Eck

Um, I can't see how this confused people but... This Autopatcher program does not connect to the internet to install any of the updates. You just run the 1.5 from your hard drive, close it without applying it, run the 1.6 update, then all the updates are applied by the Autopatcher. It reboots your computer when necessary then continues its work. It will inform you when it is finished. THIS right here is the thread where all the magic is discussed and developed. Individual unofficial updates are discussed in the relevent threads in this forum. None of them are hard to find. (98SE2ME, etc.) Note that the 98SE2ME unofficial updater included in the Autopatcher is only a small section of the full MDGx 98SE2ME. If you want the full effect of that you need to download the full version and have a Windows Me cd in your possession. Not certain, but I think you also need to apply the Dialup Networking 1.4 Windows Update before running the Autopatcher as otherwise it will only prompt you to manually install that before proceeding. Unless you use Virtual Private Networking, you should then go into Add/Remove Programs, Windows Components and remove the checkmark from Virtual Private Networking. Then also go into Network Properties and remove the additional items that say (Virtual Private Networking) after them. These items confused my cable internet and I couldn't connect until I removed them. Of course, all that work can be avoided by installing Gape's Unofficial 98SE Service Pack before running the Autopatcher. Gape's pack installs Dialup Networking 1.4 without the Virtual Private Networking features. It also installs the rest of the nice Windows Me/Windows 2000 desktop icons and Windows 2000 color scheme so you have the complete set. Autopatcher only updates the My Computer icon and doesn't provide the nicer color scheme. If Gape's pack is installed first, Autopatcher won't mess with that stuff as it detects the proper Explorer.exe has been already installed. Gape's pack also fixes the Shell Icon Cache so you don't need to bother tweaking that either. So at this point I would recommend installing the Gape Unofficial Service Pack, restarting twice (to make sure the registry is completely updated) then running the autopatcher stuff. It appears that the 1.6 version of the Autopatcher now includes the latest Unofficial 891711 update so you won't need to mess with that. However I would run the latest WMF fix (918547) from MDGx AFTER using the Unofficial 98SE2ME. Make sure to tell it to overwrite if it asks. I'm also not certain that soperific has included the latest Internet Explorer Cumulative DLL Update. (918899 has been replaced by a newer one.) I would run the latest MDGx Unofficial one so you get the latest files there as well. After the Autopatcher you can run the 98SE2ME (if you have a Windows Me cd), 98SE2XP, and WMP10 for 98SE Unofficial MDGx stuff, the WMF update, and you're finished. All the work being done to these unofficial patchers is discussed right here in these forums in their clearly titled threads so there really isn't a lot of guess work to find this stuff. It's also easy to find the links through the mdgx.com website as MDGx has links to all this stuff. So all those Windows Updates you have saved to a cdr wouldn't be necessary if you use the Autopatcher. It includes all the necessary files.

Thanks soperific. I got it from the new link. Maybe if I had installed GetRight it would have worked from the original link. I haven't gotten to that yet. I usually wait until I encounter a problem, large type of file. That thing usually gets anything. I'm excited about testing your new update at some point. I still wonder why System Information's Internet Explorer information was messed up every time I used your pack previously. Strange stuff. I like your new additions! I've always installed System Policy Manager as part of the full Windows 98 Resource Kit. It was something I needed to install seperately as the complete setup doesn't install it. Now I can just run your pack, and like magic it'll be there! Well, it'll be when I get to a VMWare install. I just don't trust that if I install 98 I won't get that IOS bootup error if I install it natively. I have no idea what's up with that but I real quesy about running 98 after that's happened to me every time for the last year or so.

I downloaded 1.5 again just in case you changed anything. Then I tried to download the 1.6 update several times. The first time I got the download page and "clicked here to download file." Internet Explorer 7 couldn't open the page. On succeeding attempts I couldn't even get to the download page. Maybe their site is down at the moment?

Yes, when changing the pre-installed ASPI layer Windows will complain about an older file. Just click ignore to that message. Gape's version of the forceASPI 1.7 in his Unofficial Service Pack adds a patch that eliminates that complaint. I noticed it when checking out one of the ini files in his pack. There's no problem to just click the ignore button though, as you're never bothered again by that once you tell the Version Conflict Manager popup to ignore the file.

