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3rd Party apps? What 3rd party apps? A lot of people wanted a bunch at the time of initial release but Gape wouldn't hear of it. If you mean the stuff in the checkboxes they are just little bonus's, most of which are pretty standard like the ForceASPI 1.7. That's the only ASPI that really works properly. Might as well have a service pack do it for you. Just uncheck the ones you don't want. I uncheck Command Prompt Here and the Notepad change.

Hu$tle, Sheesh, I just typed a whole post and lost it when IE couldn't link properly. http://www.geocities.com/fredledingo/sysrestore.htm That's the link to a current script based 98 system backup project. That may do the trick for you. Alternative include just sticking with scanreg /restore from a command prompt only startup. You can edit scanreg.ini to include some additional system configuration files to those it includes. PowerQuest SecondChance is what SystemRestore was based upon. If you can find PowerQuest SystemTools 2005 (or 2006, I forget) then that has the last version made. Symantec GoBack is a currently sold product that also can restore even if you can't even boot to dos. Don't do any funky partition stuff with it though, as it changes the boot sector to do its magic.

Yes! Welcome home. When you browse around here you'll see that the work has gone on. Lately I've had difficulties with some of the combinations of all of these seperate works. Seperately, fine. Put 'em together and 98SE blows up on me. Heh. It'll be fantastic if you can get your pack up to date with the more recent fixes. I'm happy to hear that things have stabilized for you and that you will once again have the time to do computer stuff. All here sure have appreciated your previous contributions and have been hoping to see you back here posting and working on keeping 98SE alive and well. One piece of magic that your Service Pack does is install "components of Dialup Networking 1.4." In a somewhat mystical way it avoids the included installation of Virtual Private Networking stuff. If we install Dialup Networking from the Microsoft setup, we need to go into Windows Setup in add/remove and uncheck VPN, then go into Networking and remove the VPN related files as well. Somehow your pack avoids all that. If you could let Soperific (the Autopatcher thread) know how you do this it would help his project, which is pretty darned amazing as it is. I've also noticed that other packages that include the updated Explorer.exe do not include the whole desktop icon set that your pack includes. I've got a Windows Me theme that includes the whole set, but somehow your Explorer.exe provides them as the default desktop icons. Perhaps you could share information on how this is done as well. It would be nice to have the option of switching back and forth from the new icons to the older default desktop icons too. Sometimes I like to go retro! Unfortunately the older icons are no longer available once the newer Explorer.exe is installed. Regarding the Windows2000 color scheme, is there a way to avoid changing the fonts? I like the scheme but hate the look of the fonts and would rather keep the default Windows 98 classic looking fonts in the title bars, etc. I've tried tinkering a bit with Display Properties but get confused trying just to change the fonts back to normal in all the different places they appear. The only other thing I recall about the features of the pack is the needed watching of the installation order of Microsoft Office. If I install Office 2000 it needs to be done before the Service Pack but if I install OfficeXP it needs to be installed after the Service Pack. Not doing it in that order results in a botched system as MDAC registry entries and files get all messed up. Either Windows starts repairing the registry in a loop or even if it does startup it is messed up. At least I think it's related to MDAC files. I don't think your pack installs MDAC but it must install something that causes this reaction. Just to let you know, if I use Word2000 it's with WorksSuite2001, then I install WorksSuite2005 without Word so I can keep Word2000, and if I use the later version it's from WorksSuite 2005 without Word installed, then installing the full Office XP Pro Plus and then going back and installing the Word addin for WorksSuite. I also update to Works 8.5 and the updated Word addin and install the Office Updates. That all goes smoothly by the way! This way I only use OfficeXP on my one Windows XP installation but still get to use Word 2000 as well as the Works Suite 2005 programs on my 98 system. No activation hastles that way. I can just activate OfficeXP over the internet as it stays on the same XP installation all the time, but I can still use all the other newer software, albeit with Word 2000, on 98! I hope it's okay to provide this kind of feedback at this point. I was concerned that if you were going ahead and getting back to work on these things, you should be made aware of stuff like this. Glad to have you back here, and here's hoping all goes well for you!

Hi NativeTexan! I hope you realize that if you only installed those things that you mention in your post that you do not have WMP 9 installed. Nothing you mentioned there installed WMP 9 for you. Only installing the items you mentioned leaves you with Internet Explorer 5 that came pre-loaded on 98SE and WMP 6.1 (I think, I know you don't get 6.4 unless you install it with a later version of Internet Explorer or individually). You just get the version you have patched to the security updates for it. Of course, if you installed the Autopatcher then you do have WMP 9 and Internet Explorer 6 SP1 that includes the WMP 6.4 player as well. Now, if you have used Microsoft Windows Update and downloaded IE 6 SP1 and WMP 9 from there, then of course you do have them. Gape's pack includes the Microsoft updates with their fixes (so they work, unlike the official Windows Updates), but only those that were released when Gape's pack was finished. One of the advantages of the new Autopatcher is that it includes all the fixed updates as well as updating things to NOW, instead of being a couple of years old. Lots of individual updates are needed after Gape's pack to bring it up to date, whereas the Autopatcher does all that for you with no fussing or deciding which ones or in what order.

