Wunderbar98

Hi pulteny. Did you confirm that the USB ports still work via other OS install attempt, Linux Live-CD or similar? Also confirm the BIOS settings for USB. If the BIOS battery is dead, replace as it will no longer remember any tweaked USB settings. Please update this thread with any other relevant information, rather than expect members, who are trying to help, dig through your old posts.

Hi again theulticobia. Unless i misunderstood you already have some hardware. Just install Windows 98 and test, you may be making it too complicated. As you've spent time on the forum, it's evident going too high-end with hardware may be more hassle than it's worth. Personally, i would recommend just finding some decent enough middle of the road hardware. DOS game setup vs high-end Windows 98 gaming have different hardware needs and configuration. So if you can find and afford the hardware, a dedicated (older) DOS system and a dedicated higher-end Windows system for 3D games is ideal but not required. Pentium 4 and Soundblaster = good. If primarily for gaming then a vanilla Windows 98 install, the best graphic and sound drivers you can find, DirectX 9 and you are good to go. Having run both ways, more than 512 MB RAM is not critical. Windows 98 doesn't require it and most games from the era won't need it either. I don't have direct Windows ME experience, but my impression is it's better than the flak it got. For me, i own Windows 98 SE and it's classic. It may be useful to share a list of the games you intend to play. Quick search indicates Outrun 2006 Coast-2-Coast is a Windows XP/2000 game. If you have these OS', set up a dual boot. Use the memory patch if you want a dual/multi-boot system with >512 MB physical RAM. To answer your previous question, playing DOS only games requires extra configuration to get things running. There is lots of information on the internet and this forum. For pure DOS games, depending on your needs you will require a DOS mouse driver, DOS CD-ROM setup and likely a DOS sound driver and mixer. Soundblaster is the best for sound. If your CPU is too fast, slowdown software. You'll be spending some time learning about AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS configuration. If you have the time and energy, it's worth the effort, IMHO old DOS games play best on real hardware.

Hi Bruninho. Everyone can do as they like, personally i don't see the point in downloading a YouTube video via MAC, then playing the MP4 in a Windows 98 VM. As far as i know, my 9xweb script is presently the only way to download YouTube content natively in Windows 98. It doesn't fetch all videos, such as Vevo music videos, but works for most videos to research old OS and games.

Hi theulticobia. OutRun (DOS 1989) runs fine in Windows 98. Just a quick test, on my system the game used the system speaker for sound and the keyboard arrow keys worked just fine for speed/direction. Booting in to pure DOS mode did not work, kept on getting an A: drive error. Launching from Windows 98 worked just fine, selecting outrun.exe and EGE/VGA 16-colors.

An updated Windows 9x Web Helper script (9xweb, v20200405 Beta) is available: https://msfn.org/board/topic/177106-running-vanilla-windows-98-in-2020/page/17/?tab=comments#comment-1176154 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

