Dave-H

Hear. hear! Windows 98SE will be 10 years old next year, here's to it going strong for another 10! I had my first PC in 1993, and like many others here I'm sure, went from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95, then 98 and 98SE. Although I now use Windows 2000 (also a great OS which is fast becoming unloved and abandoned by the powers that be) most of the time on my present dual boot machine, I have vowed never to abandon Windows 98.

Hi win2000, I'm afraid I've found a problem in your latest user32.dll. When I install it, the address bar in all my windows explorer pages is double height! It goes back to normal if I put the original user32.dll back. I've found Movie Maker 2.0, extracted the msi file from the installer, and run it with FCWIN2K. Strangely, it doesn't install the moviemk.exe file, which I had to extract separately from the installer and put in the Movie Maker folder! It now works, but has all the same problems as 2.6, blank icons and the "import video" and "import audio or music" buttons don't work. I think I'd like to go back to 1.2, limited though it is, but I can't find anywhere to download that. Do you know where it can be found? Thanks again. Dave.

Thanks again win2000. Unfortunately, I don't read Japanese, so your blog can't tell me anything! Is the icon problem unsolvable? I'm happy to go to version 2.0, as it's not a lot different to 2.6, but I don't know where to find it. All my research indicates that it's only available as part of the Windows XP SP2 update, not as a standalone application. I really don't want to go back to 1.2.1, as it's so limited. Any idea where I can download the English version of Movie Maker 2.0, so I can try it out? Thanks as always, Dave.

yea, Dave-H, the latest version of Opera is 9.62. And it may require the MSIMG32.DLL file from WinME for Opera 9.62 to work correctly under Win98. Yes it is indeed 9.62, which is what I'm using! My mistake. I use MSIMG32.DLL version 5.0.2218.1 on Windows 98 and Opera runs fine, although startup and shutdown are slow.

Glad you got it fixed!

I'm a longtime Opera user (I use the latest 9.60 under Windows 98 with no problems, apart for a very long shutdown time) and I've never seen this problem with any version. Although I've no idea why it might be happening, one obvious thing to check is that the memory caching isn't causing the lockups for some reason. Go into the Opera Advanced Preferences "History" section. Memory caching will probably be set to "Automatic". Try switching it off. If that cures the problem, try increasing the memory cache setting gradually to see if the problem reappears. Good luck!

Sounds sweet. Any links to information yet? Yes it's now the subject of one of the "sticky" topics. http://www.msfn.org/board/KDW-FCWIN2K-t120936.html Plenty of information on KDW and how to use it. It's great, and win2000 has done a fantastic job with it, but like all such things, you do need to be aware of its limitations.

Thanks for that Ascii2. It is odd that some computers work with this and others don't. I wonder what the common factor is in those that don't work. I can lay my hands on a Windows XP (SP2) installation disk, so I might give your suggestion a try. What do you mean by "completed through Textmode"?

Hi again Win2000! More testing! I notice that you offer support for Windows Movie Maker 2.6 with KDW. I've been occasionally using version 1.2, which works under Windows 2000 anyway, but is very limited. I've now installed 2.6 using FCWIN2K to hack the msi installer, and it seems to install and sort of work, but a lot of the icons on the GUI indicating undo/redo etc. are blank, as are the thumbnails for the video transitions and the video effects. Can that be fixed? Also selecting the "Import video" and "Import audio or music" options don't do anything. Can that be fixed? Cheers, Dave. EDIT: Also I'm getting a crash in GDI+ when I exit the program............

Good job win2000! Just installed 0.72 and the installer problem is indeed fixed.

Thanks everyone! Sounds like I'll be OK going for 64bit processors as long as my motherboard supports them. I'm pretty sure that it does, but I'll have to check on that!

This may sound like a silly thing to want to do, but bear with me! I have a Supermicro dual Zeon server motherboard, which I bought five years ago. It has 2.4 GHz processors at present, and 1GB of RAM. As it has always been my policy (since my first PC in 1993!) to do a hardware update review every five years, it's now time for me to look at update options. I run dual boot Windows 98SE with all the official and many of the unofficial patches, and Windows 2000 SP4. I want to keep that configuration. The mobo was never certified for Windows 98 by the manufacturers, but it has always worked fine with all the necessary Intel chipset drivers. I've now decided not to actually replace the motherboard, but just to upgrade it as far as I can. It will take faster processors and obviously more RAM. I want to fit the fastest processors that the mobo will handle with its latest BIOS, and upgrade the RAM to at least 2GB. My basic question is, can I fit 64 bit processors and still run Windows 98SE OK? My research on this has proved inconclusive, so I'm asking the experts on here! I well realise that I will gain no advantage at present by using 64 bit processors, but I'm thinking of a bit of future-proofing. It would allow me to upgrade to a 64 bit OS in the future without having to upgrade the hardware again. I assume that Windows 2000 will be happy, but will Windows 98SE still run? I realise that I will probably have to further tweak Windows 98 to use 2GB of RAM too, but I know that is possible. Thanks for any advice. Cheers, Dave.