Licensed user of WinZip and WinRAR here, with WinRAR associated with 7-Zip files. So I hope the Autopatcher would be set to not install this unless a user manually runs the modules and specifically selects it. I'm just too used to those 2 programs. And especially since I bought them I'd rather not have another utility installed in an updater program. Just an opinion, but I think including programs would be beyond the scope of an operating system patcher. Might even be considered an annoyance if one wouldn't be able to click to run the whole Autopatcher without getting someone's personal favorite programs installed with it. If anything, make those that want these things run the seperate modules to get them. Let most users just click "Go" and get all the OS, IE, WMP, Direct X, Optimization's. 3rd party programs should be the ones to need the extra choosing to get them installed.

Some news on the Explorer.exe front. The file existed in the Windows folder as 4.72.3612.1700 Aug 20, 1999. It was also in the Windows\WIN98SE.9ME folder as the same version with a date of July 26, 2006, as well as in the C:\9!M folder with the July 26. 2005 version. The old original version from the 98SE cd was Explorer.98. Explorer.256 was the same version and date as the newer ones. Somehow the one in the Windows folder had the updated version number but the 98SE cd file date. The icon in Display Properties Effects tab showed the newer one but could not be applied. First I tried System File Checker to extract the one in the C:\9!M folder to C:\WINDOWS. It said it did it but what it actually did was replace the one in the C:\9!M folder with the one in C:\WINDOWS and kept that one there too! So it still wasn't fixed. I copied the newer one from the Windows\WIN98SE.9ME folder back into C:\9!M, burned to cdr and deleted the Explorer.256 and Explorer.98, and rebooted to Command Prompt Only. I copied the C:\9!M version into the C:\WINDOWS folder and rebooted. All fixed! The old icon doesn't show up anywhere and the new one applies as system default. I then installed the WinME theme and just applied the colors and icons to get the nicer looking stuff. But at least my system isn't confused now. I took a plunge and uninstalled the Roland and Yamaha Midi, the Turtle Beach USB cable, QMAXII, and the M-Audio Revo 5.1 soundcard. I then installed my Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro. I want to see whether the MSDOS driver works with the Pro card like it does with the normal and Platinum Audigy 2 ZS. I was also displeased with how old Windows games that used midi had problems using the Roland or Yamaha software synths. They would have worked with the Microsoft default midi but for some reason the M-Audio drivers don't include that in the installation. So without my installing the soft synths I would have had no midi whatsoever. Plus no Sensaura in the 98 M-Audio driver. Strange that the soft synths work fine with midi games on XP. Here, I had to keep playing around with turning Direct Sound on and off and adjusting latencies, etc. A pain in the neck and since the M-Audio card doesn't upsample anything I was getting horrid sound as they would play at 8000 kHZ rather than 44100. Or the game midi would cut off and I needed to restart the computer to get it back. Midi music files played fine, just the games were tricky. Goodbye! Nice Soundfont midi and no hastles with the all included stuff from Creative. The card doesn't sound as nice with no effects as the Revo, but it offers nearly all the features it does on XP. So, fully functional audio without a ton of 3rd party additional software. Amazingly 98SE survived the changes. I'll wait on applying the new 98MP10. Things work. Don't wanna break'em!

I think he means the Unofficial 98SE2ME program by MDGx. Latest, bug fixed file versions for 9x, helpful tweaks that make your system run smoother, cool games! It's great! It's tested over years! Uh, yeah if using 98SE and have a ME cd then go ahead and install 98SE2ME. Just don't install Windows Me. Yucch! And, for the latest and greatest updater to be sure your 98SE is all patched up, the new Autopatcher by soperific works well. I've used it. It doesn't install stuff that's already there and you can choose which modules and which patches within those modules that you want installed. I just ran the whole thing on a new setup. Saved a bunch of time and wondering which updates to install in what order. By the way, do the Autopatcher BEFORE you do 98SE2ME.

I always stick vbrun 1, 2, and 3 into the system folder and usually use MDGx's vbrun6SP6 FULL to get that installed. There used to be a comctrl (?) update that also patched 2 files after SP6 but I think MDGx's latest already includes that. I thought you had VB6 in the Autopatcher so I didn't install it myself this time. Am I missing out on anything? It's possible that programs that need it will include it in their program setup, but I do think it would be a good idea to include it. Always getting confused between that and Visual Studio 6. Heh. I'd really rather not deal with those files myself. Put 'em in. Get 'em patched. Make it all automagic like! I love it. Soon it'll be as easy to get 98 set up as it is XP! For that I use RyanVM's stuff and make a new XP cd when he comes out with a new update. Don't always wind up using them but it's always nice to have a fresh XP cd with all the latest updates already integrated.

