Running Windows 98 in 2020 and beyond...

[loblo]

system.cb is used instead of system.ini when booting in safe mode I believe so whatever is in it shouldn't affect operation of the OS when booted normally.
 

[Wunderbar98]

Thank-you for confirming that loblo, so far so good :)

Forgot to mention earlier regarding memory management, also reduced the AGP aperture size in the BIOS to 32 MB (lowest possible). This was occasionally noted in threads to help with memory management.

Overall the system is much smoother now, pretty snappy. Amazing how much tweaking we all put into these old systems!

Couldn't get the graphic driver to work, don't usually have problems with drivers. The card is labeled 'ATI OEM Xpert 2000 Pro 32 MB'. Tried both '413.7192' and '413.01.8006 (Beta)' from the 'Rage 128 (Pro)' section. Query if this has something to do with 'OEM' hardware. All hardware on this system was previously untested prior to the Windows 98 install.
https://soggi.org/drivers/ati.htm#Rage128

Didn't want to lose much time on it or shuffle another graphic card so ended up installing a Universal VESA Graphic Driver. This may be a good option for anyone setting up a quick system or if a proper driver can't be found and the system won't be used for gaming.

The last release was 2014 - new software for Windows 9x! Works okay, poor scrolling behaviour as noted on the website. Just use Page Up/Down keys instead of mouse scroll and disable 'Show window contents while dragging' via Control Panel -> Display Properties -> Effects tab. On this hardware max resolution is 1280 x 1024 x 32 bit true colour.

VBEMP 9x Project
Universal VESA/VBE Video Display Driver
(for Windows 9x Architecture)

https://bearwindows.zcm.com.au/vbe9x.htm

Edited January 30, 2020 by Wunderbar98

[deomsh]

In case of VBEMP9x you can try DirextX software emulation enabling Direct Draw and possibly Direct 3D (results depends on system speed). See: http://www.mdgx.com/newtip18.htm 

[ClassicNick]

How do you think lowering vcache to 16-64 MB will impact performance in Windows 98? 

[Wunderbar98]

Thank-you Deomsh for the link, interesting, amazing the tweaking. That site is a wonderful resource, actually overwhelming. I ended up doing a re-install of Windows 98, wanted a re-do with all these memory issues to hopefully clarify and streamline my procedure.

Hi ClassicNick, are you referring to the SYSTEM.CB file modifications described in 'Usher's Method' earlier? The file is apparently just used in graphic safe mode and does not affect regular graphic mode runtime.

[Wunderbar98]

Most free time today spent on my 2001 19" ViewSonic E90 CRT monitor. Got it for free and used it for years, including heavy KMV switch addiction. The original owner hesitated to give it away as he used it for graphic work and liked it so much but upgraded to a flat panel and needed space. This old CRT still provides a nice crisp image and beautiful colour.

Went to turn it on this morning, green power light but no image, not even brightness. Reconnecting exterior cables did not help. A backup monitor worked fine, so it wasn't the KVM switch. Took the 'dead' monitor apart. It is well cared for and the exterior is vacuum dusted weekly. There was still, however, almost 20 years of dust inside, even a dead moth. Used an electrical meter to test main fuse resistance, it was fine. Cleaned the interior with a paint brush and vacuum cleaner. Carefully reseated all obvious reachable connections. No obvious damage, burnout, etc.

The monitor works again and has been flawless all evening! Probably just dumb luck, could have been a temporarily flaky connection. Suspect just fully unplugging it for over an hour allowed the capacitors and power supply to fully reset. Electronics are finicky, something new can break in less than a year, a trivial fix might last for an hour or 20 years.

Often there is very little that can be fixed with these monitors, unless you're an electrical engineer/tech and have a well stocked parts room. There are, however, a few simple items including: electrical cord and power switch repair, main fuse replacement (some need soldering), interior cleaning to prevent overheating, connection checks. There are usually only four screws and the entire housing slips off. Anyone working on these monitors should be familiar with the risks of working around capacitors, they can be lethal. Be very cautious, use tools and brushes that are non-conductive. Better yet, leave the unit unplugged overnight and work on it the next day.

CRT monitors have a bad reputation for power consumption and are difficult to properly recycle but the embodied energy has already been spent. In my relatively colder climate it's heating season for 6-8 months per year, few shoulder season months and a couple air conditioning months. For the most part the extra heat production is not wasted, keeps the office warm. Sometimes in the summer i swap with a small low energy flat panel display.

