Jump to content

Running Windows 98 in 2020 and beyond...


Wunderbar98

Recommended Posts

Is anyone using an equivalent to Conky (Linux) or SysTrayMeter (WindowsXP)? Windows 98 feels a little like night driving without dash lights. Preferably low resource requirement, sits in system tray not desktop, displays CPU/RAM/Network activity. Haven't been able to find anything.

Link to comment
Share on other sites


Thanks for the feedback jaclaz, very creative system monitor. Also came across this site, which has TinyResMeter (92kb) in the system section, unfortunately it does not monitor network activity. Lots of other goodies at this site too.
https://tinyapps.org

Sometimes almost panic thinking this great old software is going to disappear but can't download the entire internet. Seems i'm always late to the game, enjoying Windows 98 after most have left, enjoying games most everyone has forgotten.

Maybe i'm mistaken, i always thought Windows 98 had a built-in network activity monitor. I don't have one running and didn't see it in any of the network adapater or networking configurations. Maybe it just pertained to dial-up or i'm confusing it with Windows XP.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Since using this system online more than anticipated, got tired of the manual certificate update workaround mentioned on page 3 of this thread. The workaround is okay if routinely visiting the same old sites but most recent browsing has been visiting new sites, exploring and learning more about Windows 98.

This was already mentioned by siria on page 3 and others have brought it up too, just being thorough. A simple way to update certs even in old SeaMonkey v1.1.19 is to replace the outdated cert8.db file with an up-to-date file from a recent version of SeaMonkey. I imagine this would also work for older Firefox.

If you don't have ready access to an updated cert8.db file, download the latest SeaMonkey for 32-bit Linux from https://www.seamonkey-probject.org and extract the downloaded *.tar.bz2 file, which 7-Zip handles nicely. The default location is C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles\default\your_profile\. Beats constantly handling new certificate popups the manual way.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Wunderbar98 said:

Maybe I'm mistaken, I always thought Windows 98 had a built-in network activity monitor. I don't have one running and didn't see it in any of the network adapter or networking configurations. Maybe it just pertained to dial-up or I'm confusing it with Windows XP.

A few years ago I developed such thing in AutoHotkey. It's not perfect but it did work in an updated 98SE as well as in XP and 7.

Now I'm on Linux and dunno how current version works, if at all.

Also dunno how to send you an executable, considering how anal all mail providers have become, and the fact that I no longer have an online repository that I could link to.

Maybe attaching the source code here would work, but you'd have to install the old AHK version (1.0.48.05) and compile the script yourself or run it as is.

There may be problems when the settings file doesn't exist, I never got around to fix that issue. If you need more help you may contact me privately.

NetMeterEx1509-15011_src.7z

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 minutes ago, Goodmaneuver said:

It should be okay to send an executable inside a zip file etcetera.
 

Unfortunately it doesn't work, at least not with all providers. Stumbled into this too many times to even attempt it again.

And I don't even have a recent version of the script compiled with the old ANSI AHK. So it's best to self-compile from the sources.

As a bonus here's the sources to a RAM/swap/CPU/system load monitoring script that I've been using back on 98SE and XP; this one can be compiled on Unicode AHK v1.1 too (for Win2000+):

 

MemPanel1101_src.7z

Link to comment
Share on other sites

26 minutes ago, Goodmaneuver said:

It does not make sense though about not being able to post an exe inside a compression file. What if the file is placed inside a folder and renamed txt file or something and then zipped? It might be a Linux thing/mail setting?
 

What in this world makes sense anymore? I did try all possible tricks, in time - especially with gmail it's impossible, they must have all possible decryption algorithms together with backdoors. Linux or Windows, it doesn't matter - it's all on the mail server side. But since I don't have the ANSI compiled executables (on this machine at least) and neither recipient's e-mail address, it's a moot point.

The old AHK 1.0 can be downloaded from the official AutoHotkey download page, the compiler is included, and the scripts can also be launched as-is through a double-click.

If an update() error occurs, please copy the update.ahk script from the NetMeterEx/Lib folder to C:/Program Files/AutoHotkey/Lib (create the Lib folder if it doesn't exist).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

> Since the 56k dial-up days I have used Speed Guide TCP Optimizer (now v3.0.8) on Windows 98.

v2.0.3 here. I use MTU:1440, TCP Receive Window: 490000; MTU Discovery: Yes. Get 8Mbps / 1MBps via wifi modem and T-Mobile 4G LTE hotspot (ZTE model) on 98se with WPA2-PSK.