Often when software is designed the testers notice that it needs a certain version of a file to run properly. If this also happens to be a file that is usually installed into the Windows\System folder, the designer will make sure that the version of the file that works with the program is put into the programs folder. Programs normally check their own folder first for files before the system path. So this makes sure things will work right. I recently stuck the Nero WNASPI32.DLL into the Dosbox folder so it would use that without a system ASPI being installed on XP. The NT calls weren't working smoothly with some of my dos games and I wanted it to use ASPI, which was impossible (the game wouldn't find the drive). So I stuck that file in there and the dosbox somehow showed it to my game and things went fine! Better than screwing up the new Nero which has problems with any ASPI layer installed on XP. That's why I never bothered searching for duplicate files. Deleting some are probably okay, but most have a reason for existing where they are. Yes, when an operating system is first installed and then updates are applied to it there often results in there being a bunch of orphan registry entries. This happens since the original non-updated version may have been dependant upon certain registry entries whereas the new way it works doesn't use them. So registry cleaners are around to find these orphaned entries and delete them. The good ones will search for likely files to modify the entry so it'll match. Hopefully this doesn't harm the execution of the file that no longer needs to be hooked into the registry there. All in all, this type of cleaning is pretty risky. I kind of trust Norton WinDoctor to automatically do its magic, mostly because 98 is more sensitive to program malfunctions and will become unstable. XP ignores the misbehaving program in most cases and just lets you end task on the program. Mostly an uninstall and reinstall of the program will work too. So I often go with no registry cleaning on XP, but use WinDoctor on 98 just to try to catch these things before they crash my system. A 9x operating system crash can muck up a FAT32 drive so it's best to avoid that happening. Usually a restart is fine but if system files are the ones affected then it's format time. NTFS mostly protects against that kind of thing. I used to use jv16powertools a lot. That'll do the sorts of stuff you're talking about. Since I'm not a real script user and would rather something do things with nice gui's, I'd buy this stuff rather than try to figure out how it works myself and writing a script. That old McAfee QuickClean 3, the last one before the Active X Security Center versions, also does that sort of thing. Gotta turn a lot of stuff off though. Had bugs where it would interfere with installs and uninstalls if you let it monitor them, and I never trusted its shortcut, MUI, or Active X cleaners. So when I used it I would deactivate all that. But it was good at finding orphans in the registry. Also, only the updated version 3.02 was mostly bug free. I usually intentionally install crap like videos, pictures, music files, etc. I wouldn't want to remove that stuff. It's not like we don't have room on our hard drives these days.

Thanks PROBLEMCHYLD, and that's what was done. Sorry for the long post that could confuse! Yes 98SE2ME, 98SE2XP, 98SEMP10 in that order. With rebooting after each rebooted just to be sure. But the last 2 there was what screwed things up. As I said I'm now running without them. Just 98SE2ME, which was fine except for the My Computer icon staying with the old one on the desktop but the newer one somehow being the default choice in Display Properties, but not applying for some reason. Drugwash, I'll take a closer look at the Explorer.exe that is active and the other 2 in the MDGx backup files. I was too crazy from all the installing and updating to take a good careful look at things at the time. And, soperific, no experimenting on this system at the moment as it looks like it may be able to stay. In that long post I did state that the problems were fixed after I managed to remove 98SE2XP and 98SEMP10. Incidently, I fixed the MSINFO update caused error with the Internet Explorer information being blank in System Information by extracting that problem file using System File Checker. After a reboot all the information was back. So, I do suggest that the unofficial MSINFO fix be taken out of Autopatcher until that file is set not to be replaced with the newer, buggy one in the update. Well, it's a choice. I guess you could leave it for now as the rest of the update is a security patch? And we'll deal with that problem file manually. Up to you! No critisism's here. System was messed not by Autopatcher, but by some combination of Autopatcher and the 98SE2XP and 98SEMP10 programs. For some reason, when I had been using Gape's pack first then Autopatcher those updates hadn't caused the problems. I'll just live without those 2 until it can be figured out why it happened. Extremely pleased with the progress of the Autopatcher! Even though I did install a few things first it saved a lot of time and the system's running fine so far. And that's the whole point. Make things GO! Errr, I added the patch for Shell Icon Cache size increase myself. Did it before the Autopatcher ( I think. Starting to forget!). Was that thing included in the Autopatcher? I didn't notice it in the long list of stuff it installed.

MDGx, If you have a moment, please check out my latest post in the Autopatcher 98SE thread. I REALLY don't want to type all that again. Anything you can think of regarding why the My Computer icon is the newer one in Display Properties but only the original 98SE default one appears on the desktop? And how come 98SE2XP and the WMP 10 for 9x had those bad reactions when installing them after the Autopatcher? Didn't have that funky stuff happen before. Running now without 98SE2XP or the WMP 10 for 9x updates, having uninstalled them along with the WMP10 Fraunhoffer codec. Just using my Cyberlink mp3 PowerEncoder for now and afraid to try again until I have a clue why those error messages, mismatched WMP file versions, weird XP style toolbars, etc. happened. Powerprof.dll? Huh? 98SE2ME was fine, except for a rather strange install of my Turtle Beach USB Midi Cable. Windows needed to install the driver several times, seemingly losing it after the initial install as it needed to install it again on restart. Then when I went to test the midi using the provided Turtle Beach SoundCheck and driver check, Windows started installing it again and this time I needed to search all over for files it couldn't find on its own. One file was only found on the Windows Me cd! Apparently Windows 98SE doesn't come with the file but I put the Windows Me cd in as a last resort and there it was! Following that, the midi port and software worked fine. Oh, fine except for that My Computer icon thing. Three Explorer.exe files are on my system. Two of them are identical newer ones and an older one. One of the newer ones is in the Windows\System folder and the older one is in one of your backup folders. But somehow the icon from it is still on the desktop. So far no IOS Errors. That seems to be a unique problem that only effects me. Still afraid every time I restart! Maybe I'll luck out this time.

