Eck

We've already got the sticky thread for 9x updates. When something new is installable on 9x the first post there is updated. Usually while an effective solution is being worked on, the replies on the thread indicate whatever progress is being made as how to best apply the new fixes on each 9x Operating System. Is this what you mean?

Far be it from be to discourage any 9x devotees! The thing still rocks. However I did notice you mentioned games from the late 80's, early 90's. I'm guessing those aren't even Windows games, but rather one's designed for early versions of MS-DOS. Nearly all these should be playable through a program called Dosbox. It is an emulator of an MS-DOS 5.0 PC that runs within many of today's operating systems, 9x, XP, 2000, even Linux I think (not sure about Linux). dosbox.sourceforge.net is the website to get it. vogons.zetafleet.com is the forum. And a great frontend that eliminates you messing with dos commands ( a GUI with the ability to make profiles for whatever configuration a particular game needs) is D-FEND. There's a newer update for that. The update is for the newer 0.65 version of Dosbox and you just replace dfend.exe with it. You install the older full version first. Although XP somewhat supports Windows games from the Windows 3.1 era, if you're talking about older Windows games than that then I'm surprised even 98 runs them. How much stuff did they even make for Windows 1 and 2? Those didn't really take off at all (mostly garnered laughs about how ugly and buggy they were). But for Dos games, Dosbox rules these days. But again, by all means have fun with 98SE. I just wanted you to know, if you didn't already, that there is another option for you.

I still use them, but not in the way that they could annoy me. I just preview them when I want to see them. Don't leave 'em running in the background, just set to none and run a preview when in the mood. Besides, I just discovered all those cool old AfterDark screensavers. I think we're talking 1996 here! But I've only used them on XP. I hunted around and discovered how to install them there. BadDog is a gas. Since the thing runs in the background even when turned off, I didn't want to install it to 98. I figured XP can handle a little systray icon and a couple of itsy bitsy processes but I like to keep my 98 clean of stuff like that. But, yeah, tell the customers to just either use Standby, hibernate, or even better just turn off the monitor when they go away for a while. ScreenSavers are just for entertainment these days. They don't serve a usefull purpose. And I never noticed that bug. Guess I don't use the Microsoft screensavers too much. Always install the 891711 unofficial patch and the KRNL386 update. Why? Cause Dr. MDGx says so! Always listen to the Doctor.

Nope! No problem for you. I ran 98SE for a while on my Sata 250GB drive with one big partition. The key is using the Sata bios and installing the Sata driver, in my case the Via SataRaid driver. There are some motherboards that give you a choice in the Bios to run the Sata drives in IDE mode and not using the Sata Raid bios. This is great on XP/2000 as you get to use the newfangled Via IDE driver that is a bit zippier and lets you use Sata hard drives like USB, unplugging them when you want to switch. But that driver doesn't install the new stuff on 9x, only using the Microsoft ESDI driver. So when using 9x that IDE feature (AMI doesn't have it, Award does) for Sata is bad, even though it still works. The Award bios creates a new IDE chain and Windows treats the Sata drive like an IDE drive. I suppose one could use the new 48LBA patch and it might work though. For you, no problem. You've got the Sata/Raid thing going so you're not using the Microsoft ESDI on the drive. One problem for you. Windows Scan Disk and Defrag could wreck your setup if used on a drive bigger than 137GB. When I had this setup I used MSCONFIG advanced and checked to not run ScanDisk on bad shutdowns. I also installed Norton Utilities 2002, as its Disk Doctor and Speed Disk ARE compatible with the bigger drives. I'm not sure what you could use as a substitute for ScanDisk if you don't have access to a 9x compatible version of Norton Utilities, but I think that as long as you don't use the full scan option you'd still be okay with Windows ScanDisk. It's the full scan that mucks up big drives. Executive Software's Diskeeper is a good alternative for a substitute for Windows Defrag. And certainly get the Windows Me versions of ScanDisk and Disk Defragmenter on there. They're faster than the 98SE one's. If you install Norton Utilites or a 9x compatible SystemWorks, I'd advise using a custom install and unchecking the Undo Wizard stuff. That's the thing that installs the Norton Protected Recycle Bin. Although that can be emptied and disabled, it still can cause problems. And don't run anything like the System Doctor at startup. It runs in the background and keeps useless tabs on everything, slowing the system down. Disk Doctor and SpeedDisk are great though. That's all I used from the thing.

