Wunderbar98

Hi ZaPbUzZ. Thanks for your response. Don't know about eBay, probably a very JavaScript heavy site. RetroZilla has limitations, there is no doubt. Personally the only login i use Windows 98 for is this forum. Still need to boot to another OS for email, banking, etc. The nostalgia is strong with me too, still enjoy using Windows 98 everyday, clicking on stuff, using old software :) Fully agree with your remarks about keeping old hardware alive, the embodied energy has already been spent on production and old hardware rarely gets recycled properly. There was a time my plans were to move all computing to Raspberry Pi but it would immediately obsolete my entire hardware collection, so i stick with the old stuff. When Windows 98 is too old, the newer NT releases still work great (Windows XP, 2000) and for me there's always lightweight GNU/Linux, works fine on all this old hardware.

Adding a 'View YouTube video description' option. Previously it always displayed but it does require additional processing, not everyone may want it and some may already be able to get this from their browser (not in stock vanilla Windows 98). The default is 'ask' but can be changed in the USER CONFIG section of the script and toggled during script runtime. Options are 'yes', 'no' or 'ask'.

Thank-you siria for the information. Originally i filtered different itags and settled on itag 18 (640 x 360 MP4) and itag 22 (1280 x 720 MP4) for simplicity, itag 18 readily available and Windows 98 media players handle MP4. Personally i find the lower resolution video (320 x 180 and 176 x 144) image quality almost non-functional, unless just using the 'video' to play background music. The lower resolutions probably look okay on a phone or pad, less so on a desktop monitor. IIRC itags 17 and 36 are now rarely available, maybe just because i've been using the wrong user agent string. Played around a bit, added user agent string below, not sure i got this correct: Mozilla/5.0 (iPad; CPU OS 6_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/536.26 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0 Mobile/10A403 Safari/8536.25 Found a video that provided itag 36, added appropriate fetch code and it downloaded the video. For whatever reason, however, the download was slow, 80 Kb/sec vs the usual 700+ Kb/sec. Interestingly, renaming the 3gp file to mp4 doesn't seem to matter, and all my vanilla Windows 98 media players (VLC, MPlayer, TCPMP) played the video fine, albeit it's poor quality. Personal preference for itag 18 was outlined above but if there is a demand for lower quality videos i can modify the code. There aren't probably too many using the script but if you are feel free to add a vote.

Took another stab at YouTube video streaming, not just downloads. Unfortunately the mkfifo and mknod executables from Enhanced Cygwin-Lite are not functional in Windows 98. Without a FIFO buffer to simultaneously read/write, unable to stream. Tried manual pipes and redirects too, still failed. Added a partial download preview feature. It will be configurable in the USER CONFIG section of the script and can be toggled and time adjusted during script runtime. Toggling 'preview' off [-] will not launch a preview and just Wgets the entire video. Toggling preview up [+], in 5 second increments, will Wget a partial video for $preview seconds before killing the Wget process. The partial video is then auto-launched by the configured video player for preview. In a video player like TCPMP, the full video duration is displayed in the progress bar but playback progress will obviously stop after it reaches the end of the partial video download. Wget $preview time allotted, internet connecton speed and video quality preference (640 x 360 vs 1280 x 720) will determine the length/duration of the video preview. On a test system with 640 x 360 video and a basic ethernet connection, setting 'preview' to '5', allows Wget to download for 5 seconds, which provides an approximate 50 second video preview. Typically more than adequate to determine whether the video is desirable for download. After previewing, close the video player, or preferably set video player to auto-close at completion of playback, and either press [Enter] to resume the download or [d]elete the preview and return to the Video Fetch screen. Resuming the download restarts Wget where the preview fetch left off, so no bandwidth gets wasted. This feature is best suited for longer downloads you're unsure about, check it out before wasting too much time and bandwidth. The code is rough and it will take a few more sessions of testing. The pending update mentioned earlier will incorporate this feature. Note this preview feature is independent of whether [a]utoplay is toggled on or off, which autoplays the entire video at the end of a full download. These options can easily be toggled during runtime based on user preference. This seems to give lots of choice, preview or not, autoplay or not, depending on whether the goal is to preview, quick hoard a bunch, play and delete, etc.

