Running a smooth W98se.. for the novice...

One little trick that makes reinstalling a new operating system fast, is I save all my favorite downloads copied and pasted into a file on the desktop, labeled Downloads... and I add all the downloads I might want to try, as I stumble upon them that month... When I find a new download I want to test, I pull the PC's hd, install one of the crapper hd's, and try the new download on it, so if I've made a bad call, it doesn't kill my favorite hard drive... I search all of the downloads in Majorgeeks... Put a pillow on the chair, so you don't get "computer bum".. you'll be there awhile...

I save that softwares-file on the desktop for a month, then burn it to a CD...
I keep all my notes and pix editing on CD too...

All the new valuable stuff of the day, I copy to floppies at the end of the day... It's a good habit to get into... This way when the PC's OS gets hack or bug slammed, and it comes time to format the hard drive, because of yet another bully's virus hack-hit, it makes formating and reloading a lot easier and faster...

I'm getting the 20-hour systems reload down to just a few hours... Now I really don't care if this PC gets bully hack-attack wrecked... It's just too easy to format and reload.. plus it gives me a clean fresh computer system...


Easy as:

Format C...
Pull the battery for an hour...
Fdisk... Delete partition, Redo partition, Activate it...
Format-C with Scandisk's surface scan...
Install W98 CD...
Install the Tiny Personal Firewall floppy... (from Older Vervions)
Install Internet card and drivers floppy, and get connected...
Install W98se CD...
Install IE6 setup from floppy...
Install the downloaded programs CD... (CCleaner, Easy Cleaner, Nod32, Burn At Once, CM DiskCleaner, Irfanview, Power Defrag, WinZip8.1, WinWall, Spybot, SeaMonkey, Cacheman Memory Recover, and the W98se unofficial update...
Install HP 3 in 1 printer/scanner/copier CD... (for small hd's just install the drivers)
Install the Pix CD...
Install the Notes CD...
Install the PhotoPlus8 CD...
Install the Logitech marble-mouse drivers CD...
Install the Nexxtech lighted-keyboard drivers CD...
Install the MeAfee Uninstaller CD...
Run: Cacheman Memory Restore, CCleaner, EasyCleaner reg cleaner,
Run: CMDiskCleaner reg custom options to "kill the five poops": Macromedia, Shockwave, Flashplayer, Backweb, Showbehind, and Desktopmessenger... (Caution: Do not delete everything CM reg cleaner finds, just the custom search)
Run Scandisk and Defrag...
Set prefs in: Display and in Desktop Files, SeaMonkey, TweakUI, and PP8..
Add SeaMonkey's Bookmarks to SeaMonkey...
Block: IE, OE, HP, SubDesktop, and WinWall from Net-connecting.. using Tiny Personal Firewall's settings...
Update Spybot, and run it...
Update Nod32, and run it...
Apply passwords where needed...
Done!
(for small hd's, I go through the system with Uninstaller's PowerClean, ripping out uninstallers, pix, and everything I don't want to see or use)...

I do that with the drawer full of spare hard drives.. So when the PC takes a hit, getting back onto the Net is easy as pulling one HD, and popping in a spare... No troubles mate..

I keep an old Net-connected iMac, on the floor beside the desk, to open All suspect emails... Sometimes the Mac takes a hard hit, but it's quick and easy to reinstall just the OS... If it gets slammed, I simply pop in the OS-10 CD, click partition, and leave it to install... Add the old Firefox CD, connect to the Net, click update, add the upgrades, and ZipZop it's running again like it never got hack-slammed...

And when the PC's W98se screws up.. I stick in the boot floppy, and Windows CD, type in "windows\command\scanreg/restore", pick an old backup, and hit Enter... Now I avoid all the PC-messup downloads...

(Go to Run, type in %temp%, hit Enter, and delete it all)
Defrag every couple days...
This PC keeps on running like it was new...

After all this, there are a few keen W98se registry tweak upgrades out there, created in an ongoing project, by the diehard Microsoft software writers who worked on the original W98... And it seems that Microsoft hasn't totally dropped W98se support.. Microsoft is now showing updated W98 fixes to 2007 status... Most PC's out there are still running W98 and W98se...

(Caution: This PC method is good, but it's not good enough to play in the triple-X and in hacker sites... Their stuff can kill it in a flash.)

 

For the record:

http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifean18

Windows 98se support stopped in July '06.

Most computers are running XP these days.

 

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q296211/


W98 is still being used by the poor, which are the majority...

 

Well, Im not going to argue nonsense.

 

It says revised 2007... There are hundreds of similar Microsoft W98 articles that say revised 2007... Seems Microsoft grew a heart and soul after Gates left the scene... You can argue till you are blue in the face, but the facts are the facts...