No expert here on troubleshooting this as trying to use the older VXD version of Creative LiveWare gave me IOS RMM Windows Protection Errors similar to what you are getting. Never could fix it, so don't use the old LiveWare. The Service Pack wasn't what instigated the error in my case, but installing software such as MSN Messenger, Works, etc would bring about the error. From your specs I did have a suggestion, which is why I'm posting. You have a Zip drive there. That's been known to cause problems at times in combination with other things. What I would try in your case would be removing the power and IDE cable from it and go through your whole formatting and setup of stuff. Then, if things go smoothly there, install the latest Iomega software and hook up your Zip drive. It's a shot, but it may just be something in all the updating of files done by the Service Pack that the Zip Drive files are interferring with. Once all is updated though, the latest available Iomega software should be able to install what it needs to make the drive function smoothly. Try not to install older software from them or use the built in Windows Zip Drive software either. The newest version cleaned up a lot of old problems. Oh, and disconnecting from the internet and setting your firewall and virus scanners not to run at startup really help in surviving all the file version updates as well. Try that along with not installing the Zip Drive until later in the process.

When I get into tinkering with the GUI I install my Object Desktop to 98SE and it works okay. But as others have mentioned it takes a toll on those limited resources. Usually I just needed to go back into the WindowBlinds control panel and reapply the skin when it started losing parts (the classic mode it's on top of appears like it's winning), but sometimes a reboot is needed to recover full resources. Besides the Stardock way there are many choices of normal themes that can really enhance things without straining resources that much. You can get pretty close to an XP Luna look with or without WindowBlinds, but of course the combination of WindowBlinds, Object Bar, and Icon Packager really give you the whole thing. The last old version or the enhanced newer version of Object Desktop stuff is really pretty bugless. It was all the beta versions that happened before the released versions came out that sometimes messed up Windows. I would usually turn off checking for beta versions and wait for releases to remain reletively bug free. But even without that, if someone wants Windows to look prettier without using up a lot of resources there are plenty of harmless themes to download.

Nero 6 Ultra Edition is able to install all its stuff and I've been using Nero Burning Rom fine. If you have a lot of memory then you can use the latest version, otherwise use an older version. If you don't have a serial for 6, but only 7, then you can use an older version of 7 too. But only custom install choosing just the Nero Burning Rom portion. And if it quits fast then you can go to your %TEMP% folder and right click setupx.exe and choose in properties compatibility mode to run as administrator. That'll get you through most of the install before it fails near the end. But it's okay because it only doesn't make the shortcuts. The program is installed into the Nero folder and you can make your own shortcut to run it. In 7, only the Nero Burning Rom part has been proven to work, whereas with 6 more of the different parts are working, such as Showtime, but not all. SmartStart doesn't start the program properly in either version so run Nero Burning Rom directly from a shortcut. NeroExpress seems to be a lost cause in either version so you really need an Ultra License as you need to use the full Nero Burning Rom program, not Express.