Feedback? Well, I just used Autopatcher again! (Yay!) Unpluged the XP drive (so I can go back to it with no hastle) and installed 98SE. Not taking my own advice, I didn't install Gape's pack. After all it is old and since Autopatcher contains nearly everything and no obsolete stuff I figured I try it. Before Autopatcher - Windows (well, that's needed). Made the usual 386Enh changes in System.ini, Vcache, fixed VM size, Network Server, 4 digit date, Power always on. W98 Resource Kit Full and System Policy Editor. 98 Plus! Pack with just the themes, screensavers, and Lose Your Marbles. Via MB, USB drivers IE6SP1 DotNet 1.1, 1.1 SP1, DotNet 2.0, 2.0 Security fix. Direct X 9.0c with Software Rasterizer extracted to it. (Don't think I need the SR but who knows, can't hurt.) ATI WDM and Catalyst 6.2 for 9x ForceASPI 1.7 Dialup Networking 1.4, then uninstalled Virtual Private Networking and the VPN linked Network items. Uninstalled CdPlayer. (Not useful with WMP there.) WMP7.1 without Adaptec, WMP Bonus Pack without Audio Converter, WMEncoder 7.1, WMP9 Drivers for Via Ethernet, M-Audio Revo 5.1, Best Data External Serial V.92 Modem, Apollo USB Printer, HP Scanjet 3970. Works Suite 2001 with only Works and Word2000, Works Suite 2005 with all except Word 2002. Office2000 SP2, Works 8.5 update. Autopatcher, selecting to install the whole thing now. After Autopatcher - Web Folders update from your exe in the manual folder. MDGx Unofficial IE 6 SP 1 Cumulative DLL update (superseeds 918899 which should be obsolete). MDGxUnofficial 891711, MDGx Unofficial WMF update and his reg file which still didn't set them up so Windows Update thinks they're installed. (They uninstall the ones in the Autopatcher.) MDGx 98SE2ME, 98SE2XP, and the WMP 10 for 9x. System now screwed! (Well, it was then. I fixed it.) What happened was I first noticed that although Display Properties shows the newer My Computer icon, only the old one remains on the desktop. That I have no idea how to fix. The only one to select it the new one but applying it doesn't change it from the original default 98SE My Computer desktop icon. I searched and found 3 Explorer.exe's on the system. The one in the System folder and one of MDGx's backup folders are identical versions, and one in another MDGx folder is a different version. The newer one is the one in the System folder. I didn't want to mess with it. I like the older one if no other icons are changed anyway. I have a Windows Me theme if I want to apply the color and newer icons. Second, and really messed up, an error message about powerprof.dll appeared at startup. When I opened Control Panel I got another message and noticed only a single Toolbar with Windows XP icons on it. No Title Bar, just the XP icon bar. Weird. 98SE2XP hadn't given me any XP icons in the past, or messed with the toolbars, or caused errors. Windows Media Player would open with an error message that - "The file wmplayer.exe had a version number of 9.0.0.3250 where 9.0.0.2980 was expected. Windows Media Player is not installed properly and must be reinstalled. Do you want to install the Player from the Microsoft Web Site?" Oy Vey! I uninstalled the WMP 10 to 9x update and rebooted. WMP had same error. 98SE2XP would not uninstall with an error about not finding a file. So I reinstalled 98SE2XP and then I was able to uninstall it. I then uninstalled the Fraunhoffer WMP 10 Codec that Autopatcher had installed. Then I reinstalled WMP 9 on top of itself. Success! I then applied all the updates in the Autopatcher's Windows Media module except the WMP 10 Fraunhoffer codec. Since I was meek I just installed the Cyberlink mp3 PowerPack Encoder (it does the same thing, and I bought it long ago). When I tried to play an mp3, WMP gave that error about not having the codec. So I quickly installed ZoneAlarm and plugged in the Ethernet cable. On line, WMP downloaded and installed the normal Advanced Fraunhoffer mp3 codec and mp3's played fine. The rest is not any matter. Just the rest of my stuff! Okay. I don't know what's wrong but I think I should be seeing the newer My Computer icon, as 98SE2ME installs that and it DOES appear in Display Properties. Just not on my desktop. Previously, when I had been installing Gape's pack first, all his icons remained. When I ran the first Alpha Autopatcher I didn't install Gape's pack first and your small version of 98SE2ME just changed the My Computer icon correctly to the new one. THIS time, 98SE2ME in the Autopatcher didn't install ANYTHING. And, the latest MDGx 98SE2ME left the original icons on the desktop but the new My Computer icon in Display Properties. Secondly, I haven't had any problem with the 98SE2XP before. And in the last several months there has been no problem with the WMP10 for 98SE either. Could the WMP problem be due to one of the Microsoft updates being applied before installing the WMP 10 thing? And also, that mp3 codec perhaps shouldn't have been installed before installing 98SE2XP or the WMP 10 update as those install the same codec. I can only suggest there that you don't include the mp3 codec in the Autopatcher. It's easy enough to install from a seperate download and could possibly interfere with the other 2 packages. The good news so far is I haven't had that Error loading Device IOS Real Mode Memory Allocation Failed message yet. Yet. I'm holding my breath.