 

And many are regretting it!

One thing that amazes me, when I go to places out in the sticks and find a Win 98 installation, is how quick and slick it performs on a one point something Ghz pc. I would say I get fifteen callouts to XP behaving badly (slowly) for every one to 98. There are many small guest houses happily running broadband on 98 in the west country. It does what they want, bookings, email and ebay.

I believe there are some major geek XP afficionados here and in Aus too. ?Yargwel?

Studio T

 

Great!.. You win the argument...

So you got me.. I'll concede.. to the great authoritative computer minds of mankind...

This silly, "Running a smooth W98se", post.. is just for the ten remaining world users still running W98se, in ratty old obsolete computers, including my old desktop, with state of the art hardwares... And when I have enough money to get me a brand spankin' new tower, I'll join you all in heaven, with XP diamond-class Windows OS... But for now, this formula is the best I've found, in the seven years of trial and error grief, for running a smooth W98se... Heck, I've even got this PC running as fast as the neighbor's new HP XP media notebook.. and she's having a lot more troubles with XP than I ever had with W98... Plus it cost her 2-grand.. and this whole system, with the lit keyboard, marble mouse, HP 3 in 1, and the flat screen, cost only $300 bucks Canadian.. which is like about 50-bucks American.. or 30-bucks Euro... or near the North pole> two walruses, a soapstone carving, and a seal...

 

You might want to investigate drive cloning as a faster way, next time you have a finished new installation.

Try HDcopy for instance.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads8.html

You could keep the clone on a separate partition if you don't have a cd burner.


Studio T

 

I really want to get into something like this cloning thing, but in these small hd's it just won't work...

I tried saving the system in a second partition, but when the PC got Bios hack slammed it killed everything anyway...

I would sure like to have a way to "instantly" reload a formated hd with my whole system, as in the first post.. without having to load the bunch of CD's, and all that tweaking... Is there a way?..

Or.. is there a way to keep the system, and repair a natas slammed bios?.. But then every time you boot-up it's infected again...

 

A full installation in Win98 will fit on a CD. I have actually done it to a zip drive in the past as you can trim it below 100M. Thus if you can clone the entire drive just after installation to either a Cd or Zip then you can clone it back at a later date by controlling the pc from the floppy drive. This works well with 98 because it has a FAT file structure, which can be recognised from dos type operating systems on floppy.
I used to use Drive Image for this purpose. This very good program would run from a boot floppy as outlined above. Unfortunately Symantec quietly buried it when they took over Powerquest, in favour of their own product, Norton Ghost. Ghost works in a different way, producing an ISO file that can be written to CD or hard drive. This however is a file, not a byte for byte copy of the hard drive, and is therefore not bootable. It requires a restoration program (Ghost of course).
I'm afraid I haven't tried the programs in MG, you will have to experiment. Perhaps some other geek will be kind enough to elaborate. The one I suggested is listed as being for 98/ME and is freeware.


Hope this helps.

Studio T

 

I'm still running Win98SE. Somewhere I saw a post showing a informal poll on the numbers, I think it is around 30% (and this was an XP newsletter). Maybe a minority, but not a small one.

 

I use HyperOs , with partition magic, and with this you can save a copy of the partition, on C, to drag and drop in minutes to have it all back on. I have several partitions, and run copies of my operating system -cloned from C , and it enables me to use several different hungry programs, on, different partitions, all of which I can copy, when setup, and virgin (before going on the net).
I save important data to its own partition, and can get to it from any other partition. I can read the files in a corrupted partition, and copy the ones I want to any other partition. I run all on a single 200gb hard drive.
Viruses have difficulty staying, after shutdown.

 

Well I dual boot XP and Win98SE on most of my PCs including my last build the Asus A8V with o/ced SD 4000+ and 1Gb of ram (specs as below). Win98SE runs exceptionally well in that set up with no issues whatsoever.

I certainly wouldn't call my Asus rig 'obsolete' by any measure. If the op wants to start a post in respect of 98SE then he should in all fairness be allowed to do so, unless of course you are advocating an autocratic regime.

BTW OP there is a large forum at msfn.org for 98SE 'enthusiasts' check it out. There is also a SE patch which you will find.

Good Luck

 

If any of the 98se lovers here defending the OP (risk_reversal) had read mine and Halo's posts, you would have noticed that we merely stated that Microsoft dropped support for 98se. Nobody did any bashing rolleyes The online support is not being added to, but it is regularly being reviewed and if needed, revised.

