Missing APIs in Win98/SE

[PROBLEMCHYLD]

I heard through the grapevine that some apps are able to run on Win95

that wasn't able to run on Win98/SE is this true?

If so can somebody compile a list of Missing Apis

that Win95 have that Win98/SE don't

thanks

[galahs]

Other than programs that require Internet Explorers upgraded shell, alot of its to do with testing.

Software companies have to test each OS they list as a System Requirement. Less OS's listed, less they have to test, less money spent.

A good example is Windows Media Player 9. It requires Windows 98 Second Edition or higher.

I could not believe it could work on Windows 98 SE and not Windows 98 FE.

So I made a change in the registry identifying Win98FE as Win98SE and guess what.

It worked no problems at all!

I then tried the same trick on Windows 95 (with IE 5.5 installed).

It also worked without a problem.

So some times companies deliberately cripple OS support just to:

1. make you upgrade

2. to save them the time and expense of offering compatability status

Just annoys me when companies disable OS's for the sake of saving them testing. For non critical software companies should just list it as unsupported and allow users to take the decision themselves if they wish to use the software on a unsupported system.

[erpdude8]

A good example is Windows Media Player 9. It requires Windows 98 Second Edition or higher.

I could not believe it could work on Windows 98 SE and not Windows 98 FE.

So I made a change in the registry identifying Win98FE as Win98SE and guess what.

Not so fast, galahs!!!

I GOT WMP9 to work under Win98 FE! I made a post about it in another thread. Let me know if you want to know how to install WMP9 under Win98fe.

Edited June 27, 2006 by erpdude8

[eidenk]

Uh ?

[galahs]

I managed to get it to work fine, but is there a better way?

[Fredledingue]

So some times companies deliberately cripple OS support just to:

1. make you upgrade

2. to save them the time and expense of offering compatability status

Just annoys me when companies disable OS's for the sake of saving them testing. For non critical software companies should just list it as unsupported and allow users to take the decision themselves if they wish to use the software on a unsupported system.

DXN (DivX) did exactly that.

When saying require XP/2000 they also make sure you run their program on a relatively recent machine.

Edited June 25, 2006 by Fredledingue

[erpdude8]

I managed to get it to work fine, but is there a better way?

WMP9 works fine under Win98 SE without making ANY registry changes. I installed WMP9 under a clean install of Win98se and it worked great. For Win98 FE, you'll have to do some work in order to make WMP9 run under Win98 FE.

here's my quote from the WMP10 in Windows 98 thread:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...53286&st=30

ok, scratch that earlier comment. I've just found a way to make WMP9 install under Win98 FE and it involves editing the control.xml file. Simply extract all the files from the WMP9 setup file onto a temp folder, edit the control.xml file in Wordpad, change ALL instances of 4.10.2222 to 4.10.1998, save changes and then run the setup_wm.exe file from the temp folder and WMP9 will be installed and functional under Win98 FE.

Media Player 9's setup_wm.exe file uses the information from the control.xml file to install WMP9. I figured if you change the Win98 OS version from 4.10.2222 to 4.10.1998 in the control.xml file, the WMP9 setup installer will install the Media Player 9 files under Win98 version 4.10.1998. thus, a "different" way to install WMP9 under Win98 FE with making NO changes to Windows registry.

Edited June 27, 2006 by erpdude8

[LLXX]

Did Win95 have APIs that Win98/SE didn't

I'm not aware of any. It'd make sense that 98se APIs would be a superset of the 95/98fe ones, considering backwards compatibility is very good in the 9x line.

[erpdude8]

DXN (DivX) did exactly that.

When saying require XP/2000 they also make sure you run their program on a relatively recent machine.

yea doesnt that suck, Fredledingue? DXN DivX codec doesnt even work under Win98/ME? dump it and find an alternative to that software that is 9x/NT5x compatible or that works under ALL 32bit editions of Windows.

Edited June 28, 2006 by erpdude8

[LLXX]

DivX (not sure of the version) does work on 98se... but I prefer the free ffdshow universal codec instead.

[erpdude8]

I heard through the grapevine that some apps are able to run on Win95

that wasn't able to run on Win98/SE is this true?

If so can somebody compile a list of Missing Apis

that Win95 have that Win98/SE don't

thanks

the QEMM (any version) memory manager tool ran well under Win95 but gives Win98/98se/ME fits. QEMM is incompatible with Win98/ME and can only work under Win95.