Latest stand alone McAfee QuickClean 3? SystemSuite 2004? Crap Cleaner? jv16PowerTools? The stuff you're talking about can be done manually from Dos or Windows. Just junk file deletion? Either get a program like Crap Cleaner or one of the pay for ones that do the same thing or look around the hard drive and delete some of it yourself I guess. Removal of more complex stuff is already available with 98Lite. That's a more complicated task, programs you don't want, etc., but there you go. 98Lite does that very well. But it's not a crap file remover. That's a different thing to talk about. People have been tinkering with tools for 9x for the longest time so I think a search of the net or even MDGx's site would provide you with an already available method of doing just about anything on 9x. Am I not understanding what you're looking for? I think I remember a site like Old Cranky (Salty?) Guy's Guide or something (I forget exactly but it was something similar to that) that had his suggested method of quickly cleaning out useless Windows crap. The web is filled with ton's of that kind of stuff.

I wouldn't worry too much about future patches. Most eventually will be so incompatible with 9x that even our guru friends here won't be able to modify them enough to work. However, as many have commented, 9x updated with all currently known patches and run with sensible security software does not need as many holes plugged as our current Windows (XP, Vista) do. Previous holes have been mostly patched up and malware makers concentrate on the OS's used by the masses, not the dwindling 9x OS. Future hardware will make it impossible, but how slow is my Socket A AthlonXP3200+ with a gig of memory? Either my ATI Radeon x850 Pro or my Gigabyte NVidia 6600GT work fine as long as I install the AGP Gart from Via 4-in-1 4.43 and the rest from the latest Hyperion. And I've collected a nice assortment of backup motherboards and processors so I think I'll be able to use 98SE for quite a while. He says this with only XP SP2 on his box. Sheesh, better get a 9x system installed. Heh, heh. I actually did yesterday take a nostalgic trip back to my first computer of the modern era. I say that because my first was really a Coleco Adam! HP4430/4440 recovery cd on a SiS5598 AMD K6-2/366 ASUS SPAX-M with a whopping 256MB of SDRAM! Glorious Riptide Audio/Modem with a wavetable midi synth (that kind of works like a fixed Soundfont) and Dos support and a big 4MB onboard Video chip with software Direct 3D acceleration. Wow! And my old HP Cd-Writer Plus 6110i still burns great at 8x4x24 speeds (We don't need no bloody burn proof!). Woo Hoo! Boy it was fun to see all that old stuff. Works great since I removed the 80GB HD I had been fruitlessly trying that board out with and put in a 20GB Western Digital. The thing is just too old to run a large HD, even though the Bios sort of supports it. It will report up to 64GB on the 80GB HD and Windows will see the whole thing, but eventually the IDE Controllers will get bogged down and start with those long file transfer delays and stuff. Works great with the little 20GB HD. Um, played with it for a few hours and then unplugged everything and put back my real pc. We've come a long way, but if I wanted to that old thing CAN be made usable for certain purposes. Edit - Okay, I'm cool now because I unhooked the XP hard drive and installed 98SE. Whew! Worried there for a minute. Kind of annoyed at myself for keeping the M-Audio Revo card there instead of using the Audigy 2 ZS. Although music is great, especially when I use QSound QMAXII, there are hoops and ladders due to no Sensaura on the M-Audio VXD's, needing to install Roland Virtual Sound Canvas and Yamaha S-YXG50 to get sporadic midi support (they work better on XP with no hardware Direct Sound available for midi related games). The Creative card offers essentially the same features on 98 that it does on XP, so even though I like the Revo sound and light drivers better I'd have been better off with Creative for 98. Too late as I've got too much audio related software installed. I'd have to format for the card change to be stable. Shucks, I'll just live with it for a bit.

That's what the Autopatcher does. It checks for the presence of the same stuff it includes and skips over things that are already installed. It's just redundant for the Gape pack to be there because the Autopatcher includes what's in it for the most part already. It's just the unusually programed tweaks and updates (like Dialup Networking, etc) that make me want to install Gape's pack first. Don't REALLY need it. I just like some stuff it does. As far as the Unofficial WMF for ME working on 98SE, you could try to run it and see what happens. If it runs and updates the files you're all set. If it complains that this isn't Windows Me, you could probably just apply the 98SE version then extract the specific files you need from the ME version and apply them manually from an F8 Command Prompt Only startup. That way you'd get the proper registry entries and whatever else is in the fix, but wind up with the Windows Me versions after you replace what I think is just 2 files. Remember, when running the 98SE version, say no to keeping newer file versions when Windows asks. That way the whole update is installed properly. After rebooting (or prepared ahead of time) you can then extract the 2 files from the Me version to a folder on the root of the drive and just reboot to the command prompt and copy them to the System folder, saying yes to overwrite the files.

