Running Windows 98 in 2020 and beyond...

[Wunderbar98]

Spend part of an evening last week exploring sourceforge[dot]net. Couple great old school roguelikes were downloaded and briefly play tested: Rogue Clone IV version 2.1 and Mike's Adventure Game (MAG, query v1.1). Not sure, believe both these games were released in the 1980s. There are so many releases and variations of the original Rogue, hard to keep them straight, the original releases are much older. If the world stopped producing games, music and entertainment 20 years ago, there would still be many lifetimes of good stuff to enjoy.

[Wunderbar98]

Probably a limitation of how Windows 98 handles multiple processes. During audio or video playback there is sometimes noticeable stutter when other CPU intensive tasks are performed simultaneously. Fondly remember an old employer upgrading Windows 3.1 and 9x systems to Windows NT 4.0. It was so professional, smooth, polished and stable. For the most part the NT family of releases seemed to do away with much of these stutters and instabilities. Query whether it was solely NT development or whether these newer systems ran updated media players complete with bug fixes and performance improvements. Also on the same ancient hardware, running a modern but tweaked GNU/Linux release doesn't cause stutter either.

In Windows 98, TCPMP's priority can be increased in the settings. It actually helps at the expense of slowing other processes, obviously there's only so much CPU to go around. Seems the user, based on preference and hardware limitations, needs to decide what level of stutter or performance hit is acceptable.

SMPlayer's MPlayer 'config' (actual file name) can be configured with a 'priority' entry, not yet tested. Options include: idle, belownormal, normal, abovenormal, high or realtime. Realtime isn't recommended by them, as it may cause instability. For me running MPlayer standalone, bypassing SMPlayer, is the leanest of all my media players so stutter is not much of an issue with this player. Note MPlayer's config file is located in C:\Program Files\SMPlayer\mplayer\mplayer\ when running Windows media. If using MPlayer through Cygwin-Lite's 9xweb (Windows 9x Web Helper), the 'config' file utilized is likely in C:\cygwin\home\your_user_name\mplayer\.

VLC also has an advanced option preference to increase process priority, which seems to work well. As VLC is, however, the most resource heavy of this system's media players it rarely gets used. Very nice and professional media player though. If anyone has any CPU priority suggestions, particularly with media playback, any advice welcome :)

[deomsh]

18 hours ago, Wunderbar98 said:

Probably a limitation of how Windows 98 handles multiple processes. During audio or video playback there is sometimes noticeable stutter when other CPU intensive tasks are performed simultaneously.

Try adding to SYSTEM.INI

[386enh]

MinTimeSlice=100

(on my system 100 is max. Default=20, you can also increase in steps of 10).

Reboot required!

 

[Wunderbar98]

Thank-you Deomsh, testing this change since yesterday, hopefully will help. For anyone interested, MDGx provides lots of SYSTEM.INI information.
http://www.mdgx.com/lastweek.htm

[siria]

Just a little addon-tip, since users of old browsers must nowadays toggle page style all the time:

This tiny little addon "Read Easily" toggles View > Page Style On/Off
It creates a toolbar button and a right-click menu and a keyboard shortcut.
And it keeps the current state when opening new pages.
And it installs from Firefox 1.5 up to (??) 56

https://web.archive.org/web/20170902081132/https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/read-easily/

Have just tried it in roytams rzbrowser (Retrozilla-Firefox2) and it first complained about signatures, but after simply deleting the META-INF folder inside the zipped xpi, it installed without any probs :-)

Sorry for Retrozilla-Seamonkey, as usual it refuses such "modern" addon types :-(
Have just struggled for a few hours trying to get other FF2 addons (from my rzbrowser) somehow installed manually, but don't know the necessary tricks. Since my old K-Meleon1.6 was based on Seamonkey too, this is probably the reason why it's near impossible to install any Firefox addons in it either, even manually somehow! In the far past there must have been experts around who converted a few addons, but long before my time. Now am just glad that I rather accidentally got as first Retrozilla version the Firefox type "rzbrowser", before realizing there are also "suites".
Addons seem to be a real nightmare in Seamonkey, installation and managing and uninstalling too. Never realized there'd be such a world of difference to even RZ-Firefox2!

[Wunderbar98]

Hi siria. Thank-you for the information. Couldn't get any release of read-easily*.xpi successfully modified for my RetroZilla either. Glad it works for you with the @roytam1 build. Feel free to post on the RetroZilla Community Edition thread, including a download link to your modified extension. Please specify it's for the @roytam1 build to avoid future confusion.

[Wunderbar98]

Windows 98 SE was installed long time ago on this daily use hardware (800 MHz, 384 MB RAM, 32 MB GeForce 2 graphics). Don't recall doing anything special for the Pioneer CD/DVD hardware install, it's reportedly using a Microsoft driver from 1999.

Since only using Windows 98 for 22 years, to my knowledge the first time DVD media was ever inserted, only remember using CDs with Windows 98 before. To great surprise it reads the DVD no problem, what a champ. Although Device Manager lists the drive under 'CDROM', it correctly identifies the DVD hardware.

