Drugwash
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Posts posted by Drugwash
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Took me a year and then some to find this out. Maybe I shouldn't have. Would've thought everybody was here, as always, him included. Would've thought everything's just fine.
But there it is... One of us - another one - has left for a while; just for a little Eternity and a day, and then who knows, maybe there will be a full board up there somewhere...Useless to repeat all the good things that have already been thought of, written, and/or spoken about Den. We all know how he was and what he did here. We will all miss him dearly.
May he rest in peace! 🙏
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You may get a few different replies here, each person may have their own favorite languages and tools.
For me it has been AutoHotkey - derived years ago from AutoIt, mentioned above by @jaclaz. It's an interpreted, macro language, single-threaded so it has a few limitations in terms of speed, but it all depends on your goals. I've built my own tools years ago, and I still use a couple of them today under Linux Mint. So the language is pretty resilient at least for small scopes.If you decide to try it you should choose only version 1.0, which is the only one that can run on Win9x systems. It comes with its Help file - which is pretty well done but not exhaustive - and also its own compiler if you want to convert the scripts to executables. But on a machine with AHK installed correctly scripts can run as is, so one doesn't have to compile them everytime in order to test or run them. That's a plus when it comes to quick development.
Incidentally I had already built a small tool that can compute hashes; it's geared towards media (video) files but file types are editable, it can basically compute hashes (MD5 and SHA1 only) for any file type. It's calles StorageMediaCatalog and it can be found in the large package linked to in my signature below. Hope the Dropbox repository is still reachable.
Good luck!
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21 minutes ago, ender` said:
not sure how I managed to save it as UTF-16BE previously
May happen for some reason.
I managed to get the Translator script to correctly open the UTF-16BE files in both 32bit and 64bit mode and now it converts them to UTF-16LE automatically when saving. However nobody expressed their interest in the script so I postponed any further work on it. Guess it's much easier to translate by hand or through other tools.0 -
@Tihiy Hi, long time no see. Things have changed quite a bit around here since I last visited the boards.
Got a technical question for you since I thought I should update the Translator that has long fallen into oblivion: are the SAB uninstall paths/keys in registry the same as with SiB, or do they have their name and/or path changed?
I'm asking this because the script needs to retrieve the full path to StartIsBackCfg.exe (or is that name also changed?) in order to provide the option of extracting translations from the executable itself in case download isn't possible and no other templates can be reached.Glad to see you alive and well.
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On 8/8/2023 at 3:01 PM, ender` said:
Looks like a bug in Resource Hacker – it shows the same mess for PTBR and SLSI.
Just earlier I downloaded a few recent translations in the idea of updating SiB Translator if necessary. While looking through those files I noticed the sl-si file uploaded by you, and the fr-FR file are both encoded as UTF-16BE, not UTF-16LE as the original one posted by Tihiy (and as requested by the comments inside the file). Not sure if that may be the reason for the mangled display in the resource editor/viewer but they may create problems for SiB itself and definitely do create problems in SiB Translator - the files won't load.
Also nl-NL is encoded UTF-8 instead of UTF-16 but that one loads fine in Translator.
Otherwise it appears the Translator does need to be updated, and a few things fixed or added.
First of all the name: StartIsBack ==> StartAllBack.
Then other minor issues I discovered just now when testing.Since my CloudMe account is long gone I guess nobody had a chance to try the Translator recently. Will update it and post a link for download. If anyone cares, that is.
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3 hours ago, Wunderbar98 said:
This may only be of interest (a little bit) to @Drugwash, since many Windows users have Unix-based allergies, AutoHotkey for Linux is a thing. It's been really nice to use a little AutoHotkey on my Windows 98 systems.
https://github.com/phil294/AHK_X11Thank you for thinking of me. I already knew about that attempt as well as about Keysharp, AutohotkeyX and others. See this comment in AHK forums for details.
In a world where options are slowly (or quickly) being taken away from us I think we should refrain from second-guessing other people's choices as at some point they may even become our own choices.
Don't forget: allergies are treatable with close to 100% success. 
Be well!
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I believe it's about WebComponents. A lot of sites are making use of that and as such older browsers became doomed. Even Pale Moon which is constantly being developed has difficulties implementing that. Strangely, the old version 9 of Midori does have at least partly implemented WebComponents, which allows log in and operations in WordPress blogs. For e-mail I am now using ClawsMail natively instead of POP Peeper which was used with Wine until about a month or so ago.
That is in Linux. Win9x probably has much dimmer chances of getting something usable with respect to browsing and e-mail.