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=77218 There's the thread with the WMF links. I'm not sure whether the Windows Me update would work on 98SE, even with 98SE2ME installed. The Autopatcher is not a collection of Service Packs. Reading the information would tell you that. There is no reason for soperific to include the entire 98SE Unofficial Service Pack within the program as the Autopatcher already includes just about all the updates in that pack plus a lot more. Since the 98SE Unofficial Service Pack doesn't include Direct X, Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, or any updates newer than a couple of years ago we needed to install a heck of a lot of things one at a time before using the Service Pack and after using the Service Pack. The Autopatcher eliminates all the hastling with updates. It includes just about all updated Windows components, Internet Explorer, etc, and you can choose to not install those you don't want. My suggestion to install the 98SE Unofficial Service Pack first was because that pack includes a hastle free installation of Dialup Networking 1.4 that doesn't mess with Virtual Private Networking. When installing the Microsoft setup of Dialup Networking 1.4, it installs Virtual Private Networking and associated Networking drivers into the Network Properties. We then need to uninstall Virtual Private Networking from Add/Remove Windows Components and also delete the items associated with it from the Control Panel Network Settings applet. An unneeded hastle and eliminated if we install the 98SE Unofficial Service Pack. So far no one has been able to figure out how Gape successfully provided, as he says, "components of Dialup Networking 1.4." But his is the best way to install it. Gape's pack also tweaks a few settings and gives us the Windows 2000 Color Scheme, 256 Color Tray Icons, etc, etc. In all the Unofficial 98SE Service Pack as provided by Gape is the easiest way to get the whole thing tweaked up without doing it yourself. There's no problem in using the Autopatcher after Gape's pack as the Autopatcher doesn't reinstall what it detects as being there already. How hard is it to install the Service Pack, install Autopatcher, then install the latest 98SE2ME? Three things! And for those that want more there are the other available packages like 98SE2XP, Kernel Update Package, etc. Personally I use Option 2 when running 98SE2ME. I've got other word processors and prefer to leave Notepad as it is and keep the general 98SE shell. If I wanted Windows Me I'd install it. I just want the updated 9x system files that 98SE2ME provides, not the change to the Windows Me shell or different boot screens. As nice as they are, I like the ugly Microsoft Windows 98 boot screen for reasons of nostalgia. But I do use 98SE2XP and the WMP10 for 9x programs. Might as well have the improvments in WMP, etc.

Don't forget, NativeTexan, that if you use Gape's Service Pack and the Autopatcher you don't need to read or install much. Those install just about everything for you! Do read the readme's for those, though. Several times. Maybe write them out long-hand. It'll take forever but you'll remember more. That's what I had to do in school. Then screw reading anything else since those 2 give you just about all you'll need. Please remember to install 98SE2ME after those, not before. Edit - OMG! I just read your intro thread you linked to. There must have been more discussion between you and the lady that wasn't in that thread. From the looks of that thread, she welcomed you, shared some rememberences, made a suggestion, then you attacked the heck out of her for no reason that was apparent there. Sheesh, guy, if you ever talked to me like that I'd reach over the network and conk you on the head. Or maybe find a suedo Xena Warrior Princess or Buffy the Vampire Slayer and let them have their way with you. (My favorite 2 shows besides Star Trek TOS.) See, strong, empowered women are attractive to me. Not in a sick perverted way (well, maybe a little), but I admire them. I don't know. Perhaps there's some stuff I haven't read where she overly criticised you unfairly. Sometimes folks feel they can say stuff in print that they'd never say face to face. But we really shouldn't. It can be just as hurtfull. Well, our conversations have been civilized anyway. To this point. Just don't make me sick Buffy on ya! (Heh, heh.)

soperific, I just saw the reason for that Internet Explorer information not showing in System Information after using the Autopatcher. http://www.mdgx.com/ietoy.htm#CSF Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 SP1 for Windows 98/98 SP1/98 SE/NT4 SP6a/2000/ME MSInfo32 Errors IEINFO5.OCX 5.50.4918.1900 Fix: Direct download [138 KB, English]. BUG: Microsoft System Information (MSINFO32.EXE) Internet Explorer Summary display is EMPTY if using Windows 98/98 SP1/98 SE/NT4 SP6a/ME! FIX: MUST use OLDer IEINFO5.OCX 5.50.4807.2300 from Internet Explorer 6.0 SP1 instead! See that? The MSINFO update did that. So on 9x we need to not update that from the version in IE6 SP1. Perhaps you can remove the update from the next version of Autopatcher? Apparently the IEINFO5.OCX must be version 5.50.4807.2300 from IE6 SP1.