Gosh, reading stuff that has Link21 stuff in it is fun! Seems like someone on a mission! (Obsession?) Okay, I've got my own obsessions so I won't critisize. Plus it's real fun to read. I can also see the annoyance factor for folks who are interested in discussing something that could be useful to all and getting interrupted by this or that OS s--king or what have you. Hey, I'm a Libra so I've got love for all. I thought I'd chime in regarding compatibility questions such as running older Windows or MS-DOS stuff. There's really no fear. Okay, I suppose with Vista we'll need to say goodbye to running games through vdmsound and such. Unless of course someone already owns a copy of XP and can install it though either VMWare or the free VirtualPC. But that's also not a big deal since there is Dosbox, which with the speedy processors we have now and in the future will be able to run just about any old Dos game, even the one's we currently need vdmsound for. That thing's getting better and better. Hardware manufacturers will figure out Vista's ways and slowly but surely, in most cases, release updates to make their stuff run on it. Gamers will get drivers and patch's that'll make most of their games run fine. Software makers will be designing stuff for Vista and workarounds will be constantly discovered for making older versions of things run. This happens with every new OS release. Vista's performance gets better and bugs are fixed with every new build. At this point it's no flop. The thing runs pretty well for me and seems nearly done. Of course there are still things not fully functional. WMP 11 gets a new fix with each beta build. DVD playback on it seems to turn up a different problem when they fix an old one. Like, first DRM errors prevented copy protected movies from playing buy non copy protected ones did. Now they all play but there is no audio. And it's not the soundcard since PowerDVD plays them all fine. IE 7+ needs to be designed so that having a different browser as default doesn't break its own Favorites section. But it really works okay when it's the only browser. So they have a bug. That's why it's still beta. Etc, etc. It's not production ready yet, but it's getting there. And we'll be using it along with many using older operating systems once it works fine and they'll be the religious zealots devoted to their favorites just like always.

Vista will probably turn on Aero, but you can go back to Vista Standard instead if it slows things down with your memory. Vista comes with the video drivers but you're probably better off running the NVidia Vista drivers like I do with my ATI stuff. Just run the installer and it should update them properly. I wouldn't mess with DriverCleaner or registry cleaners at this point until developers of those kinds of things test them with Vista. I've read that Vista usually won't install the audio during setup, but Windows Update has SoundMAX drivers for it. I've also read that they don't sound too good and that the XP driver is better. But just extract them and do a Device Manager inf install rather than running the SoundMAX installer. I don't think that software works properly with the Vista PlayControl, but the drivers themselves should be able to be controlled fine through the PlayControl. Say goodbye to the software midi except for Microsoft Roland. Be careful if you have an HP Scanner. Just disable it rather than installing the HP XP software/drivers. You're system won't boot with that stuff installed. If your printer doesn't have an exact driver, you can use one that is similar by updating from Device Manager. First see if the auto install works, and try Windows Update. If not, select Choose another driver, choose printers and select a similar model listed under your printer's manufacturer. That worked for me. I used the Office Beta on 5456, but went back to WorksSuite 2005 with the Works and office updates for 5472. I like knowing where stuff is and how to use it! PictureIt can't seem to open its Library. Hmmm. Make sure if you install stuff with old Shockwave installers that you uninstall Shockwave in Control Panel and download the newer Shockwave and Flash versions. WMP 11 has a cool new library. I hope you have a software DVD player because WMP continues to have problems with DVD playback. On 5456 it couldn't play copy protected DVD's, and on 5472 it plays them but without sound. PowerDVD 6 and 7 work fine, as does Nero 6 Ultra with Showtime. Yeah, your pc is good enough especially if you turn Aero off. The new standard theme is just like Aero except for the see through Glass stuff so it'll still look pretty without slowing you down. It's worth it. It's fun experimenting. Just don't depend on it yet. Keep your XP partition working! Oh! Firefox set as default breaks Internet Explorer favorites folder from expanding in the Favorites Center. You gotta activate the old fashioned toolbar and use the dropdown to use them. This time I haven't even installed Firefox yet. We'll see if they fix that. Once the bookmarks are set to open in Firefox that's all they open in unless you access them from that dropdown.