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14 minutes ago, awkduck said:
The future is looking bleak.
You can say that again.
There's too much to be said but unfortunately nothing to do.
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7 hours ago, retrotrash69 said:
I set the file's to XP compatibility and it still gives me that missing dll error and doesn't start.
One or more missing libraries may not have anything to do with KernelEx. Newer applications can be linked to various libraries that may not be native to Win9x, so one would have to search for them in newer OS versions (or on the web, there are sites that provide various DLLs) and attempt to port them to their system. Some may work, some may not, depending on whether they work standalone or require other dependencies themselves. All this requires quite a bit of work.
If you mentioned which library/ies exactly you're missing maybe someone could help further.7 hours ago, retrotrash69 said:There are multiple versions of usp3 out there, which one do I download?
Usually the latest...? As far as I know the latest was v3.66.In view of recent reports below it may be prudent to avoid v3.66 and try an earlier version - maybe v3.65 as suggested below.7 hours ago, retrotrash69 said:Also will this really install the correct unicows or should I download that too just in case?
I just checked and the SP3.cab package inside uSP3 v3.66 contains unicows.dll v1.1.3790.0 so you shouldn't have to download it separately.
7 hours ago, retrotrash69 said:I've never used a Linux anything in my entire life, this is unfortunately way over my head. Plus, its kinda not in the spirit of the pre-2000 limit, you would still be required to own a modern machine if I understand correctly.
Nowadays' Linux is fairly easy to deal with, some distros provide a Windows-like feeling and the GUI has evolved pretty well. Unfortunately a lot of them only provide 64bit versions of the distros but there still are a few that provide 32bit for whoever doesn't own a 64bit machine. Some distros are quite small i.e. Puppy Linux. There is a learning curve though and it depends on each person how welll they cope with that. Personally I switched to Linux about three years ago when 98SE + XP couldn't deal with the web in an acceptable way.
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8 hours ago, retrotrash69 said:
how would I go about fixing the broken kernelex installation?
Someone mentioned before installing the correct version of unicows.dll if you have anything different than that or none at all. It may be best done in pure DOS mode or Safe Mode if it requires replacement.
Also other updated system files provided by AutoPatcher or uSP3 may prove useful along the way. Either should be installed prior to KernelEx, so if you already have KernelEx installed you'd have to first uninstall it, then update the system with either of the aforementioned packages. I believe uSP3 does install the correct unicows library too so you may not have to perform multiple steps.
Installing KernelEx 4.5.2 - the original version - should be straightforward. If you are unsure you may visit the related topic and see if there are any specific advices there.
If all goes well with installing KernelEx the somehow complicated part is setting the proper compatibility for each application that requires it, and sometimes for some of its pertaining libraries. To find out which executables and/or libraries require higher compatibility I use Total Commander with the FileInfo plug-in which displays the missing or incomplete dependencies, it's very easy to check each file that way.
Thing is, your KernelEx installation may not even be broken - maybe you just didn't set up the correct compatibilities for the required executables and/or libraries. In POP Peeper only the main executable - POPPeeper.exe - and the database convertor - PPconvert.exe - require higher compatibility due to missing APIs while all the libraries, including the SSL ones that it downloads during installation, are fully compatible with Win98. Setting XP compatibility for the two files should fix it. (right-click the file, choose Properties, go to KernelEx Compatibility tab and select XP).
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For what it's worth here is my own recent experience with searching for a truly free e-mail provider: link
Do check out the link quoted there to get an idea of what has become of the freedom of communication today.
They do not mention mail.com though. No idea how they go lately, I had my account created a few years ago without the need to provide a phone number. It has been working fine in POP Peeper.You should really fix your KernelEx installation, it may be required for much more software. I just checked POP Peeper 4.5.3 yesterday in a virtual 98SE setup and it only misses three APIs that should be easily fixed through KernelEx. Also uSP3 might provide additional help, but make sure it's installed before KernelEx.
If it's of any comfort I couldn't wrap (pun intended) my head around WinSSLwrap either, and without false modesty I do consider myself fairly knowledgeable. We may just have a completely different way of understanding things which requires a different approach in explaining certain procedures.
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You could try POP Peeper (the free version) but I'm not sure if it works on a vanilla 98/SE or it needes KernelEx. I did use it a few years ago on my 98SE machine but it did have KernelEx installed as well as other system library updates. Also used it until a week or two ago in Linux Mint under Wine 5.14 (later Wine versions have a problem with displaying HTML messages).
