Here's how things go: it doesn't matter which older version you have installed, that you subsequently have upgraded to July 2007. As long as the July 2007 code does NOT include .NET installation routine, then .NET will not be installed, although it may physically be unpacked in the Auto-Pather folder as an installation kit, from the previous version.

So fear not - the July 2007 code will not install .NET. Period.

Thanks for the clarification, Drugwash.

I guess my confusion then is that I've misunderstood the wording on the first page:

Please Note: this upgrade installer requires you to have the June 2007 sp2 release already installed

When it says "installed" I guess it means unpacked and ready to go, but doesn't mean I should run the June install routine (which I assume would install .Net Framework) but that I should then unpack the July upgrade and run that install routine... or am I still wrong?

Thanks.

(Note: I don't have any version of Auto-Patcher already installed)

Yes, by 'installed' it means unpacked and ready. There is an installer that unpacks all the files and stuff, so technically there's nothing wrong with the wording. It doesn't say 'run', 'launched' or 'applied', but I admit, it can be a bit confusing.

So just install/unpack the June SP2 full version and then install/unpack the July upgrade on top of it. Only then you may run/launch/apply the actual Auto-Patcher routine that'll do its job.

Good luck!

P.S. You do have the choice to install certain modules or not, so regardless of the version, you may opt out of installing whatever you consider unwanted/useless.

Cheers, thanks for your help!

Just a question.

Will using this auto-patcher package interfere with Revolutions Pack 7, Win98SE uSPv2.1a and 98SE2ME?

Auto-Patcher is simply an automatic hotfix installer: it automatically installs all the updates released by Microsoft (and also people on MSFN) based upon your module selections. So your question then becomes:

Will installing all the official updates from Micrsoft, and all the unofficial updates from places like MSFN interfere etc??

I dunno, but they shouldn't.

Hey soporific, long time no talkie.

Gape is back as I'm sure you're aware.

That's really awesome, but just like earlier experiences some folks had (I guess I was "some folks") interacting between stuff like 98MP10 and Auto-Patcher For Windows 98se, there will likely be folks trying out different combinations of things again and reporting interaction experiences. That post above was just a sign of things to come. That's a good thing. Reporting experiences is the only way to know there may be a problem or something to fix. Although, of course you don't know what'll happen until people try to use them in combination. Like you said, it doesn't appear that they would conflict.

When you first released the Auto-Patcher For Windows 98se I was using it after using the Unofficial Service Pack For Windows 98SE and didn't notice any bumps in the road.

Ya know, I actually am experiencing a feeling of trollishness. That's what I get for not using Windows 98SE and still being interested in what's going on here. I've been a lurker lately, mostly using Debian GNU/Linux (Lenny) and once in a blue moon booting into Vista. Ah well, I'm being supportive here and as far as I know that's not trolling so I'm safe.

Sheesh, and this was probably my favorite website ever (well, besides mdgx's). It's kind of a sad thing. It's hard to have anything to post when not currently using any of this stuff.

Hi there,
.. just wondering if it will works (for example) on the Spanish version of Windows 98. I didn't tried it yet, hopefully I have more time to wait your answers, but I need to keep somehow the SP. version on one of my boss computer, and on another hand to try to upgrade it somehow.
Thanks in advance and GREAT JOB you've done.
(sorry for my badly english )

Works, but all updates are in english, therefore it's better that you localize Auto-Patcher for your language.

Hey Soporific, your Auto-Patcher is the best!
I've been using it for some time.
However, I have found a problem that did not occur a couple of versions ago.
I have Tihiy's Revolutions Pack 7 installed that uses different user32.dll and user.exe files.
Even though I have the Q891711 "Unofficial fix for newer cursor and icon format vulnerability" set to by-pass, it installs anyway...
The problem?
It does not version check the two user32.dll and user.exe and back-dates them.
Since these two files are version level matched with shell32.dll and explorer.exe, Windows blue-screens on start-up.
I have to manually replace the two files from the Revolutions Pack install files part way through the Auto-Patcher install process to get back into Windows to complete it...
This has happened for the last three Auto-Patcher updates...
I have standard English US Windows 98 Second Edition.