Just dug out Neverwinter Nights Diamond, which includes Neverwinter Knights, Shadows of Undrentide expansion, Hordes of the Underdark expansion, Kingmaker expansion with three modules (Kingmaker, Shadow Guard, Witch's Wake). This is a beast of a game, intentionally left aside for years. Bought it used for $10 because he never had time to play. No wonder, it will probably take me years to finish. This hardware barely meets minimum system requirements, will eventually give it a go.

[Wunderbar98]

Timeline of Windows 98 development (codename Memphis, no JavaScript needed).
https://enacademic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/8758931

Apparently Windows 98 was first released on June 25, 1998. Coincidentally the 'finished product' was build number 1998. Find that hard to believe, maybe some number fudging, don't know. By the time Windows 98 SE (Second Edition) was released on May 5, 1999, Microsoft was on build number 2222a. Certainly lots of development time and effort spent on the product.

To me software development is hard. Plus it's always a moving target due to hardware development, the changing interweb, security holes, etc. To manage such a large project, with so many developers and testers, is amazing. It still amazes me that computers for the most part work, there's so much that can go wrong. IMO as Microsoft tried to cover as much hardware as possible, compared to Apple's locked-down hardware model, the job would be much tougher. Congratulations Bill Gates and company for producing something decent that can still be enjoyed so many years later.

[Gansangriff]

Isn't it a shame, that Gates' company has to play the rules of the global market? If they would build the perfect computer operating system, optimise it until it's nearly perfect... But then, no new computers would be sold...
The roots of Windows 98 are definetly older. Compare, how much it improved from Windows 95, which nearly looks the same. The cursor movement is one example. This really looked bad on the old system. It's in a much more polished state on 98 SE. They really put a lot of efforts into that.

[Wunderbar98]

Thank-you Gansangriff for your input. Wonder how much further the Windows 9x DOS-based systems could have come with long term active support. Guess we'll never know.

This MSFN forum seems to be the most active for Windows 9x information. There are at least a couple other sites that i periodically check out, if anyone's interested, no JavaScript needed.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/f/9/windows-9598me/

https://retrocomputing.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/windows-98

[Wunderbar98]

Old school HTTP only multimedia fun in default Internet Explorer 5. The homepage is HTTP only and loads fine.
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/

Today there's a link for 'Kermit The Frog, Miss Piggy & More Preview'. Load this video page in Internet Explorer. Of course it won't autoplay, it isn't 1999 anymore.
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/video/entertainment/kermit-the-frog-miss-piggy-more-preview-muppets-now/vi-BB17nrmv

In Internet Explorer with the video page loaded, select View dropdown -> Source. The 'HTML source' opens in Notepad or asks to open in WordPad if too large. Perform a Notepad / WordPad search for 'mp4', cycle through the entries. My hardware isn't great so i use the *.mp4 entry that ends in '_650.mp4'. Copy and paste this HTTPS URL into Internet Explorer. Manually change 'https' to 'http' and press Enter. Download and enjoy the video.

Change HTTPS:
https://wus-streaming-video-msn-com.akamaized.net/26d41034-c9c5-48f7-83a1-39b37843e064/b920faa3-a0ae-42c9-94e1-6b0483d6_650.mp4

To HTTP:
http://wus-streaming-video-msn-com.akamaized.net/26d41034-c9c5-48f7-83a1-39b37843e064/b920faa3-a0ae-42c9-94e1-6b0483d6_650.mp4

For a long list of videos, click the video you want from here to get the source page, change 'en-ca' region code as desired.
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/video

Of course this might not work for all MSN videos, depending on the source, what the heck. Some MSN video functionality may eventually get coded in the 9xweb script.

[Wunderbar98]

Using DOS and command.com lots, learning and sharing random tidbits, using Windows 98 SE. A command.com window can be opened by clicking Start -> Run or by pressing Windows key + r and entering either 'command' or 'command.com'. If a Windows Explorer window is open and active, the command.com window opens to Windows Explorer's current directory, otherwise probably C:\WINDOWS. Press Alt-Enter to toggle command.com fullscreen mode.

If the command.com window opens without the toolbar, click on the DOS graphic in the top left corner of the title bar, or press Alt-spacebar, and enable the toolbar. From here is is also possible to modify properties. Cut/paste between the command.com window and other applications via system clipboard is done by selecting the DOS graphic -> Edit -> Mark|Copy|Paste (get in to 'mark' mode). If the toolbar is open this can also be performed by clicking 'Mark' (empty square button), mouse select text (multi-line works too) then 'Copy' from the toolbar. Now in system clipboard, paste into notepad/application.

Similarly stuff can be pasted into the command.com window. The ability to mark and copy text from command.com can be permanently enabled via Properties -> Misc tab -> check QuickEdit. Personally i don't like this behaviour. Close and restart command.com to fully disable QuickEdit as desired.