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There used to be a plug-in for Total Commander that could read NTFS partitions. Never had any luck myself with any full-access (read/write) NTFS tools under 9x.
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15 hours ago, Wunderbar98 said:
If possible i will avoid resorting to this type of software, time will tell.
Can be useful in an emergency situation. If set to only act manually there would be no interference with running applications at possibly unwanted time.
For most available operations - including copy/move files and/or folders - I have only ever used Total Commander. For the copy operations the large files option was enabled in its settings. I really can't remember how Explorer looks like.
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3 hours ago, Wunderbar98 said:
[1] TinyResMeter v0.95a configured to monitor UpTime, RAM and PageFile on desktop (like Conky).
[2] Process Explorer v8.52, minimized to system tray, monitors CPU use.Or there's MemPanel in my package that displays RAM, swap, total system load, and CPU usage.
There was a utility for freeing memory, I think it was called Free RAM XP Pro or something like that. On occasion it did clip some of the used memory as well leading to problems but most of the times it did its job well.
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Thank you everybody for your welcome. The virtual world is getting wierder everyday. Today found more than two dozen MSFN notifications in my mail's Spam, something I can't usually check with the daily mail application since it doesn't provide that option in its free version. Looks like "someone" is trying hard to bury your/our efforts as it's not the first time these notifications have been hidden away despite having them flagged as not spam everytime.
Now, as for image operations I used to use FastStone Image Viewer in my supercharged 98SE. Very intuitive interface, almost always working in full-screen mode having all necessary tools autohidden on all four screen sides. No idea if recent versions still work in Win9x, with or without KernelEx, and also can't remember what was the last version I had installed on that 98SE machine. One can always try and see.
Event sounds were a nightmare to me. One of the first things used to do right after installing the OS was to disable all event sounds except for the one for Critical... error or whatever (forgot the exact name). Too sensitive hearing and/or too crazy.
Also, one of the important things was to replace the default Startup, Waiting and Shutdown splash screens. Seems like a lifetime ago when I was working on the WLL (Windows Logo Loader) project here, taken over from the one started by... Tihiy if I recall correctly. There also used to be a parallel project called WBL (Windows Boot Loader?) by user PassingBy. So much fun working at bit level.
Gosh, so many good memories, at least as much as I can remember something, anything... And this world changing so rapidly into something I utterly dislike. Gah, not gonna start ranting now. Y'all have a good time anytime possible, as much as possible, coz time ain't waiting for nobody.
And if any of you misses me or you got problems with my AHK scripts do drop me a line at drugwash [at] mail [dot] com (the only address I can still be reached at, the rest are long gone). Peace!
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On 1/10/2022 at 8:57 PM, Mr.Scienceman2000 said:
maybe I did not phrase myself correctly. I meant drive had so much bad blocks I could only use half of it capacity even after did proper wipe using manufacture util. It was retail hdd and was using it on my custom build. At that point I had no choice but try keep using it before was able get money for new drive. Luckily I no longer have to do that.
Oh, if that's the case then sorry for the misunderstanding. And also sorry for the delayed response, I had gotten no notification e-mails whatsoever from this board until today when I found about 15 of them all bearing same timestamp.
On 1/10/2022 at 8:57 PM, Mr.Scienceman2000 said:Windows can convert any printer into network printer with few clicks.
Maybe, but wouldn't that specifically require for that particular machine to be running in order for any other machine on the network to use that printer? A true network printer would be accessible at any time without the need for another computer to be driving it. That is precisely why I searched and chose such model.
On 1/10/2022 at 9:50 PM, Wunderbar98 said:Welcome back @Drugwash, you're alive!
Belated thanks (see reason above). Alive but not actually living, if you understand what I mean. Just surviving, depending on a couple strangers for food and bills.
On 1/16/2022 at 3:14 AM, Wunderbar98 said:if someone has a favourite simple and light image viewer please let me know
Not sure how helpful it is but I remember Imagine by Chun Sejin as it has always been embedded with the omonimous Total Commander viewer extension.
On 2/27/2022 at 2:13 AM, Wunderbar98 said:If you run a Window Manager like me then use 'xgamma'
While working on a Cinnamon applet for Linux Mint I noticed xgamma was disconnected with the xrandr settings. After changing values through xrandr, xgamma still showed default values. When the system does use xrandr it would be best to use it to adjust brightness and gamma/color temperature. It's only a personal opinion, of course.
xrandr --help and xrandr --dryrun should offer the necessary usage details.On 3/1/2022 at 12:56 AM, Wunderbar98 said:The 'DVI-I-1' system has no video outputs on the motherboard and only a single output port on the graphic card (VGA). Strange.