Hmm, slow popping up of Start Menu items, eh? I recall some reg tweak to prevent that. For all I know I didn't suffer from it because that tweak is one of the things done by Gape's service pack. Don't know. Never got that. Maybe that's from an official Microsoft update that NativeTexan missed out on because he never installed the 98SE system updates, but barged ahead and installed 98SE2ME all be itself. It's rather vague exactly what he did. I hope he decides to format and start fresh, installing the items in order as he's been advised to several times. The hardware he's using would be sensitive to high processor/memory usage, but simple spreading out of the Start Menu shouldn't happen. Heck, I've run these updates including 98SE2XP on a K6-2/366 MHz machine with 256MB of 66MHz SDRAM and didn't run into that even with the crappy on board video. I did get slow drawing of graphics like Explorer windows unless I installed something like a Voodoo 3000 videocard to remove the memory drain caused by the shared video/system memory. Not too slow though. Just a fraction of a second of watching the screen refresh when it opened a new window. A videocard stopped that. Anyway, it's nice to read about someone working on an older system like that. I hope he gets things up and running well. I've got a good friend who will read something and have a hard time retaining the information unless discussed with someone else for reinforcement. It's really not that unusual, and the friend is as bright as they come. Just that reading retention thing. As I grew older, I myself experienced a reckoning of sorts when returning to college to complete my BA. I couldn't recall enough details of my reading to be able to answer fill in the blank types of questions, but I could ace the multiple choices. I read once that men start to lose some mental faculties at age 35, whereas women don't do that until they're in their 80's. Gotta go get a woman so I don't forget where I live I guess! I'm 47. Yikes!

Heh, heh. Yes there is a lot of reading material involved. I sometimes forget that since I've been involved in these things for years, I've had years to take in all the various threads and readme's that take up all these updates and service packs. In one of your posts, that are now spread out over various threads so I don't remember which one, you mentioned that your system has been running for years without formatting. In that case it is likely that you already have most of the older 98SE updates installed, so you probably wouldn't be missing much by just leaving what you've got. After all, you now have installed both 98SE2ME and 98SE2XP. If you now run Gape's Service Pack and the Autopatcher you will only need to reapply both 98SE2ME AND 98SE2XP afterwards. However, for such an old system that has probably been to Windows Update hundreds of times through the years, I would suggest just going to the top of the forum with the latest updates - http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=46581 and just apply some of the latest stuff to get the basic security fixes that have come out since Microsoft stopped providing them on Windows Update. Things like the Internet Explorer 6 SP 1 Cumulative Security Update and the Unofficial WMF security fix. You've posted in so many threads that I'm not sure now whether you are dealing with a fresh Windows 98SE installation or that you are still dealing with your mature setup that probably has most of the updates. Please note that the next time you install fresh you should not install 98SE2ME or 98SE2XP until AFTER you have done the Gape Unofficial Service Pack and the Autopatcher. And, YES! As the readme states, 98SE2ME is completely compatible with the Unofficial Service Pack. I hope that's a question we don't need to deal with again.

NativeTexan, There isn't a need for copy/paste. All information regarding the available updates for all Windows systems are right on the mdgx.com website. In addition, you may download text versions of MDGx's entire site (or most of it) in his zipped up packs for the various 9x versions. Granted, there is a lot of information available. However, you can shorted your reading time by simply concentrating on the information regarding the available service packs you may be interested in installing. No need (unless you are interested) to peruse all the specific information about each individual update unless you will be installing them manually, without the service packs. I replied to another question of yours (twice) by suggesting you read the 98SE2ME readme, and was surprised to see that you have studied it for 2 hours. It answers many of the questions you still are requesting answers to. After using 98SE2ME you DO NOT have a Windows Me system. You have a Windows 98SE system with some updated files that are installed from the Windows Me cd by 98SE2ME. Any service packs or updates that are for Windows Me DO NOT pertain to your system. YOU HAVE WINDOWS 98SE, even though you have installed 98SE2ME. You still need to install all updates, patches, fixes for 98SE, Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, Direct X. However, many of these are installed by the Unofficial 98SE Service Pack, and almost all the rest by the new Autopatcher program. You simply jumped the gun by installing 98SE2ME first. You may still be able to recover by installing the Unofficial 98SE Service Pack, the Autopatcher, then rerunning the 98SE2ME with the shortcut provided on your start menu. Just put back the Windows Me cd when rerunning the 98SE2ME program.

This is the second (or third) response I have made to you regarding this question. It is best to check threads that you post to in order to see if someone has answered your questions. As last time, I start my reply with "read the manual." The information provided with the 98SE2ME program suggests that you install Gape's Unofficial 98SE Service Pack prior to installing 98SE2ME. It also clearly states that using the program does not turn your operating system into Windows Me. It is still Windows 98 Second Edition and any Windows Updates you use should be the Windows 98SE versions of the updates. Doing any reading among the threads of these forums will show you that folks do sometimes refresh their systems for various reasons, without formatting, by reinstalling the Unofficial 98SE Service Pack and then reapplying 98SE2ME. So, yes you can install the Service Pack. Just run the 98SE2ME batch shortcut on your start menu again (with the Windows Me cd in your first cd drive once again) to reapply the Windows Me file versions after installing the Unofficial Service Pack. I'm surprised that you made no attempt to read the provided readme that appears when running 98SE2ME. If you had, you would have been provided with answers to most of your questions. Before going any further I suggest you take a few minutes to read it. A shortcut to it is on the start menu under the 98SE2ME program folder.