Something to look into with your scripts.

Keep up the good work!

I will check it out, thanks heaps for the feedback.

Hi again. I guess its gonna be an end of August, early September full version?

Not wanting to deal with all the separate upgrading needed by the use of other methods, I'm just sitting back and waiting for your next full version. I'll try that. If 98SE blows up on me again I'll try a format and Gape's pack. If that blows up I'll just try again with the Maximux-Decim version of these things.

It's likely not the update packs, but some weird interaction of unknown different things I've tried to troubleshoot in the past but with only, at times, short lived success and other times, no recovery possible.

I'm not asking for help here as you'd probably need to be sitting at my system to figure it out, but just telling what I'm brainstorming about. You know of my travails! Kind of impossible to figure out exactly what causes the problems. I suppose with mass Windows 98SE usage a lot of people with similar hardware to mine would encounter the same things. In that case big companies would put techs on call to test out why they're happening and how to prevent/fix the bugs. Not gonna happen.

I'll just try installing less bloatware than I would normally do with an operating system I'd use as my main one. It doesn't look like any version of Windows will replace Linux as my main operating system anymore, just different Linux distro's perhaps. Though I seem to be loving Debian Lenny enough these days not to stray from that for too long.

I just want to replace Vista on my Windows hard drive with something I can stand to boot into. 98SE was always my favorite. I've got 250GB to deal with so I'll likely do a 98SE/XP Pro dual-boot. I'll put my bloat onto XP and use 98SE for my old games.

Which reminds me that I'll likely need to reinstall Linux too as there ain't no DriverCleaner for that and I'd like to replace my Audigy 2 ZS with my SBLive so I can get the nice VXD MS-DOS within Windows sound drivers. People on the Debian forums could likely redo the Alsa Kernel modules quick as a flash but I'm rather clueless. Don't know. I'll ask over there if I could just keep things and just run alsaconfig or something to get it to load the stuff for the different card. I have a feeling it's more detailed than that.

I must be stubborn! With all the trouble I've had I just may try this 98SE thing again.

Hey there ... i read your stuff even if i don't reply to it ... so'kay ... if its not completely obvious to all and sundry, my AP releases sort of exactly match the release cycle of the irreplaceable MDGx, when he gives us a swag of new updates, i usually get my act together and pump out another version. You'll notice there 'asn't been any movement on the updates front since the 18th of July (or so the thread says). And i've also got my hands full with a couple of other projects ... so i guess the next version may as well be September ... no, scratch that, i'll just end up having to release a service pack ... it'll still be August 2007. out soon ... or soonish ... or (update to MDGx's updates post + 7 days) --- also haven't checked out Gape's new baby yet ... that's going to be fun but time consuming ...

I see. Yeah, it's already got just about everything and you're pretty much together as to how it functions too. Unless there's a lot that's new there really isn't a point to repackaging everything again. The full one plus the update is fine.

Gape back and working on things again is great since it was his putting together a stable updater including all vital packages to install in one step was the start of this whole 3rd party forum to take up and fix what Microsoft left broken or fixed incorrectly for Windows 98SE. An open communication and sharing of knowledge between the projects can only help make things better.

While I was involved many of the other projects focused more on eye candy but I have noticed that they more often include improvements that help run XP installers and allow many newer programs to run on 98SE. I've stayed away from both in the past, even back when it was mostly eye candy and I had things working stable. I just didn't want to mess with new bugs caused by too many changes to a 98SE base system. I just wanted what was there to work correctly.

I still feel that way, especially since I just intend to use 98SE for software that was designed for it and I've always been pretty much satisfied with the standard tools and the normal themes if I wanted to change the look once in a while.

So, if I can just get your pack, 98SE2ME, Explore98.exe (your pack might already have that?) and the 98MP10 or whatever that's called now (keep forgetting the name), running fine I'll be happy.

Edit - I see in your modules file that you do include Explore98.exe. Cool. Printed that thing out so I'll know what's going in.

