98SE Tips & Techniques

[glocK_94]

Sorry then. Maybe someone else can help you as it works for me and so I'm out of ideas.

[awergh]

isnt the browseui from w98 different sizes to that of xp so you need to ask tihiy or install rp which has 32bit icons

[glocK_94]

Images in 98 Browseui are 16 pixels high (small icons) and 20 pixels high (big icons). In XP they're 16 pixels and 24 pixels high. So the small buttons look fine but you have to resize the bitmaps for large ones or use Tihiy's trick to modify buttons height : http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=83500

But anyway, as there's no alpha-blend support, the buttons look bad when disabled. RP is the only solution to avoid that.

[mitry]

I'm new in this forum, and i'm not sure if this is the right topic for my problem.

I got really, really tired searching for a driver for nvidia nforce2 ide adapter on the internet. There is no official driver for windows 9x/ME.

Now i use the MS driver that shows for primary and secondary ide adapter single fifo and i have serious problems with cd and dvd burning (mostlly buffer underrun).

Got one link for a manufactured driver, but gues what, the link is dead. If anyone know where i can download such a driver i really appreciate.

[glocK_94]

Welcome mitry!

Yes, you should start a dedicated topic for that kind of problem.

Anyway, I read somewhere that Asus has drivers for this. You might wanna check there...

Edited January 15, 2007 by glocK_94

[maniacOTaku]

That is exactly what was I looking for when I made this Thread.

Topic

@ problemchyld

There is indeed.

It's called Firefox + Adblock Plus (or SeaMonkey w/out extension for that matter).

Hint: Use Mindows. It's quite small therefore fast and stable.

Or 98lite.

Is there a good way to flatten the Start-Button like editing Explorer.exe or the Registry?

(I use TClock2 to make the tray flat and the Win95 Explorer.exe. TClock2 can't modify the Button....)

[galahs]

Here's a little Virtual Memory trick I like to use in Windows 98 SE. I have 256MB of RAM.

I usually do this just after re-installing Windows98, and before installing programs so I know I don't have any programs running in the background. Only use this if you have 64MB of RAM or more and at least a Gigabyte of Hard Disk space available!!!!

My Computer - Control Panel - System

Performance (Tab) - Virtual Memory (button)

(Check) Let me specify my own virtual memory settings - (tick box) Disable my virtual memory - (Click) OK - (Click) Yes on the Warning box

Restart your computer now!

Now you need to defrag the hard disk where you want your Virtual Memory to go. Usually this is C: drive.

Find Disk Defragmenter under:

Start - Programs - Accessories - System Tools - Disk Defragmenter

This will ensure you have a nice empty section on your hard disk for your Virtual Memory to reside. This allows your Virtual Memory to be in one continuous piece which speeds up access and read times.

Now we want to turn Virtual Memory back on, and set a minimum size but NOT a maximum size.

This means a certain amount of your Hard Disk will be constantly allocated as Virtual Memory but it can also be increased by Windows automatically if needed.

This provides two performance benefits.

1: Prevents your virtual memory from being fragmented into many parts slowing down access and read times.

2: If the minimum size is large enough, Windows shouldn't have to increase the size of the Virtual Memory too often, reducing system overheads.

but by not putting a maximum limit helps to prevent you from getting "Out of Memory" errors or "Blue Screens Of Death!"

Now the difficult bit is determining the minimum Virtual Memory amount. Its very much dependant on a few areas.

1 - if its set too big, you end up wasting too much Hard Disk space. It also becomes a burden for Windows to manage (decreased performance)

2 - the more system RAM you have, the less Virtual Memory you will need (and visa versa).

3. - set it too small and Windows will have to be constantly increasing the size of the Virtual Memory, meaning all performance advantages are lost. So if you use alot of memory intensive programs, set the Minimum value higher.

My Computer - Control Panel - System

Performance (Tab) - Virtual Memory (button)

- (Check) Let Windows manage my virtual memory settings

then change your mind and

-(Check) Let me specify my own virtual memory settings

- Hard Disk (Choose the Hard Disk you just defragmented)

- Minimum (enter your minimum amount of virtual memory (in Megabytes) you want Windows to keep at all times)

- Maximum (Don't touch it! It should be set to your Maximum amount of free space available)

- Click OK, and click Yes on the Warning Screen.

Restart your Computer again!

If you go back into the Virtual Memory settings you will see that Windows is now managing your Virtual memory (no maximum - so it will make it bigger if needs be) but a minimum amount is set (will also appear shaded out).

Success!!!

Tips

I usually set my Minimum Virtual Memory value to 100MB

My system has 256MB of RAM.

So basically Windows has 356MB of memory to its disposal before my Swap file needs to be increased (ie. performance reduction).