That's a lot of conclusions. Any basis? (About Gape, I mean.) Have you noticed the new Autopatcher thread? That's pretty much a fine successor, although I liked the results better when I applied Gape's pack first. Saved me from installing some stuff manually that is not done by the Autopatcher. MDGx has his hands full if he were only to just keep up that website. He also is maintaining several packs himself. But he speaks for himself.

And WinZip 10 isn't about to time out either. And ZoneAlarm's older version won't stop working. Etc. Just because newer versions of most stuff will stop testing on 9x systems doesn't mean folks can't use slightly older versions that do the job and were tested on 9x. Like if you bought Nero 7 you could use 7.2.7 on 9x and the latest 7.5.7 (on up) on XP, Vista, whatever. Not the end of the world for 9x yet. Just more and more fussing and bother finding the right combination of things to use. I'm using McAfee VirusScan Home Edition 7.03 with the latest 5100 engine and daily DAT's on Windows XP right now. I subscribe to the latest but wanted to see how the old thing worked and it still does. Automatically updates too. (It can't do that on 9x though. It needs manual extraction to update on 9x.) McAfee Firewall 4.02 still works on XP as well. See, the software didn't stop working. We just go through a few more hoops and ladders when not using stuff currently being tested. (And the latest "finished" McAfee is really being publically beta tested. Lot's of unusual stuff happening with it, as with most brand new products.) I didn't have a problem with it, but I like the way this "unsupported" firewall fully passes ShieldsUp, whereas the current version has closed ports where they should be stealthed. Sometimes older is better, at least when stuff is really new.

I don't know what would happen, but I remember that the Gigabyte Ge-Force 6600GT I have came with drivers that by the NVidia ReadMe's did not support the card! And for the longest time (haven't been there for a while) the Gigabyte website kept offering the older driver from the 7000 series that, according to NVidia, did not support the 6000 series of chipsets. Perhaps you could try installing the latest 81.98 NVidia drivers for 9x and see what happens? The setup file might just install everything but some features of the card would not be activated, like fancy 3D gaming effects since the drivers wouldn't know how to turn them on in the later cards. Even if setup tells you your card isn't supported you could then try manually updating using Device Manager to the drivers in the extracted NVidia folder that contains the inf's for 9x. You never know until you try. Just be sure your motherboard chipset AGP Gart driver is installed and operating properly first, and that Direct X 9.0c is installed before you start installing the NVidia drivers. Internet Explorer updated to 6 SP1 also helps newer installers work correctly. Windows Installer 2.0 helps too. I just want to make sure it's the NVidia driver that can't be installed and not an installer glitch caused by not having those things installed first.

They haven't come out with a Windows Vista compatible version of Partition Magic yet. That said, DON'T do what I did and try installing it anyway while disregarding the warning of "Know Compatiblities" with Vista. I rebooted to a BSOD. Only last know good got me back in. Since it was installed I tried running it and was not allowed to start it. I uninstalled it promptly. THAT said, you mean you have no XP partitions on your machine? If you do, you can install and run it from there, or just about any other operating system except Vista. Make your partitions and you're all set. Um, you could also just open Vista's Disk Management applet and setup your drive from there. No, Boot Magic is useless with a Vista setup. But you CAN copy the PQBOOT folder from the cd and, running as administrator, use that if you want to use an unconventional boot setup. It also has Vista warning you about incompatibilities but it did not destabilize my system when I used it. Better than booting from a Partition Magic floppy disk everytime I wanted to change my active partition. The easiest way it to just let Vista do it, with its own boot loader. Control Panel -Classic View- Administrator Tools- Disk Management. Partition and format. Now if you want to install an older operating system, that won't work with the standard Microsoft tools unless it is installed first.

As another choice for Vista theming, Stardock Object Desktop subscribers can now use the latest beta version of WindowBlinds on Windows Vista. This opens up the whole library of WindowBlinds to use on Vista! Heck, how about running a Vista that looks like Windows 3.1? Fun. Not sure about the rest of the Object Desktop programs yet, but at least WindowBlinds will work for now.

