Drugwash

I could buy a used, fully operational Pentium III here for about $20. A 40GB IDE hard drive would be about $5. Other parts would be more expensive, of course, but not too much. Admittedly, second-hand computer market is slowly dying here too. @submix8c: judging by the wording in post #10 (doesn't take up much space) it appears to be a slim desktop case. But I may be wrong assuming this. If it indeed is a tower case then of course a regular PSU may be fitted even with modifications to the case if needed.

FlashGet is good (I'm using 1.9.6.1073 on both 98SE and XP) but occasionally it may behave. Have you tried wget? There should be a Win9x-compatible version. It's commandline-based and might sport the options you need.

Dunno if it's in any way related but recently one of my AHK scripts that was supposed to download certain elements off of Mozilla webpages started returning gibberish instead of HTML code and files. It's also based on the IE built-in API and therefore it's using either IE6 on 98SE or IE8 on XP-SP3. It used to work when I last tested it in october 2015. I never use Google but I just tried mail.yahoo.com in IE8 under XP and it brought me the login screen (I didn't go further). I have a feeling it may be related to whether the application calling the APIs is a known web browser or not.

Looks like some Half Life game (mod). Notice the lambda letter instead of 'n' in 'windows'.

As far as I remember the Deskpro series come in slim desktop case. Everything inside is non-standard. This means there is no way to either replace the PSU with a better one or move the motherboard to a standard tower case. This is the main reason why I try as much as possible to stay away from OEM machines such as HP/Compaq, Dell, IBM and the likes. Unfortunately I do have 3 HP, 2 IBM and 1 Compaq that were thrown away by my friends and I can't possibly describe the agravation when something fails and I can't find a replacement. My Compaq Deskpro EN 400 SFF is right under the monitor of this very machine I'm typing on (with other stuff on top too) so I can't open it and recheck the internals but I do remember it has a Slot A CPU mounted horizontally and a FSB/multiplier dip switch that can't take a better/faster CPU. Can't remember if it has any AGP slot, probably it doesn't. Got no spare keyboard/mouse/monitor for it either.

I'll be LMAO when M$ buys Apple. "You want choices?! Here's your choice: our way or the highway!" Unless they pass some law that says you either use WinX or get shot in the head because you are a terrorist.

Indeed PCI video cards are much harder to find. Unfortunately the screenshot doesn't help and neither does the HP/Compaq site (which was to be expected). Best thing you can do is take your videocard to another computer, preferrably newer to ensure it has support for later PCI versions and test it there, just to make sure it works, because you need that information before messing with BIOS and other possible settings. If the card is fine and works you can then try anything possible on your Deskpro, otherwise try to find another (working) card.

I have that package, it contains the source code which indeed has to be compiled to get the actual driver file. There is however a debug version of the driver already compiled in the Debug folder, named IdeDma.sys (337,095 bytes dated 2008.07.04). There is also a todo.txt file with a lot of entries. Topic and download link here . Official homepage with latest (non-9x) version is here .

The new card may be defective. Inspect it visually, see if there's gonflated capacitors, bad soldering points, broken/burnt components. The BIOS may require a specific look-up sequence for video. See if there's any priority setting for the videocard in BIOS, such as -Built-in -AGP -PCI and set it appropriately. If possible, disable completely the built-in video. You didn't say if there is an AGP slot available or only PCI. (actually you said something about PCI only but please confirm that) Please be aware that there are different AGP standards and your card - even if it fits in the slot - may require a different voltage that the board offers and this may even damage either or both motherboard and video card. There are also a few PCI standards I vaguely remember and it's possible the videocard requirements are too high for this board. You need manuals for both motherboard and videocard, see if video requires PCI 1.2, for example and in that case if the motherboard has such capabilities (sometimes can be selected in BIOS). A PCI videocard shouldn't have too much power requirements. To be sure, disconnect the power from all possible consumers such as HDD, CD/DVD, floppy and see if it even tries to display something with the new card.