For example:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/177719

Was reviewed/revised only a few months ago. Do you really think that Windows 95 is still supported?

 

Actually there are some differences. Win95/98/ME is a separate class than NT/Win2000/XP/Vista?, and I think Win98SE was basically best in it's class. Lack of support is a problem, not being able to load the security upgrades and all the other fixes will be an issue that will plague MG for a while after MS shuts down the legacy sites. Even then I suspect 98 isn't going quickly into the night, it was a polished OS that still does it's job (IMO) better than the newer systems, especially for older hardware.

Software is worth a lot more than the hardware it is running on. The later OSes aren't backwards compatible, so people will keep their old OSs. Their are still folks running their Commodores too, so I wouldn't be too suprised to see Win98 around for a while. What will probably happen is legacy sites will step in and take care of the support issues, until or unless MS shuts them down.

Not everyone needs the latest and greatest. There is an old engineering saying, Good enough will beat the best. I think a lot of folks on this thread would agree that XP doesn't fit that description for them. I am forced to use XP regularly, but not on my personal machines.

 

"A full installation in Win98 will fit on a CD. I have actually done it to a zip drive in the past as you can trim it below 100M."


OK.. I've got a copy of "HD Copy", and Ghost... and a 100 meg zip... I hope a zip works on this old Compaq... The CD burner works with "Burn At Once", but not on the system's facilities... but burn at once doesn't recognize my SeaMonkey saved composer notes files.. which forces me to copy them to floppies...

So it seems I install "HD Copy", and get it to make the image of the hd.. then burn it to a CD... Then when it comes time to format a hard drive, I simply slide in the new CD and the boot floppy, and give 'er..? I hope...

 

Good old Windows 98se, I still keep it, on its own partition, I took a long time to go over to XP, and I have had the new Vista since launch, but will not install, yet - We are all slow to change, and I will agree that for a while 98se was very good, but as we learn more, and get into the newer systems,XP, Vista, we will, probably find its weaknessess, and not get the crashes - tell me no one here had several crashes with XP,before they found the cracks, and how to overcome them,then found how good it can be.
Good discussion, Monster, and your guide would be alright for the real would be geeks, and with the input from others, here, it has plenty to offer.

 

I never had XP crashes that werent hardware related or occasional driver fault.

I have used it since beta 2.

 

"Good old Windows 98se, I still keep it...
...the newer systems,XP, Vista, we will, probably find its weaknesses, and not get the crashes..."



I'm getting real used-to W98se... I've learned how to strip it down, removing a 100-megs of crap, without damaging the system's functionality.. and which softwares do and don't work with it...

I hear the surveys, but I don't believe their con-clusions... I'm betting that there are at least 300 to 400-million active PC's out there in the world.. and that at least 50% are running W98, and about maybe 5% to 10% are running XP, and the rest are running the other OS versions of Windows, Linux, and Apple, and probably about 20-thousand PC's are running with unpublished experimental systems...

W98se is still the computer industry's main public computer engine... I'll bet that 200-million PC's are running 98 and 98se... but this is all just unsubstantiated guessing, in my having a solid understanding of how humanity functions, and doesn't function.. and the fact that most of the consumers can't afford a new computer, and XP.. and just couldn't be bothered changing to something new till the old one dies...

In my travels I'm hearing a lot that W2k is the best OS Microsoft ever made... Someone said they built it for the business world... Soon I will get hold of a used CD of W2k, and give it a good try for a couple years.. but I haven't seen nor heard much good about XP, yet.. and I really don't like how it's so different from W98se... Things in XP don't seem to be set in the most efficient place for the user.. And Word is a real pain searching for feature buttons... XP seems like a computer program designed where all the user buttons and switches go... XP is a bit of a pain in the head to use.. and it's so darn slow and cluttered, like the living-room after opening all the christmas gifts... It's like how the lazy parts of the computer industry gets computers to design the interiors of consumer electronics... Sony was real bad for it back in the 70's and 80's.. The novice service-tech needed a night school course just to learn how to get the dern Sony covers off without breaking those silly secret plastic-tabs.. and yet another night-course just to learn how to separate the boards, to even begin to get at the secret hidden major transistors...

In topic "XP crashes".. I know that Macromedia is what causes 99% of the crashes and lockups in W98se.. so after a new install, after the first crash, I run CM DiskCleaner's custom word registry search, and delete only the found words registry entries... I run the CM search for: Macromedia, Shockwave, Showbehind, Backweb, and Desktopmessenger... and all the troubles vanish...
I'm guessing that Macromedia softwares tangle themselves up in the whole operating system, and force users commands to be ignored in some cases.. while the Macromedia software is doing its thing... I think if anyone is experiencing crashes in any Windows OS, they should start the troubleshooting process by totally eliminating Macromedia from C... And I'll bet big bucks that will end the crashes... Macromedia is just way too aggressive software... It fits, in that Macromedia is designed for the advertising industries... As far as I'm concerned XP is just to messy and slow... 98 is an old work horse.. suitable for the small hd's, and even for the new computers... but maybe 2k is the ticket.. till some wise young wizard puts out something brand new...