Installed it to an added hard drive so I hopefully wouldn't have the SystemRestore of XP deleting the restore points of Vista problem. I didn't give it a drive letter when creating a partition in XP's Disk Management and let Vista format it during install. Maybe if XP can't see it then its Restore Point check won't delete the Vista points. Also am using the Vista bootloader for the first time, letting it run things. No Partition Magic stuff this time. I think they say it's not fully compatible for good reason. Last time I tried to reinstall XP for the newer RyanVM update pack and somehow got all my partitions deleted. I know I didn't tell it to do that! Anyway, just XP on one drive and Vista on the other all using the Vista Bootloader now. I had a problem in 5456 that having Firefox as default browser disabled the ability for the Internet Explorer Favorites Center to expand any favorites folders. I could open it in Windows Explorer, but then they would open in Firefox. Only activating the old fashioned IE toolbar and using the dropdown would enable my favorites folders to function in IE. This time I didn't even install Firefox yet and of course the IE favorites are working fine. I'm not sure if I'll bother installing Firefox if it's not gonna be my default. I want to play around with the new IE for a while first, then I'll see. Windows Media Player 11 used to (in the 5456) not play copy protected DVD's. Now it does, but with no audio! Good thing PowerDVD 7 Deluxe works. It deactivates Aero and must be run as administrator, but it works. Had all sorts of problems getting my upgrade version to install and activate properly. I actually needed to download the cd version that comes with a keygen (that I didn't use) to get the thing installed properly and activated (with my purchased key). My installing 6 first, then 7 (the only way to get the ones Cyberlink provides to upgrade) worked on 5456, but I needed to cheat (partially) to get the stuff I bought to work! He, he, I get the SRS surround stuff with the cd version. But since I use Creative's CMSS I turn that off anyway so I'm still not using anything I didn't pay for. Good boy! WMP 11 visualizations on 5456 hadn't worked on the mp3's on my hard drive, only on cd's. Now, with 5472, they work on everything. However, G-Force still doesn't install properly or run (so I uninstalled it). I've yet to install QuickTime and RealPlayer or Nero 6. I'll see if that stuff messes anything up in WMP 11. Don't know whether they had anything to do with my previous WMP 11 problems but I'll find out soon. In 5456 sometimes copying from cdr's to the hard drive didn't happen until I accessed it different ways. Now they copy fine. However the progress window doesn't always acurately give me a time remaining. Lots of times it starts with stuff like 24 hours remaining! But it copies normally in a minute or so for lots of files. Just doesn't predict the time well. Funny that 5456 did. Seems zippier than 5456 and also installed a lot faster. Funny that my Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro works with the Windows PlayControl better if I install all the Creative cd junk first than if I just install the latest XP driver. Only the DVD Audio Player doesn't install. Soundfonts haven't worked yet, just the Microsoft Roland midi. And the EAX Console doesn't open but all the stuff works and is controlled fine by AudioConsole. Just don't click on the Restore Defaults tab! And use Windows PlayControl for the volume, not the Creative Volume Control or it'll crash. I update all the software then install the latest XP driver all with driver signing and UAP off, then turn both back on as the XP drivers are signed, as are all the other drivers I use. Only my HP scanner and the Creative Gameport need to be disabled for now. I use the Vista 2100/2300U drivers for my Apollo 2500U and the printer works fine. What I mean by working better with Windows PlayControl is that the "Allow programs to have exclusive control" remains checked with the whole package installed. That's broken without all the cd stuff installed for some reason. But it's nice that all the Advanced EAX EQ stuff works either way. Sounds better than WMP's EQ. So they've still got some stuff to fix up but each version is an improvement. Only had one explorer freeze so far. Probably a video driver related problem. I'm using the ATI Catalyst Vista Beta drivers. No blue screens or instablility yet.

The fella looking for Me's System Restore ported to 98SE should be aware that Me's version often broke down, trashing the system it was meant to protect, when a restore failed. The technology was a shared one with GoBack. Microsoft System Restore IS GoBack, just dumbed down. Like the ScanDisc and Defragmenter are Norton Disk Doctor and Speed Disk, just dumbed down. Installed the latest available GoBack (now from Symantec) gives you a full version that actually works. Too bad their version can't be dumbed down! The problem is the way it records ANY file change all the time. Chugga, chugga, there it goes shortening the life of your hard drive and slowing your system when large file changes are going on. Microsoft's System Restore didn't do that until now with Windows Vista. Although it doesn't provide going back to any time, it does offer GoBack's feature of right click file version changes. So it now does the same chugga, chugga crap, thrashing the hard drive constantly. I turned it off because it wouldn't even restore to any saved points because of the way my drive is partitioned. It needs to use its own partitioning methods, not my way of using PQBOOT to hide the inactive partitions. So I've got scanreg /restore for 98SE, System Restore for XP, but nothing for my Vista partition. Progress, eh?

