Drugwash

Off we go! But... no sources. Please check link and make sure eMule is running and the file is shared. One thing - this package is supposed to be installed on all kinds of configurations, not only freshly installed systems. Some of them may be heavily tweaked already, with much newer file versions than the ones to be installed by this package. I'm curious if anybody checked all components against automatically overwriting newer file versions. Another thing is that my autoexec.bat contains the following (and I may not be the only one using this trick): @deltree /y c:\windows\cookies @deltree /y c:\windows\history @deltree /y c:\windows\tempor~1 @deltree /y c:\windows\temp @md c:\windows\temp If this package unpacks itself in the temporary folder set by environment variables and that folder gets wiped out on each reboot, that'd be a bit of a problem. Yes, the user could remove/comment those lines, if he knew about them, but if he doesn't (system tweaked by a friend/specialist/etc.), he'd report a broken package. So, would it be possible to create and use a folder of its own instead, just to be on the safe side?

What's that a TV?! You're way ahead of me, I ditched it only about 2 years ago, together with the radios. I got enough instant messaging IDs to ask people when I need to know something. And eMule is good too for documentaries that would never get on TV or elsewhere public. And not only, but let's not push it. Anyway, where's the eD2k link for v1.8?

soporific: eMule is running here about 24/7 - I'm official translator for my language and I'm playing a lot with it. So an eD2k link is always welcome, as far as I'm concerned. It does take a while to complete a download - that's the idea of the network - but at least I get it integer. My connection is not that good to allow me downloading almost 200MB in one shot from within the browser, and I don't have Premium accounts on public hosts. Plus I'm testing alpha/beta software and crashes/freezes happen on a regular basis. Analada: As for "ghosting"... problem is: (2) When you have a working stable win98SE system [...]. That almost never happens, because there's always some tinkering to do, some application to install/replace/uninstall, some hardware to change, etc. Just like Eck above said. But yes, there are people that might like preserving certain configurations and Ghost may come in handy. Not me, for now. Eck: I've been foolin' around with a few live Linux distros myself: Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Knoppix. Not bad, but I'm missing a certain "feeling", plus a few key (IMO) options/features. Still planning to dig deeper into the concept, but I'm either lacking the time or the will to do it.

I'm no Link21, don't worry. I like people who have the sense of humor. Information is nothing but that: information. People decide what to do with it. As for "redoing" a machine... my 200MHz PentiumMMX has its Windows 98SE installed since November 2004. That's because my old HDD crashed, otherwise it would have been much older. I just hate (re)installing. I see XP people reinstalling every few weeks/months and I wonder why... Is that the way a computer should work? Should the user waste time reinstalling every whatever amount of days/weeks/months? What kind of an operating system is that, that requires reinstalling so often, regardless of users' (lack of) computer knowledge? Oh... sorry for the off-topic. It's almost 5 AM in Melbourne...

Out of curiosity, I ran a report on my current system, which only has a few official updates and some manual upgrades installed. The list of *not found* updates is impressive, however I found some of the items that I do have installed are still reported as uninstalled. Grrrrr... So here we go: • dun14-se: Dial-Up Networking 1.4 for Windows 98se (official package installed) • DirectX9: DirectX 9.0c (October 2006) (August 2006 installed; does it know it's August and not October?) • q323455: Directory Services Client Update for Windows 98 (official package installed) • UCopy2GB: Unofficial Fix for Bug When Copying Files Over 2gb in Explorer (manually installed) • 48BITLBA: Unofficial Update for Drives over 137gb (not for IBM portables) (manually installed) • 7-ZIP: 7-Zip 4.42 (file archiver) (already installed 4.43 beta - don't ask where from, it was out there) That's all I can do for now; I don't have a testing machine yet, will try to put one up soon. Eck: http://www.imdb.com/news/sb/2006-11-29/

AFAIK, the "free" hosts you mentioned above do not support resume and/or download managers. Given that not all of us have blazing speed Internet connections, the eD2k solution might be a good compromise. As for torrents... it's just a bit more complicated, with seeding and all - I never understood the system nor fancied the clients, so I can't offer detailed explanations, but I've read answers to a very similar question recently.

DeadDude, here's a hint on animated Win9x logos: XrX Animated Logo Utility. Check this out for SciTech driver and other stuff.

I remember reading about some script/tool somewhere around, that could act like the user were actually clicking some button in a GUI window. Simulated clicks are possible, and I know it may look like an overkill, but for a true unattended install, this might be needed. But I can't remember this tool's name, for the life of me.

You could try Miranda IM (check my signature). There are a few voice plug-ins under development, check the addons page as well as the forums. All open-source.