Thank you, cluberti, See, that is exactly the type of helpful suggestion I have come to expect and offer up here. If I had read something like that I may have been persuaded to reinstall the product and try a few things out just to be helpful to the company as well as other users on the board. For further information to our readers, I had installed AVGFree on the Administrator account that Windows Vista installs by default when setting up Windows for the first time. I understand this account runs in a standard user mode, enabling administrator tasks through the use of UAC requests to permit those actions. In this case when installing AVGFree I had right clicked the setup file and chose to run as administrator, selecting to continue when asked by UAC to permit the activities. When using the taskbar AVG icon to run the AVG Control Panel resulted in the AVG popup message when I tried to apply turning the background scanner off, I then tried accessing it by right clicking the desktop AVG shortcut and choosing to run as administrator. Unfortunately this resulted in the same AVG error popup stating that I did not have permission to save settings when I tried to uncheck the option to use the background scanner and apply it. The only option that was permitted was to cancel. As UAC hadn't popped up at all I gathered that this was something awry in how the AVG program is designed to interact with Vista's UAC in the latest AVGFree release. Since it was new, I thought I'd help them out by reporting my experience. I'm sure the AVG designer's intent is to make this option seamless and without this kind of error, with the possible exception (though possibly not, as well) of when only a standard user attempts to turn off the background scanner. Disabling UAC would have been something to try, but of course a program designed to work on Vista shouldn't need to have such a basic security feature turned off in order to function correctly. A beta or test version, yes. Not a release version. If they had requested that I help them to sort it out I likely would have done so. But I have the suspicion that they have plenty of testers in house where they can test out the problem. Not too worried about that! But their forum mod's should certainly by a bit more appreciative of reports of problems that their labs might not have been aware of. How about, "I'm sorry you needed to uninstall our product in order to get your software programs installed and defragged without the background scanner running. I will report your difficulties to the appropriate design team to make them aware of this possible bug." That's the kind of professional approach that would encourage folks to use a product, and possibly upgrade to a paid version. Some of this is probably more appropriately an AVG Forum post, but I did want to make Vista users of this forum aware that the problem could happen, since it did to me. And I didn't see the point of attempting to scold or teach a forum moderator! Kind of hopeless, eh? I'd be dismissed pretty quickly, I imagine.

Just to relate my experience with the new 7.5 AVGFree release when used on Vista. The Control Center properties windows that has a check mark to run the AVG background scanner would pop up an AVG message informing me that I did not have permission to save my settings if I tried to uncheck it and click Allow or Okay. Other than that it works fine. Since I couldn't disable the background scanner I uninstalled AVG and installed Avast, which had no problem saving my settings. This tells me that there was no Vista UAC permission problem (no Windows box popped up, only an AVG message), but a problem with AVG's implementation in the new version. I tried to be helpful by posting to the AVGFree board on their Other Issues thread, but got only a rude pair of responses from the a---hole moderator who closed the thread, preventing any meaningful discussion. I'm dahveed3 over there so, if interested you can check out my attempt to help them. It went unappreciated. I got only a teenaged type of response that if I didn't want to be a guinea pig I shouldn't be using Vista. I had only said that I unfortunately would not be able to help further as a guinea pig (in a good way!) since it wasn't on the machine at the moment. Don't mind being a guinea pig at all, and have thoughout the beta program for Vista reported several incidents to hopefully help Microsoft work out the bugs. So to all my friends here I can only say that perhaps something is not quite right with the new AVGFree when using it on Vista. I'm sure their designers aren't like the seemingly 12 year old moderator I encountered and they will fix things up. But for now then best free Anti-Virus for Vista seems to be Avast, which provides more features anyway. I just think they might fix stuff faster if it got reported instead of being pushed aside by children running their boards. I don't care if he's 50. His demeaner was that of a little boy. His boss should spank him. He, he, sorry for the rant but I'm fuming a bit at the moment. Certainly won't be posting over there again. Might use the product. It's pretty good, after all. But since that forum is the only communication available for free users they really should communicate in a more civilized, less haughty manner. I feel like spanking the whole company.