That would work with a single system partition, but I have 3. When one is active the other 2 get hidden by PQBOOT. The operating system on the active partition only sees an unknown OS boot loader on the other partitions. It doesn't see any file systems there. Using System Restore on one partition doesn't have any effect on the other 2, and it can't even monitor the other 2. There's only a C Drive as far as it knows. So I've got scanreg keeping backups in 98SE, System Restore in XP, but nothing for Vista except Last Known Good Configuration as its System Restore can't restore in this type of configuration.

I like it so far, and I don't just mean the fancy Stardock type stuff either. I don't dislike that though. I haven't bothered much with my Object Desktop in a while but I kind of enjoyed different looks once in a while. I installed the 5456.5 version. Just a Customer Preview guy, but saw posts about improvements and did what I needed to do to get the update. Luckily, it included the driver for my Marvell chip. I had downloaded the driver from Marvell's site just in case but didn't need to use it. Geez! My download speeds are triple what I ever got with the same ethernet chip on XP or 98SE. They changed something for the better there. And since ZoneAlarm hasn't been updated for Vista yet I'm using the Windows Firewall. I don't know whether it's because of not having ZoneAlarm or just the better networking, but my web browers are opening pages much zippier. I've been browsing several days now, so it's not a fluke. For me, networking is better. I noticed that Vista Ultimate includes an old GoBack feature of tracking file changes and offering them in a right click menu. This was always a nice idea that implements poorly. It causes the same kind of Chugga, Chugga hard drive thrashing that I remember from my GoBack days. It caused an early death of one of my hard drives and I mostly stopped installing GoBack after that. I think this feature will only be in Vista Ultimate editions, luckily for me, probably a Home Premium customer. On my multi-boot of 98SE, XP, and Vista, I suffered from Vista's System Restore not being able to successfully restore to any points I saved. I've read that this occurs on any system with XP's System Restore active on the same hard drive. XP will, at boot up, delete any restore points on the hard drive that it considers "invalid." Since Vista's points are stamped differently, all are "invalid" so XP deletes them. Every bootup! On mine, it's likely something else as I have the inactive primary partitions hidden by PQBOOT. But, I disabled System Restore in Vista as it's useless if it won't restore anything. My Apollo printer needed me to manually select a similar model's driver as the XP one's for my model don't work. But the other model's driver runs it fine. Forget about the scanner. HPScanjet 3970. I disable it. The driver installs fine from HP's disk then blue screens Vista on every bootup. Goodbye to the scanner in Vista unless HP does some work on it. Luckily for me, I managed to get my Audigy 2 ZS to work awesomely. Sounds great! Soundfont's don't work though. Only Microsoft Roland Midi. Gotta disable the gameport device too. But EAX and all the other stuff works. Used the cd, updated the software, ran the latest XP driver update twice, letting AudioConsole install over itself the second time, and it all works. (UAP disabled until all my drivers were installed, then I reenabled it, but left driver signing turned off.) I think my mp3's actually sound better than XP. Maybe just my imagination though. Windows Media Player 11 has an unknown DRM issue with any Hollywood movie copy protected DVD. But it plays PORN fine! Yay! Heh. PowerDVD 6 Deluxe turns off Aero but plays all DVD's fine. WMP 11's Visualizations only play with cd's. Mp3's from the hard drive don't activate the visualizations for some reason. If I toggle PlayControl's Audio Quality to a different setting they'll play for one song then turn off again. That's weird. I just leave it at 16bit/48,000 as I think that's native to the Audigy 2 ZS. Hope they fix that. I like the vis's. Internet Explorer 7 wouldn't expand any of my Favorites folders. So I installed Firefox and Thunderbird and they work fine. Plugin's like Flash, Shockwave, Acrobat Reader 7.08, SunJava 6 Beta, Quicktime and RealPlayer work fine within the browsers. However Quicktime 7 has a problem showing the video of files in its player. Works fine within the browser. I use Avast for Anti-Virus, the ATI beta Catalyst's for the videocard, and leave Windows Defender and Firewall all activated. Bootup takes a wait, but since disabling System Restore things move along pretty well, though slower than XP. Hey! My Thrustmaster XP driver runs the 2-in-1 Rumble gamepad perfectly! Surprise there. I play mostly older games so I think I'm in for some disapointment's but Activision's Space Invaders runs more smoothly than it did on XP. That's all I've tried for now. I installed it just to see if the gamepad would actually work in a game rather than just in the Control Panel. My Carmen Sandiego stuff wouldn't install. Shucks. Must use a partial 16 bit process for the installer as the NTVDM errored out during the install. I wanted to test the Quicktime stuff within that game. Pretty good so far!

