use a phone that could track your movements, purchases and habits, record phone conversations, take unintentional pictures or video and potentially access your financial and health records. Almost everyone back then would have said this is craziness, 1984 type stuff. Well now people can't even turn the bloody things off long enough to safely cross the street or drive to work. I was hiking recently, there were more tourists flocked around a hotspot staring at screens than on the trails :( Did a little reading on Row Hammer and SMASH attacks, pretty scary. Fortunately my (old) RAM is immune and my cell is too dumb to make much trouble. Just heard about the latest Windows 10 print spooler vulnerability (PrintNightmare), potential escalation to administrator privilege. Recently so much bad news about ransomware, data breaches, password hacks, telemetry, hardware backdoors, etc. To me the best defenses against network exploits is to disable or remove unnecessary network software, use a firewall, use two factor authentication, install trusted software from trusted sources, real time system monitoring (CPU, RAM, network), long unique passphrases, limit online connectivity, encrypt important data, proper backups, frequent cache and cookie clearing and blocking almost all JavaScript. Not saying my systems don't have holes, probably plenty. To all those who do harm through computers and networks, shame on you. Everyone has different beliefs and ideologies, i believe we will eventually be judged on our thoughts, words and deeds. The world is presently struggling in so many ways, more than i've ever seen. Please use your computing energy and skills to accomplish something positive for the human race.

Hi @seahorser. I'm not aware of a standalone libpng port to DOS, doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Maybe i misunderstand your question, the Links browser ported to DOS was compiled static and has the necessary dependencies. Links can view and download *.png files. Just set it up as described in the first post of this thread, including the -mode switch for preferred graphics mode. The Links download link utilized contains library sub-directories with png data if this helps any. http://links.twibright.com/download/binaries/dos/

Links v2.23 for DOS is available, download and changelog links on first post. New cookie options via Setup dropdown -> cookies. Options include enable, save, duration and clear. Briefly tested, seems good, fast as ever, a go to DOS browser.

Sounds like you hopefully got your language issue sorted @UCyborg, at least the cause identified. Sorry i can't help. English wasn't my first language but i've been fortunate in that an alternative language OS was never needed or desired. *** Nice to see the forum is back up and running. Haven't seen a cause for the outage although country flags now appear better in the browser. Maybe forum software update or update difficulties, don't know. Don't remember seeing a post from forum admins regarding the issue. In case of undesired tampering my user passphrase was modified. *** John McAfee found dead in Spanish prison after his extradition to the US was approved By Clare Duffy and Alan Goodman, CNN Business Updated: Wed, 23 Jun 2021 22:29:55 GMT http://lite.cnn.com/en/article/h_c3f80e869076d38b2c430cc28d1c3b0b I remember seeing McAfee products a lot when Windows 98 and XP were my go to operating systems. Not sure if 'proud' is the right word but i'm happy to say i never spent money on an anti-virus product. There always seemed to be a free alternative for Windows operating systems, whether anti-virus, malware scanning, etc. The two anti-virus programs used here back in the day were AVG and later ClamWin. Don't recall ever having issues with these free alternatives but IIRC AVG utilized more system resources that ran as a daemon so then i switched to ClamWin, occasionally scanning the system and moreso just downloaded files. My oldest Windows XP system still has ClamWin installed but i never use it. My Windows 98 systems run naked and exposed. Don't think targeting an old Windows 98 OS with a virus is a high priority for black hats these days. Haven't noticed any issues running my present Windows 98 system online almost daily for the last couple years.

Just my thoughts and experiences. Long term average real estate prices basically rise not much more than the rate of inflation plus population growth (demand). Here real estate prices on average over many decades have doubled every 10 or maybe 10-15 years, although it's not linear. Young families basically buy houses when they need them, so purchase price will not necessarily be at the bottom of a cycle. So i think @ArcticFoxie maybe your father did okay in personal real estate but with such a long mortgage and additional lines of credit certainly not much to brag about. Also here, additions like swimming pools add little value to the property when selling, as many buyers may not desire such upgrades resulting in a smaller pool of potential buyers. You also did not equate property tax and house insurance, going up every year now. Don't be hard on your father or tear him down, he probably did the best he could, paying off a house and raising a family. I wish my father was still around to enjoy a barbecue or do some fishing :( Presumably adding features, like a swimming pool, provided you with a 'happier childhood'. The cost of some items, like eventual siding replacement, is unfortunately sometimes necessary, it won't make money but it protects the home. At least his mortgage was a forced savings program and he now owns a property outright. Doing the long term math on 30 years of renting, not to mention no control/ownership of your personal space, would not be pretty. Plus he would now still be renting vs a paid off house. Here personal real estate capital gain is not taxable, so to me the best is to purchase a reasonable detached (think COVID) family dwelling, pay off the mortgage early (<10-15 years) and invest additional funds into dividend paying stocks. If your investments are spread across 10-15 different stocks, you've created your own mutual fund without management fees. Many dividend paying publicly traded companies have essentially figured out a way to legally print money. Many of them are real estate companies and landlords in disguise. Think about how much land is owned by large corporations like McDonald's and Walmart, for example, which equates to land appreciation, rent from tenants (franchisee) and profit margins on products and services. McDonald's was once described by one of it's administrators as a real-estate company that makes burgers on the side.

