eidenk

Once you'll have cleaned those very visible things, get interested in the several invisible and stable rootkits your system is likely to be infected with.

You can make any standard folder a system folder by using a vb script called togglesystembit I think. As for folders like printers, control panel, My Computer, etc..., they aren't actually real folders but virtual ones, otherwise known as namespace extensions. Other folders are both real and virtual, that's the recycle bin, the temporary internet files, Cookies and IE history folders for example. Here you have namespace extensions handling the contents of real folders. If you want to create such folders you need to learn coding and write a namespace extension dll and register it in your system. That's a nice tool to put executables in the control panel : http://www.simtel.net/pub/pd/68753.html

You can convert Regedit5 files to Regedit4 files with Regeditr for example but if the settings contained in the Regedit5 file are XP specific, they won't have any effect on 98/ME once converted to regedit4 apart from adding stuff to the registry as Windows will not be able to make sense out of them.

I don't think outgoing firewalls are useless and far from it. On 2K/XP Online Armor and Comodo are blocking ALL known bypassing methods for example. Nearly half of the leak test programs don't run on 9x so it is a bit more difficult to assess the situation those platforms but the highest rated firewall (on 2k/xp tests) running on 9x is Jetico 1.1. On my machine it blocked several 0-Days trojans (meaning trojans undetected by any antivir programs) that got dropped in my system while I was browsing with IE. Unlike you I run a firewall but no antivir program but I don't think they are useless either as the good ones will detect nearly all known malware, Kaspersky being a major headache for the malware guys it would appear. But they won't detect, not even only new threats, but also old and known ones that are cleverly edited as to not match antivir programs definitions anymore, which is something nearly any idîot can do nowadays with the help of AV Devil (or similar program) to locate signatures offsets and reading a few small tuts for the final phase consisting in disassembling the signature, swap a few instructions, put it back in the exe and test if it still works. Those who don't want to do that or cannot do it can actually simply buy malware that is guaranteed undetected. Assassin 2.0 costs $100 and Turkojan 3 costs $80 for example. They are the so-called Private Editions. They also lift restrictions sometimes present in the public versions, such as the number of victims you can simultaneously connect to. It would be foolish to believe 98 systems are not at risk, especially with the broad availability of extremely sophisticated PHP attack toolkits able to determine anything about a system and automatically deliver a custom tailored malware to that system if they can spot a vulnerability. And those who believe there are no rootkits for the 9x platform are wrong as there are at least two known ones, both with source code if I am not mistaken. AFX Rootkit 2003 which is a user mode rootkit (running in ring3) and 9xRX which is a kernel mode rootkit (running in ring0).

Install windows ME straight away guys, as it seems that's what you are going to end up with at the end of all those transplants.

Where are you getting this from if I may ask ? Clam Win is not good IMO. If you want something good go for Antivir/Avira. As for substitutes for AdAware, there is Spybot S&D, Doctor Alex and SuperAntiSpyware. And don't forget to run a good firewall. I would recommend Jetico 1.1.

OK so, as no one chimed in in the meantime : In the readme, Behringer indeed says that the default XP drivers are enough. My guess is that it should work as well under 98SE/ME. If you send me one of those Behringer controllers, I'll tell you if they work on my ME system. Have a look at the Maximus Decim USB Update for Win98SE, in case it caters for USBaudio.sys as well, I don't know whether it does or not. The above inf is useless as it is the inf for the Behringer drivers which certainly don't support 9X at all. Still it is interesting that you posted it because it contains this line : HKR,,DevLoader,,"*ntkern,mmdevldr.vxd" It seems to show that the Behringer drivers and the inf have been written and generated in a tool which can output 9x and NT drivers with the same code or nearly the same code. (MSVC + VtoolsD or WinDrivers).

OK so, as no one chimed in in the meantime : In the readme, Behringer indeed says that the default XP drivers are enough. My guess is that it should work as well under 98SE/ME. If you send me one of those Behringer controllers, I'll tell you if they work on my ME system. Have a look at the Maximus Decim USB Update for Win98SE, in case it caters for USBaudio.sys as well, I don't know whether it does or not. The above inf is useless as it is the inf for the Behringer drivers which certainly don't support 9X at all. Still it is interesting that you posted it because it contains this line : HKR,,DevLoader,,"*ntkern,[b]mmdevldr.vxd[/b]" It seems to show that the Behringer drivers and the inf have been written and generated in a tool which can output 9x and NT drivers with the same code or nearly the same code. (MSVC + VtoolsD or WinDrivers).