Ah! Everyone who has a legitimately official download would get the 30 day trial, yes. But folks who took advantage of nice people who uploaded the file really are not supposed to be installing and taking advantage of that 30 day without entering a serial thing. Or substituting RC 2 files to get 6 months. So, no not everyone gets a 30 day trial. Unless they're cheatin'! Anyway (heh, heh), eagerly awaiting the end of January here! I'll be on line that day for another outlay of dollars. Seriously, I will purchase day one. And then I'll format what's there now so I won't have worries. Oh, by the way it runs about the same as RC2. But the period where it's indexing constantly does appear to end sooner. Closing IE 7 or WMP11 no longer makes the hard drive thrash for several minutes as Vista was (I guess) debugging during the Beta, RC period. So things, after the initial period where you install all your software, will seem more responsive. But that software install period still stinks. The hard drive chugga chuggas like someone is using your computer. Lots of waiting before you go ahead and reboot as it's storing changes to the index and logging restore points. The new audio sounds are nice. Designed to be unspectacular, they blend in rather than abruptly invading a "BOOM" when alerting you to something like in XP. The new AVG Free worked except it wouldn't allow to turn off the background scanner, with an AVG (not Windows) warning of no permission to save the changes. Avast, on the other hand, works perfectly with no problems changing settings or turning it off. All the software that worked on RC 2 appears to also run fine in the final. Nero runs great now. You'll likey! Just trying to help here. Stay out of trouble though! All that is just based on OTHER peoples experience, of course.

Hmm, well I know I could always go to the font folder and they sure didn't look hidden (you know, faded). I could double click them and they would open fine, showing all the pretty pictures of the particular font. New fonts appeared to install properly when program installs would add them. So I don't know if it's the fonts causing the problem. I don't have a clue what it is. Obviously one problem WAS smartdrv.exe existing in the Windows folder as I fixed the problem by removing that. Don't ask me WHY that was a problem. It is installed by the Windows setup as it always has been. When this (renaming it) fixed it, I moved it to the Command folder and renamed it back so I could use it for starting in MS-DOS Mode for my Dos gaming. Windows still started up fine then. Then when all my stuff was running fine and I was enjoying using 98SE, suddenly on a startup the IOS error appeared again. I had no idea how to fix it this time as smartdrv was already not in the Windows folder. That's when I just repartitioned, formatted, and installed XP to the main drive and Vista to the 2nd drive. And that's where I am now. No 98. Not a huge loss in today's world but having it provides me with a few advantages. I'll leave things for now, as I said, and get back and try it sometime.

I agree with soporific regarding the size. Don't forget what a time and hastle saver this program is. This is not just a Windows Update installer. It provides nearly all operating system provided program upgrades as well. We're talking Direct X, Internet Explorer, Window Media Player, etc, etc. And yes, when the bad taste in my mouth passes from my latest failure I will try again. But in the meantime I can play with 98 in VMWare without worrying. Well, as soon as I get to that. I think I'll use what I've got for a bit until I get into the installing mood again. soporific, has progress occured regarding Dialup Networking, 256 Tray Icons, Windows 2000 Color Scheme, the Gape style explorer.exe with his full icon package, or the icon cache size increase? I think those are the only things making the installation of the Gape Unofficial 98SE Service Pack necessary before running your package. Well, those and the Web Folders update but I think the Web Folders are updated by OfficeXP for those that install that anyway. Any news on those fronts? I haven't noticed you commenting on whether you got any of those cleared up in your new package.