Most likely the video card contains DVI circuitry internally and uses an internal converter to output D-SUB (VGA) signal. Either the driver detects the original DVI circuitry or the card's BIOS has not been properly configured to advertise the VGA output. This can happen when manufacturers build multiple-output boards and then decide to release them as single-output.
On 3/5/2022 at 9:09 AM, Wunderbar98 said:on same hardware the game runs well in Windows XP using newer ForceWare drivers (query v93), even when pushed to the limit, no graphic glitches.
Possibly newer drivers work around known hardware bugs or just use different commands that do not produce those glitches. Personally I believe the card is at fault not the drivers, but may always be wrong.
14 hours ago, Wunderbar98 said:In case of imminent shutdown, big thanks to all who have contributed to Windows 9x and this thread in particular.
Same from me though hopefully this won't happen, if only to preserve history that newer generations would never know about.
Personally I've already forgotten most of the things I knew (and posted) about Windows 9x, due to bad and worsening memory. If it would be for me to still live some time it'd be nice to have this place to revisit old memories.2 -
On 12/6/2021 at 10:43 AM, Mr.Scienceman2000 said:
I had one 40gb Maxtor that had only half usable even after wiping drive.
It may just have been pulled from a machine that had a hidden recovery area. Many manufacturers employed this trick of having part of the HDD turned into hidden area unreachable from the OS, where a copy of the original system was placed for full recovery when needed. The BIOS usually provided such recovery option hotkey at the POST screen.
I had one such drive too, also 40GB (and may even have been a Maxtor like yours), and found it hard to believe the sticker saying 20GB while the original drive label said 40GB, so I searched the web and found details about the issue along with a free application that could restore the drive to its full capacity. For the life of me I can't remember the exact name of that application but searching for "HDD capacity restore" could provide useful results. It would be a pity to scrap a usable drive for only this reason, or even work with partial capacity when it can be restored to its full glory.
On 1/6/2022 at 11:33 AM, Mr.Scienceman2000 said:I plan hook it with USB to my newer XP rig and Printer cable to my Windows 98 PC that got limited USB ports.
A network-capable printer would be more suitable to a multi-computer environment. A few years ago when I still had money I bought a used Lexmark e352dn (printer only, no scanner) and hooked it to a local network hub, so both the XP and the 98SE machines were able to access it. Another advantage, crucial in certain cases, is that the device can be placed at long distance from any of the computers, even in a separate room, while USB and COM/LPT cables usually are limited in length, not to mention one LAN cable versus two means less clutter.
Having it connected to a router with Wi-Fi capability would allow access to it from any machine with Wi-Fi capability.1 -
I'm in the middle of the city, hardly any wildlife here. With dozens of cats around mice and rats have no chance. Either my own cats brought the fleas from the vicinities or someone infested the area on purpose.
There's a small barrel near the house where rainwater accumulates, I use that water for the few plants that survived in the house. In the summer there's also enough vegetation in the garden to harbour all kinds of insects.
Main problem here is the world - what it has become and where it's heading to. After extrapolating I came to the conclusion this is not the world I've been dreaming of as a child and it sure doesn't fit my views, neither in the short term nor in the long term. So it's best we part ways sooner rather than later.
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Haven't heard back from my ex yet. Probably busy with her own life, she has an autistic daughter that needs constant supervision.
I've had fleas for the last three years, thousands of them. More than 30 cats, mostly kittens at 2-4 months have been killed by fleas last year in only a couple of weeks, either by too much blood sucking or by certain disease passed on from one to another - including corona variants known to be common amongst felines. Believe me, this house would better be blown up and rebuilt, because cleaning it up - including dependencies around - would be impossible.
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33 minutes ago, Wunderbar98 said:
If you've got your ears on @Drugwash - hang in there my friend
Thank you for the encouragement.
Checked the electricity bill, it may take another month before they cut it so I may still stick around for a while.
My browser of choice for some time has been Pale Moon, which falls into the Other category. I always liked being in that category regarding many other aspects of life.
Talking about browsers, the Wine IE - which actually uses a Gecko engine - cannot open certain MSFN links pointing directly to a comment number; it says:
QuoteBad Request
Your browser sent a request that this server could not understand.Could be an old version, or my settings, dunno - just thought I should mention it just in case.