I got reminded of MDGx's recommended order of installation by his partial post of his readme in the 98SE2ME thread the other day. Hmm, I recall that the last time my system blew up and I gave up the ghost I had waited until installing the AutoPatcher before installing the motherboard drivers and those drivers destroyed my partition table upon reboot. Previous to that time I had always installed the Via Hyperions first thing, and while that went well something down the road would give me that Error loading device IOS real mode memory allocation failed. I would get rid of smartdrv from the Windows folder from either safe mode or the command prompt only and then it would be fixed until it would suddenly happen again and I would have no clue as to what to delete at that point. System hosed! Goodbye 98SE!

I see he suggests waiting until all is done including 98SE2ME before the 3rd party hardware drivers. Um, judging by what happened the last time I think I'll install the Hyperions first thing. I'll get all the via stuff out of the way, like the Hyperions, the USB 1.1 patch, the USB 2.0 Drivers. Then I'll run the Autopatcher and install the rest of the hardware drivers and whatever Office software I want to use, then finish off with 98SE2ME and the 98MP10 stuff.

Edit - Ah! I see you've got the 98MP10 thing in your optional Windows Media section. Hmm, maybe I'll just use that. I'll trust that it's included because it works right when your AutoPatcher installs it so maybe it's best to go with the flow.

Makes me a bit unsure what 98SE2ME will do afterwards but perhaps they're not related that much. Just some XP bits of Internet Explorer and the WMP10 things get installed by this I think.

Edit - Belay that last order Mr. Sulu! I see MDGx updated that 98MP10 again. So I'll make sure that's off in Auto-Patcher and use the new one. Whew! No stopping MDGx, eh? (Thank goodness.)

Who knows? Maybe something will be patched better than the last time I tried so the system will remain functional?

This Auto-Patcher can run some risk?

Read here:

http://www.neowin.net/index.php?act=view&id=42266

Sheesh!

Fine! Make your updates complete and have them fix what they are intended to fix. If they did those things nobody would need the 3rd party tools. As it is many updates say they install correctly but don't. And many updates are withheld and you need to call them and sometimes PAY for them.

At this point, the Auto-Patcher in this thread is not a target for removal by Microsoft as far as I know, and neither are the other packages and tools available from here or from the mdgx.com website. They specifically went after the Auto-Patcher for XP as distributed from the neowin website.

I don't think they care what is installed into Windows 9x systems. Windows Update for these systems had been broken for a while now and when it did work installed buggy patches. It was much safer to install the Unofficial 3rd party packages than to use Windows Update.

Hmm. I wonder what's going to happen to the RyanVM Unofficial XP integrator? I slipstreamed that into my XP installs for a long time whenever I installed XP.

Maybe it's another ploy to get folks to upgrade to Vista? You can't use a good updater so XP will remain broken so you'd better buy a new computer with Vista or buy it and upgrade.

Safe? If people want safe they're going to need to switch to Linux. Vista needs all sorts of 3rd party security software to be somewhat safe. Heck, Windows 98SE is safer than Vista. Well, I'm only a little bit carried away there, eh? But in some ways it is. FAT32 file systems are less software dependent than NTFS. And it's software that gets infiltrated by nasties. Direct hardware operating system control as 9x has is less prone to malicious attacks.

Yeah, I'm sure they're worried about security. (Sarcasm.) What they're worried about is helpful DRM work arounds that could possibly be integrated along with these 3rd party packs and become native to the operating system. They're not included in the Auto-Patcher (XP) but can be added by integrators. Then they might have to answer to the mighty Hollywood and recording studios as to why users are being allowed to watch movies and listen to music without their getting a cut. And heaven forbid they might be able to install copying mechanisms to backup their purchases and their software wouldn't be able to turn them off or break things with possible 3rd party patches.

I think it's another DRM thing. Not that the updaters include anything like that, but they could potentially be installed along with them and Microsoft wouldn't have a way to remove what is a protected part of the operating system.

Windows needs to be treated like a toy. You only install it to run certain personal favorites but otherwise never to be used on a regular basis. A nice Linux distro for your main system. And not one that has a deal with Microsoft.