But I only do basic Web Browsing and Word Processing on my computer.

For a power user (runs lots of applications at once, or does photo or video editing) a higher value should be used. A combined value of Physical RAM and Virtual Memory of upto 1GB might be more preferable. But its trial and error.

Also remember, you should repeat the entire process again (disable - defrag - enable - restart), if you want to set a new Minimum amount, ensuring your Virtual Memory remains in a continuous block.

For users with two Hard Disks: Best Virtual Memory performance is obtained if the Virtual Memory is placed on a separate (physical/not partion) hard disk to the one Windows is installed on. this way Windows can access its files of one hard disk whilst reading and writing to its virtual memory on the other at the same time.

Edited February 8, 2007 by galahs

[PROBLEMCHYLD]

Is there a way to get double colums when clicking the start button

like how it is on WinXP.

[PROBLEMCHYLD]

Instead of starting a new topic I just dug up an old one because it suits my question.

Does anyone know how to remove the floppy icon in windows explorer,

the reason being i don't have a floppy drive so I don't need it. Thanks

[cure]

Instead of starting a new topic I just dug up an old one because it suits my question.

Does anyone know how to remove the floppy icon in windows explorer,

the reason being i don't have a floppy drive so I don't need it. Thanks

Yes, this would be of interest.

[triger49]

Instead of starting a new topic I just dug up an old one because it suits my question.

Does anyone know how to remove the floppy icon in windows explorer,

the reason being i don't have a floppy drive so I don't need it. Thanks

Yes, this would be of interest.

The cheap and dirty way is simply to go into device manager,

find the floppy drive controller, bring up it's property sheet

and put a check mark beside "Disable in this profile". Of course

that leaves an ugly red 'X' in your device manager window. But it

works....

Jake

[Multibooter]

Does anyone know how to remove the floppy icon in windows explorer, the reason being i don't have a floppy drive so I don't need it.

With TweakUI (v1.33, for Win98, digitally signed 29-Aug-2000 by MS, no idea where to get it now) you can prevent any drive letter from being displayed in My Computer, but not in Windows Explorer.

Since WinBoost (I just checked with old v4.6 of 2-Sep-2003, v4.9 is the current version at http://www.magellass.com/index.html ) can hide selected drives in both Windows Explorer and My Computer, there must be a way to hide the floppy drive letter with a registry patch. WinBoost requires a reboot after hiding/unhiding drive letters, TweakUI doesn't.

[MDGx]

With TweakUI (v1.33, for Win98, digitally signed 29-Aug-2000 by MS, no idea where to get it now) you can prevent any drive letter from being displayed in My Computer, but not in Windows Explorer.

All editions of TweakUI have always been available at my site...

http://www.mdgx.com/toy.htm#SYS

http://www.mdgx.com/98-3.htm#TUI

TUI 1.33 links point to the archived file [@ Internet Wayback Machine, a.k.a. Archive.org]:

http://web.archive.org/web/20070323001530/http://download.microsoft.com/download/winme/Install/1.0/WinMe/EN-US/Tweakui.exe

HTH

[triger49]

Does anyone know how to remove the floppy icon in windows explorer, the reason being i don't have a floppy drive so I don't need it.

With TweakUI (v1.33, for Win98, digitally signed 29-Aug-2000 by MS, no idea where to get it now) you can prevent any drive letter from being displayed in My Computer, but not in Windows Explorer.

Since WinBoost (I just checked with old v4.6 of 2-Sep-2003, v4.9 is the current version at http://www.magellass.com/index.html ) can hide selected drives in both Windows Explorer and My Computer, there must be a way to hide the floppy drive letter with a registry patch. WinBoost requires a reboot after hiding/unhiding drive letters, TweakUI doesn't.

Hey Multibooter, how you doing?

Have had no experience with Winboost, but using Tweakui to

hide drives causes parts of the right click context menu

on the start button to be grayed out....

http://www.helpwithwindows.com/windows98/troub-05.html

Also causes shutdown / reboot to hang in some cases, but

I did not write in my notes where I learned that from. But

I just tryed it here and it still does it...

Winboost may circumvent all that...

Jake

Edited October 28, 2010 by triger49

[Andromeda43]

My apologies!

Back in 2006 when I posted to this thread, I gave links to my Web Page, to download certain programs for windows 98/SE.

That web page has been gone now for several years.

I still have some of the old programs that I used for '98, even though I've not used them in many years now.

However, I still use my Windows ME Utilities disk to set up new hard drives. I recently used it to set up a new 500gig SATAII drive.

For all my DOS boot disks, like the one I use to run Ghost 2003, I use the boot files from Windows ME.

If someone really needs one of the old programs, please just drop me a PM and I'll see if I can find them for you.

Y'all have a great 2011

Andromeda B)