 

roflmao

Good to hear that Linux and Apple have more marketshare than XP.

 

I would have to disagree with you on that statement. In its 'raw' state perhaps but after all the neddless services are shutdown and with about one/two dozen registry tweaks and mods it is a really very good o/s.

98SE is a good workhorse and with the right kind of care and attention can be made to perform exceptionally. I am not saying that one is better than the other, they are just different in their concept.

Nowadays, however much you like 98SE you will still need to dual boot with XP if only because some progs will only run on XP.

Good Luck

 

Oooo! Oooo! That's me!!! And yes I still run W98SE very happily thank you.

 

Yargwel, ask you a question please. What AV are you running on 98SE, it's just that HID has 98SE on her pc and I need a new AV.

I have tested so many but they all seem to have issues, here is a list of what I have tried: Bit Defender, Avast, NOD, Kaspersky, AVG. The only one that I found that seemed to work fine was Antivir. Sorry for going off topic .....

Cheers

 

I'm using Dr Solomon's VShield (owned by McAfee). I've used it for years now and have never had any (major) problems with it. Touch wood.

 

I wish someone would set up an operating system CD, for W98se, with everything I've put into that first post in this thread... And make it so the user need only to insert the CD, click the mouse, and the whole mess loads, ZipZop.. Done...
This pipe-dream partitions one big partition, does everything PowerDefrag does, Installs everything, and reboots... You leave the computer for a couple hours, and when you return you are Net connected, or very close... We do have the technology..
Then it has a list of options of custom packets to click to mass delete all the crap from the system... One delete option could be all the uninstallers, to make room on a small hd... Another could be all the system's crap pix files deleted safely... Another could delete all the read-only files... Another could delete all the auto-updaters... Or just strip out all that crap in the first place... If anything screws up, format, and reload the whole thing again.. like I do with SeaMonkey... If SeaMonkey so much as hicops, I uninstall it, and reinstall it in a flash...

One tools program.. one click, does the full PowerDefrag, CCleaner, EasyCleaner reg clean, and Cacheman MR...

They would sell a hell of a lot of CD's... Super for small hard drives, and old computers...

Plus, do one up with W2k...

98se and 2k still have at least twenty years left to go...

_____________


I just stumbled upon a free CD burner software.. good for every Windows system...

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4242.html

 

There are auto setup programs, for 98 to Xp.
The trouble with all file deletion/registry programs, is that there are so many, and you must be so careful when using them, that an all in one-- I dread to think.

 

Agreed. In a museum.

roflmao


All of that stuff does exist.

For 2K and XP anyway. Its called an unattended install.
http://unattended.msfn.org/unattended.xp/

I have an XP CD laying around that installs CD burning software, third party defragger and antivirus. Even a custom theme. All i do is plop in the CD and it does the rest for me. Even the product key is entered in for me.

There are various kits for customizing OS installs for OEMs too.

 

Many thanks Yargwel.

 

No problem.

 

Yes, great site,Yarwel, but my concern was a all Risk_reversals' desire for an all in one with a REGISTRY REPAIR.

 

Unles you include a function like sfc /scannow - I would like to consider that.

 

Ok.. so now there are eleven of us running W98se.. 10 in old machines, one in an Asus Prime...


Does Macromedia give your W98se any glitches?..

What glitches happen when you delete the contents of the wallpaper and screen saver files?.. if you did...

 

I suppose that's pushin' it some... But EasyCleaner's reg cleaner seems to be 100% safe to set on auto, in XP and 98... It doesn't chew on the registry.. It just sort of dusts it off...

 

I still have 98 on an old laptop it sometimes has its uses. However when it was in general use I reckoned to reinstall 98 about every 6 months. Reinstallation was far quicker and more certain than repair.

For those that might be intersted the Radified BLOG on ghosting is definitive.

http://radified.com/index2.html


Studio T logging out of this discussion

 

A few more tips for the novice...



In the topic "editing pictures"...
I stumbled in on this ink cartridge instructional video webpage...

You've probably heard about "refilling ink cartridges".. and it all probably sounds like just a big nasty nightmare...
But it's really the prices of new toner cartridges that is the nightmare...