Just dropping my minimal Windows 98 notes in case it helps someone out. Although a seasoned Windows 98 system with all tweaks and drivers can be stripped, it is easier with less breakage to 'minimize' a system immediately after a fresh basic Windows 98 install. Start with a minimal OS install using an official Windows 98 CD, deselect all optional components you don't want. Then use a program, such as Kan's Minimum Windows 9X Install Project (minwin9x.zip using MKMIN9X.BAT script, outlined below). There are other minimal Windows 98 systems out there, this is just what i've successfully used before. More information linked below (no JavaScript required): http://www.xxcopy.com/xxcopy81.htm Direct download Kan's Minimum Windows 9X Install Project below (freeware, minwin9x.zip, ~37 KB, no JavaScript required). Recommend reviewing the 'Refinement strategies' section of the README.TXT. http://www.xxcopy.com/download/minwin9x.zip Running the 'MKMIN9X.BAT' script creates a new minimal C:\WINDOWS directory, aptly named C:\WINDOWS.MIN. Reboot into DOS, rename C:\WINDOWS to something like WINDOWS.ORI (original) and C:\WINDOWS.MIN to WINDOWS, then reboot into the new minimal environment. If it's a fresh install, proceed to install all necessary drivers and favourite software. If it's a seasoned installation, there will likely be breakage, such as no graphic or sound driver, some favourite tweaks missing, etc. Either re-install the desired software or copy over from the original bloated C:\WINDOWS.ORI sub-directories until everything gets fixed up like you want. That's about it, pretty straightforward. To me the process need not be as complicated as outlined in the official README.TXT, nor is a floppy disk needed. My personal steps are pasted below. Unless the user makes an error when renaming or copying directories and files, using DOS commands or Windows Explorer, there is no risk of data loss. The original C:\WINDOWS.ORI directory stays intact, revert as needed or desired. Note an XXCOPY installation is a prerequisite, free for personal use. The current release v3.33.3 (xxfw3333.zip) no longer supports Windows 98. The version i've successfully used previously is v2.96.8 (xxfw2968.zip, dated 2010-05-15). Unfortunately XXCOPY (http://www.xxcopy.com/) does not readily provide old versions, more information in the link below (no JavaScript required). If anyone has problems getting a working XXCOPY for Windows 98, let me know. http://www.xxcopy.com/form71-2968.htm ----- Personal 'minwin9x' steps pasted below: - Perform regular Windows 98 install, avoiding extra unneeded components. - Run the minimal install script BEFORE installing additional drivers and software, otherwise they probably won't copy over and break. - First extract xxfw2968.zip (XXCopy), required for the Minimal 98 script, and install, ignore not for Windows 98 popup. Check C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND directory to confirm the installation. - Then extract minwin9x.zip, navigate to extract directory, see README.TXT for usage notes, basically just need step # 3: 3. Create the minimum Win9X directory by running MKMIN9X.BAT which selectively copies files from the Win9X directory. - Don't worry about other steps regarding a boot floppy, not required. - Should have created minimal Windows directory parallel to original. - Start -> Shut Down -> Restart in MS-DOS Mode. - In DOS, rename original Windows directory: REN WINDOWS WINDOWS.ORI - In DOS, rename minimal Windows directory: REN WINDOWS.MIN WINDOWS - Press Ctrl-Alt-Del to reboot into minimal install Windows. - From here just customize system as desired, watch for boot and software errors to fix, may need to copy some required files from original bloated Windows directory to restore desired functionalities. - Install hardware drivers, Microsoft patches, extra software. - Remove WINDOWS.ORI directory when no longer needed. -----

A favourite old Windows game has been Domination from 'yura.net', variation of Risk board game, which requires a Java Runtime Environment. Apparently the game was first introduced as 'Risk' then renamed 'Domination'. Domination v1.2.1 does not install in vanilla Windows 98 as it requires a newer KERNEL32.DLL file. The older Risk v1.1.0.1 outlined below runs fine. I've happily played many 'yura.net' releases over the years. Java Runtime Environment always had a heavy feel to me but is a pre-requisite for some software. Below is a Java Runtime Environment and 'Risk' combination that works well in vanilla Windows 98. All downloads can be performed from within vanilla Windows 98 using RetroZilla v2.2 and the about:config tweaks mentioned earlier to help with connections. To get working download links in RetroZilla typically View -> Use Style has to be set to 'None'. Java Runtime Environment for Windows 98 and Windows ME 5.0 Update 22 (Freeware, file jre-1_5_0_22-windows-i586-p-s.exe, 17 MB, no JavaScript needed): https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/sun_java_runtime_environment_for_windows_98_and_windows_me.html Risk v1.1.0.1 (GNU General Public License v3, file Risk_1.1.0.1.zip, 5 MB, no JavaScript needed): https://sourceforge.net/projects/risk/files/Risk/ Risk does not need to be installed, just unzip and click 'Risk.jar' to play. Note if you don't intend to play online, ensure a firewall is utilized, such as Tiny Personal Firewall v2.0.14, and deny all 'Java' connections when starting the game. Disclaimer: war sucks, be kind to one another, just enjoy the strategy and luck of the dice, good coffee break game. Hopefully everyone is doing okay during these very trying times (COVID-19), hang in there.

Windows 9x Web Helper downloads most YouTube videos but currently does not stream. A bug fix release and minor feature update will be released in the coming days. The current release still works pretty good. Attempted to get streaming working previously with both SMPlayer/MPlayer and TCPMP, no success, may try again another day. https://msfn.org/board/topic/177106-running-vanilla-windows-98-in-2020/page/17/?tab=comments#comment-1176154

Thank-you again for the information @Bruninho. The high-powered double-vanilla Windows 98 system will likely be taken out of storage later this year and modified with triple-boot Windows 2000 and GNU/Linux. YouTube through a browser hasn't interest me in years (use other methods).