Just personal preference, the Recycle Bin was removed from the 'Desktop' and added as an Explorer file manager Favorite. It's cool that the Favorites dropdown 'RECYCLED' icon even changes when the trash is not empty, just like the Desktop icon. Microsoft thought of everything with their greatest creation - Windows 98 SE (Stupendous Edition). I was recently working in Windows XP. When Explorer auto-selects files with mouse hover (as it likes to do) in the Recycle Bin view then File -> Empty Recycle Bin is not available. Whose silly idea was that? So the user needs to do a little mouse cursor dance just to empty the bin, from File dropdown anyway. Hmm, restore file or empty trash, restore file or empty trash - imagine Homer Simpson thinking. Maybe a minor example of the software trend to take control and dumb down the user interface. In all fairness, Windows 98's Explorer does not provide a Recycle Bin File -> Restore option until a file is selected, not even greyed out. So new (back then) users may not even be aware of the Restore feature. Of course, the right-click context menu reveals these options. Computer Chronicles aired an informative tribute episode to Gary Kildall if anyone's interested, titled 'The Computer Chronicles - Gary Kildall Special 1995' (runtime 28 minutes). It was very good, is on YouTube and probably at archive[dot]org. To me maybe the most important but lesser known contributors to Microsoft's success is Tim Paterson, programmer of QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System) in 1980, which became 86-DOS and was acquired by Microsoft the same year, quickly re-branded as MS-DOS. He went on to work for Microsoft too. To me Bill Gates' biggest success was his ability to leverage people and take advantage of opportunities. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Paterson Tim's (old) blog 'DosMan Drivel - From the original author of DOS' can be found below. Although there are only a few entries, his experiences and insights are fascinating. http://dosmandrivel.blogspot.com/ Xenix is interesting, never knew at one point Microsoft was working on a Unix-based OS, snippet from MS-DOS Wikpedia pasted below. So much rich computing history in the 1980-1990s. I always thought of these old DOS' to be really basic, like okay i can boot my computer and read/write to disk, now what. Just my ignorance, not uncommon. Cool to have some limited insight into computing history. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS-DOS Microsoft omitted multi-user support from MS-DOS because Microsoft's Unix-based operating system, Xenix, was fully multi-user. The company planned, over time, to improve MS-DOS so it would be almost indistinguishable from single-user Xenix, or XEDOS, which would also run on the Motorola 68000, Zilog Z8000, and the LSI-11; they would be upwardly compatible with Xenix, which Byte in 1983 described as "the multi-user MS-DOS of the future". Microsoft advertised MS-DOS and Xenix together, listing the shared features of its "single-user OS" and "the multi-user, multi-tasking, UNIX-derived operating system", and promising easy porting between them. After the breakup of the Bell System, however, AT&T Computer Systems started selling UNIX System V. Believing that it could not compete with AT&T in the Unix market, Microsoft abandoned Xenix, and in 1987 transferred ownership of Xenix to the Santa Cruz Operation (SCO).

The 'Quick and Dirty YouTube' script on page 41 of this thread was re-tested. Still works fine and gets a decent 640x360 resolution video that should work well on most Windows 9x systems. The 'Quick and Dirty MSN Video' script was updated, bottom of page 41. MSN has made changes, including only higher resolution video, that may not play back well on lesser hardware. On this system (800 MHz, 384 MB RAM, 32 MB NVIDIA) playback is often choppy. I use this script to gather news and entertainment then transfer the videos to a faster system for playback. The script provides a good excuse to boot my favourite Windows 98 daily! Changes to 'msn' script: - Higher resolution video (hard on older hardware). - CNBC and Reuters no longer provide MP4 links (now fail). - Videos now auto-titled (proper video name, no more timestamp). - To save bandwidth Wget won't re-download a video if already present. - Data file 'mp4' instances grepped to terminal to help with troubleshooting, if an MP4 is available and the download fails it may be a fixable issue. - MSN URLs with non-existant MP4s will no longer create an empty MP4 file but now indicate 'No MP4 file available. Note CNBC and Reuters don't work.' As the forum software formats pasted code crazy both scripts were replaced with download links (forum login required).