Thank-you for the information Markus. Good luck with your testing, would be nice for Windows 9x users to have something more modern that can run error free. My modern web broswer emulation project, the browsers appeared to work fine but emulation needed too much overhead. The Firefox v31.8 crashes are only JavaScript related though? My impression from your posts is a lengthy browsing session with JavaScript fully disabled, everything is fine and error free, including GUI functions, bookmarks, etc. RetroZilla with the tweaks rarely gives secure connection errors, the problem is page layout and presentation, something that would work much better on a newer browser. All the best.

The nostalgia is strong @Bruninho, you'll be back :) Believe this is the third time now you've publicly dumped Windows 98. These DOS systems didn't get nearly the attention and most importantly, relatively recent support, of NT-based systems. So it's no surprise the OS can no longer meet more modern expectations. Depending on your gaming library, it may be good to have a vanilla-ish or basic KernelEx Windows 98 system around. Many older games work best in Windows 98 / DOS and sometimes not at all in Windows 2000 or XP. Any browser that supports TLS v1.2 is good enough just to fetch gaming files, stuff like that. Just enjoy the system, rather then get too frustrated. I've been following the thread but don't understand all of the update details. It appears members have been unable to reliably get Firefox 31.8 running. Just wondering @schwups if your system has additional updates, update packs or modifications not listed. Has this been confirmed with fresh Windows ME install using only the updates posted above. Also wondering if there may be signficant OS differences, giving Windows 98 users grief.

Hi @loblo. Thanks again for trying. Not sure you missed anything, just probably doesn't work in Windows 98. When youtube-dl streaming works properly, there is no file download, the video launches immediately, based on the video player's buffer, not after a full download. So with a long 1 hour duration video, for example, you're already watching in the first five seconds, not waiting for the download. You can pause the video player and even bump forward within the stream's memory buffer. Attempting to go back, however, breaks the stream and crashes the video. The other drawback to streaming vs full download is that the video is not stored on the drive for later viewing, poof it's gone. Tested only in modern GNU/Linux systems using MPlayer and VLC. Unable to get streaming working either in Windows 98.

Thank-you @loblo for the feedback. The main advantage would be for those with limited bandwidth, preview a long video to decide whether it's time and bandwidth worthy of the large download. Similar to launching real time video with a Flash plugin. To each their own, thank-you again for checking into it.

Couple helpful media player information and download links: SMPlayer/MPlayer and VLC linked below. https://msfn.org/board/topic/177106-running-vanilla-windows-98-in-2020/page/17/?tab=comments#comment-1176224 TCPMP media player linked below. https://msfn.org/board/topic/177106-running-vanilla-windows-98-in-2020/page/18/?tab=comments#comment-1176635

Just a general note, if information like this don't turn a user off Flash, go for it, you may be crazier then Evel Knievel :) https://www.comparitech.com/blog/information-security/flash-vulnerabilities-security/ Curious, if you read this @loblo, are you able to stream a youtube-dl download direct to a media player, similar to below? youtube-dl URL_HERE -o - | tee replay.mp4 | vlc - I use similar in a personal GNU/Linux Bash script. Not sure if this is possible in Windows 98, maybe using Enhanced Cygwin-Lite or Cygwin? $YTDLEXEC -f 18/36/17/flv/worst --no-playlist --youtube-skip-dash-manifest --restrict-filenames -o - "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDDRfxk3J5c" | $MEDIAPLAYER - &

Not sure how many more updates but the changelog will be mirrored on post #2 above, and at the first link on post #1. An update is pending, mostly minor changes to fix bugs and improve stability due to file system race condition and Wget occasionally pooping it's pants when fetching videos. Not sure the Wget issue will ever be fully resolved.