Thanks, oscardog. Viagart.vxd, interesting you mentioned that. I would suspect the video-agp interface if the same problems didn't crop up when using a old box with an Intel chipset and a Voodoo 5 5500 AGP or PCI card or a Voodoo 3 3000 AGP or PCI card. I do use an unconventional approach when using the newer (Socket A KT880) Via chipset motherboards with 98SE. The standard Via 4-in-1/Hyperion Pro setup only installs a redirect from AGP to PCI that only activates PCI speeds for video. I manually install the AGP Gart driver by extracting it from the Via 4.43 4-in-1 package, the AGP folder and direct Device Manager to it. This enables full Direct X AGP acceleration and AGP textures on 98SE. But that works properly without crashing games. And, again, I get the same IOS errors when using boards designed during the 98 era. I'll do the step-by-step next time I have a 9x setup and run into the inevitable problem. I will say that I have refreshed the bootlog the last few times and it is nearly all clean with successful reports for all but an ndisup driver. Even the font problems I got in earlier problem setups weren't there, possibly because I've begun running Norton WinDoctor to keep things in good shape. That checks and corrects font problems, though it has never reported any so perhaps it isn't related. Bootlog hasn't shown any problems loading the vxd's either. I just wonder what all the rest of the 98 enthusiast's here are doing that does not result in the IOS error I always get nowadays. Just downloaded the new 1.5 Autopatcher. Well, I'll file it away and use it in VMWare for now. Eventually I'll try a 98SE setup again.

Heh, heh, all righty then. 98 hates me anyway. "Error Loading Device IOS" "Real Mode Memory Allocation Failed" It happened again. With no smartdrv anywhere, still won't boot. I've lost the ability to run Windows 98. P's me off! Every single time I install 98, eventually I get hit with that. Last time I solved it by getting rid of smartdrv.exe, then it happened later on anyway. BUT, it never happens on VMWare. So I suppose that's the route I'm stuck with. I couldn't even run 98 on a new Intel SE440BX. I'm the guy that fixes all my friends and relations computers. And I can't even run a Windows 98SE system myself. I AM the tech guy here, so I don't have anyone to ask. The internet has NO information about this besides renaming or removing smartdrv.exe or rmm.pdr or running the commercial RegRepair2000. That thing just screwed with my fonts but couldn't fix the problem. I've tried messing with the WMP Roxio stuff too. Makes no difference. I don't have a clue about this. I ran 98 since about when it was released and never encountered this problem until just a few months ago. Since I first saw this, it now has happened every single time I've tried to setup a 98SE system. I'm ranting, but can you blame me? Currently running XP Pro SP2 and Vista. But I really wanted 98SE, XP Pro SP2 and Vista. Oh, well. I'll be using the AutoPatcher when I get around to installing VMWare. Actually, in that scenario the only thing I'll need 98 for is running Star Trek Captain's Chair. Everything else I would use in 98 are Direct X and MS-DOS stuff that VMWare won't do. My dos games don't even give me video in VMWare. And VirtualPC was horrible when I tried it. It crashed constantly whereas VMWare hasn't ever crashed on me. It'll be a while before I bother with a real 98 install. Too much recent frustration!

The AutoPatcher is what you're looking for, for now, if you want Gape's Pack but with today's updates. I installed Gape's pack before the AutoPatcher and that worked fine. The AutoPatcher does not reinstall updates if they're already there so you'll still need to run some of the Unofficial stuff like 891711, the GDI fix, etc, after doing the AutoPatcher. There's still potentially going to be a Gape update but there hasn't been anything definative announced as to when. In the meantime that procedure works fine. And the running of 98SE2ME, 98SE2XP, and the WMP10 for 9x updates afterwards brings you further modernization of the 98 files.

Uucchh!! That's exactly the kind of stuff that made me dislike the UpgradePack98 immensely. Just a few tweaks for memory are all 98 needs, and those can be made by the user. Gape does some in his pack and MDGx does a few more (mostly just learned about the icon cache increase and the renabling the removal of shortcut arrows after shell.dll fixes) but that's about all that's needed for average folks. After running Gape's, the AutoPatcher, and 98SE2ME, 98SE2XP and the MP10 update I sure didn't need to tweak my Autoexec or Systemini files. Well, as long as you make the selection of that option voluntary then I guess it's all right but really, most folks will install the full 98SE2ME afterwards anyway. That installs the needed tweaks that Gape installs and adds a couple of its own. Mostly just to overcome stuff that Microsoft security updates break. When I tried the UpgradePack I was surprised by all the registry tweaks. After trying to undo nearly all of them, I gave up and formatted. Best not to mess with the System.ini file or add stuff to folk's Autoexec.bat. MaxFileCache=393216 is better for most systems than the huge Max amount. Tests showed Windows performs better with the lower amount there. I just like to have updates, not a system I no longer recognize. Which is what I got with that UpgradePack98 thing. Heh, I didn't get mad because his web page warns that if we're upset with his tweaks,"I don't care!" He made me laugh so I couldn't really get too angry. A sense of humor goes a long way.