Check this out.. http://www.printcountry.com/how_to.asp?cai...=PC&ref=#Videos

Read the numbers on your cartridge, and download the instruction video for that cartridge...

I didn't know it was this easy...
And a couple days ago the neighbor gave me four full ink cartridge refill kits...

I read in one webpage, the first instructional cartridge refilling webpage in the Goggle search.. a fellow instructing people to ram the refill needle as deep as you can into the toner cartridge... That guy is selling refurbished toner cartridges...

Then I read in a photo retouching forum that you should never ram the needle too-deep into the cartridge, because it will puncture the filter screen, thereby destroying the cartridge, making it leak badly... That guy doesn't sell toner cartridges...

As far as the toner seller guy's purposeful misinformation.. I didn't know that people could be so upfront cruel, and still maintain a business..? Probably not for long though...

________________


Re: "Format-C"...

Basically, formating the hard drive is just restarting the computer in ms dos command, type in "format C:", click enter, choose "y", click enter... Unless there are treasures you need to get off of the hard drive first...

I clicked the disconnect icon at the bottom of SeaMonkey.. and copied your post.. and pasted it in SeaMonkey's Compose... Now I can write my response in peace, free from the Internet's thousand eyes...
I've found that as I'm writing posts.. too often, weird-things happen to the posts, if the PC is connected to the black shiny spiders' Web, while I write... Seems that a few forum owners often read what you are typing as you type.. and should you type something they might disagree with, they can hit a few keys, and mess up your post in process... Best to be disconnected from the Net when writing in forum forms...

I think you need to find a ShockWave that's old, like W98 is old...
Pushing those softwares up to max-beta with W98.. is like adding a gallon of nitro-methane to a 1950 stock VW's gastank... then stomping on the gas-peddle... "KABOOMAH!"... I simply avoid Macromedia's ShockWave... It always messed up my PC' OS.. but it comes with the IE6 download, and I am forced to clean it out of the PC after IE6 has completed its install...

You are using ZoneAlarm with Mozilla... That's probably some of your troubles... That's a no-no... Before you download a software, read about it in forums...

I tried AVG... I always had lots of problems with it in my W98's... It sort of runs like it was built in Linux for Linux.. then modified to W98.. don't know for-sure..?
I have Norton 2k.. That's all I need for W98... Old CD's are cheap on eBay...

W98 is "the turtle on its back"... Rejoice that the dam thing even works at all... And quit trying to fix what's not broken... Get it working nice.. then backoff... And if you get real bored, after you've got it running good.. instead of updating the H out of the PC, to keep you busy wrecking the PC's OS, trying to modernize it too-much, to break the boredom.. download some classy photography at metart.. and try your hand at pixel photo editing...

Or Buy a cheapy old iMac.. and learn that system too... And there's Linux too... Get yourself another cheapy garage-sale PC, and give Linux a shot... I understand you can download a whole operating system for Linux.. And if you partition the hd, you can run Windows and Linux on the same computer...
Linux forum people are super friendly, and extremely intelligent...
Linux people are like one big happy Linux, nice-people family...

Or.. Go outside and do some living while you still can.. while you've still got breath and beat and heat... Get outside for awhile an breathe in some fresh O2, and feel those sun's rays on your ghostly pale skin...

The PC is just a toy, and a package of communication tools...
After I get financed, we'll be wearing our PC's on our arms as skin-grafts...

"Format-C"... Zowie!.. It's a lot more than just, "click the mouse and wait for something nice to happen"... It's about as same and rough as changing a baby's diaper... Only thangs missing is the smell and the heaves.. "WhooH!"...

No problem!.. I'll detail for you, how to preformat a hard drive...


Pre-Format:

There's a LOT to do before you erase your computer's hard drive.. if it holds things you want to save...

First thing is to save all your treasures... They might have bugs in them.. so the first thing to do is update, and Run, Spybot and AVS, so you won't be saving bugs... You can clean most bugs from a floppy, but not from an old style CD...

Make it a clean PC, run a final AVS scan, then transfer to floppies, or CD.. ALL your treasured files, addresses, pix, bookmarks, favorites...
Make a floppy-copy of your present registry backups.. to analyze later... to expose and trap the evil one(s).. hurting the Internet, and you....

There should be a software that compares the old sick backup to the new system backup.. and details the differences... and prepares an email to send to the bad guy, informing them that their vile-eturd was found in this machine.. and was "flushed out!".. and that you intend to fully boycott their sites.. Forever!.. That tells them that they ain't ever gonna get any of your lovely money... They'll understand that...
Their email should open with the loud audio of a classic toilet flushing.. so to give them a reasonably meaningful message about how you felt about them wrecking your PC's OS... I'd call it "FlushOff!"...