I also found out the hard way on my initial Vista install that PM8 mucked things up. But I still found a way to use it effectively that won't give Vista command of my other partitions. I used the PM8 boot floppy to set up 3 primary partitions for 98SE, XP, and Vista. FAT32 was for 98SE, NTFS for the other 2. The nice thing about PM is it will hide non-active primary partitions by default. XP and Vista Disk Management program will see these as non-active unknown boot loader partitions. But it means that no OS will muck up things on another partition. It keeps it all seperate. I install PM8 to both the 98SE and XP partitions, but do not install BootMagic as it won't boot to the Vista partition. I use PQBoot for Windows to boot to either the 98SE, XP, or Vista partitions. On the Vista partition I copied the contents of the Windows folder of the PQBoot folder on the PM8 cd to a PQBOOT folder on my Vista drive. I then created a shortcut to it for the StartMenu for easy access. When running PQBoot, I run it as an administrator. Vista pops up a message saying it's not compatible, but it's okay as long as I don't install PM8 itself. It opens a command prompt with the same choices as PQBoot for Windows. I just need to type in 1, 2, or 3 instead of mouse clicking. Nice. It changes the active partition, makes the the other primary's hidden, and reboots the computer into the partition I selected. I lose the ability for SystemRestore in Vista to successfully restore the system. But if you did things the other way, XP would simply delete any Vista Restore Points every time it booted up anyway. So, from what I can see so far, Vista's System Restore just doesn't work on a system with XP's System Restore active. I also noticed that when on, System Restore in Vista now also saves changed file versions and includes this in right click menus of files. This was a nice idea that Roxio's GoBack had. It gave an early death to one of my hard drives due to its endless thrashing whenever files were changed or moved. Chugga, chugga, chugga slowing the system down too. I stopped using GoBack because of that stuff. Try to edit Video with that thing on! But I've read this will only be a "feature" on Vista Ultimate editions. I've turned off System Restore on Vista for now, since on my multi-boot with XP included it wouldn't restore anything anyway. Goodbye Chugga Chugga. I hope they solve this XP SystemRestore deleting Vista restore points issue. It's a great feature, and quite unobtrusive without that file versions feature.

98SE2ME isn't a problem as long as Options 1 or 2 are used. This avoids installing the Revo pack. Before McAfee had the slow to crawl engine problems I used it with Gape's and MDGx's packs and didn't encounter problems.

It seems that the Shockwave Installer Full for 10.1.3.018 has neither the Yahoo Toolbar or the Google Toolbar. I managed to swim my way through the muck that is the Adobe/Macromedia mess of a website and found the full installer. It does not prompt for or install either toolbar! Of course, the normal link is to the Slimpack Shockwave installer which does have the new Google stuff. They seem to enjoy hiding things, and always have. I remember searching for problems with Shockwave Director enabled programs all over the Macromedia site and the only link to a full explanation of the bugs being encountered was from someone's forum post on an unrelated website! It linked to a document on the Macromedia site that was seemingly not findable while searching the site itself. Why make web pages with no links to them?

Not terribly optimistic anyone can legally release copies of the operating system's even without cd key's. Notice how MDGx does things with 98SE2ME? That could be kind of a model of what can be done without invoking the lawyer's. And for downloadable things, the batch file for downloading WMP 10 files and integrating them with 9x system's might also be looked at. Other project's such as the Post XPSP2 updater's also exist. Just some idea's there. It would be a better idea to examine those kinds of things rather than doing a lot of work on something you wouldn't be allowed to release.