> Maybe i'm mistaken, i always thought Windows 98 had a built-in network activity monitor.

Sysmon.exe Edit>Add Item... (no systray option)

Tihiy's tools: Network activity indicator - Shows simple network stats and open ports.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Drugwash thank-you for your efforts, i've found a suitable alternative outlined below. Linux is overall very good and configurable. Can see why you've switched over, me too during Windows XP. Was wondering why your name doesn't show up here much anymore.

Hi jumper i may play around with my settings later to fine tune, for now my network connection speed is pretty good, what i'm accustomed to. If sysmon.exe had the option of displaying in the system tray it would be great. Tihiy's Tools Network Activity Indicator is perfect. At first, thought the tray icons were too small, but they light up almost florescent when in use, great stuff.

Monitoring network activity from the system tray is important to me, so i will keep using Tihiy's indicator, this is a gem. For casual monitoring of CPU, RAM and Swapfile i will use TinyResMeter, linked in an earlier post. It's very lightweight, unobtrusive, configurable, can sit over/under and even overlay the task bar if desired. Closest thing to Conky i've seen for Windows 98.

As usual thanks for everyone's input.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

DrugWash I have compiled your programs thank you for sharing your work. I like the reverse committed charge (amount of virtual memory left) great texturing (colors). Double left clicking NetPanel.exe brings up Switch Interfaces but then does not show icon but there is a phantom icon there and tray context is functioning. Both are great programs & run fully from AHK scripts & icons show so not a problem.

I can get full download speed from CometBird 9, over 2M Bytes per second. Unfortunately I can not get it to IP transfer on a relatively standard WinME build? (This was because I was using KEX 4.5.11.) FF3.6 not a problem. Opera & FF3.6 (Wyzo) tests at 2.7 MB/s real download speed tested today.

When I use Tihiy's IpTest it did not go to tray. All I get is a volume control after reboot with no extra program running. I do not run the Windows systray volume control in normal usage but use VolumeMouse. I think I may have a registry problem if other members do not have icon problems? I will investigate, when I installed KEX 4.5 years ago it altered Kernel32.dll slightly, first thing I will replace with original. Windows System monitors zero point is offset ever since installing DotNet framework 2.0. ie shows a higher % when idling but when mouse is moved continuously for example CPU usage drops. I think this has got to do with registry HKEY_DYN_DATA. Process explorer shows CPU usage of zero. Also happen one time on an old mother board where standard WinME IDE driver did not work. I lowered 3.3V down a bit then driver booted in and worked good but ever since had high CPU usage. I raised 3.3V back again and still worked but still had high CPU indication. I assume I broke a CMOS transistor but I let you work that one out.

PS. I changed kernel32 back to original but when booting then changes kernel32 again with KEX 4.5.2. I have been running KEX23 with original kernel32. Ahk2Exe.exe needs KEX disabled.
 

Edited by Goodmaneuver
Added info, was using KEX 4.5.11
Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Wunderbar98 said:

thank-you for your efforts

 

4 hours ago, Goodmaneuver said:

thank you for sharing your work.

You're both welcome. And sorry for the bugs and missing functionality, I never seem to finish what I started. And then real life takes over.

6 hours ago, Wunderbar98 said:

Was wondering why your name doesn't show up here much anymore.

Yeah, there's a handful of reasons, not only Linux. But it doesn't matter.

If I ever find a suitable way to share all my "toys" again I'll let you all know. Until then, be well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We have trouble here with sending .EXE files in the mail, too. Even putting them in a .ZIP, .7Z or .TAR.GZ archive did get caught by the mail provider, because it recognised an .EXE file inside the archive. In that case, the archive wasn't the problem, it was the .EXE inside. Renaming the files to obscure the attachments filter didn't help either. What helped however was to use a password on the archive and to encrypt the file names (which was an option in 7-zip, I think). Now the problem is, that the other computer, that recieves the attachment, has to unpack it again, and there are some incompatibilities between different zip- or 7z-versions. That might be annoying, especially when travelling through the decades with Windows 95 and modern Linux machines for example. You have to try a little bit to find some compatible options.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...