Changelog and milestones: 20200112 Beta - 1st Beta 20200203 Beta - 2nd Beta - View YT video description - New sleepSecs variable for file system race condition 20200405 Beta - 3rd Beta - Improved main screen readability - Modified video Wget command - Improved video_fetch and getURL logic - Remove non-ascii text from video description - New delete video option after video and information view - More strategic sleepSecs for file system race condition - Decreased sleepSecs variable from 3 to 2 seconds - Additional Video Fetch help - Video title cleanup 20200411 - Confirmed to work in Windows 95. 20200522 Beta - 4th Beta - Removed duplicate video_fetch clipboard retrieval - Modified showClip clipboard cat command (query reduce stackdumps) - Disabled Video Fetch Wget user agent string (uncomment as desired) - Modified getHTML and getMedia Wget commands - Reset several variables after Video Fetch - Adjusted $sleepSecs instances (file system race condition) - New $preview variable (off, 5, +5 toggle) - New $description variable (yes, no, ask) - Updated Video Fetch [h]elp 20200712 Beta - 5th Beta - Broke proxy https://proxybrowser.xyz, new http://dontfilter.us - Quote wrapped all /dev/clipboard instances - Added '&disable_polymer=1' just in case note - New $AskKeepvid variable for 'ERROR: 403 Forbidden' YouTube - Simplified Wget command - Silenced Wget kill after YouTube preview for clean output - YouTube title cleanup: excess underscores, period tail - New YouTube search, specify search or Trending, uses Googlebot UA - YouTube search results include: video durations, single query cache - Updated Video Fetch [h]elp 20200805 Beta - 6th Beta - YouTube 'polymer' compatible: custom search, trending search, video fetch - Initiate new search directly from search results screen - More efficient getFormat HTML file chunking - Modified $sleepSec instances - Minor UI tweaks 20201124 Beta - 7th Beta - USER CONFIG $browser2: old seamonkey.exe, new k-meleonw9x.exe - USER CONFIG $sEngine1: old https://google.com, new http://google.com - USER CONFIG $sEngine2: old https://search.yahoo.com, new https://lite.duckduckgo.com/lite - Main screen 'archive.org cache' renamed 'Wayback Machine' - Function loadUrl improved $url grep - Function loadUrl now accepts FTP URLs - Modified newURL function prompt 'enter new URL >OR CONTENT< to clipboard' (ie. bookmark tag) - Clipboard content now displayed regardless of '--Invalid URL--' - Clipboard output asthetically trimmed to one line, does not alter actual system clipboard - Clipboard content >1 line (page break) denoted 'clipboard_content ...' - Clipboard content with >68 characters denoted 'clipboard_content ..' - Tag user selected titles from search_YT and cache_YT functions, denoted => - Fixed YouTube title extractions containing embedded double quotes - More efficient $ytURL extraction in get_search_URL function - More robust and efficient $vidTitle processing in getFormat function - More efficient $vidText processing in extract_info function - More robust title grep in search_YT function - Improved titles cleanup in search_YT function - Modified Wget commands - Modified $sleepSecs and sleep instances - Hopefully fixed pathways and prompts - Revised Main screen and Video Fetch [h]elp - Miscellaneous fixes and UI tweaks

Thank-you loblo for clarifying, at least three ways to get some YouTube action in Windows 98. For KernelEx users this is great, as youtube-dl supports so many more sites.

Hi cov3rt. I just know Windows 98 SE, not 95. To me VLC v0.8.6d versus TCPMP is just a preference. In general TCPMP launches faster and uses less resources, probably also a better chance of it working well in Windows 95. No media players i've tested for vanilla Windows 98 thus far (VLC, SMPlyer/MPlayer, TCPMP) are able to stream directly from YouTube, believe they can not handle the HTTPS connection. Even pasting a direct video URL extracted via my 9xweb script doesn't work. No idea regarding DivX, all media players mentioned above play what i need (mostly MP4) without extra codecs or software manipulation. What media types do you need support for? Haven't used Flash Player for many years. IMHO if it's not dead yet it should be, Flash has a terrible history for insecurities. A Windows 98 KernelEx user will need to clarify regarding Flash, doubtful for Windows 95 anyway. AFAIK there are currently two ways to get any YouTube access now in Windows 9x. My 9xweb script downloads (most) YouTube videos as MP4s, no streaming, then can automatically launch the video in the media player of choice. It is confirmed working in Windows 95. https://msfn.org/board/topic/181417-windows-9x-web-helper-9xweb/ The other method, forum member @siria reportedly has a script for YouTube as well. Don't believe it's been posted yet though, query a work in progress. Also uncertain whether it streams or downloads, my impression is downloads only. Also unsure whether it only works in K-Meleon browser via Windows 98, @siria will need to clarify. Note the 9xweb script noted above is browser and media player agnostic, use whatever you want, the script just needs the YouTube video URL copied to the system clipboard (ie. right-click video link in browser, select 'copy link location' or similar, then 9xweb can utilize it). Edit: It would also be worthwhile to know if any KernelEx users, running newer Python, are able to utilize youtube-dl in Windows 9x.