Came across this very interesting long read article (>10 minutes) for anyone interested in vintage CRTs.
https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/6/16973914/tvs-crt-restoration-led-gaming-vintage

[ClassicNick]

6 hours ago, Wunderbar98 said:

Hi ClassicNick, are you referring to the SYSTEM.CB file modifications described in 'Usher's Method' earlier?

System.ini

[vcache]

MaxFileCache=16384 or MaxFileCache=65536

[Wunderbar98]

Hi ClassicNick. If you mean during normal runtime, after installation, don't know. Maybe restrictive, yet Windows 98 thus far to me seems to run best within it's natural limitations. Maybe someone more experienced can provide feedback.

Unfortunately my first install on 'pimped' hardware proved fatal. My go to Windows 98 install on much lesser, maybe more Windows 98 friendly hardware, runs circles around it, aside from the RAM limitation for QEMU testing. Did a reformat and fresh install yesterday, will keep trying some new stuff. The QEMU project will have to wait. Never had an install go so flaky, thought it improved, then worse again. All sorts of wierd problems, the OS was not usable: IRQ conflict, D: drive (CD-ROM) disappeared, reboots rebooted twice, very slow boot, shutdown hang, system hesitated and stalled during the simplest of tasks, yuck.

Unfortunately this is untested hardware with driver's never trialed. Don't know yet if it was a bad install, bad configuration, crappy drivers or flaky hardware. Will keep at it, curious to learn more. This latest install just used SYSTEM.INI -> [386Enh] -> MaxPhysPage=20000 during the install, no [vcache] entry or other config changes, and the install seemed to run through cleanly. Maybe also the key is to use the CD to boot to DOS during the first installer reboot to make the config change, BEFORE hitting the memory error failed boot, as this may have caused a corrupted installation.

Nice quick article here on [vcache] if anyone's interested (no JavaScript needed).
https://www.computerhope.com/jargon/v/vcache.htm

[Wunderbar98]

Major hardware components on the new system tested well using a Linux live-CD. The revised Windows 98 install completed the other day appears to have run through clean. Think revising the installation procedure to limit RAM to 512 MB via SYSTEM.INI was key, BEFORE hitting the out of memory error. After Windows 98 installation, reverted the SYSTEM.INI change and installed RLoew's memory patch. The system now recognizes 1.5 GB RAM and is not using any SYSTEM.INI modifications.

Now all hardware drivers install without issue. First time using ATI graphics with Windows 98. When the ATI installer recommends DirectX, what it really means is install DirectX before the graphic driver. From poor memory, usually install the graphic drivers first, then DirectX after the graphic drivers are observed to work well.

Everything now runs snappy and fast, Windows 98 on steroids. Scandisk is clean and the system is defragged. Quite a bit of fragmentation after the Windows, drivers and DirectX install. Will see if the household printer can be tricked to run in Windows 98, otherwise this install will probably just be used for QEMU testing. It would make an excellent gaming rig for processor intensive Windows 98 era games. Would most likely need a slowdown utility for DOS games.

[Wunderbar98]

The 'SYSTEM.INI 1024 MB RAM Limitation Configuration' post towards the bottom of page 19 was revamped and renamed 'Installing and Running Windows 98 with > 512 MB RAM'. The new method resulted in a clean, stable installation that maximizes RAM utilization. The use of RLoew's memory patch is considered vanilla, as it was specifically coded for Windows 9x.

[Wunderbar98]

An updated 9xweb script (Windows 9x Web Helper, version 20200203 Beta) is available, download from below.
https://msfn.org/board/topic/177106-running-vanilla-windows-98-in-2020/page/17/?tab=comments#comment-1176154
 
1. A configurable 'sleepSecs' variable was added to avoid an apparent slow file system race condition when using video_fetch, causing the script to occasionally trip. It appears to result in less errors and a smoother experience. See the USER CONFIG section of the script.
 
# Seconds of sleep to avoid slow file system race condition
# during video_fetch HTML parsing and media auto play:
sleepSecs="3"
 
2. New beta video description feature. The video description is fetched from the YouTube HTML file and dumped to terminal after the video download. Browse YouTube without JavaScript if desired and still review the descriptions for fetched videos. Longer descriptions usually hide behind JavaScript links, this should fetch that text too. The 'less' command is used for long descriptions that would otherwise scroll off screen. So far it seems to work fairly well.
 