I have a fairly old Lexmark E352dn monochrome laser printer that used to work just fine under 98SE even when connected through LAN; it did require drivers though, but they were (maybe still are) available on the official site. Unfortunately after being off for a year or so it stopped pulling paper from the tray so now I'd have to feed it manually sheet after sheet. Can't find the drive (and strength) to open and try to fix it; the rubber rollers have probably hardened. If I recall correctly alcohol (isopropyl) softens rubber way too much and soon they could even lose shape, so I'd need another idea. Well, that's just in theory because... you know... my time seems to be too limited.
As for smart stuff... well, let's say I have yet to find a device that could perform exactly the way I want - and not they way its manufacturer wants (which usually means backdoors, advertising, missing options etc.) So no thanks, I'm fine with my ~15 year old Huawei U1220s (WCDMA, not GSM) and for a while I also had a Nokia 2630 with a different operator. A few older phones are in a box somewhere in the house but their batteries are most likely dead, and would probably blow up if recharge were attempted.
For reasons like what siria said above and others in various places also mentioned I'm so glad to be leaving this world soon.
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My house is almost uninhabitable for a normal human. Last year there were 42 cats confined in the hallway and not enough litterboxes - imagine how it looks and smells like, because I couldn't clean up anything. On top of that there's all the stuff brought in from my aunt's former flat, some didn't even fit and had to leave them outside in the rain, and now they're destroyed. There's no gas, electricity will be cut pretty soon, no connection to the city sewage so no daily showers or doing the laundry once every week, extremely poor heating in the winter... Oh, did I mention the hundreds or thousands of fleas every summer for about three years already, that drive one (that is, me) crazy because none of the available "solutions" on the market works? Or the mosquitos out in the garden, if one would think going out to breathe some fresh air would be a good idea? Who in their right mind would live here?
Told you there would be much much more to say for a true and complete understanding of the situation, and that wouldn't help anyway because there is no solution.As for parallel universes and all that stuff, I was mostly joking - although I know about various theories in quantum physics and whatnot - but even it it was true and I got dragged from another universe and swapped with the real me that pertained to this universe, things are as they are, the past - in this timeline - happened as it happened, just like whatever happened to the other me in the other universe is their reality and their past now in their timeline. The future? Dunno, maybe I'll go back "home" and get buried with honors as in my home universe I may have been the president of the Earth Federation.
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10 hours ago, Dave-H said:
[...] it's not a third world country, and nobody should be "starving" there in the 21st century.
Nobody should be starving anywhere in the world, actually. But things are way much complicated when greed takes over. Such discussion would soon become political and touch many other fundamental aspects of human society - something that would be out of place here in this forum. Never thought a simple fact of life would get so much momentum.
As mentioned to someone in a PM it would take the whole story of my life plus my way of thinking and understanding of the world, of the universe, for others to understand why things are as they are - something I just don't have the time and strength for, and then it wouldn't help with anything other than your understanding and, maybe, acceptance. I've already died once back when I was three years old, and it wasn't a big deal. Doctors brought me back to life and I believe they shouldn't have; everything that happened backwards in my life since was due to that apparently good deed. Every decision I've ever taken for myself was wrong, even if there were nine good alternatives and a single bad one I would inevitably choose the bad one everytime. It's like I was sucked in a parallel, mirror universe where left is right, good is bad, and so on (anybody here watched the 1969 Doppelgänger movie?) Imagine living a life like that. Or maybe I'm just plain crazy (oh, not a politically correct word at all - as if I cared!
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Anyway, I really feel ashamed for stirring you all up with my problems, didn't want that to happen at all - I'm just too blunt and honest, a manufacturing defect.
Let's wait and see what happens next, maybe my ex will manage to sell my grandparents' wedding rings which may gain me about an extra month or two of existence (couldn't call it living by any standard). Otherwise it's been an honor for me to be part of this kind and knowledgeable community here.
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Ah, should've spoken sooner - it's just been my birthday the other day (on the 19th), could've gotten a lot of nice presents.
Just kiddin'. Fact is the utopia in my head clashes hard with the dystopia of the real world, and I just can't take any more of it. So everything is aligning perfectly.
Please let's not make a big deal out of this, after all it's completely off-topic.
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StartAllBack for Windows 11
in StartIsBack+
Posted
The SAB home site is being actively blocked in a few countries apparently, besides it possibly being blocked internally. Two of the ISPs I'm subscribed to actively block most if not all RU domains currently. Recently I was able to reach rt.com (random choice) through Tor on one ISP but today startallback.com was unreachable even through Tor on the other ISP. Not Tihiy's fault obviously. It's all getting ridiculous but I'll refrain from further comments as free speech has long become an illusion.