Yeah it is nice. Ideal hardware specs for a 95 system IMO.

Folder Options -> File Types -> Advanced -> Change Icon.

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Internet/Sear...tleBigBar.shtml

Can you copy/paste here the contents this usbaudio.inf ?

Are you 100% sure they run on XP only with usbaudio.inf ? If so, what file is specified as the driver in device manager ?

I guess that having only one CD drive plugged in the system was finally key to your success.

But it will at least remove all registry keys that the program has written in it, is that true? Perhaps if it takes a snapshot of the registry before and after the install and it is able to segregate what is relevant to that installation amongst what has changed in the registry. Why don't you try it ?

AFAIK there are no Win9x drivers at all for Behringer stuff. Get an Evolution X-Session or an Evolution UC-33 (I've got them both) if you want midi controllers with drivers for 9x OSes. That's all there is on the market I am afraid. If someone knows otherwise, please let us know.

Thanks for the headup. As you have guessed I am using Windows without any of the System Restore/SFP stuff since so long that I forgot how it worked with files replaced on reboot on systems on which it is enabled. As the delete feature is rather undesirable on such a system I have spent an entire day with a virtual machine to see if there could be another solution, satisfying both systems. Due to the fact that wininit.log is processed by SFP almost immediately after wininit has finished with it I don't think there is any other solution than the one you have devised. Besides maybe making installers including digitally signed catalog files and use the same mechanisms of install as MS does : http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms537364.aspx http://ftp.intron.ac/pub/security/raw/codesigningx86.exe Maybe not worth the effort though but those signing tools are nevertheless quite interesting and appear at first sight quite easy to use. PS : I am not sure the DELLNULL command for deleting the _RESTORE\TEMP folder does anything as the folder does not get deleted here (both on my real system and in the virtual machine). In the virtual machine with system restore and SFP enabled, the original files that have been replaced before reboot are in there but SFP does not restore them. It seems to only do it if it is triggered by finding at least one protected file entry in the wininit.log.

Please post this in the LBA48 patch thread.

You'd rather read it again as there is quite a big deal about registry cleaning. Total Uninstall is one the many programs that cleanup the add-remove program section (I personnaly use Free Uninstaller). While having such a program is usefull, it won't do miracles with the size of the registry. There are two programs I can think of that can prevent writes to the registry, they are RegProt and MJRegWatcher but they are geared at protecting the registry from malware installing startup entries rather than preventing the registry from growing. To regain space eaten by applications that have been uninstalled you must run Regedit and go in the the sofware keys, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE and HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software, and delete all the entries that belong to software you know you don't have anymore. In addition run a good and safe registry cleaner such as RegSeeker which will eventually remove lots of stuff from the COM keys left over by gone programs.

Provided they were in business already in the 98 period and supporting it, why not ask em if they would eventually sell you an old version working on 98 ? Otherwise google is your best friend. There are tons of download sites of all sorts out there + the Internet Archive were you can sometimes grab old versions of software. Look for other labelling software as well maybe. Be inventive.

What do you mean by limited resources here ?

Where did you get that the 5.7 files did not work, erpdude ? FYI, the issues at hand are as follows : 1) The installer is a mess and does not install the 5.7 files properly or at all. Not a big deal as this can easily be fixed. Label : Buggy. 2) The installer deletes or attempts to delete quasi system files and folders (log file and backup folder that predate this installer and contain all the delete/replace on reboot history of the computer). This IS a big deal as what goes away cannot be recovered or only with great difficulty eventually (with specialized data recovery tools). Label : Malware. Please note that I am judging this installer on its own merits solely. I am not accusing MDGx of missdeed with regards to point 2 but as the deleting of this file and folder is an addition to the installer inf code, it is not a bug. There is a rationale behind it and I am curious to know what it is. 3) As already stated, the 5.7 files themselves seem to work correctly here so far. (Maybe even better than the 5.6 ones with some scripts as it would seem to me). In addition, as those 5.7 files are likely to include a number of security fixes (just my guess but you'll tell me if I am wrong about that) they should be considered a MUST. I can't undestand how/why such an hardcore unnoficial update maker like you are, appear to seek to force the ditching of the whole update on the basis of problems with the installer alone. But maybe you just did not read the few posts in this thread properly... We are all humans after all... Regards.

Have you tried unplugging one of your CD drives ?

Sorry if I missed something again but can't you just boot the computer with the setup CD ?

What? That's WinXP's limit for FAT32. Anyway, USB HDDs don't use the same driver. So what are the limits for IDE HDD size on Win95 ? Same as unpatched 98SE/ME ?