3. Default media players are changed to below, adjust in USER CONFIG as desired.
 
# Toggle media player for YouTube downloads:
vidPlayer1="c:/program files/tcpmp/player.exe"
vidPlayer2="c:/program files/smplayer/mplayer/mplayer.exe"
 
TCPMP listed as primary, as it opens fast and reportedly works in Windows 95. Still unsure if this script works in Windows 95. On a fresh vanilla Windows 98 system, a default SMPlayer (mplayer.exe) v0.6.7 install does not require the extra codecs installation if you just want YouTube MP4s. Of course, you can point the config to your favourite media player.

[siria]

Am sorry this is all too far beyond my limited skills and HW, but hope it helps others.
Just since you mention youtube descriptions, am using this in custom adblock.css to unhide them.
That hidden "complete" text had bugged me mighty for years, until finally figuring it out after endless trial+errors.

@-moz-document domain(youtube.com) {
.autoplay-on   {display: none !important; }
#default-language-box   {display: none !important; }

/* hide fix top header (search box) */
div#masthead-positioner {display: none !important; }

/*  SHOW COMPLETE lower description text!! */
div#watch-description-text {
height: auto !important; 
max-height: none !important;
}
}

(Additionally am using a 20-line script by macro on demand, to show the duration and load the static image)
Edited February 3, 2020 by siria

[Wunderbar98]

Hi siria. Pasted your CSS code into a RetroZilla userContent.css file, long YouTube descriptions now display, thank-you very much. Video duration not a big deal, as they already display on the YouTube search results page and the extra videos linked along the right side of a page. My favourite YouTube search is to use 'search_term[space],short' to get results of < 4 minutes duration, something like that. Good if you want to check something out quick. Similarly appending '[space],long' only displays search results > 20 minutes or similar.

Curious, due to poor page layout in RetroZilla, do you think some global (not site specific) CSS modifcations would make a difference or just a zero-sum game? Also, have you ever created your own RetroZilla View -> Use Style, would you just use userContent.css or an extension like Stylish? For anyone using Stylish, beware it's well documented that later versions are spyware, unsure if those versions are still hosted on archive[dot]org.

Edited February 4, 2020 by Wunderbar98

[Wunderbar98]

Probably installed Windows 98 more than 100 times over the years. Most OS are installed, use them for 3-5 years, move on. In Linux there are always new distributions and releases, the change over can be frequent. This latest install is two scoops of vanilla on a waffle cone. Other than installing DirectX v9.0c, no Windows Updates were applied. Haven't tested Windows 98 in this manner yet, so far so good. Might be considered good enough for someone that just wants to set up a quick system for a gaming fix.

Favourite part of a fresh Windows 98 system is the tweaking: drivers, base software, basic configuration, tweak to infinity. Usually takes numerous sessions, even weeks or months, until the system becomes seasoned, the sweet spot! Definitely a good time for a full backup.

Edited February 4, 2020 by Wunderbar98

[Wunderbar98]

The hardware on this fresh install (1.8 GHz AMD Athlon XP 2500, 1.5 GB RAM, ATI Xpert 2000 Pro 32 MB) is able to play 1280 x 720 full-screen MP4 fairly well. Took a while to get SMPlayer and SMPlayer's 'mplayer.exe' config tuned. Following SMPlayer install, CPU use was high and video was choppy, something wasn't right. The SMPlayer -> Options -> Preferences did not list an audio driver, launching from Windows there was no sound. The primary sound drivers for Windows 98 are apparently 'dsound' or 'win32', with 'win32' being less problematic. No JavaScript needed:
https://forum.smplayer.info/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=20

Also adjusted some other sound settings. Video settings use double-buffering and post-processing, driver is 'directx'. SMPlayer settings are stored in the smplayer.ini file, which can provide hints when configuring the 'mplayer.exe' config file by hand. Preference is still to launch 'mplayer.exe' standalone, either from Windows or if using 9xweb, Cygwin/Linux. If using 'mplayer.exe' in this manner, both the Windows (Program Files -> SMPlayer -> mplayer) and Linux (cygwin -> home -> system_name -> mplayer) config files need to be modified.

So far this 'mplayer.exe' config works well.
# Write your default config options here!
really-quiet=yes
vo=directx
ao=win32
framedrop=yes