Linked below an interesting CNET article entitled 'Microsoft Puts End to Windows 98 Support'. https://www.cnet.com/news/microsoft-puts-end-to-windows-98-support/ Interesing quotes from the 2006 article below, in case the link fails. ... From Tuesday, Microsoft will no longer issue security updates or provide support for Windows 98 and Windows ME, which are still being used by more than 50 million people. Eight years after launching Windows 98, Microsoft is finally washing its hands of updating and plugging security gaps in the aging operating system. The software giant originally planned to pull the plug in January 2004, but decided to extend support because of the increasing competition from Linux. ... Analyst firms estimate that there are still between 50 million and 70 million computers running Windows 95, 98 or ME. ... "Most software vendors and hardware vendors are no longer developing Win9x drivers for their new products--and have not been for some time now. Further, most free Linux distributions are supported for a year, some for two. Microsoft has supported Win98 for eight years, 98SE for seven years, and Windows ME for six years," he said. "These do not meet Microsoft's current enterprise standard of 10 years--they shipped before the 10-year policy--but they're better than most," Silver added.

Poor quality video from 2001, Bill Gates discussing the end of MS-DOS at a Windows XP event. Although Microsoft supported the last MS-DOS based systems until 2006 (Windows 98 and ME), it was clear they were moving on. DOS did it's best to try and stop him, Bill would have none of it. HTTP only video download below in case the YouTube link goes down or future Windows 98 users are unable to access YouTube. Will remove the links if requested by the YouTube uploader or Microsoft. Direct download link (~8 MB MP4 video, no JavaScript needed). http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=03494801684402761208 YouTube link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-HIlNGczgU Duration: 3:10 mins Video title: TechLive - Windows XP: The End of the MS-DOS Era Description: Bill Gates explains why Windows XP is the end of the MS-Dos era and turns it off for good. Originally aired October 25, 2001 on TechTV.

When having a bad day, brew a nice warm tea or coffee, sit in a peaceful, dimly lit room and be mesmerized by disk defrag, your file system will thank-you :) So this post has a little usefulness, launching 'defrag', rather than right-clicking a single drive in Windows Explorer, will allow setting defrag options.

Sadly the household Canon MX310 printer will not be installed in Windows 98. Reviewing built-in Windows 98 printer drivers for Canon, they are obviously from a previous generation of printers. Unfortunately Canon never released Windows 98 printer drivers for any of the Pixma series. Cutting losses as a hacked printer install, even if successful, may end up providing only basic print function. Query no advanced printer options, scanner or fax. The double vanilla Windows 98 system, used for the browser emulation project, has been disconnected and will be stored as a very capable back-up system for future upgrade. It will likely become an eventual triple boot. Keep the existing Windows 98 install for the odd DOS era game. Windows 2000 Professional for old Windows compatible graphic software and the Canon MX310 printer, may as well use the proper drivers for the printer. Newer GNU/Linux release for day to day operations as well as print/scan/fax. Back happily hacking on my regular vanilla Windows 98 system (800 MHz, 384 MB RAM). Although both Windows 98 systems ran fairly well, this slower system somehow feels more suited for Windows 98 era and is still snappy fast for most tasks. The faster system (1.8 GHz, 1.5 GB RAM) ran Windows 98 fine too, but was a bit more hassle to install and configure. What i now affectionately think of as having to actively manage both the top-end (> 512 MB RAM) and bottom-end (DOS configuration, high memory, etc).

