Drugwash

こんにちは！ Briefly put, Asian characters are represented by 2 to 4 ASCII characters (so-called WideChars). An English 9x OS is not designed to manage these WideChars throughout; the most one can have is using such characters in web content, helped by CJK translation/helper applications (personally I use JWPce). To fully understand the depths of the matter, you will have to get documented about the ANSI vs. Unicode differences. Personally I'd be pleased if WideChars could seamlessly be used throughout the 9x OS family, however I strongly doubt anyone would have the time and will to completely overhaul the system.

When installed under XP, JRE 6u10 is now different: it unpacks an 1,598,464 bytes msi (jre1.6.0_10.msi) and a 12,815,376 bytes cab (Data1.cab) as opposed to a previously unique .msi. The small .msi is the one responsible with unpacking the .cab deploying each file where it belongs and it's precisely this file that is incompatible with 9x. The .cab can be easily unpacked and looked into, only to get a severe headache and bless we-know-whom with a random mix of colorful words. To me this is enough to realize they broke 9x compatibility on purpose. Hail to the "progress"...

While reading this topic, I've tested the above-mentioned application myself, with the same negative results. I first suspected it may be due to the Unicode format of the database, however I haven't been able to convert it to ANSI (had 2 system freezes due to Notepad++, which I swear I'll never ever touch again). But, after running a profiling in DW, I noticed the same thing that plagued other VB applications when run under localized Windows versions (in my case, regional settings other than English): it expects a localized version of vb6.dll; here ti asked for vb6ro.dll and vb6chs.dll (Romanian and Chinese Simplified, I believe). It also calls for a missing sxs.dll, which I do have at hand but it has tight missing dependencies to ntdll.dll and other system files. My conclusion is that this application is not meant to run on 9x and it probably never will. Can't explain dencorso's results. Oh and please fix the link in post #26 - it's mydigit, without trailing 's'.

Hmm, I've just checked again now and it seems the TC plug-in tries to unpack the msi altogether and fails. It shows all files in a single folder but extraction would fail on any of them. It would correctly extract all the files in the msi though, once it's pulled out from the installer. Seems that letting the installer unpack the msi in the %temp% folder is the only valid method known so far. Sorry for misleading. ivanbuto, have you actually started Profiling on the installer or did you just load it in DW? At profile time it would show any other adjacent missing dependencies that may not pertain to the installer but to related system libraries.

This is strange because it worked for me, at least. Could you please profile the installer through Dependency Walker and see what errors it logs? Maybe there are other system files that need updated on your system. That's assuming Sun haven't changed their installer recently to completely block 9x from installing the 1.6.0+ line.

@ ivanbuto: If we exclude a download error, that may be a problem with 7-zip. Personally I've used Total Commander with a bunch of plug-ins installed and it can unpack about all types of packages it can recognize; can't speak about other unpackers I haven't tested though. The problem with Java installer is that it's .NET dependant. If you install .NET (not sure which version, I already had both 1.1 and 2.0 at the time) on your machine, the installer will work correctly. Here's one of the first reports of Java 1.6.0 u7 failing to install on 9x and the workaround: link followed by my analysis of the installer: link Sorry Multibooter, I already was in the process of documenting myself for replying, couldn't see your reply in the mean time.

The trick needed to install Java 1.6.0 u7 has already been detailed earlier; basically unpack the msi manually with Install Explorer or some other compatible utility and then run it, it will install fine. Ad-Aware's database has been incompatible with 9x for a while already.

Until you get a replacement adapter, I strongly suggest you remove the speakers/headphones from the current adapter as running one channel in shortcut mode can permanently damage the audio preamplifier of the soundcard. Next time make sure you get a stereo-to-stereo adapter.

I guess what you want is thumbnail view. Tihiy has created such upgrade for 98SE, there should be a link around, maybe in the Revolutions Pack thread or Uberskin, can't remember now.

INFO: An .mdmp file (MiniDump) is a crash report than can be opened in Visual Studio and analyzed by programmers for debugging purposes.

An alternative to manually deleting files and registry keys is Driver Cleaner Pro 1.5. Ignore the OS support label mentioning 2000/XP only - I've succesfully used it in 98SE multiple times.

The report file should offer details on the installed modules and their role so reading it may provide a clue. It's a starting point, anyway.

Install IE6-SP1, Directory Services (might need a registry fix as I found out recently while installing a 98SE system), Dial-Up Networking 1.4 Upgrade for Win98. I'm not sure about the install order however and this may impact on the final result. Also try another build of the network card driver, the one you're currently installing may be faulty. TZ Connection Booster and TCP Optimizer may also help in configuring the internals of the protocol(s).