Enjoying some computing history. Seems appropriate to honour Gary Kildall in June, as his birthday was in May and he died in a July. Never knew much about him, aside from a Computer Chronicles co-host who knew lots about the 'DOS' days. Don't mean this negatively, i remember watching Computer Chronicles when they were excited about next generation Windows operating systems (1995-2000 era), to me Gary was a sort of 'DOS era' has-been. Makes one wonder how computing history may have changed if CP/M became the mainstream instead of MS-DOS. Nonetheless he sure contributed a lot. Sad he died so young under questionable circumstance. If the Wikipedia article is accurate, alcohol has ruined countless lives. Gary's 'Recognition' section from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Kildall Gary Kildall honoured: https://web.archive.org/web/20140508030700/http://www.montereyherald.com/News/Local/ci_25645008/Computer-pioneer-honored-in-Pacific-Grove

Thanks for all responses, sorry for late reply. Your expertise @Deomsh is always appreciated, thank-you for the edit and for showing your work, wonderful, helps me understand better. Yes @Gansangriff and @RainyShadow the folder dates are by far the easiest method to quick glance determine install date. My C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.DAT file (hidden) also indicates created date unknown. Nothing wrong with installing Windows 98 on New Years Eve, a wonderful way to spend an evening. Thank-you very much for your custom executable @UCyborg and script @Drugwash, they both work great. AIDA64 Extreme software wasn't trialed, download too big just for this purpose. If anyone's interested AutoHotkey was discussed on this thread before and is useful for lots of different stuff. The Windows 98 installation timestamp correlates with the creation of the C:\WINDOWS subfolders. If anyone cares my data below. Registry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion 01 a9 82 4e Oldest files: C:\MSDOS.--- (hidden file) April 02, 2019 9:05:20 PM C:\SYSTEM.1ST (hidden file) April 02, 2019 9:12:04 PM Oldest folders: C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND|CURSORS|HELP|INF|JAVA|SYSTEM32 April 02, 2019 9:08 PM @UCyborg executable (4kb) output: Win9x installation timestamp: 4/2/2019 9:08:02 PM @Drugwash AutoHotkey script (4kb) output: Your windows 9x system was installed on 2019.04.02, 21:08:02 (manual formatting) Tuesday 2 April 2019, 21:08:02

Finding the date Windows 98 SE was installed on the system is cryptic. Searching the registry reveals an entry for 'FirstInstallDateTime'. On this system it provides what appears to be a hex number '01 a9 82 4e' under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion. An old Microsoft developer blog entry is pasted below: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20091030-00/?p=16203 This isn't helpful as i'm not knowledgeable about this stuff. Going through other searches, to my knowledge Windows 98 does not provide the 'systeminfo' command nor does it support PowerShell or Windows Management Instrumentation. Other tips also don't help, for example the date of the 'Windows' folder is not accurate nor does the SYSTEM.INI file contain an install date. The installation date is also not present in System Tools -> Microsoft System Information. File and folder dates on this system vary depending on updates and tinkering. Seems maybe the easiest way is to look for the oldest file(s) on the system. Not the files dated 1999 but newer stuff that would coincide with the estimated install date. Came across this interesting page: https://pcrepairclass.tripod.com/cgi-bin/datarec0/root.html Based on the article C:\MSDOS.--- appears to be an unmodified backup of the Windows 9x MSDOS.SYS file that existed in the root of the C: drive prior to the installation. And C:\SYSTEM.1ST is the first backup of the SYSTEM.DAT Registry file, created before the first boot of Windows. On this system these two files have a similar 'Modified' date. Note these are the 'Modified' dates, both files interestingly have a 'Created' date of January 01, 1980. MSDOS.--- Tuesday, April 02, 2019 9:05:20 PM SYSTEM.1ST Tuesday, April 02, 2019 9:12:04 PM This 'April 02, 2019' date also coincides with the oldest folder dates in C:\WINDOWS, including: CATROOT, COMMAND, CURSORS, HELP, INF and SYSTEM32. This Windows 98 installation, therefore, appears to be April 02, 2019. Not sure if that makes sense based on the 'FirstInstallDateTime' registry entry. Me thought this install was older than 2019, maybe again poor memory. If someone is a math whiz for the registry entry or knows an easier way to figure this out, such as a freeware utility for Windows 98, please let me know, thanks.

