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Auto-Patcher For Windows 98se (English)

soporific

By soporific
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soporific

soporific

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I for one, will take your package, and compress it with 7zip, then wrap it with 7zip's SFX extra addon, which will make the package self-extractable to the 'C:\Windows\Temp' directory, and execute the script. This way, you can distribute the package on CD, and still have it work properly. Many of my patches are deployed in this way. (IE6 SP1, DX 9, both on Win9xPP v4.1).

7-zip has an SFX add-on??!?? --- YES !!!!!! --- go here to grab the add-ons if you are like me and have only just found out (by reading this!)

For your information, Windows Update claimed it needed Internet Explorer SP 1 Cum update KB916281, IE6 Security update KB833989, and 98 Securiy update KB918547 this time.

I've confirmed Windows Update says you have all the updates installed when you have run v.1.5 - Seriously, v1.0 of this project was not really up to scratch on so many levels. I hope you like the new version.

But there still is a problem with stuff registering in System Information. Nearly all Internet Explorer files are listed as missing when clicking file versions, and the Internet Explorer link itself there brings up a blank page with no information. Any idea what's causing this?

No, but I'll check it out ...

Edited by soporific

soporific

soporific

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Another 7-zip SFX GUI tool [EasySFX], very easy to use [copyright free software]:

http://www.excessive-software.eu.tt/

Thanks for the tips ... I can't for the life of me work out how to use the offical add-on so it'll be one of the other two it seems ...

OK, some help is needed ...

* Dial-up Networking 1.4 --- i've been studying Gape's service pack for quite a while and I can't for the life of me work out what he's done to install DUN 1.4 --- I can't even find the files inside the install package that InstallWatcher tells me is needed to install it. This is a real shame because this is a highly recommended update (and its needed to install stuff like IPsec VPN). If there is anyone that can repackage this update to fix the unattended issues, that would be great. Otherwise DUN 1.4 will need to be installed manually.

* ditto the Webfolders update (kb892211) - although this is nowhere near as important. The problem is it wants to immediately reboot after installation. I have even tried to accomodate this, ie set a runonce command to restart autopatcher after the computer reboots, and then exit out immediately after starting the update. When I do this, the installer plays funny buggers with me by exiting like it is supposed to (ie exits without rebooting) --- and when I think that its OK to not accomodate the automatic reboot, it does it anyway. Its like it knows what I want it to do and does the opposite just to spite me.

* ditto the .Net Framework 2.0 update (kb917283) --- the problem with this seems to be the switch -- it works by itself ( /q) but when used within the program it causes the same problem as kb892211 (see above)

* ditto NUSB23e .... this is just bewildering ... please see the screenshot below:

SHOT4.png

As you can see (look at the title of the window), the switch is /Q:A /R:N -- and it still wants to reboot with a message prompt. Arrgghhhh!!! MDGx has helpfully tested it on his system and didn't get the reboot message. So maybe this is a problem with the batch file process. Does anyone know of any issues where the switch functionality gets changed for some reason? This would explain a lot ...

I'm going ahead with releasing v1.5 with the above issues outstanding because v1.5 is mighty fine!!

soporific

soporific

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Please download NUSB23E.EXE from my site:

http://www.mdgx.com/spx/NUSB23E.EXE

That's the one I've used to install unattended without any prompts.

You may have an older/buggy/test version. [?]HTH

MDGx -- thanks for the link, but I've already tried that but I did it again just to be sure. I have some other ideas about how to defeat this so i'll report on my progress soon ... thanks again

soporific

soporific

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Posted (edited)

it's coming, promise!! --- just while you're waiting, any comments on the following:

the 'High Performance' tweak update makes the following adjustments to SYSTEM.INI:

%10%\system.ini,386Enh, , "ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1"
%10%\system.ini,386Enh, , "LocalLoadHigh=1"
%10%\system.ini,386Enh, , "MaxPhysPage=60000"
%10%\system.ini,386Enh, , "LocalLoadHigh=1"
%10%\system.ini,386Enh, , "PageBuffers=32"
%10%\system.ini,386Enh, , "DMABufferSize=64"
%10%\system.ini,386Enh, , "PerVMFiles=200"
%10%\system.ini,386Enh, , "MinSPs=4"
%10%\system.ini,386Enh, , "MaxBPs=300"
%10%\system.ini,386Enh, , "VGAMonoText=Off"
%10%\system.ini,386Enh, , "VideoFastPaste=On"
%10%\system.ini,386Enh, , "PageOverCommit=20"
%10%\system.ini,386Enh, , "MinTimeSlice=40"
%10%\system.ini,386Enh, , "RemovableIDE=1"
%10%\system.ini,386Enh, , "SysVMEMSLimit=-1"
%10%\system.ini,386Enh, , "NoWaitNetIO=On"
%10%\system.ini,386Enh, , "NetHeapSize=20"

%10%\system.ini,vcache, , "Chunksize=1024"
%10%\system.ini,vcache, , "NameCache=4096"
%10%\system.ini,vcache, , "DirectoryCache=96"
%10%\system.ini,vcache, , "MaxFileCache=524288"

These are directly from the performance tweaks INF in the Upgrade Pack 98 by X-Pachner. I admit to being mostly ignorant of exactly what these do. Any information I'm sure will be greatly appreciated by all.

Edited by soporific
MDGx

MDGx

Posted
Posted (edited)
the 'High Performance' tweak update makes the following adjustments to SYSTEM.INI:
%10%\system.ini,386Enh, , "ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1"
%10%\system.ini,386Enh, , "LocalLoadHigh=1"
%10%\system.ini,386Enh, , "MaxPhysPage=60000"
%10%\system.ini,386Enh, , "LocalLoadHigh=1"
%10%\system.ini,386Enh, , "PageBuffers=32"
%10%\system.ini,386Enh, , "DMABufferSize=64"
%10%\system.ini,386Enh, , "PerVMFiles=200"
%10%\system.ini,386Enh, , "MinSPs=4"
%10%\system.ini,386Enh, , "MaxBPs=300"
%10%\system.ini,386Enh, , "VGAMonoText=Off"
%10%\system.ini,386Enh, , "VideoFastPaste=On"
%10%\system.ini,386Enh, , "PageOverCommit=20"
%10%\system.ini,386Enh, , "MinTimeSlice=40"
%10%\system.ini,386Enh, , "RemovableIDE=1"
%10%\system.ini,386Enh, , "SysVMEMSLimit=-1"
%10%\system.ini,386Enh, , "NoWaitNetIO=On"
%10%\system.ini,386Enh, , "NetHeapSize=20"

%10%\system.ini,vcache, , "Chunksize=1024"
%10%\system.ini,vcache, , "NameCache=4096"
%10%\system.ini,vcache, , "DirectoryCache=96"
%10%\system.ini,vcache, , "MaxFileCache=524288"

These are directly from the performance tweaks INF in the Upgrade Pack 98 by X-Pachner. I admit to being mostly ignorant of exactly what these do. Any information I'm sure will be greatly appreciated by all.

Most of these system.ini [386enh] section tweaks are explained here:

http://www.mdgx.com/lastweek.htm#SYSINI

MSKB official system.ini settings:

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=83435

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=83436

Please note that MaxBPs is obsolete in all 9x OSes = reminiscent from Win3.x days.

System.ini [Vcache] section tweaks here:

http://www.mdgx.com/newtip1.htm#THRASH

Please note that DirectoryCache is not a valid system.ini setting.

HTH

Edited by MDGx
Eck

Eck

Posted
Posted (edited)

Uucchh!!

That's exactly the kind of stuff that made me dislike the UpgradePack98 immensely.

Just a few tweaks for memory are all 98 needs, and those can be made by the user. Gape does some in his pack and MDGx does a few more (mostly just learned about the icon cache increase and the renabling the removal of shortcut arrows after shell.dll fixes) but that's about all that's needed for average folks. After running Gape's, the AutoPatcher, and 98SE2ME, 98SE2XP and the MP10 update I sure didn't need to tweak my Autoexec or Systemini files.

Well, as long as you make the selection of that option voluntary then I guess it's all right but really, most folks will install the full 98SE2ME afterwards anyway. That installs the needed tweaks that Gape installs and adds a couple of its own. Mostly just to overcome stuff that Microsoft security updates break.