I'm most likely confusing a Win95 installation with 98/SE - it's been such a long time…

There may be a specific combination of files that triggers that popup. I have the exact same file as jumper (checksum included) and there's always the confirmation popup. Could be related to explorer.exe or any other system file(s) that were updated, as I vaguely recall this behavior is not present on a vanilla installation (but I may be wrong on that). My explorer.exe is v4.72.3612.1710 and is dated 2013 which means it's been patched for something at that time - I probably replaced some banner bitmap or something.

It's about two different concepts: first is building from a bare old version up and the other is chopping off unwanted "features" from a mature product while trying to make it run natively without system "improvements". I suggested the second as the features that would remain would have already been tested through time. Reimplementing them from scratch, especially for a one-man task, might be too difficult. But it's just a suggestion. Whatever works is fine.

Can't remember now, it's been a long time, but I vaguely recall a bunch of my favorite add-ons having stopped updating at this version back then, which made me stay with that version. I'm not saying it's the best or whatever. Actually someone really knowledgeable with web technology should assess the best browser version to be picked. Indeed, such application as a browser can be critical for a system and it should be able to run without any additions. However, it should be thoroughly tested so that it should also run correctly when any (and all) possible (un)official packages were to be installed on a given system. That is, full compatibility with or without (un)official upgrades. The link you pointed to is about a modified version of Firefox 7 that still requires KernelEx (or has a problem with). I do have Firefox 9 on my 98SE machine and I know some 10 ESR version would work too (I tried such version for a very limited amount of time on another system, with some bad behavior). If someone managed to get Firefox 10 (or even 9) run on 98SE without needing KernelEx or other updated (ME/2000/XP/etc) system files, then that would be perfect.

Personally I think it would be more useful - and maybe easier in the long run - to take a more recent version of a browser that already has certain much-needed options implemented and patch the code so that it can be run on 95/NT4/98/98SE/ME (without the need of KernelEx or other unofficial fixes). I myself am running Firefox 13 on XP-SP4 and not going to move away from it ever. If that version (and compatible add-ons) could be made to run in 9x it would be perfect. Actually it would be perfect if it didn't require that much memory in the first place. (typo)

Android is nothing but a massively crippled Linux, so why not a real, full-fledged Linux…

When given a chinese choice I'd rather settle for StartOS 5.1 (6.0 beta is only 64bit if I'm not mistaken). Or its earlier predecessor Ylmf 4.0. But Windows is no way in he!! a choice anymore. Because the World is getting colder every day and we can't live in a house with broken Windows!

What if actually God is playing an online game with the Devil and we are only fictitional characters in that stupid game…?

I saw a bunch of old versions of Trout on some site recently, but they all sport crappy search engines - most google-based - and I can't find it anymore. Anyway, Jody already said long ago he wouldn't support Win9x anymore despite continuous requests (and help) in the DonationCoder forum board so I guess that's it. Another one bites the dust. (added link to DC forum board comment)

DOS is a limited OS. M$ are not afraid of it. It's also used in many embedded devices and whatnot so there probably was a huge demand from solid clients to keep compatibility. On the other hand Win9x family is extremely capable and - most importantly - very hard (if not impossible) to control, so M$ wants to get rid of every trace of that OS family as soon as possible. My strong belief is that they somehow coerced each and every hardware manufacturer to stop producing 9x drivers for their newer devices although that might not have negatively impacted very much- if at all - those manufacturers. That is why I strongly believe that M$ should be put to sleep forever as soon as possible before we lose every single bit of privacy and sanity. And the rest of them should remember that the world is actually about people, as in human beings, not robots or garbage such as Cortana.

It's only when one gets a severe warning on their TV screen from their doctor for not following a certain diet and then a fine (or worse) from the police for ignoring doctor's advices that we wake up to realise what a sick, demented world we got to be living in. And some dare say we did it to ourselves! Hm, maybe by ignoring the signs and accepting (tiny) compromises…?