Wow. You're currently working on a lot of computers and all those people still are using 98SE? I understand why you'd want a slipstreamed cd in that case. I'm just astonished you still have a lot of folks on 9x there. At this point I thought those kinds of situations were dwindling. I think you can do it, but it will take a lot of research and trial and error. If you decide it's worth your time I hope you post your results so others can benefit. You'll find the mdgx.com site to be of great benefit as most available tools are described and linked to there, as well as lots of add-on's and stuff. If you really get started, I'm sure folks here will have interest in advising if you want to post your progress and stumbles and such. There's a lot of expertise here. It's just a hobby for me, but there're plenty of professionals who post in these forums. You'll get help if you're serious.

eidenk, OMG, that was a cool video. It reminded me of Object Desktop combined with AfterDark screensavers on steroids! It would be fun to watch BadDog unleashed on that thing. I've been using the hacked AfterDark 3.2 and 4.1 for XP and BadDog managed to bring up the Windows 3.1 Program Manager in his travel's. That was fun. Never tried any Linux stuff. That one looked amazing though. Errr, I guess this thread has been solved. Guess we can move along now. Nothing more to see here. Thanks, though.

I think the only well tested pack for slipstreaming was the Unofficial 98SE Service Pack. Gape has the instructions for that on his web page. It just gives you the Windows Updates for slipstreaming. You'd still need to install the pack again if you want the other fixes and additions unless you manually install them from MDGx's site. I didn't see the need for this as, unlike XP's Service Pack's, there's really no problems when applying the updates after Windows is installed. XP works better if installed with the Service Pack 2 slipstreamed. Probably because it does too good a job protecting older files the Service Pack wants to replace. 98 doesn't have that problem (feature).

That's what I thought. I noticed your folder tree just had Windows on it. Maybe that happened due to some combination of other updates you may have there. The other folks testing it haven't reported that problem. Actually I'm glad I waited. Getting a late model drive, applying the latest firmware, using the latest Nero probably avoided earlier problems and needing to experiment with a lot of different software. Kind of like my policy with most of this stuff. I wait until technology is being replaced then buy the last available versions (like Socket A). Whatever can be fixed has been done already and I just get to use stuff that works. Works in theory anyway. Just ordered Vista on DVD to play with. Kind of looks like XP with WindowBlinds, and if I turn off the driver signing check in the registry apparently (according to some posts in the Creative boards) I'll be able to get most of my hardware to work the same way. Won't be my main system, but it'll be interesting to check out. Vista is reported to work better with on board audio. Hmmm, I always kind of liked the SoundMAX on my A7V880. Maybe I'll see if I can get the extra Sensaura stuff I bought to work with it too. Frankly, as I use headphones mostly when I play anything loud, all the fancy Creative stuff is nice but the SoundMAX sounded fine too. I already know Realtek suffers in comparison to SoundMAX so I never even tried it on these newer Realtek audio boards, just installing my Audigy 2 ZS's. The A7V880 and Windows Vista sounds like a good way to experiment for me. And I've got the ATI x850Pro hooked to that board (better than this 6600GT I guess) so the extra video memory will help with Vista Aero. Funny how my main board became my secondary board.

I've downloaded all the latest stuff from the first page of the 9x updates thread, so I'm all set for when I put VMWare back on and install 98SE. I didn't quite understand what was wrong with that picture of Explorer showing the Windows folder (you mean nothing else but that folder was showing?) Maybe its because I keep things at 1024+768 and it looked a bit blurry so I didn't notice what was wrong. I'll see what happens with mine when I install it. Whoo hoo! I just burned my first DVD Video with my new Liteon burner. After years of making VCD's I've finally entered the 21st century. Sheesh, I shrunk it from DVD9 to DVD5 with Nero Recode and it still looks just like the original on my TV. Granted, I have a 20 inch TV but it sure beats what I got with VCD. And no more hours and hours waiting for Tmpgenc. I know, nothing to do with the thread but I got a little excited here.