Thank you glocK_94. Yes I've run the latest engine and def's virus scanner and the usual spy checker programs and they report clean. And I used that and the similar KB282599, and KB221438 for the other pesky Office stuff. And got rid of the Office Search by using a similar KB article that I didn't print out so I forget the number. That Office Search was causing the background virus scanner to crash the computer and MDM was causing Internet Explorer to freeze up Windows after closing it and then later restarting Windows. It wouldn't, and I'd need to reset the machine to restart. Without all that crap everything's running pretty smooth. I'm surprised that no normal technique would allow automatic uninstallation of MDM.EXE. I needed to manually rename it and then thankfully had Norton WinDoctor so I could easily delete the correct registry entries for it. I noticed a lot more registry entries that involved mdm (I searched), so I was happy not to destroy my machine by hacking these files away manually. Norton found the few entries that needed to be removed. Apparently once the newer version of Visual Studio files are installed, checking to disable script debugging in Internet Explorer and removing the startup entry still allows MDM.EXE to be started when Internet Explorer is started. Anyway, problem solved. But I'm not satisfied with the process. Stuff like this should be easily removed like the Search and ctfmon.exe processes were, with an uninstall of the cooresponding program tool.

http://files.filefront.com/ISO_SB_Audigy_2...;/fileinfo.html That's a link to the badboy.filefront.com site where the poster from the Creative forums ,badboy, posts the ISO image of the Audigy 2 ZS installation cd. I tried to find the drivers themselves at driverguide, but saw no Audigy 2 ZS drivers there. If you can manage to download and burn that ISO, you'll be able to install and then check what version they are. If they are older than 441 then you'll be able to easily run the setup of your 031031 download and have the up to date version for 9x. Don't update if you ever want to switch to vxd's using the Creative Utility in the Start Menu. That utility installed by the cd is an easy way to go back and forth between the default WDM's and the VXD that is supplied on the cd. I've never used that as the WDM's are fine. The VXD's DO NOT install the SB16 emulation like the old SBLive cards have for MS-DOS windows within a Windows session. Nice thing: You'll have the full package. Note that I've got it all installed, but to save resources and avoid CTLOADER freezes on 9x I've placed semi-colons in front of (but within the quotes for the processes that have them) all the Creative processes in Run, Run Services in both the Current User and Local Machine registry sections. Before doing that, I turned off the Remote Control stuff in Media Source Player's Options. Then, as I'm using Norton Utilities 2002, I had WinDoctor ignore the now invalid Startup Items instead of letting it "fix" them by deleting them. The only difference I notice is I must change the speakers in Windows Multimedia Properties when I switch to headphones. I also place a shortcut to CtPanel.exe in the QuickLaunch Toolbar. This is in Program Files\Creative\SBAudigy2ZS\Program\WDM\Common. That way I've got all the tools without running the resource intensive software.