Now that your PC is clean.. you hope.. download a copy of "Tiny Personal Firewall".. saved to floppy or CD, or both....

If you can.. save all your prized downloads to CD... and their keys and serials, if required... reinstalling them might be a bitch without that crucial data...

Save your Internet connection profile... print a copy...

Plug all your toys in...
Cameras probably need to be disconnected before you install camera software...
*Don't be unplugging and plugging hardware wires into the tower when the thing is running... Sometimes that can pooch a motherboard... Something to do with poorly designed connectors, and cross-pin sparks, and too fast dropping the load off a power transistor, from sudden current buildup in unprotected board components...

If you've got furry critters.. make sure the PC's connections can't be knocked out by a playful cat, dog, bunny, or kid... Especially bunnies!.. Bunnies love to chew on wires... They'll even chew through an AC wire, kill themselves, and can burn your house down... Bunnies are for stews, not pets... but there are a few bunnies that don't chew wires.. maybe two or three... Hey!.. Don't get me wrong.. I like bunnies.. with a little curry...
Watch-out Easter Bunny.. I've got a real yummy rabbit-stew and eggs recipe...

If the PC sits on the floor.. make sure it's not near a heater, nor vent... The fans will suck in the heat, and heat what they're supposed to be cooling... Then it Will fry transistors...

*Never sweep near a PC that is running... The fans will suck up airborne dirt.. and suicide... You Can't clean a PC fan's plugged bearings... Once plugged up, the fan is history... You can free it up for a while with cleaners and oils.. but it Will fail when you least expect it, and will kill your computer... That's why corporations spend a couple 100-grand to make computer-rooms sterile... Check your fans... New fans are cheap... Overheating in the tower will cause the meanest glitches and crashes ever... PC's should have replaceable dust filters, and a plugged-filter warning vacuum-sensor...

If your Internet card doesn't register with the new OS.. Shut down.. remove the card.. and place it in a different slot.. and restart... That's what this Compaq needs done every time... It's a PAIN in the butt... Probably I've got the wrong card for this old mother-board...

Surf: "clean windows 98se install".. print a copy... (Check out Bud's)

Surf: the computer manufacturer, for OS loading guides, and known glitches... print a copy..

Download a copy of your mouse drivers to floppy or CD... Same for the keyboard, if you've got a fancy-dancy one...

Best to do this downloading with a clean PC... Your's sounds like it's in serious trouble, and very likely buggy as H... I would save my stuff, format-C, and reload, and boycott the sites that gave me all that grief...

_______________


Now you are ready to format... after a couple hours of "swimming in the cesspool of prep"... "The diaper is now half-changed..."

Restart in MS DOS.. Type-in "format C:"...
Tap Enter... and choose "y"... and wait for the hard drive to get erased...

For your purposes.. all the data on the hard drive is "washed off".. (but computer wizards could still easily read it)...
It's might be a good plan, to format the HD a few times... Some say it doesn't make any difference...

Now type in the command, "fdisk"... and delete the existing partition.. and create a new partition... Two if you know you need two...

Put the Boot floppy into drive A.. and the CD into Drive D... and switch it Off...

Restart.. Choose install with CD.. and watch the slide show... You need to babysit the install... Have your serial code ready...

Connect the Internet... then install the W98se CD...

_________________


If you want to be UP on all the websites that ring true for you, as they come out on the Net.. Go to "Google Alerts"...

http://www.google.com/alerts

Set up alerts for everything that interests you...

Don't forget the quotes ('' '') around every multiword-Alert, or you will get tons of stuff you don't want...
This "Google Alerts" thing is like being in school and having your textbooks custom written for you...

I call this "Google Alert" stuff, state of the art Internet luxury...

______________


If you are having silly problems with SeaMonkey or FireFox.. it's probably because your PC is holding old Mozilla files and oboslete configurations.. which need be flushed out of the system... You need to go to the Mozilla download site, and download a fresh new copy of your preferred browser...

Now save all your browser files in word files... Save a copy of your Bookmarks in a WORD FILE!.. that's crucial.. because if you delete everything related to the browser, that file will suddenly vanish.. but as a word file it stays... Might be best to first save all your personal emails, bookmarks, downloaded pix, and word files, to CD or floppies... BUT.. you can't wash viruses out of CD's, so it's best to use only floppies...
Even better is to save copies of your treasures onto floppies, on a weekly basis.. especially your hard to find pix...

There should be a "multi-save".. You set it to save in the floppy and HD on one click...