RetroZilla supports the Gopher protocol out of the box, including Gopher images and HTTP linking. Gopher was removed after SeaMonkey v1 but was previously supported in many browsers. Newer browsers use plugins and in GNU/Linux install the gopher package and run it from a terminal. The Wikipedia link below includes information on Gopher supported browsers. A DOS console mode client is linked below, most recent release January 2020, nice demonstration YouTube video. Untested as this system does not currently have a packet driver installed (gopherus-1.2.1-dos16.zip, 98 KB, no JavaScript needed to download). The developer also created a package manager for FreeDOS that supports the Gopher protocol, pretty nifty. There appear to be many historic Gopher clients for DOS. http://gopherus.sourceforge.net/ Some decent Gopher launch points, floodgap provides the Veronica 2 search engine. Retrocomputing and 'DOS' related searches appear to provide lots of interesting stuff. gopher://gopher.floodgap.com/ gopher://gopher.quux.org/1/ gopher://freeshell.org/1 gopher://gopher.rp.spb.su/1 Why is Gopher Still Relevant? gopher://gopher.floodgap.com/0/gopher/relevance.txt Gopher protocol. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopher_(protocol) Sad Gopher is now mostly a historic relic, so lean and fast. Although some new content is available, evidenced via current topic searches in Veronica 2, Gopher can't compete with the World Wide Web for reading and research, current information, etc.

= Inkjet Printer Tips - Part II = If you are fortunate enough to have a spare set of cartridges for an old printer, if the backup set has already been opened and used it will typically dry up and become garbage in short order. Some people use a combination of plastic and tape to keep the cartridge's printhead sealed. For me this hasn't worked well, probably best for short term storage, not long term. Depending on the cartridge structure, if it's a sponge filled inkjet cartridge, the 'lid' of the cartridge can often be removed with a hobby knife. Physically remove the sponges, rinse out and save the ink in your refill jar. Thoroughly wash out the sponges, ink collection well and printhead of the cartridge with warm water and allow them to fully dry. Now they are like new, never filled, and available indefinitely as a backup. To prepare for use just re-insert the sponge, tape or hot glue the removed 'lid', inject ink and prime the cartridge. Although likely hard to reach, periodically clean the printer's printhead parking position rubber cap with a moist cotton rag. The rubber cap needs to be in reasonably clean condition so the printhead seals effectively when parked, otherwise the nozzles may dry out. The printer's ink discard tray and any soaker pads should also be quick cleaned periodically with a scraper or rags. If it's an old or high use printer, excess discard ink may overflow and mess up the printer or desk or prevent the printer from properly swiping clean the printhead. It's disgusting how much ink is wasted during the printer priming process. Excess salvaged ink is saved in a recycled glass pickle jar, diluted with water slightly and used for caligraphy and quill writing projects. For years i've also been keeping all opened ink pens, felt pens, highlighters, markers and small glue bottles in recycled glass pickle jars. A small, damp scrap of cotton cloth is placed in the jar and the humidity level is monitored every couple weeks. Re-moisten the cotton cloth if it's dry. If there is visible moisture on the sides of the jar then it's too wet, let it dry somewhat to prevent mold and mildew. Pens can be stored in this environment seemingly forever without degradation of performance.