The 'Modern Web Browser Emulation' project and download links were updated on page 21. https://msfn.org/board/topic/177106-running-vanilla-windows-98-in-2020/page/21/?tab=comments#comment-1177321 Updated Win98_BrowserEmulator.zip. - More informative LAUNCH.BAT REMarks: WINDRIVER, USB - LAUNCH.BAT default memory allocation increase to 1024 MB - Added QEMU.EXE_options.txt - Added QEMU-IMG.EXE_options.txt New README.zip. - README_FIRST.TXT [1] - README_FILE_SHARE.TXT [2] - README_FIREFOX.TXT [3] - README_SEAMONKEY.TXT [4] [1] Updated README_FIRST.TXT (was README.TXT): - Added table of contents and updated formatting - Edited fdisk virtual disk partitioning guideline - Added basic QEMU keyboard shortcut information - Added basic FLWM Window Manager usage and keyboard shortcuts - Added TCL mouse and graphic configuration and troubleshooting - Expanded miscellaneous tips [2] New README_FILE_SHARE.TXT: - Prepare a FAT virtual disk to exchange files between host and guest - Notes on handling shared files between host and guest - Download link for Disk Explorer v1.69 helper software - Notes on manual vs auto mount, disk space monitoring [3] New README_FIREFOX.TXT: - Steps to manually install any version of Firefox [4] New README_SEAMONKEY.TXT: - Steps to install the repository's SeaMonkey v2.46 - Steps to manually update SeaMonkey to the latest release

NUSB got mass USB storage access working on a FAT formatted stick, nice. Exploring my Windows 98 CD, comes with 'Microsoft Windows 98 Resource Kit Sampler' under D:\tools\reskit. Everyone has different needs, applications that looked useful: ClipTray, Microsoft File Information, Quiktray, USB Viewer, WinDiff. The sampler install is small, about 10 MB into C:\Program Files\Win98RK. It adds a Tools Management Console link to the Programs menu and can be removed with Add/Remove Programs. Most applications appear useful without installation if desired, just click on it's executable. Overall the default Windows 98 shell is great, no intention of replacing it with something else. Just curious if anyone knows of a way to get un-Maximized windows to snap to the screen edge, or at least configure screen edge resistance to easily shove windows into a corner without going off screen. Doesn't look like Windows introduced this until much later releases, just curious, thanks.

Thanks for all responses, even if things got a little sideways, members are passionate. Note to vanilla Windows 98 users that don't have the desire or energy to research out-of-scope software, the last page or so contain fairly obvious references to some web browsers that won't run on a vanilla Windows 98 system, as well as kernel extensions and other operating systems. FWIW i also agree RetroZilla in vanilla Windows 98 is awesome. The fact that a browser still connects using this old OS is amazing. Will keep tweaking it based on all the feedback. These were linked a long time ago if anyone wants to dig through the remaining extensions that could be found. http://users.skynet.be/fa258499/extensions.html http://xsidebar.mozdev.org/modifiedmisc.html In addition to siria's advice, anyone using 'newer' XUL-based browsers and wants to search extensions, it is possible without having to install an add-on. The link below will be included in the modern web browser emulation notes. https://msfn.org/board/topic/177106-running-vanilla-windows-98-in-2020/page/16/?tab=comments#comment-1175476 Thank-you siria for sharing your knowledge and experiences. Anxious to review and test out your notes. Disturbing that Mozilla removes valid configurations from about:config, empty placeholders (null value, empty string) would have been helpful. Created and currently testing a couple new entries. Wish large organizations like Mozilla and Microsoft did a better job of archiving old information, rather than push new and shiny. Obviously for those who can't or don't want to purchase new hardware every few years, but also to demonstrate leadership as stewards of the environment. The killer circle situation is unfortunate. Guess the onus has been with the end user for many years. Maybe i'm a bit extreme but holding on to precious software is important. OS and gaming files deemed important are backed up in sync on three separate USB sticks, one stored off-site. After a fresh Windows 98 install, either a Linux dual boot or Linux live-CD is used to bulk transfer my entire Windows 98 goodies directory to the new installation, which provides all the necessary software to get things up and running. Just a thought, if this forum goes down it will be a very sad day for these old operating systems. There does not appear to be a lot of active Windows 9x discussion anywhere else. Thanks for the feedback Deomsh, will check if the printer requires USB2 support. Based on your recommendation downloaded NUSB33 from below (no JavaScript needed, NUSB.EXE, 756 KB, English). http://www.mdgx.com/web.htm#NUS Found a NUSB tutorial. https://www.raymond.cc/blog/how-to-install-usb-mass-storage-device-on-windows-98/ Sorry to hear about your printer, always sad when old hardware dies. Reason i want to keep my Canon MX310 going, ink refills don't even require a reset.