Hi win2000, I've installed KDW 0.70a but nothing seems to have changed. I wasn't expecting that the issue with AVS Video Tools would change, but the Installshield problem hasn't changed either. If you want to try it, the Opera installer is here - http://www.opera.com/download/ The US English version gives the "1158:" error message. IIRC the international version just doesn't work at all. It all comes good if the original user32.dll is replaced. I can't test the problem with the MS Update patches as I just get a message that they're already installed if I try them now! I'll have to wait until there's some new ones to check that problem out. Cheers, Dave.

Just thought I'd record a few issues I've had with KDW, just so if anyone else runs into them they'll know what's happening. Firstly, as I've been discussing with win2000, there are some things which will stop working if some of the KDW system files are actually installed in the system32 folder, rather than using the "Ezinstall" mode. AVS Video Tools is one of them, and there doesn't seem to be any workaround for this. It won't work if the original kernel32.dll is replaced. Another one I've discovered is that some Microsoft Update patches won't install if shell32.dll is replaced. This seems to apply mainly to Microsoft Office updates. I've had several fail even when using the standalone installer, and restoring the original shell32.dll fixes this. Also some Installshield installers won't work if the KDW user32.dll is installed. The symptom is that after unpacking all you get is a window with "1158:" in it, nothing else. Pressing OK aborts the install. Opera and Google Earth installers are two I've found to have that problem. Restoring the original user32.dll fixes it. ***EDIT: This last problem is now fixed in the latest KDW versions*** Don't misunderstand me, I think that KDW is a great piece of work, and win2000 is to be highly congratulated for what he's achieved here, but any system which involves replacing system files, even using wrappers, is almost bound to cause some unwanted side effects. All of these can be worked around of course, I'm just bringing them to people's attention. Dave.

Oh dear, that sounds like bad news! From what you say this probably can't be worked around. I take it that AVS has to have the original kernel32.dll in the system32 folder for it to work. I assume that this is some sort or anti-piracy measure, and presumably there are other programs that will have the same problem. If you find a fix or workaround, let me know!

I posted a guide on page 4 of this thread which I thought would be helpful. Have a look and see if it does help explain how to use KDLLINST. Especially "EZ KD Registry" must be checked or you will risk BSODs on start-up. Note that the "Japanese character" in the paths mentioned seems to have been fixed in the latest version.

I'm a bit puzzled why your System Properties says "Microsoft Windows NT" and not "Windows 2000" as mine does. All the other details are the same, with the addition of the "Windows NT-Update: 14.10.2008" bit. I'm not sure what "Windows NT 5.0 EUR Edition" actually is. All I know is that KDW was specifically targeted at Windows 2000 SP4, and if your OS is flagged as something different that may well be why things are not working as they should. Sorry not to be of more help here.

I don't know about MSN Messenger, but for WMP10 I think you must use win2000's special installer. The normal one won't work. You can get it here - http://blog.livedoor.jp/blackwingcat/archives/37690.html Worked for me!

Hi win2000. Can I get any answer as to whether there's any hope of my AVS Video Tools working with your kernel32.dll installed? I'd like to know as it affects how I want to configure my machine from now on. Thanks for all you do.

There is an option to set the number of days for transfers to be kept in the list, copy and paste this into the address bar: opera:config#TransferWindow|KeepEntriesDays The default is 7 days, but I've never been convinced that it makes any difference! Did you try that skin?

If you want the look of Opera 9.2x back in 9.5/6 the shin here should do the trick - http://my.opera.com/community/customize/skins/info/?id=8248 It's not the real 9.2 native skin, but one made by someone to replicate it. Gets rid of those black icons by all accounts though! I love Opera because it's the most user customisable browser out there, you can get it to look exactly the way you want it to if you know how. The thing with items disappearing from the transfers window is very long standing. They do disappear by design incidentally if the item concerned is deleted or moved from the folder it was downloaded to.

Have you tried just using different skins?

I seem to remember that it looked like that when I installed it too. (I've uninstalled it again now and gone back to WMP9 as WMP10 didn't give me any advantage that I could use.) I just assumed that was the default skin for WMP10. Have you tried the different skins available to see if the look you expected is in fact available?

Thanks yet again win2000! I decided to go for the latest version of Real Player 11 rather than the one you suggested, as it seems to be a beta. Once I realised I had to use fcwin2k (in a mode I'd not used before!) it all worked fine. You are indeed a genius! :thumbup Now please yet again is there any hope of getting AVS Video Tools to work with your kernel32.dll installed...........? If that were possible my happiness would be complete!

Have you got the "EZ KD Registry" option checked in the KDW file installer window? I found my system had a stop error like that if the system file registry entries weren't correct. If it's not checked, check it and try the file replacement again.