I have OfficeXP installed and noticed crashing caused by MOSEARCH, CTFMON, and MDM so I uninstalled the related Office Tools and extras that call for these at Windows startup and disabled Script Debugging in Internet Explorer's Advanced Options. I also deleted all the stupid fff...tmp files that MDM.EXE installs into the Windows folder when it runs, and doesn't delete them properly so we must manually do it when MDM.EXE isn't running. So all these are no longer starting with Windows. Great, right? Well when I start Internet Explorer, some of the time but not all of the time, MDM.EXE starts with it and appears in the Close Program box. fff temp file build up also returns to the Windows folder. So I must reboot and delete these, then reboot again. Yikes! Why won't that thing go away? When it was listed in startup it was in a VS7Debug folder. I guess that comes from installing the VS 2005 update? Outlook is installed but I never use it as I have Outlook Express as default mail. Why does Internet Explorer run that thing (again, sometimes)? Disable Script Debugging is checked, so it shouldn't call MDM.EXE, right? I've tried toggling that off and on and rebooting but somehow MDM.EXE starts its crap when I open Internet Explorer again. Latest McAfee engine and DAT's, Spybot Search and Destroy, and Ad-Aware all updated and run. No malware has latched on to the file so this is a Microsoft virus like thing. I'm afraid of renaming the stupid thing. That would probably just crash Windows when Internet Explorer calls for MDM.EXE (I think). Please help figure this out. Edit - Hey! Seeing as there should be no reason to use this, and that malware sometimes tries to attach itself to MDM.EXE, I took further action. Making sure it wasn't running in the Close Program box, I then searched and noticed MDM.EXE was only in the C:\Program Files\Common Files\VS7 Debug folder. I renamed it to MDM.EXE.old. I then ran Norton WinDoctor, which found all the registry references to it. It's auto-fix was to delete the invalid references, so I let it do that and restarted Windows. Upon opening Internet Explorer, everything seems to be working fine so far. And of course MDM.EXE can't run because it no longer exists (at least, in that form). So did I fix it? Or will DotNET (I have 1.1, 2.0, and the Service Packs and security updates to them installed) somehow bugger out when it tries to do something needed MDM.EXE? I hope nothing really needs the thing.

MDGx, I've noticed that somehow 98SE2ME always leaves me without the stupid arrows on the desktop shortcuts. I've been running Gape's Unofficial pack, the new Multipatcher, then your 98SE2ME, 98SE2XP, and the MP10 to 98SE thing. So, if I then run this new Shell32.dll fix will I again lose the tweakUI ability to toggle the shortcut arrows on and off? Will this patch be included in one of your packs? Do you accomplish this magic in 98SE2ME with the file already hex edited? Which method would you choose if all those packs had already been installed and you didn't want to run them all again just to fix this? I'd rather not reapply 98SE2ME, etc just to get small changes. I usually try to apply your future changes manually if it looks easy enough. I prefer not to run huge packs on an already setup system. And, I use WinZip and WinRAR so I'm wondering whether those would accomplish things you call for stuff like PowerArchiver to achieve.

Oooh, goody! This is almost as fun as waiting for a new monthly ATI catalyst release. I likey the noted improvements. On my latest (hopefully last for a while) new 98SE install I did as I said, installing some of my stuff first including Gape's Unofficial 98SE Service Pack. For your information, Windows Update claimed it needed Internet Explorer SP 1 Cum update KB916281, IE6 Security update KB833989, and 98 Securiy update KB918547 this time. I let it do it, then reinstalled MDGx's Unofficial KB918547, KB891711 and KB918899. (And then the IEBugFix thing.) How come it didn't detect 918899 installed, when Internet Explorer's About and the Windows Updates Checker did? And then it installed that older one (916281)! After reapplying those, Windows Update was happy everything was there. But there still is a problem with stuff registering in System Information. Nearly all Internet Explorer files are listed as missing when clicking file versions, and the Internet Explorer link itself there brings up a blank page with no information. Any idea what's causing this?