Thank-you for the feedback siria, don't think anyone else has put this much effort into the issue. My primary Windows 98 browser is RetroZilla. Unfortunately it does not appear to have similar about:config entries. Have been playing with about:config and various preferences, not much improvement. Unfortunately in RetroZilla there does not even seem to be a way to make View -> Use Style -> None default. Every new tab opens with the 'Default style' view, frustrating and lots of toggling. When i get a chance will review old SeaMonkey extensions again and see if there's anything there that may help. A trivial improvement is unchecking 'Allow documents to use other fonts'. This provides a more consistent font presentation and when visiting pages like Wikipedia, it stops the missing foreign language font popups i can't read anyway. Deselecting 'Always use the colors and backgrounds specified by the web page' is beneficial for unintended overlapped text with a non-contrasted background. It does, however, take away from the intended appearance of the page, so personally i don't like using it. Since roytam1 has updated many of these old browsers for connectivity, query whether future updates are possible for web page layout. My vote would be to improve non-JavaScript rendering. Since trying to count my blessings more in such a troubled world, prepending most problems with 'My first world problem is enter_trivial_problem_here' helps keep things in persepctive.

Thank-you for the input Deomsh. Not 100% sure i've ever used USB with Windows 98. Always PS2 keyboard/mouse and parallel port printers. Years ago a Windows 98 system had a printer and separate scanner, presumably one used parallel and the other USB. This current printer is USB only. Everything USB related in BIOS is enabled. In Windows 98 Device Manager, Universal Serial Bus Controllers are enabled. Under this are two 'Standard OpenHCI USB Host Controller' and two 'USB Root Hub' entries, all have associated drivers. Under Other devices is an exclamation yellow 'PCI Universal Serial Bus' with no driver. I tried installing drivers for the exclamation yellow PCI Universal Serial Bus from the motherboard driver package and Windows 98 CD, no such driver. The motherboard has four USB ports, two by the ethernet connector and two by the mouse/keyboard ports. When a generic 32 GB USB stick is plugged in during runtime, the system powers the USB stick and pops up a Mass Storage device driver wizard. Apparently the Windows 98 CD does not have such drivers. The situation appears to be like the link below, the download is 'nusb36e-2694.exe' (969 KB). Has anyone got experience with this, it's just to get a 'mass storage' USB stick working correct? If i don't need mass storage, it appears the USB port is powered and functional to test a printer without the 'nusb36e-2694.exe' install? https://www.raymond.cc/blog/how-to-install-usb-mass-storage-device-on-windows-98/ Just want to get this right to give the printer every chance of working. This Window 98 system does not need access to USB sticks for data storage.

Thanks for the code siria, looks like you spent lots of time on it. Just paste it into userContent.css jumper. By default there is no userContent.css file, just userContent-example.css. Copy userContent-example.css to userContent.css and paste siria's code. In RetroZilla v2.2 the pathway is: C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\RetroZilla\Profiles\default\your_profile\chrome With the tweaks was able to log in without changing to style none. However, can't tell i'm logged in. Still need to change back to style none to see my login stuff (notifications, settings, etc). First impression is somewhat better but still broken compared to a modern browser. Will test a bit more. What about a style that's essentially 'None' but just removes excessive whitespace?

Was hoping you had the answers siria: https://msfn.org/board/topic/177106-running-vanilla-windows-98-in-2020/page/20/?tab=comments#comment-1177272 IMHO probably a losing battle once a browser needs to modify CSS site specific. Having used Dillo as a lightweight secondary browser for years, it's not a big issue for casual browsing but most would probably disagree. In RetroZilla, View -> Use Style -> None often needs to be selected, otherwise even links disappear from a web page. Also can't log in to this forum without setting style to none. Using Page Up/Down keys is more efficient than excessive scrolling, due to poor page layout and huge amounts of whitespace. After a long vanilla Windows 98 session, it's always refreshing to multi-boot to a newer browser.

Unfortunately youtube-dl won't be happening as part of the emulation project, too much outdated software already from 2017. Thankfully the full-featured browsers are more self-contained, so SSL and certificate issues are not an issue for later releases.