I can't remember ever having such dreadful nightmares with 98SE. Being nosy, I'd messed with system files, replaced some of them at random sometimes and at most I would get a system protection error at boot, easily fixable by restoring the original file(s) in DOS mode. Back when Miranda IM was in its relatively early stages (0.3-0.4 versions), testing the alpha builds usually meant 20-30 BSODs and cold resets a day (sometimes instant reboots, just like in XP - probably some updated system library did that) and still that installation (on my old 200MHz PentiumMMX) is perfectly functional today. However, I could say I had a bit of a nightmare on my current machine because of a Lexmark X1100 series driver, which used to boot my system to BSOD at random times, mostly when I was in a hurry (yeah, bad luck is all over me). Finally I uninstalled those dreaded drivers and everything seems fine now (which reminds me I should resume work on WLL - ooops! if only I had enough spare time). Oh and now that it comes to mind, I did have one huge nightmare one day, when during some testing I found myself - after a forced reboot - in front of a screen suggesting first time OS installation: the registry got automatically restored to first backup ever! I was a hair close to a heart attack, thinking all of the customization was gone forever, but then when my pulse got lower, I remembered to manually restore the registry in DOS mode (scanreg /restore) and found a fairly recent auto-backup that brought my machine back to its normal state. Looking at the creation date of my current Windows folder, it says: September 17, 2006 and that's only because I had 2 HDD crashes the last years and had to take it from scratch each time. P.S. Cannie, I don't think an obscure asian hardware manufacturer would have anything to gain from people switching from 9x to 2000+, as long as they do sell their stuff anyway. Unless...

With SlimBrowser (IE based, currently IE6-SP1 on Win98SE) page is too wide. Funny thing is I checked the page code when the thread was younger (not that I'd make much of HTML anyway) and reducing only codebox sizes (to 50%) didn't make any difference, so it must be something with the background layout (the whitish portion that can be seen to the right). Couldn't pinpoint the issue though so I left it alone after a few failed attempts.

Apologies, apparently yesterday I was locked onto this 32GB partition thing. Please disregard that statement.

I believe each partition should be no larger than 32GB in Win98/ME. << Scratch that Dunno what tool can see and operate on an external HDD under 98SE. You may try a Linux live CD (Knoppix or something) and then try to partition it from that environment.

• The IDE drive should be partitioned to 32GB/partition at most. • You need to read around regarding limiting RAM for Win9x when more than 512MB is installed

I believe Red Faction (at least part 1) should work. AVP (Alien vs Predator) is another one that springs to mind. There's also Turok, not sure which of the series would fit your hardware best. Can't think of others in the genre right now, I'm more of an adventure fan (Tomb Raider is my all-time faiblesse).

1. Press the Pause key while the POST message is displayed, if you wanna tinker with the monitor settings (continue boot by pressing Enter) 2. Dunno about ATI, but there's a thread about an unofficial nVidia driver v82.69 that apparently supports quite a range of nVidia video cards (up to the 7xxx series at least) 3. At least theoretically, a custom inf could be built for your new Hannag monitor. Just analyzing the other drivers (look for monitorX.inf in Windows\Inf) would offer enough hints; most important thing is to know exactly it's capabilities and limitations

Does Dependency Walker find anything suspect at profiling the vlc exe?

Glad to be of help. To be honest, I've read about this quirk of Regedit somewhere around these boards and have actually tested the small script above in a recent test installation of Uberskin. However, I'm used to ending all text-like files in a new line since VC6 is throwing warnings for code/header files that do not respect this rule.

I'm afraid an English 9x system cannot support Unicode filenames. It may be capable of displaying Unicode characters in certain applications with dedicated support (BTW, a freeware application that allows reading/writing Japanese - Hiragana & Kanji - is JWPce), but only after adding the respective IE modules (input and display support) and the proper IME for MS (there are 2 different IMEs: one for users of OfficeXP and one for non-OfficeXP users). Also, the default Unicode font in Win98SE is MS Mincho, which apparently is incomplete, so one may want to install alternative Unicode fonts, such as Arial Unicode MS and/or others.

Make sure you add a new line at the end of the script above, as Regedit won't execute the script otherwise. You don't need to log off or reboot after that, just right-click the desktop and choose Refresh.

Forgive me if I'm too blunt, but XP already has its own native skinnning system, while 9x/2000 do not. Sure, there's Uberskin for 98SE and it works fantastic, but there's always place for more. If you really do care about 9x, I could perform certain tests, time allowing. At this point, any help to improve/keep alive the 9x family is more than welcome.