Then uninstall SeaMonkey or FireFox.. and do a FIND Search, and uninstall and delete everything you find for SeaMonkey, FireFox, Netscape, and Mozilla...
Now go to RUN, type regedit, and go to Find, and remove everything called mozilla, firefox, netscape, and seamonkey... Then to Start>Find, and do the search there too... That should remove all the old stuff, and all the repeating glitches...

Reboot the computer... Run your cleaners...

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I'm reading about lots of serious problems caused by removing and/or installing connectors to the tower, without first shutting Off computers...

It's OK to plugin USB plugs into the tower while the computer is running.. but it's a bad thing to plug or unplug any other things when the computer is running... Cross-pin sparks can destroy transistors in the tower.. then your PC is history.. and/or very expensive to repair...

Always shut the PC Off before changing hardware cords... And protect the back of the tower from kids and critters accidentally pulling wires off the tower...

Caution!.. Pet rabbits, and some dogs, love to chew on cords.. and have been known to chew through ac cords, and kill themselves, and computers, and even start house fires... If you have a cord chewer critter, coat the cords with cayenne paste, made by boiling down an ounce of cayenne spice in water.. and if you have one of those mace-defenders, spray a little of that into the mix too... One taste of that, and they will never bite another electrical cord ever again...

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Make backups of your valued files and pix...

Do it now, while you can, when you don't need them.. and you'll have them when you do need them, when your computer messes-up...

Schedule an hour every week or two, to work on your backups... You'll be glad you did...

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A tiny bit about: moisture, cold, hot, batteries, and electronics...

When you bring a cold electronic item into a warm place, from a cold place, moisture instantly condenses on it, and inside it.. on transistors and on batteries... Electronics doesn't like to get wet... Moisture wrecks electronics as fast as fire does...

Moisture permits current to flow, thereby draining those batteries very fast...

Moisture causes shorts...

Should you switch-on an electronic device when the device is frozen below-zero, there is a good chance that the sudden surges of current can instantly destroy overly-sensitive modern transistors and components...


To prevent moisture and cold damage, in notebooks, cameras, ipods, car stereos, CD players, and electronic everythings.. warm them up a little before switching them on.. and when you are to take a cold device into a warm moist area, from a very cold area, put it in a sealed plastic bag, while in the cold, before you enter the warm, for it to warm-up slowly before switching it on... The condensation will collect only on the outer of the bag.. and you will spend a lot less time at the repair shops...

Always store absolutely dry batteries in a moisture free moisture proof atmosphere...
Never leave a battery damp, even for a few minutes...

Never expose a cold camera or cell phone, to a warm moist atmosphere, without it first being protected in a clean dry sealed plastic bag... Squish the air out of the bag...

Sure, some devices are built right, and can take the repeated torture.. but most devices aren't, and can't...

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If you are experiencing troubles burning CD's, check this out...


http://www.cdburnerxp.se/features.php

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When responding in this thread, please remember.. The thread title says, "For the Novice"...

In many cases the novice knows only: Computer-Off, Computer-On, Mouse, Keyboard, IE, OE, Spellcheck, and Surf the Net.. yet they are about to try their hand at formating-C and loading the systems CD.. like how nearly everybody else started to learn the PC... Try to make it basic and simple, like you are chatting with a good friend...

 

Miss, Miss!!! I'm a 98SE user too!!! How many does that make??

I have it on my old Asus laptop and I'm quite happy with it. Admittedly, it's nice when something freezes that most times (please note the most times, not all times) I can kill just that program in 2000.

On the other hand, when it comes to deciding which OS is better for someone, I often prefer to put them on 98SE if they don't really know what they're doing. One really good reason for that is that one of the reasons XP runs into so much trouble is because viruses, etc are mostly written for XP and 2000. Despite the fact that I think there are still quite a lot of 98 machines out there, the virus writers don't seem to target them as much. So a properly secured 98SE is a pretty stable system to put someone on.

I know XP machines that are meant to be well-secured but unless you really know your way around, I think there are too many things running that shouldn't be that make the machine vulnerable.

Since installing 2000 on our desktops, I've found that they get more problems from infection than our 98SE installs ever did. I'd go a year or two with no problems on our 98s but the 2000s seem to get hit about every 2-3 months with something that absolutely has to come off. No change in the security softwares that I'm running, either.

I agree with Monster, the poor people are running 98SE. We live in a reasonably middle to lower class area and a heck of a lot of them are running 98SE and I sometimes get called for a 95 machine. I think you would have to distinguish between private users, businesses of some size, and small "home" type businesses if you want to work out percentages of OSs used. Seems to me that very few businesses of any size are using anything less than 2000 if they aren't Mac users (after all, after 3 years it's a tax write-off and can be sold and replaced for low all-up cost) but that there are still quite a few in the smaller businesses running 98SE, such as a bed and breakfast place or a 1-2 person business that do garden work.