I don't know how the NT Autopatcher's operate, but my experience with the new 98SE one was very positive. I would recommend the Gape Unofficial Service Pack followed by the Autopatcher. After that you can go ahead and install drivers for your hardware devices. Then install the latest Internet Explorer Cumulative Dll patch, the 98SE2ME (if you have a Windows Me cd), 98SE2XP, and the WMP10 to 9x Unofficial updaters. Then run the unofficial WMF update and you'll have just about everything updated. I use the Maximus-Decim Unofficial MDAC updater but depending on your Office version that would also update the MDAC somewhat. Whichever way, there are security updates for even the latest version. Windows Update would get them for you, or you can download them through the mdgx.com links. Or you could install Office and the Unofficial MDAC updater before the Autopatcher as I think he includes the MDAC security patches in that. You can do all that before connecting to the internet. Then install your favorite software firewall and anti-virus scanner, Spybot Search and Destroy, and Ad-Aware. I wouldn't bother with Spybot's Tea Timer background scanner as it uses resources, but I would turn on Spybot's Internet Explorer bad site and download blockers. If you do choose to use Internet Explorer, the Yahoo Toolbar includes an excellent popup blocker. If not then Firefox or Sea Monkey have their own built in. If you did all that I mentioned, you'd be hard pressed to get infected even within Internet Explorer unless you frequently go to malicious websites. The latest versions of Flash and Shockwave are better secured than older versions so I would install those as well. In general, newer versions of software are more secure but also use more resources.

If you had read the documentation for 98SE2ME you would have seen that it is recommended to install ALL 98SE updates before using 98SE2ME. If you haven't installed 98SE updates, yes you still need them all. That's Internet Explorer, 98SE, WMP. Direct X, ALL of them. You install 98SE versions when running 98SE regardless of whether you have 98SE2ME installed, however you should then reinstall the latest 98SE2ME following the updates. The exception being the Unofficial WMF update, which you should install after all of it as it will replace the Windows Me version with the patched 98SE GDI files (and you should let it replace the newer files when it asks.) Same with 98SE2XP and the Windows Media Player 10 unofficial updates. You install those after all your 98SE, IE, WMP, DX updates and also after 98SE2ME. You do the 98SE2XP before the WMP 10 update as 98SE2XP updates WMP 9 files with the XP versions. Then when you run the WMP10 to 98 thing you get those updated to WMP10 versions. The autopatcher will take care of nearly all of what you need before 98SE2ME, with the exception of 256 color tray icons, Windows 2000 color scheme, nicer desktop icons, a few registry tweaks, and most importantly Dialup Networking 1.4. I don't think you'll have a problem if you install Dialup Networking 1.4, the Autopatcher, then reinstall 98SE2ME. But it would be easier as I've stated before, to install Gape's 98SE Unofficial Service Pack, then the Autopatcher, then reinstall 98SE2ME, then the WMF update. Gape's pack will install the missing items I've mentioned (like Dialup Networking without hastling with Virtual Private Networking stuff) so you'll be all set to run the Autopatcher without missing out on anything. AND - Just about any anti-virus scanner allows you to turn off auto updating. Some hide the options well, as they'd prefer to ensure that your definitions are updated so you don't blame them if a virus gets through.

That bcdedit fix was removed by Microsoft, as was the same function from MSCONFIG, in RC2 and RTM. For now, until another way is figured out, we need to F8 at every startup and select to boot without driver signing. The bcdedit change appears to work, but has no effect. Ya gotta do the F8 EVERY startup for driver signing to be turned off. There's probably a registry setting somewhere where we can permanantely turn it off, but I haven't seen that anyone has found it yet. Microsoft REALLY wants us to use signed drivers only! When I had my Audigy 2 ZS installed I didn't need to disable the driver signing with the latest Creative beta driver. It was, well, whatever Creative has working with their latest driver, working fine. I've since removed Vista as I want to just wait now for the retail DVD and an official license. I wasn't thrilled with running the RTM with the RC2 files hack. I felt a bit dirty! And going back to RC2 seemed pointless. I also installed my M-Audio Revolution 5.1 instead of the Creative cards. I just noticed that the 5.1 is a Via GT chip rather than the 7.1's HT, so the Via Vinyl Audio driver would probably work on it. I might try it with Vista and see what happens. If I do, I'll manually update to it from Device Manager then run Via's setup to hopefully get the control panel. Via does have a beta Vista driver available now. I don't think the Via setup can install the driver properly on the M-Audio card but I've read elsewhere that manually installing the driver then running setup has worked. Now, with the M-Audio card I do install other stuff on XP. Stuff which I doubt will work on Vista. Hopefully at some point they will. I use QSound's QMaxII, Roland Virtual Sound Canvas, Yamaha S-YXG50, TotalRecorderPro, and the Turtle Beach USB Midi connector for my keyboard. I also use the old Voyetra Digital Orchestrator Pro, along with the demo stuff on the M-Audio cd like the Ableton Live 4 demo and the Reason 2 demo to play with midi music. Nothing serious, I just play around with the stuff. When I had the Creative card installed I noticed that the Synthfont program DID work, but of course that doesn't install as a midi driver. I hope there will be some way to use software midi drivers in Vista. For now, I don't see any midi driver selection available in any of Vista's audio control panels. It's going to P me off if they never implement that. I want my Roland and Yamaha to work! Not as a VST plugin to expensive programs I won't buy, but as a midi driver. The Roland is nice because I can lower the latency in its control panel so my keyboard plays over the computer speakers in sync with my pressing the keys. This, without expensive ASIO compatible software, just over the normal Windows midi output path.