According to DeadDude's post #191: • windows 98 ASP0210 X05-39104 (NM.05) 08 IFPI L894 BARCODE • At the rights side of the hole it says For distribution with a new PC only. For product support, contact the manufacturer of your PC. SECOND EDITION According to Eck's post #189: • Windows 98SE: 0499 Part No. X04-14310 • Windows 98Gold + SE Update: 0499 Part No. X04-12707 • Windows 98SP1: 0499 Part No. X04-64496 According to DeadDude's post #187: • No Auto-patching at all, and it reports 4.10.1999 • Only installed files were Win98SE (after the Gold fiasco), driver CD from GigaByte, and Auto-Patcher 1.7, then 1.8... and that sequence boosted it to 4.95.2222 According to oscardog's post #195: • "With few exceptions, Windows 98 hotfixes are stamped with a version number of 4.10.1999 or greater, which indicates that the file is a newer version than the file that had been originally included with Windows 98. Windows 98 Second Edition hotfixes are generally stamped with a version number of 4.10.2223 or greater" My conclusions: • The CDs are definitely OEM versions • They are Windows 98Gold with hotfixes (and possibly SP1) included • It's possible that they're preliminary versions of 98SE (attempts at) - limited series • The cause of version boost to 4.95.2222 must be found and dealt with

Pardon me for barging in. I noticed that everyone here says: Win98FE (Gold) is 4.10.1998 and Win98SE (Second Edition) is 4.10.2222. Then, what is 4.xx.1999, repeatedly reported by DeadDude? Isn't it possible that at least one of the updates included with the package has a broad range of Windows versions allowed for install, which includes 4.10.1999 and - by changing the kernel, or shell or whatever else - it boosts the WinVer to 4.10.2222? Another question that springs to my mind is why does he say 4.xx.1999 and not 4.10.1999? I may be off-track here, but hopefully someone gets a good idea out of this.

Regarding newest DST update package: how would one go around clicking OK in an unattended installation? Any commandline switch for that? I'm thinking about projects such as auto-patcher and similar, which would incorporate this update. Sorry if I'm out of track.

A quick profiling of Sigcheck in Dependency Walker shows the following errors: • GetProcAddress(0xBFF70000 [c:\windows\system\KERNEL32.DLL], "IsTNT") called from "c:\windows\system\OLEAUT32.DLL" at address 0x77A23F12 and returned NULL by thread 1. Error: The specified module could not be found (126). • GetProcAddress(0x65F00000 [c:\windows\system\OLE32.DLL], "DcomChannelSetHResult") called from "c:\windows\system\OLEAUT32.DLL" at address 0x77A0FAB3 and returned NULL by thread 1. Error: The specified module could not be found (126). • LoadLibraryW("Riched32.dll") returned NULL by thread 1. Error: This function is only valid in Win32 mode (120). I guess it's the last one that prevents it from sending any output, as it cannot load the richedit32 library. Apparently it tries to load it using a Unicode function (LoadLibraryW), which obviously fails under Win9x.

Welcome back, erpdude8. Sorry to hear about a bad start off; hopefully you'll get over it soon. And thanks for the heads up, will download the updated COPY2GB.EXE right away. @ MDGx: VS6SP6U.EXE dated 28 Nov 2006 at your site is rebooting on finish without warning; you may wanna revise it when possible.

Soporific, you may wanna replace NUSB23e with NUSB24, unless there's a strong reason to keep the older version on the list (can't see any reason though). Keep it up! ;-)

Here's a Miranda IM Wiki (work in progress). I've been fighting for the backwards compatibility to be kept (I myself being a Win98SE user), but honestly - it appears that Win98/ME user base is pretty low and the Win95 user base is almost nonexistant. Therefore it's hard to say what is still working under Win95, and for how long. Another issue here is that - while the core may still be Win9x compatible (in the ANSI version) - most of the plug-ins, which are developed by third parties, are slowly dropping Win9x support, which is sad for an open-source project that at least theoretically should not be under MS politic's pressure. But it's hard to create Win9x-compatible products using VS2005, and - most of all - it's hard or impossible to test the products when there's no Win9x environment available for the respective developers.

How many levels of installing/uninstalling would this system allow? Would it also take into account broken (interrupted/unfinished) installations/uninstallations? I'm asking because with all these power/ultra/super/extra/etc-packs, there might be a chance of multiple installation of the same patch, which might wreak havoc as is or while trying to uninstall (if needed).