= Inkjet Printer Tips - Part I = Passing on some tips for inkjet printers with sponge cartridges and built-in printheads, maybe it helps keep an old printer alive. The biggest problem is dried up cartridges. Distilled water or isopropyl alcohol (99% pure) liberally applied directly to the print head via gentle cotton swab is a good ink solvent. Occasionally injecting 1-2 millilitres of water or alcohol into the base of the cartrige's ink sponge during refills has also been helpful - most cartridges have a temporary plastic ink well at the base of the cartridge, between the sponge and printhead, seperated by a non-removable filter, that gets gummed up over time. The household Canon MX310 has non-airtight lids for the paper tray inlets/outlets to help prevent the cartridges from drying out between use. A small plastic tray of tap water is placed on the inside of the paper outlet tray when the printer is not in use, near the print cartridge resting position. No rust or issues with humidity have been experienced and it slightly increases the humidity level inside the printer. The water needs to be topped up every 1-2 weeks. Printing a small multi-coloured test page or spacing out print jobs twice a week helps keep the printheads active and the ink flowing. Better to use a little ink a couple times a week than throw away a dried up cartridge. Fortunately my old printer is refillable without the need to reset or trick the system. If you are fortunate to have one of these older types of printers, hang on to it for dear life! Although it would be ideal to top up ink cartridges with a refill every couple weeks, like a continuous flow system, frequent cartridge removal will prematurely wear out the gold electrical contacts. So the best is probably to use the printer until print quality shows the cartridges are either drying up or low on ink, then immediately maintain and refill them. Personally i have not found my cartridges to be as picky about ink type as the manufacturers would have you believe. If refilling cartridges through a top drilled hole, cover the hole with tape after refilling and use a pin to poke a much smaller breather hole. This will help prevent the inside of the cartridge from drying up. If you do not have a priming clip, let the cartridge rest for several hours after refill, in the proper parked position of the printer (after blotting), then run the printer through one deep clean cycle. Although it wastes some ink, it usually primes the cartridge nicely. The black and tri-colour cartridges currently in the printer were obtained used, refilled several times by the original owner, used by this houehold for several years with numerous additional refills, still working okay. Print quality is, unfortunately, down with slight streakiness. The other issue with hacked refills (ie. using different inks, diluting with water) is that colour matching won't be perfect. For most print jobs it's acceptable.

Thank-you cov3rt for all the information. Downloaded hwmonitor_1.17-win98.zip (v1.17.0, released 2010, 499 KB, no JavaScript needed). In RetroZilla change View -> Use Style -> to 'None' to see the 'zip - english Windows 98 version' link towards the bottom of the page. https://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html The download is relatively small and the software does not require installation. Unfortunately it does not detect any sensors on this particular hardware. Giving up on checking sensors on this hardware. As mentioned, the system BIOS does not even output information regarding fans, temperatures, etc. You outlined several softwares above, hopefully others will find it beneficial.

Thank-you again MrMateczko. AIDA64 Extreme (aida64extreme625.zip, ~50 MB, April 2020 release, no JavaScript needed) was downloaded, extracted and tested. Although a large download it contains all the *.dll and support files needed so no formal installation is required. It's a 30-day trial version with some limitations noted on the downloads page. Amazing it works from Windows 95 - Windows 10 and pretty much everything inbetween. It provides lots of system information (hardware and software) as well as system stability, benchmark and stress testing tools for the geeks. Unfortunately it is unable to detect system voltage, fans and temperatures on this particular hardware. Don't believe it's a software issue, just my hardware does not support this information, not even outputed in the system's BIOS. Others may want to check this out.

Hi ZaPbUzZ. Only encryption up to TLS v1.2 will work, the world is moving on. All search engines in the search engine collection connect and during general browsing >95% of sites connect. Please provide an example of a URL that does not connect. There are no encryption settings in preferences, modify and add the about:config entries noted in the 'TLS Tweaks' section. If these tweaks are not applied browsing will suck. From spending probably too much time on this forum, JavaScript processing is an issue with all current Windows 98 capable browsers, even using kernel extensions, hence the NoScript recommendation noted in the 'JavaScript Issues' section. Almost all downloads work, as noted in the vanilla Windows 98 thread accessing various software on almost a daily basis. As noted in the 'Rendering Issues' section, if download links are missing toggle View dropdown -> Use Style -> 'Default Style' to 'None'. Of course if a download link is hiding behind JavaScript, then try selective JavaScript processing with NoScript or provide a link to a download that fails. It goes without saying RetroZilla takes extra setup but the steps are all outlined and linked above. The browsing experience will not be the same as a modern browser on a modern system, we're talking basic browsing here on a 22 year old operating system, which in itself is pretty amazing. If routine browsing with JavaScript is desirable, then it's probably necessary to use a newer OS.