Thanks for all responses. I know nothing about Xerox other than they're a mature company that's still around. Don't recall seeing their printers in my region but i don't shop much. *** In Windows Explorer having to press Shift before right-clicking a file to enable the 'Open with..' option was always a mystery. Maybe Microsoft's way to encourage use of their default software as much as possible, don't know. To me it's useful and shouldn't be a hidden feature. *** There's a thread on a sub-forum somewhere related to re-installs, got me thinking. The only two times i ever re-installed Windows 98 (on the same system) was many years ago. Once following a hard drive failure, before i started doing image backups. Another time when a faulty CD-ROM drive resulted in corrupt file copying during the install. So in both cases hardware failure - it happens. Other than that to me Windows 98, and any other operating system, is almost always fixable without re-install. Don't really know where the idea that a re-install is necessary came from. Users cite decreased system performance and stability issues. My experience has been the opposite, system performance and stability usually improve over time as things get tweaked and sorted. Maybe there was a time when Microsoft techs recommended this to customers since they couldn't remotely fix the system, don't know. To me if a system is unstable or something breaks it's usually just a driver, configuration or maintenance issue. Anyway, never understood the concept. Re-installing and re-configuring an OS can take a lot of time, just fix the issue and rock on if at all possible. One thing i've noticed on this forum, however, is when users unfortunately need to install an OS on unsupported hardware. I've been lucky with appropriate hardware but i can see how this would be a nightmare, requiring numerous re-install attempts and experimentation just to get basic hardware function (or not). Hats off to all those attempting and documenting this, in essence extending the potential for these old operating systems :) *** I used to upgrade major Debian GNU/Linux releases and had one system that went through four generations (each release ~3 year support). Now i prefer a new install for each major release, just personal preference to keep things fresh, BUT i never need to reinstall the same release on the same system. There are some pretty cool articles and videos about Windows upgrades. For example, YouTube 'Upgrading from Windows 1.0 to Windows 10'. IIRC correctly this video included DOS 5 and Windows 1, 3.1, 95, 98, 98 SE, 2000, XP, Vista and 7. Don't recall Windows 8 in the video and for whatever reason final upgrade attempts to Windows 10 failed. Of course through virtual machine as it's probably impossible to find hardware that would bridge these releases. My Windows 98 era hardware is good from DOS through Windows 9x, 2000 and XP. The jump to Vista is too much of a hardware requirement. Also unsure if this hardware (800 MHz single core AMD) could run the very earliest DOS releases - never tried. Anyways i think these multi-OS upgrade exercises are neato mosquito.

Thanks again for feedback and warnings @Deomsh, the DOS section of the Recycle Bin Corruption post was modified. To me if DELTREE is used in conjunction with the full proper pathway to RECYCLED then the wildcard is acceptable. The prompt is good anyway, lets the user know what's being deleted. Agree Ctrl-c is sometimes a lifesaver. Your 'DELTREE \' image reminds me of 'rm -rf /' in GNU/Linux, which was eventually addressed with a warning IIRC. The warning was apparently added after mean forum users provided the command as advice to 'fix' a broken system! Obviously this will never get addressed in old DOS versions used here. Wonder if FreeDOS addressed it, no longer have my install, don't matter. Regardless operating systems that allow users to screw up are preferred to me, it means the end-user actually has control over the system. *** I've never used Windows Me and just learned it's 'Me' not 'ME'. Anywho, since it doesn't get much love or discussion today a 2008 article with lots of user comments is linked below. Maybe this helps with decision making for anyone seeking an old Windows OS. Always too little time to test and run everything. As mentioned before this Windows 98 system uses Windows Me's 'Defrag.exe' and 'Scandskw.exe', very good. Apologies for posting a Windows Me link on my vanilla Windows 98 thread :) Why Windows Me deserves more respect https://www.istartedsomething.com/20080318/windows-me-deserve-more-respect/

Thanks as always for your input @Deomsh. I should have done more research and testing and was working from (poor) memory. Still learning, DELTREE does, in fact, delete both files and directories, hidden and visible. What my poor memory may have confused is DOSKEY does not autocomplete for hidden files, just visible. Then i would think the DOS method to effectively delete everything from C:\RECYCLED is just to issue a single DELTREE C:\RECYCLED\* to clear the directory. Maybe even better just DELTREE /Y C:\RECYCLED\* to suppress prompts. No need to toggle attributes or issue multiple commands. In regards to your reference 'there must be some administration outside the Recycle Bin', not sure. To my recollection deleting everything in C:\RECYCLED does the trick, maybe just a reboot or very least restarting EXPLORER.EXE ?