Please also take into consideration that an (admittedly narrow) range of users may have a slow Internet connection or no connection at all. Especially for the latter, they may need additional language display support for offline browsing. I have one of my neighbors as example, which has no Internet connection but needs IE as default browser and Pan-European text display support installed, for a medical application (had Firefox as default and the application wouldn't launch at all).

I always install all display support files in IE, but never the input support ones, as I don't need any, currently. Honestly, I'd rather have a few MB on my HDD occupied with those files, than have IE pop up messages stating that it needs this or that update to be able to display the page properly or - having such warning disabled - to see a weird page layout due to lacking proper support. AFAIK, IE setup will recognize any path the install has been started from. So if IE6-SP1 has been installed directly from the auto-patcher CD, the language add-ons would be installed from the same path when required and will ask for the CD. If the language files are not in the IE6-SP1 setup while installation has been performed from the CD, an eventual web update will not be carried out, because IE setup wants to save the respective files to the known path which would be the CD path. So to wrap it up: personally I would like all language display support files to be included with the IE6-SP1 package and to have the possibility to choose between direct CD install and files-on-HDD install. Obviously, I would choose the former, for reasons I've already explained in a previous post. And BTW, having UBCD and auto-patcher on the same CD and being able to batch the install would be the ultimate goal. I wish I would be able to help more, but currently my motivation has been blown out of the water by some recent unfortunate events.

Or get StartupCPL 2.8 (zip version) from here, unpack, install, go to Control Panel > Startup and carefully check the items in each tab. Disable the ones appearing suspect or -if unsure- list the items here so we could advise. Personally I consider StartupCPL a little more friendly than msconfig, but it's all a matter of taste.

Please try a search at Wim's BIOS board, maybe they have something for you. If you can't find your BIOS/Computer model in any of the topics, you may open a request thread.

My problem appears to have been fixed too. Many thanks and have a wonderful year!

I have a somehow similar problem, that needs some explanation. Our network has a proxy for HTTP browsing, which doesn't allow downloading of exe, zip, rar and some other file types. So I sometimes have to disable proxy in my browser to be able to download such files, and it may happen that I forget to enable it back afterwards. Problem is that if I am logged in to MSFN with proxy on and I then open some new page while proxy is off, I appear as not logged in, and the other way around. Even if I reenable (or disable, respectively) the proxy, I would still appear as not logged in, until I do it manually. This doesn't happen with any other forum I visit, nor with Yahoo mail, Hotmail and such. And definitely it wasn't happening before the upgrade. I haven't touched any of the Internet options during this time. Using SlimBrowser, IE-based.

I wonder why that happened... Maybe because they realized it'd be just a waste of time?I mean, the ReactOS project celebrates ten years of existance already, and all they've achieved so far is a handful of applications that merely get installed and only a few that run more or less acceptably. Let me think: what have MS done in these ten years? Windows 95B/C, Windows 98, Windows 98SE, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows Millenium, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista. Now let me ask: what would be the purpose of having an open-source Win9x, whenever that may happen (meaning: be completely functional), considering the trend that software development follows nowadays - which is: ditch 9x support, embrace Vista? As for ReactOS, I haven't got a chance to test it yet, so I'm not aware of what it's capable - save for what I've read on their website - but I intend to do so in the near future. However, it would be very useful to many people out there if it had a real DOS environment together with its NT platform, so users could switch between DOS and NT at will, for example when playing old DOS games or running other applications that specifically need a pure DOS mode. If that would be possible (if it's not already), then I think all our efforts should be pointed towards helping the ReactOS project, instead of starting from scratch with a project that would have no useful purpose anymore by the time it would show any positive results. Please note that these are just spontaneous thoughts that came to my mind and in no way do I intend to mock anybody's efforts either here, at ReactOS or elsewhere. I do respect everybody's work.

Here's mine: one thing I strongly disliked when I first got my hands on XP was this "safety procedure" of copying all the files on HDD, thus taking up space. While nowadays, generally, HDD space is not a problem anymore for most users, there may still be a certain amount of people that for some reason are stuck with old hardware, including small HDDs.Personally I have a couple of 1.2-2GB HDDs that I intend to use for various tests, and having the installation archives copied on the HDD would take up unnecessary space, possibly preventing me from installing other needed packs/applications/etc. But even if this wasn't the case, I still can't see why I would waste that space with files I'll most probably never need again, when I could simply insert the CD/DVD if I would ever have to. If possible - and I can't see why it wouldn't be - the best solution would be for you to add an option for the user to choose whether the installation would use the optical drive as a source or the archives would be copied to the HDD. When the latter is chosen, please allow for the user to specify a path for the source archives to be copied to, as I imagine someone might want to select a different drive/folder for the source files.