You meant 'Ghostery' on first line. There is an issue in the old version of Ghostery (2.9.6.x) that the guys in the forum at getsatisfaction.com try very hard to obfuscate by asking everyone to upgrade, even though that is not possible for older Firefox versions. The fix is rather simple, involving editing a javascript file in two places to increase the number of cached entries. I've presented the fix (based on a previously reported issue and fix by Eric P. Scott) in a cumulated replies-post here, but - very conveniently! - it is hidden under a "view X more comments" spoiler link (or something of that sort). Basically the fix goes like this: In Firefox profile > extensions > firefox@ghostery.com > chrome > content --> ghostery-common.jsline 1095cis.init(fis, "UTF-8", 0, 0);becomescis.init(fis, "UTF-8", 32768, 0);and line 1108cos.init(fos, "UTF-8", 0, 0);becomescos.init(fos, "UTF-8", 32768, 0);I agree that WordPress has been destroyed recently by the changes and additions that users just don't want/need. Those emoticons are horrible, I've disabled them altogether on my blog and instead I'm manually replacing the codes with Yahoo! Messenger emoticons as close to the original as possible. Too much bloat everywhere! @ Kelsenellenelvian: You may increase the tempo value for that GIF instead of removing it, if you consider it being of some value. Maybe 7000 ms for each frame would be optimal.

Please forgive my barging in. Tommy, if you want a real-time observation of RAM/swap/CPU/System-load usage, you may try my MemPanel tool (see correspong folder in repository from my signature). Select the lowest available polling interval from tray context menu > Options for a more accurate observation.

Actually we should demand all hardware manufacturers to publish their products' specifications and open-source the respective drivers' code.

Well... you could just write your own... Surely such things aren't required. Wordpress itself is a mess. One of the first cookie-cutter builders where I noticed the totally un-needed linking to multiple stylesheets AS WELL AS having styles in the HTML. Blogs hosted on public wp.com cannot load private themes - only blogs hosted on private domains with full access to the wp software can load such themes, plug-ins and whatnot. But that was just an example. Try to limit your bandwidth to something ridiculously slow and then test a few known sites - the browser should continuously report what's loading (usually at bottom-left). Analyzing the page code might not show the full extent due to javascript or other obfuscated elements. From my point of view, using content delivery networks and distributed payload is just a way to invite unwanted third-party to breach a connection. If - say - one googleapis server were to be infected with malware, dozens, hundreds or much more innocent domains would get red-flagged in an instant. An attack on a site/domain would contain the infection to that domain only. And I'm not even thinking as the real villains think. So, why should one - whatever page/site - retrieve (unwanted/risky/etc) content from dozens other domains? Why does everything have to be centralized in an overtly-communist way? Why does everything have to be the worst way possible instead of the best way possible? Is it because we, as human beings, are defective by design…? EDIT: And related to jaclaz's link above: why do all those images on Troy Hunt's site have to be hosted on googleusercontent.com? My RequestPolicy add-on rightfully blocks them as they're not served from the same domain the page is.

That is precisely the reason I parted with Google forever since 2012. Somebody tell me how much of a resemblance does "LCPRI_ constants" bear with "hotel Capri Constanţa": screenshot But that's an entirely different matter. Problem is, Google now owns and controls a very large part of the web through its font dispatcher, its formatting scripts, its so-called search and whatever else. The screenshot above belongs to my WordPress blog. I don't think there is one WP theme that doesn't at least call for Google fonts. That's merely the first example that popped into mind. Talk about privacy? Google knows everything we type here at MSFN, on our WordPress blogs and pretty much everywhere else on the web. AOL mail - the bastards that keep sending MSFN notifications to spam - use Google search on their page. Why should Google know what I'm searching for within my private e-mails?! There may be much, much more to say on this subject but it's late here and I'm tired of playing Don Quijote's part anyway. I'll just list the Firefox add-ons I'm using that relate to restoring sanity: QuickJava, NoScript, Ghostery, Request Policy, YARIP (Yet Another Remove It Permanently), Redirect Cleaner, Greasemonkey with a few scripts, Simple Site Blocker, Google Disconnect, Facebook Disconnect, Twitter Disconnect. These are the versions that run with Firefox 13 on XP because that's what I'll stick to. Most of them work (with modifications or not) in Firefox 9 on 98SE.