= Recycle Bin Corruption = Corruption in C:\RECYCLED has probably been experienced by most long term Windows 9x users. For me this happens most when the Recycle Bin contains dot files (start with a period) or folders that start with a tilde (~). Usually i delete these files immediately, bypassing the Recycle Bin, by holding shift then select Delete. The Recycle Bin can be disabled outright via right click properties but i like trash during a session. If the bin fails to empty properly Scandisk can still show no errors but the files can become hidden and precious hard drive space will not be reclaimed. Other signs of corruption include a Recycle Bin icon that still appears full or if emptying attempts fail outright. There are lots of tutorials online, i use one of the methods below to reset the Recycle Bin. 1. A bin that fails to empty properly due to 'busy' files may be fixed with a simple reboot, then try emptying the Recycle Bin again. 2. This system dual boots so for me the easiest way is to mount the Windows partition and delete everything within C:\RECYCLED, it gets rebuilt the next time Explorer starts. 3. Alternatively use DOS or a DOS prompt. If desired run DIR to check for content, including for example attribute hidden files (DIR /AH C:\RECYCLED, see DIR/?). At the very least the Recycle Bin has a hidden DESKTOP.INI file, may have a hidden INFO2 file and depending on the corruption some DC* files. Manually delete everything using a DELTREE command like below: DELTREE C:\RECYCLED\*

Thanks again @roytam1 for your work on RetroZilla, i see your pull requests, looking forward to a new release.

Thanks again @Gansangriff for your input. This house has four Windows installs, two Windows 98 and two Windows XP. Although not my favourite Windows XP is admittedly the more capable of the two and doesn't use too many resources. Personally i prefer to multi-boot Windows 98 and GNU/Linux. Tried 3 times on two different systems and finally downloaded the linked video. These YouTube mirrors, for lack of a better understanding, are great but always seem transient. Enjoyed the entire 27 minute Frog Find video titled 'I Rebuilt the Entire Internet for Vintage Computers'. Very useful for old systems, demonstrated nicely in the video on some truly ancient and limited hardware. Here's the YouTube address if anyone else has difficulty connecting to yewtu.be. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_v2_vTogS8 Frog Find is a gem for anyone who does not have HTTPS connectivity due to outdated hardware/OS/browser combination. Seems to work much better than web based proxy pages trialed earlier, especially since the pages are formatted well for old browsers. A truly good find, a gem. http://frogfind.com

The Open Video Project's 'shared digital video collection' seems ambitious and has some interesting archived video you would never see on YouTube. The site is accessible in RetroZilla without JavaScript and downloads work okay. https://open-video.org/results.php The Windows 98 hoodie linked on the top of page 41 is, in fact, a valid Windows 98 logo. I keep my systems lean and didn't even have a Windows 98 screensaver for comparison. But finding the logo online again attributed to Windows 98 got me more curious. Question answered, in Windows 98 just open System Properties -> General tab and the exact same Windows logo is displayed in a large computer screen image, although the colours are a lot more vivid compared to the sweatshirt. It can also be seen by runnng EXPLORER.EXE or WINFILE.EXE -> Help -> About or even just looking closely at the (small) Start menu icon. Probably lots of other places too, funny how this stuff hides in plain sight. Both my Windows 95 and Windows 98 SE product manuals have this logo in greyscale on the front cover, right above the very official looking 'Certificate of Authenticity' which contains the 'Product ID' (Windows 95) and 'Product Key' (Windows 98 SE). My Windows 95 manual still has a mint condition 'Where do you want to go today?' Microsoft Registration Card with Microsoft mailing addresses from around the world. Not including the index the Windows 95 manual is 84 pages compared to 117 for Windows 98 SE - oh the bloat.

= Quick and Dirty Dailymotion = Vanilla Windows 98 can't access Dailymotion directly. Search like below using RetroZilla and DuckDuckGo-Lite search engine. search_term site:dailymotion.com Open desired search result in new browser tab to get the video URL. Copy and paste the URL into keepvid.works site for download, no JavaScript required. Keepvid also supports YouTube, not sure what else. https://keepvid.works/

Both Quick and Dirty posts on previous page now have working direct links to Enhanced Cygwin-Lite setup (dependency software). These dependency dowloads (Cygwin-Lite and Win-Bash) still work. Total footprint of an Enhanced Cygwin-Lite install in Windows 98 is about 9 MB.