And unfortunately, very few seem to run any Linux OSs - sigh!

Anyway, that's my 2c worth!

 

For a faster W98...


http://www.majorgeeks.com/98lite_d69.html

 

Sorry late response. No glitches watsoever on Flash Player or Shockwave but you have to be careful about which version you run. The ones I run on this 98SE are Flash 8.0.24.0 & Shockwave 10.1.3r19. Have not looked at updating them recently. Java versions are important.

I have a test system and before installing anything for real so to speak it gets a testing period. Of course newer software progs now no longer have o/s support for 98SE.

However, there are several progs which will overcome o/s difficulties ie partitions >137Gb and Win98SE being able to read NTFS partitions.

I must admit I do still boot into 98SE quite a lot but I do like XP as well as it is very good with photos and music.

Good Luck

PS: If you are keeping scores on number of 98SE users, put me down for a total 5. My wife only uses 98SE (hates XP, she says they have moved all the buttons around) and so does my mother and I have 3 pcs which multiboot with 98SE also.

 

Chookers

That makes you W98-user #12... Wow!.. 12.. There are sure a lot of W98 users...

Do you have any keen tips how to boost the speed of W98se?..

And the biggie.. Is there a firewall that actually works with 98?.. enough to enter hacker sites and triple-x..?

What's your take on "nod32"..? It seems to be the best AVS yet...

 

I have been running 95 then 98 on my laptop since 1997, without any antivirus protection and never had a virus on it.
In the period 1995 to 1999 I had 95 then 98 on the desktops and had no viruses and no protection.
In the years 1999 to 2004 I had three viruses. I have had none since.
In 2002 an early version of Panda seriously screwed the system, necessitating reinstallation. I went to AVG instead.
In 2005 I change to Norton which I still use.
I 2006 I started hiding behind the hardware firewall in an Orange Livebox.

The guest house I mentioned in an earlier post has been running 98 since 98 behind an old version of Zone alarm, but no antivirus. I don't know when they installed ZA, but they have never had avirus. They use it for bookings, ebay, and one of the proprietors is also an marker for an exam board, which is done online.

Two thoughts for being more secure.
Firstly use a proxy server, anonimiser or whatever.
Secondly keep a second partition/drive with a second copy of Windows to do the riskier stuff from.


Studio T

 

It goes to show you, viruses and malware infect the most common operating systems. Neither virus nor malware became a real serious issue until the early 21st century. The secrutiy of 98 (mostly none) had little to do with it.

Of course, it depends on the type of user, too. I've not had more tahn 3 viruses since Windows 95, and even less than that with spyware.

 

- ZA v6.1.744 (I am pretty sure), later versions will not work
- Kerio 2.15
- Outpost latest version is ok

I have personally had very good luck with ZA. A friend of mine who also has 98SE runs Outpost with no issues but I had problems with my set up for some reason.

Kerio worked fine with no issues but the firewall rules are too lax and you really need to know what you are doing to tighten them up. I am not that hot on writing FW rules.

In answer to your question the best of the lot is Kerio but you need to know what you are doing with the rules, otherwise go for ZA

Good Luck

 

Hi all,

I JUST switched to an XP machine... and keep eyeing my Win98SE with love and respect. XP bogs down so often that I can barely tell the difference between 500mega hrz processor/ 96meg RAM and the 2.0gig processor and 512mg RAM! Plus my 98SE didn't have the bugs, refusals and lack of control that I keep running into with XP.
The ONLY reasons I switched to an XP machine was the lack of MicroSlop support and my favorite freeware firewall was stopping support too, ZoneAlarm.
I don't play games on computers... at least not ones that need a lot of power, nothing graphic intensive, sound intensive, nothing that was beyond the ready reach of Win98SE.
There are a lot of 98SE users out there, and if XP doesn't straighten up and fly right, I will go BACK to 98SE.
I had 98SE trimmed down to load less than ten items at start-up, including firewall, and two spyware programs... now, with XP the start-up list is so bloated and have no idea where to start to trim the fat. Guess I am looking at some serious web searching to find out what HAS to stay and what can go.
Anyway, just wanted to chime in and sing the praises of Win98SE.

 

I admired using Win98SE because it's stable and work wells for old games using 3dfx Glide engine. (I still have 3dfx Voodoo 3! )

 

You can get lots of XP optimisation advice right here at MG, Mousie.
Start a new thread, posting a few details of your system. Lots of people have.

Studio T