When I tried the UpgradePack I was surprised by all the registry tweaks. After trying to undo nearly all of them, I gave up and formatted.

Best not to mess with the System.ini file or add stuff to folk's Autoexec.bat. MaxFileCache=393216 is better for most systems than the huge Max amount. Tests showed Windows performs better with the lower amount there.

I just like to have updates, not a system I no longer recognize. Which is what I got with that UpgradePack98 thing. Heh, I didn't get mad because his web page warns that if we're upset with his tweaks,"I don't care!" He made me laugh so I couldn't really get too angry. A sense of humor goes a long way.

Edited by Eck
eidenk

eidenk

Posted
Posted
"ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1"

I don't think this is a good one. In my experience I found that it significantly degradated system performance.

soporific

soporific

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That's exactly the kind of stuff that made me dislike the UpgradePack98 immensely.

Fair enough, but you haven't seen how the options work --- you can very easily ask AutoPatcher to skip installing any of the optional extras you don't want to install. It is very quick to do this as well. So, until you see it in action, its best to proceed assuming you'll be easily able to choose which updates you want.

"ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1"

I don't think this is a good one. In my experience I found that it significantly degradated system performance.

So what would be the "safe" high performance tweaks?

I could go nuts and create a separate option for each and every SYSTEM.INI option so you can select at will -- I could even add a function that allows you to enter your own desired setting.

But I only want to write code for stuff people are going to use. Maybe I should just release v1.5, you can see what I'm going on about, and then we could re-visit this question ...

recent updates and add-ons to the project:

- the best news is the report function is now complete. You can ask AutoPatcher to search for all missing updates and it will open the results in Notepad so you can see before-hand what AutoPatcher wants to install. How cool is that? It uses the same module routines and was so easy to implement it wasn't funny.

- many more things have been added:

Netmeeting 3.01, Microsoft Management Console 1.2, Microsoft L2TP/IPSec VPN Client, Internet Explorer 6 Administration Kit, Unofficial Update to Allow Drives over 137Gb (both versions), Unofficial Fix for Bug with Windows Explorer and numerous large files, Windows Media Encoder 7.1, NPUpdW98 (the update for notepad ), and the controversial High Performance Tweaks update.

All the above can be selected and unselected. So don't fret!!

Eck

Eck

Posted
Posted

Heh, heh, all righty then.

98 hates me anyway.

"Error Loading Device IOS"

"Real Mode Memory Allocation Failed"

It happened again. With no smartdrv anywhere, still won't boot.

I've lost the ability to run Windows 98. P's me off!

Every single time I install 98, eventually I get hit with that. Last time I solved it by getting rid of smartdrv.exe, then it happened later on anyway.

BUT, it never happens on VMWare. So I suppose that's the route I'm stuck with. I couldn't even run 98 on a new Intel SE440BX.

I'm the guy that fixes all my friends and relations computers. And I can't even run a Windows 98SE system myself. I AM the tech guy here, so I don't have anyone to ask. The internet has NO information about this besides renaming or removing smartdrv.exe or rmm.pdr or running the commercial RegRepair2000. That thing just screwed with my fonts but couldn't fix the problem. I've tried messing with the WMP Roxio stuff too. Makes no difference.

I don't have a clue about this. I ran 98 since about when it was released and never encountered this problem until just a few months ago. Since I first saw this, it now has happened every single time I've tried to setup a 98SE system.

I'm ranting, but can you blame me?

Currently running XP Pro SP2 and Vista. But I really wanted 98SE, XP Pro SP2 and Vista. Oh, well. I'll be using the AutoPatcher when I get around to installing VMWare. Actually, in that scenario the only thing I'll need 98 for is running Star Trek Captain's Chair. Everything else I would use in 98 are Direct X and MS-DOS stuff that VMWare won't do. My dos games don't even give me video in VMWare. And VirtualPC was horrible when I tried it. It crashed constantly whereas VMWare hasn't ever crashed on me.

It'll be a while before I bother with a real 98 install. Too much recent frustration!

oscardog

oscardog

Posted
Posted

Eck try going through the step by step confirmation on boot up F8, not loading the vxds one at a time until you find the culprit, if it is a via chipset look out for viagart.vxd it can be a real pain.

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