Dave-H

Something else I've now noticed while playing. The "More Advanced Options" options' settings don't seem to be saved either for me. They revert on restart to everything checked except "Search tape backup". Are they saved for others? If they are, presumably it's another symptom of the same problem as with the columns.

Well that's even stranger, as effectively I am logged on as "THE Administrator", and my settings aren't being saved! Perhaps it just doesn't like the fact that I've renamed the built-in Administrator account. I'm not going to worry too much about it, but it is puzzling.

Well I haven't actually "fixed" it, just confirmed why it's happening (I think!) Disabling automatic logon makes no difference, so I can only now assume it's happening because I'm logging on with the built-in Administrator account, albeit renamed, and not a normal user account. Why this should be I have no idea. Does saving the columns work for you if you log in using the Administrator account? Sounds like a bug to me, I can't think of any logical reason why it would have been designed that way.

I've now finally looked at my other XP installation on another machine, where I am just a normal user with administer rights, and the default Administrator user is still intact, and the Search columns' settings are being saved on that machine. So it's definitely a by product of the way I have the first machine configured.

Strangely Malwarebytes didn't flag it when the file was first installed. The warning only came up when MB did its weekly scan. I've added the file to the "allowed" list now.

Yes, that's exactly what I did. Why it doesn't save my Search results columns' settings in that configuration is a mystery. Surely it can't be the fact that I have auto logon enabled? It's still using the password, it's just doing it automatically.

Is it C000 or C0000? I'm assuming the latter, I guess C000 was the typo? Anyway, I'm using MaxPhysPage=C0000 now, and all seems to be fine. I'll let you know if I have any further issues, thanks very much for all your help with this as always. Cheers, Dave.

.Net Framework Enumerator.exe is being flagged by Malwarebytes. Detected as MachineLearning/Anomalous.100% Is that anything to worry about, and should I just tell Malwarebytes to ignore it?

OK, a bit more mystery! I took the MaxPhysPage entry right up to 11000, which was still fine and gave me 3070MB declared in System Properties. I then went up to 12000, which was still OK and still gave 3070MB. So, I guess that's as high as it can go! Why it is still working now at that level I have no idea, I can only suggest that the problem was actually having no MaxPhysPage entry at all in system.ini, not the level of it. Anyway, it's working now with my full previous RAM allocation apparently back, so as long as it's stable I don't see that there's anything else to do.

Ah right, thanks. So SystemReg=0 simply stops the registry being scanned on boot. I thought it might stop it being backed up. I'll have to think about adding that to my MSDOS.SYS as that seems to be recommended. I will carry on increasing the MaxPhysPage setting to see when it fails. I'll let you know how high I can go!

What does SystemReg=0 in MSDOS.SYS do? I hadn't noticed that the new entries in HDACFG.INI had been reverted to as they were before! That may well be because I booted the system with HDATSR.EXE still active by accident the first time after I changed them. Should I try again with your new settings making sure that HDATSR.EXE doesn't run this time? I have experimented going up to MaxPhysPage=80000, which gives me 2GB of RAM, and still works as it is.

I have only ever used the DOS version of SCANREG for recovery purposes. SCANREGW only does manual backups as far as I can see, and just out of habit I tend to access it through the Tools menu on the System Information program. Do use ERUNT if you can, it's saved my bacon on many occasions when I've messed up editing the registry! I have it set to replicate what SCANREG does on Windows 98, that is to say back up the registry on the first boot of every day, and keep a maximum of five backups. Anyway, I have confirmed that HDATSR is necessary on my system as it is presently configured. Not loading it results in the registry access error. I've attached my HDACFG.INI file. I simply commented out the original values in the [BUSMASTER] section, and added your new ones. Thanks for all your help yet again! Cheers, Dave. HDAcfg.ini

Thanks. I actually use ERUNT on Windows XP and Windows 10, and have done for years, but I've always relied on Windows 98's own registry backup system. Anyway, I followed your suggestions, added a MaxPhysPage entry to system.ini to limit the RAM, removed HDATSR.EXE from autoexec.bat, and changed the entries in the [BUSMASTER] section in HDACFG.INI to the ones you specified. Unfortunately I got the registry access error again. I reinstated HDATSR.EXE in autoexec.bat, and the system now boots properly, and the sound works! So, it looks as if HDATSR.EXE is necessary. I'm very happy with that, but it would be nice to have my 3GB of RAM back again if it's possible! Cheers, Dave.