eidenk, That is the final driver for 9x for the Audigy 2 ZS. So yes, that IS a good driver. It is the driver installed by the last Creative Insstallation Cd that comes with the newest Audigy 2 ZS Platinum boxes. They actually had 3 different install cd's that they put into various retail box releases of the Audigy 2 ZS. The last one they made contained that driver so we don't need to run that driver file you have if you already have them on the cd. I happened to wind up with all 3 versions with the 3 cards I bought. The rest of the cd is the same. Only the driver version was updated each time. So if you have any of these you'll still need to run all the software updates from the website downloads if you install that stuff. For some crazy reason Creative removed all the driver updates for 98SE on the Audigy 2 ZS series. I suspect it was because if a user used CTZAPP to install the driver, instead of just running the update, on a 9x system, and chose to "replace all existing Creative files" when doing so, one would get a botched driver install and a crashing Windows. You can use CTZAPP with those. Just don't check the box to overwrite existing Creative drivers and software when starting it. A normal Device Manager install does not install all the stuff so either run the setup (ideal) or use CTZAPP if setup won't work. A way to jog Creative driver installers so it recognizes that you do indeed have a Creative SoundBlaster hardware installed is to remove the 2 question marked (the card and the midi controller) devices from Device Manager and reboot, cancelling out of Windows hardware installer when it detects the devices upon restart. Then just run the setup and it will detect the card and install. EXCEPT for this stupid file which needs you to CTZAPP.EXE the driver in if you don't have a previous driver installed! If you don't have an existing driver installed, you MUST extract the file and run CTZAPP or the installer will not run the driver installation. All the files needed ARE in the extracted file, though the install (even with CTZAPP) does not run smoothly without a previous set installed. You'll need to direct Windows for several files it says it cannot find. Most are in either C:\WINDOWS\CATROOT, C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\CATROOT, the System folder, the System32 or a subfolder it created when starting, driver cache folders, or somewhere in the extracted file you downloaded. You can see why Creative pulled the download. Although it contains the full set, it really doesn't run smoothly unless it is updating an existing set. However, if you can manage to direct Windows when it asks to all the files it asks for, then it installs properly. Really crappy software packaging! Of course you still need the DOSDRV SBLive dos mode drivers (available from the MAME website) and that AUDIGY12 set to run the card in MS-DOS Mode. That should be enough info for you. Just don't install any newer driver sets. If you can find version 402 of the drivers, those were the original ones and would make the 441, 442 version you've got there install more smoothly by running the setup.

I needed to use the Auto-Patcher again and found some work-arounds. Perhaps you'll soon eliminate the need for this, but for now it got the program to work. For the Out of Environment error and the cannot locate fullfile.bat - I first ran the original version and exited out, then the module update. Then I went to the Windows\AutoPatch (extracted files folder) and right clicked the main Auto-Patch bat file and in the Memory properties tab I chose the largest Environment in the drop-down. I think it's 4096. Then I ran the new shortcut pif that changing the environment created to run the Auto-Patcher. Since the files had been updated by the module update the whole thing ran fine. I had to use this again because my motherboards built in Ethernet driver likes to hold on to the device, not letting me easily disable the internet from Device Manager. It winds up crashing Device Manager and not disabling the card. This didn't happen on XP, but I guess the Via driver isn't as stable on 98. McAfee was also giving me a problem with the newest DAT's where I was getting freezing and BSOD's in the McAfee vxd's. They used to fix this stuff pretty quickly in an updated DAT but I fear they're not bothering to test these on Windows 9x anymore. So I formatted and installed fresh with ZoneAlarm and Avast instead along with a D-Link PCI Ethernet card, a DGE-530T. A shame really, since I liked that Mcafee suite with the VirusScanner, Firewall, and QuickClean (7.03, 4.02, 3.02 versions). The motherboard's Ethernet shares with the AGP card! How stupid? Now I put the PCI card in a slot that doesn't and no more disconnecting problems. I like to do it that way rather than shutting down and pulling the plug. It's quicker. I do this for defragging, video editing, etc. An idea for the Auto-Patcher - How about the latest Netmeeting? Don't use it, and I forgot to run it this time. But that is a possibility to include for those that do, eh? Oh! I forgot to mention that I installed Gape's Unofficial 98SE Service Pack first this time. Solved the problem of digging out the Windows 2000 Color Scheme and the 256 Tray Icons, as well as the matching Desktop array of icons. Gape's pack also does some nice tweaks such as the Shell Icon Cache is increased. I get the ASPI driver installed and TweakUI as well. Hey, maybe you could run the Gape Service Pack first instead of figuring out how he does some of his updates. Have it run normally with the options available to the user then on reboot start your batch files. The only problem might be that for older versions of Microsoft Office through Office 2000, they should be installed before Gape's pack. And for OfficeXP, that should be installed afterwards instead. This is due to otherwise conflicting versions of MDAC files that sometimes make Windows mess up the registry unless doing it in that order. I don't know. It's just a thought. I still like to have the stuff Gape's pack does done automatically rather than my figuring and doing myself. I like easy!