To enter a directory pathway into command.com just drag a folder from Windows Explorer into the command.com window. This won't actually move data, just auto-pastes the full directory pathway at the prompt.

Properties -> Misc tab -> Exclusive mode locks out the mouse while working in the command.com window. If you don't like this behaviour alt-tab out of the command.com window, right-click 'MS-DOS Prompt' on the taskbar, select Properties and disable Exclusive mode.

Already mentioned long time ago, adding 'doskey /insert' in AUTOEXEC.BAT is a must for enabling tab-autocomplete and up arrow for command history. If the doskey.com executable is not present in C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND it can be copied over from the Windows 98 CD (D:\tools\oldmsdos).

When reviwing information that scrolls off screen, pipe the 'more' command, example 'dir c:\windows | more'. The pipe ( | ) character is Shift-\ keys. Press 'q' to exit 'more' as desired. The more command can be used as a lightweight document read-only, example 'more c:\windows\tips.txt'. Use built-in 'edit' if you want to edit a document or just want a full featured reader, example 'edit c:\windows\tips.txt'. Direct output commands to a file for viewing in an editor, example 'dir /w c:\windows\system > c:\windows\temp\my_system_files.txt'.

To get to the root directory (eg. C:\ prompt) enter 'cd \'. To go up one directory 'cd..'. To go up two levels 'cd...', etc. Press Ctrl-c to kill what is running and get the DOS prompt back. For command and usage help, example 'mem /?'. If usage help scrolls off scren, then again use more, example 'dir /? | more'.

Just learned the 'prompt' command, interesting, example 'prompt $d$t$l$p$g'. To review current environmental variables run 'set'. Press Enter key when running 'time' to quick check the time without changing the clock. DOS does not have a Unix-like 'touch' command to create a new file, just run 'edit new_filename.txt' then in edit select save and exit.

To confirm windows version use 'ver'. Windows 98 SE comes with at least three file managers (DOS, explorer.exe, winfile.exe) and text editors (edit.com, notepad.exe, wordpad.exe).

Something that's always bugged me is the lack of scrolling in command.com windows. From a command.com window's DOS graphic (top left corner of title bar) there is even an entry Edit -> Scroll but it's always greyed out. Anyone know if this can be activated and used? Feel free to share additional DOS and command.com tips.

[loblo]

Nobody's ever managed to get a 9x command window to scroll.

Closest thing to it on vanilla is to run win95cmd.exe in Mintty on Cygwin I guess.

This is Mintty 1.1.3.1 on Cygwin 2003 running win95cmd (renamed cmd.exe) in the windows dir. It is configured with a 10000 lines scrollback buffer. I invoke it  from the explorer context menu in any open folder by clicking on the folder icon on the left of the toolbar and choosing "Mintty Here". (chere installed in cygwin required)

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\Mintty]
@="&Mintty Here"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\Mintty\command]
@="\"C:\\cygwin\\\\bin\\mintty.exe\" /bin/env CHERE_INVOKING=1 /bin/bash -l"

Edit: No sorry there is no such option on vanilla as disabling KernelEx prevents Mintty from running, damn!

Well, Rxvt should work though , it's not as nice as Mintty but it's got scrolling too.

Edited August 2, 2020 by loblo

[siria]

> Nobody's ever managed to get a 9x command window to scroll

Except people with small screens, large fonts (10x18), and DOS window set to 50 lines - but only as "demo". Only allows to scroll through the last 50 lines, if the screen is smaller, that doesn't really count.
So the key to available scroll height is the window height, defined by the fix number of lines in the properties. Which is far too small.
As lousy workaround an output to a text file could be considered (xxx.exe > output.txt)

The menu option for scrolling only allows keyboard-scroll with arrow keys, provided the window does already have a scrollbar.

What I wonder:
acc web it's possible to set MORE lines in that DOS window properties, but probably only in newer systems?
> mode con: lines=9999
When I try that it gives only errors, except if setting the already available 25/43/50 lines as in properties :-(
Any hack to allow more lines in Win98 too...?

[Wunderbar98]

Thank-you loblo and siria for the feedback. Some day still hope to check out Cygwin 2003, my Enhanced Cygwin-Lite install only uses a command.com window and does not have a 'win95cmd' alternative, can just run Bash not DOS. Have been unable to find a Windows 98 compatible Rxvt download, seems just X11 (GNU/Linux), not sure.

Guess command.com will never properly scroll. As siria mentioned, setting Properties -> Screen -> Initial size to 50 (options default, 25, 43, 50) provides a scrollbar. So there is a scrolling feature but it only goes back 50 lines! This also activates the greyed out 'Scroll' option in command.com window's DOS graphic (top left corner of title bar) -> Edit -> Scroll but it doesn't seem to do anything, just use the scroll bar on the side of the window i guess. Actually attempting to activate 'Scroll' sometimes causes the command.com window to hang when closing. Attempting to over-ride does not work either, the 'mode' command only accepts the predefined 25|43|50.

mode con: cols=80 lines=50