Link for convenience to the discussions about maintaining browsers on Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Windows 2000. Browsers working on Older NT-Family OSes

Link for convenience to the discussions about maintaining browsers on Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Windows 2000. Browsers working on Older NT-Family OSes

Have you considered the unofficial Service Pack 4? That apparently contains all the updates until EOS, but not the POSReady updates.

No problem! I read what you posted previously, and all I can say is that my "Dave" account is the default Administrator account, and always has been. It's always apparently worked perfectly like that.

This is what I've got in those settings.

Thanks for the quick response @deomsh! Yes, I'm sure it's a memory problem, but it certainly isn't RAM, with RLoew's patches I have over 3GB available! I tried commenting HDATSR.EXE out of autoexec.bat, and reinstated hda2.dll in system.ini. Bad move! The system didn't freeze this time, it booted up but said it couldn't read the registry and produced the most dreadful mess where a lot of Windows 98 seemed to have reverted to "out of the box" condition, accompanied by a huge number of error popups from some of the installed programs! Fortunately I managed to restore another backed up version of the system files using SCANREG so things are back to as they were before. So, it looks as if with hda2.dll and HDATSR.EXE loading, the system just freezes on the desktop, if I take HDATSR.EXE out of the equation, it looks as if hda2.dll possibly leaves no memory space left to load the registry! Any suggestions gratefully received!

@deomsh Hi again, after a long pause! I've now run into a problem with my HD audio installation, cause by a hardware change. For reasons I won't bore you with, I have swapped over my two graphics cards, and although this should only have affected the PCI-E bus, it seems to have caused a problem with the Windows 98 sound. Everything is still fine on Windows XP and Windows 10. What's happening is that Windows 98 is freezing now on startup, it gets to the desktop OK, but then there's the usual thump from the speakers when the driver loads, then the system permanently freezes completely. The only way I can get it to boot now is by commenting out the "wavehda=hda2.dll" line in the [Drivers} section of system.ini. So far I have found no answer to this, I guess it's some sort of low-level memory issue, but why it should have been affected by swapping the graphics cards is a mystery to me! Any suggestions for troubleshooting this? Cheers, Dave.

My user account is the administrator account on the machine, and it's renamed to "Dave". The Guest account is disabled. There are no other accounts. I have a password set, but the system is set to automatically log on with it so I don't have to enter it. My "Search" window columns' settings are still not being remembered, I wish I knew why.

This has always been an annoyance for me. Why does it save all the other column settings, including in the Recycle Bin, but not in Search results?! I do have a password though, although Windows is set to log on automatically. It's not saving them for me.

Link for convenience to the discussions about maintaining browsers on Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Windows 2000. Browsers working on Older NT-Family OSes

@ntfoxy Another strange anomaly has reared its head! I have a few ancient 16 bit programs which I still use on XP, and one of them, Lotus Organizer 1.0, started malfunctioning. It would run to the splash screen, and then freeze all the time, with a message that the 16 bit subsystem was unstable when forcibly closed. Strange because it's worked fine for many years now. By process of elimination, I discovered that running systrayutil.dll was causing the problem. If I kill the rundll32 process associated with it, Lotus Organizer runs fine. Is there any reason why systrayutil should affect 16 bit programs?

@jumper Thanks very much for the latest update, but could I just clarify something? I have version 4.5.2016.20 of kexbases.dll installed, 4.5.2016.21 of kexbasen.dll, 4.5.2016.19 of kernelex.dll, 4.5.2016.18 of kexcom.dll, and Kstub626.dll. This looks a mix and match mess, but I had problems with later versions, which appeared when I replaced the files. What files exactly should I replace from this latest package to try and prevent problems again? I notice there are now files in there which appear to be for Vista. Should every file be copied to the Windows\KernelEx folder, overwriting the originals? Thanks, Dave.