With rare exception most uninstallers lie. Even worse on modern systems, hooks everywhere. In this regard DOS is still king, once something is removed it's gone. No searching through the hard drive for errant entries, like 'Program Files', no messy registry. Long live DOS :)

Installed HWiNFO32 v6.24-4120 from below (freeware, hwi_624.exe, ~7MB, no JavaScript needed). This is the graphic version, there is also a DOS version available, untested. https://www.hwinfo.com/download/ The software is detailed and appears very good. If available and supported, it appears able to detected a multitude of hardware informaton, including temperatures, voltages, fans, etc. Unfortunately this hardware does not provide real-time CPU temperature information, confirmed with lm-sensors via multi-boot GNU/Linux. Some may find HWiNFO useful, probably information overload for most. As an aside, Windows 98 provides some system information built-in via Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> System Information. On this system, HWiNFO and Amn Refrigerator will be removed to keep things lean and clean.

Thank-you MrMateczko. AMNHLTM was installed, upon reboot it did not provide any system tray information so there was no way to decipher whether the program was working. So then installed Amn Refrigerator v3.2 for Windows 95/98/ME. This provides a system tray graph and popup information. The Pause key appears to halt the entire system, even mouse cursor. Don't think Windows 98 has built-in CPU temperature monitoring to confirm whether the program makes a difference. If anyone can suggest a free real-time temperature monitor please let me know. Also installed Amn Task Manager, 30-day trial. Seems very good but removed, don't want a trial or to register. Not sure how it works now that AMN appears defunct. If anyone's interested in checking out any of this software: http://web.archive.org/web/20041128194526/http://www.amn.ru/

Thank-you for all feedback. Nice wooden stand @Bruninho. Keep meaning to mount a retro system on wood, fully exposed, set up on the corner of the desk. Too lazy to post a picture of my netbook 'cooling tower'. Just an empty cardboard box, dimensions ~30 cm wide, ~25 cm front to back and ~20 cm tall, with an old CPU fan duct taped through a hole that blows cool air up to the bottom of the netbook. A hacked USB connector hangs out the side, making it easy to plug in the fan as needed. The box raises the netbook nicely when seated in a recliner, improving ergonomics (reduced neck flexion). Good to see you around again @siria. Every laptop is different but check closely along the sides, back and bottom for cooling vents. The grills easily clog with dust after a couple years. If you don't want to take the laptop apart, recommend at least vacuuming the grills. There may also be an easy remove RAM cover, slip it off and vacuum out as much dust as possible. Both Rain v1.0 and v2.0 were tested @jumper. Unfortunately they don't support this AMD k7 Athlon 800 CPU, as outlined at http://www.benchtest.com/rain.html. Same with Waterfall v1.23. I did not feel comfortable installing Waterfall Pro v2.99, as the original author is apparently MIA. Unsure whether it supports any newer hardware, the documentation did not specify. Maybe these coolers will help other users with older processors. Any other suggestions please let me know.

These retro hardware maintenance tips have served me well for years. Some will disagree or have variations, that's fair, YMMV. A couple posts were submitted earlier on tower component maintenance: https://msfn.org/board/topic/177106-running-vanilla-windows-98-in-2020/page/19/?tab=comments#comment-1176827 and CRT monitors: https://msfn.org/board/topic/177106-running-vanilla-windows-98-in-2020/page/20/?tab=comments#comment-1177004 Most computer tower panels in this household are permanently removed to minimize heat build up and allow maximum air exchange during runtime. This also makes it simple to quick vacuum the internals every month betweeen major maintenance, monitor fan function, swap drives, re-seat connections, etc. For the most part my old hardware lasts a long time with rare burnout or failure. Depending on the components, the only drawback is slightly more fan and hard drive noise. Some drill holes or use water cooling, to me this is not necessary. Note removing panels is not recommended for households with young children or roaming pets. Avoid using netbooks and laptops on soft surfaces to minimize heat build up. A cardboard box, cut with airflow holes and wired with a hacked USB powered cooling fan is excellent. Search 'DIY cardboard laptop cooling pad' or similar for ideas. If you don't mind tinkering, depending on usage laptops should also be opened up and cleaned periodically. They accumulate a fair amount of internal component dust and due to their compact design have compromised heat dissipation compared to old school computer towers. In general, if the primary goal is to keep hardware alive as long as possible, avoid the temptation to overclock. Better to build a second system with faster components, then use the system (faster or slower) best suited for the desired task.