Noticed a few extra downloads for the Modern Web Browser Emulation project recently. As mentioned, significantly reworked READMEs are pending. The new documentation will be more thorough, address breakage, include lots of Firefox and SeaMonkey information, plus file sharing between host and guest. Might play around a bit with youtube-dl, since the Tiny Core Linux release has the appropriate Python libraries. If youtube-dl works well an additional README will likely be added. Interesting note, Ctrl-Alt-f keyboard shortcut toggles QEMU full-screen mode. If SeaMonkey is running when toggling full-screen, the browser loads https://www.fishcam[dot]com. This is crazy and at first thought is was some form of malware injection or browser hijack. Turns out it's an Easter Egg, still present in more recent versions of SeaMonkey. Unfortunately don't know of a way to disable this so QEMU can function correctly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fishcam#Netscape The emulation project still results in a very sluggish browser. Maybe someday someone will figure out how to unlock more hardware or find a more efficient emulator for vanilla Windows 98. As will be mentioned in the READMEs, stay away from GTK3 (Graphic Took Kit) browser releases if performance is an issue, slightly older GTK2 browser releases will work a little faster. Sweet spot browser releases will be mentioned in the READMEs. Every bit of tweaking to make the browser work more efficiently will also likely be needed, something most Windows 98 users probably like to do anyway.

Thank-you sparty411 for the feedback and kind words, it's been fun. In the not too distant future my forum activity will slow. After the browser emulation project, maybe some YouTube related 9xweb tweaks, maybe a printer install attempt. Then time to move on and finally start playing retro games, most i've waited over 20 years to play, plus other non-Windows computing and coding projects. Thanks for the input win32, based on your story and timelines it sounds like you may be younger than the proposed age 36-37 (no response necessary), maybe my estimate was incorrect. If you are in fact younger, it's nice to see your interest in this old OS. An old employer provided an IBM Thinkpad years ago, don't remember the model, it was rock solid. Have read many good reviews over the years. For a laptop, they seem quite serviceable. USB with Windows 98 has always been a mystery. Will need to look at it when attempting to install a printer. Although older, the household Canon MX310 has Windows XP drivers, not Windows 98. On this forum there are complaints about running printers on Windows 98 from 2005 already, so not too optimistic. The printer is apparently from the Pixma series. May try to find the newest Pixma drivers released for Windows 98 and see if it runs. This current Windows 98 hardware is destined to become multi-boot and the Windows install will primarily be used for old graphic software and printing programs. Unfortunately, if the printer won't run on Windows 98 another OS will need to be installed. Back to the USB mystery, Windows 98 claims to support USB. Almost seems like it should work out of the box but on my last two Windows 98 installs the USB Controllers in Control Panel -> System never installed and i can't seem to find USB drivers on the Windows 98 installation CD. Need to do more homework, there must be a simple vanilla method for installing a basic USB driver. Thanks for the story Bruninho, neat to see where others are coming from. For an Apple user, interesting you spend time with these old Windows releases, ahhh the nostalgia. Reminds me of the old Mac vs PC commercials.

Wonder what the average age is of a typical Windows 98 user today? Although there may be the odd whippersnapper curious about DOS-based systems, my hunch is greater than 36-37 years of age would capture 95% of users. The average age would undoubtedly be much higher. Anyone who installed Windows 98 independently in 1998-1999 would probably have been 15-20+ years old. If i had to profile, predominantly male, computer hobbyist, stubborn and persistent with a strong sense of nostalgia. Most kids using their parent's Windows 98 computer in 1998-2000 probably upgraded without much thought when they bought their first system, whatever was preloaded at the local box store or used in school. I'm not sure many of the new generation would have the patience to get most of this stuff installed and working. User expectations are now so much greater in regards to graphics, performance and ease of use. More modern software, such as DOSBox, has made running old DOS applications simpler, without having to load an old operating system or assemble ancient hardware. Too bad, so sad, they don't know what they're missing :)

Thanks for the feedback sparty411. Although there's conflicting information, will go with that. Probably better safe than sorry. The only systems that will have a chance at emulating these more recent releases will be SSE2 capable Pentium 4. The documentation will read as follows. If not SSE2 capable the last versions that should work are: Firefox ESR v45.9.0 Firefox v49.0.2 The Mozilla link provided earlier appeared conflicted and interestingly roytam1 reported Firefox v55.0.3 worked without SSE2 above. On my test FF_ESR_52.9.0 browser opened but the hardware was inadequate to properly test. Unlike FF_ESR_60.9.0, which immediately failed when launched from terminal. My tests and roytam1's used Linux releases, query differences from Window builds. Anyway doesn't matter much, thanks again.