That company now is sticking to books rather than their older cdrom series. They offer old patches for getting stuff like Star Trek Borg to install on 98 correctly, etc. The problem is slightly related to Shockwave Director problems using later versions of QuickTime, but not fully since my other old programs that use Shockwave Director to run QuickTime files run fine with the latest Quicktime, Flash, and Shockwave. Not even the version that used to work before XP SP2, QuickTime 6.5.2, will play the program now. It just errors with an error in Shockwave Director and closes. All compatiblility modes tried. So I just use the latest QuickTime and don't even try Captain's Chair on XP anymore. I just install 98SE somewhere and run it there. As long as I have both QuickTime 2.1.2.59 and whatever the latest version is installed, all my QuickTime stuff works, old games and new website stuff. Except that Captain's Chair thing. Weird. See, I have an old SiS5598 HP Pavilion 4430, 4440 board that needs setup /p j to get ACPI to install even with 98. HP's original restore disks set this by default for good reason. With Standard PC, once you install a videocard to replace the built in crap the USB ports will no longer work. They'll show up all nice, but won't detect anything. However, with ACPI the USB ports continue to work after installing a PCI videocard. XP, on the other hand, will not allow ACPI install's even after selecting it during setup. Only Standard PC is allowed. So even though the board more than meets the minimum requirements for XP, it is slow and basically useless as USB is cut off once installing a videocard besides the integrated crap. And, you can't go past DirectX 8.0a if you want the built in video to use software Direct 3D acceleration (even with the software rasterizer installed when updating XP to 9.0c). So 3D games won't even play in XP if using the built in video. See what I mean? Built in video = no Direct3D. Seperate PCI videocard = no USB. Either way = slow 2D on XP. However, with 9x I can either use the built in video and still have Direct 3D (with 8.0a) or install 9.0c and use a PCI videocard and maintain USB using ACPI. I understand there are many other boards from the Socket 7 period that do not suffer this problem. I've also seen them on ebay. But I already have 3 of this model motherboard and see no reason to invest any money or time. Dosbox and 9x on VMWare deliver all I need to use any of my older stuff on my newest system. I just play with the older boards at times for fun! XP is just pointless on that model board.

Aww, c'mon guys. These are all voluntary contributions here. Don't push. Gape's already stated he's on top of things. I'm sure when he sees the final state of Microsoft's updates and has enough time, he'll get working on a new pack. For now, just using the pack along with the other resources linked to in these forums you can get a fully patched and secure 9x system all set up. Good things come to those who wait (and don't pester).

Good to know! (He says from his XP only machine.) I'll get VMWare installed shortly. Moved to a Gigabyte NVidia Ge-Force 6600GT so I reorganized things. New board too. An Epox 8KRAIPRO. It lets me take advantage of the newer Via Hyperion's IDE driver for my SATA drive. The Asus A7V880 only let me run SATA in RAID mode. I can't say I'll ever "safe remove" my main SATA drive as if it were a USB drive though! I don't see the point of that, but I suppose if I used another drive to back up stuff then that might be handy. This is supposed to be my #2 box but it actually seems to be handling AGP 8X with the 400 FSB speed. Something the A7V880 doesn't really do. It's interesting that the latest Epox bios doesn't even allow dumbing it down to AGP 4X. That's not user movable, though if I get another of these and install it on the box with the ATI Radeon X850 Pro I can use Smartgart to do it. I haven't found anyway to do that in the NVidia driver (using the latest beta driver with the new control panel and Gigabyte's V-Tuner). That's only if the ATI has trouble with 8X AGP. I think this Epox board is more stable at the max 400 bus speed so I may not have to. I suppose I've permanantly moved over to XP, but I still need 98 available for obscure stuff like the Star Trek Captain's Chair. XP used to run that but SP2 broke it. As long as it's there I'd like to keep it as functional and secure as possible, so this new Microsoft update is a good thing. Now that it's a back up OS to play with, I think I'll mess around with some really old stuff I've always been afraid of installing on a main box. (No fear formatting a virtual OS.) And, when I break out my old computers I'll of course use 98 on those. XP kills really old boxes. They function with it, but at a snail's pace.