That gives us a lot of choices.

I've just read the FULL-ON NEWS !!!!!

Having thought about this for 10 seconds, my initial reaction is this ...

Auto-Patcher for Windows 98se will continue to be developed in the same way and same fashion as i have done so far. Nothing will change if i have anything to do about it.

I haven't received any legal type emails ... i feel left out! Where's mine?

Just got a new computer with Vista home edition already installed

Acer Aspire E700
Vista Home Premium
Intel Quad Core
2030 MB Ram
32-Bit OS
Radeon X1650

Found a lot of my Adobe Software doesn't run, or doesn't run well in Vista so I installed Virtual PC and Win 98 SE with an old Win 98 CD... it had a hole in it and still ran. Anyways I was looking for updates and found this site. Thanks for all the hard work.

I used the June auto update on the first page... I assume thats the most recent, but I can't see the last time the post was edited.
I will install July next.

i'm just chuffed you chose this thread to say hello ... for this i say thanks, and can you now please excuse me while i go and scratch another "1st poster to MSFN" on the side of my car ... i've got quite a collection but there's others who ran out of space a long time ago, so please check out any projects or web pages by messers Gape and MDGx ... and there's others as well i can't list you all


to clarify:

-- the June sp2 is latest FULL release
-- July is latest UPDATE release
-- August FULL coming within the week ...

If you look at the fact that Microsoft are fully aware and in touch with sites such as WindizUpdate, you will know that they are not trying to stop "3rd party updating". Naturally, they are concerned that if they endorse/allow/ignore any sites which actually store the updates themselves on 3rd party servers (as opposed to Microsoft servers (1st Party) or the user's own storage (2nd Party), they will end up being involved if malicious code gets into the updates.

As Microsoft don't provide official support for Win98 and earlier versions of Windows (even though you can get tons of Win98 stuff from their servers which is nice of them), they are hardly likely to attempt to shutdown this kind of autopatcher site ESPECIALLY if there is never a report of malicious code emanating from here!

Conclusion? Get your autopatcher etc from the links here and not from some helpful site elsewhere.

@ Soporific:

Remember also to fix loop bug with these updates:

HTMLCert
kb933566
Servic9x

I haven't solved with your corrections through email.

Any discoveries regarding Q891711 (Unofficial) installing even when it's not selected?

On another note, it would really suck if M$ one day tried to shutdown Auto-Patcher 98...

Thanks for reminding me ... at the very least i can add a check to see if the user has the correct companion files for the update. But i will try to find out why its not working as expected.

EDIT: i found the problem. To fix your current version immediately, please do either of the following:

solution 1

- search for AUTOPACH.bat and open it in a text editor.
- search for and then scroll down until you find (make sure you are still in the :RESTART3 section of the code)
and then insert the following two lines directly after it:


OR

solution 2

- download the attachment, extract the archive, and replace the old file with the new one.

@ Soporific:

Few days ago I've had a new test with Auto-Patcher (ita) updated to july sp2 (currently in testing).
In this test it is been used a laptop machine but during installation of laptop hotfixes these are been skipped because for Auto-Patcher it was a desktop computer.

Do you want more details about?

Ah ha! So this is what Windows 98SE was like!

After some thrills and chills that I will somewhat describe in another one of my long line of book-like posts, I am posting this evening from my computer that, temporarily, has only good old Windows 98SE installed on it.

I needed to wipe out both hard drives since I changed from an Audigy 2 ZS Platinum to an SBLive 5.1 Platinum. I was clueless as to how I would readjust my Debian Linux installation to deal with that change as well as the big Windows change so I just wiped it all.

The first thing I discovered was something that was possibly the reason why a Linux Kernel boot message had always had a line that stated, "Broken Bios detected, using work-around blah, blah," that I never figured out. Apparently XP and Vista can deal with a somewhat buggy Sata controller but Windows 98 would immediately lose the partition table as soon as I installed the actual Via Sata/Raid drivers in the Hyperion set. If you'll recall that had happened to me the very last time I attempted a 98SE install. It was simply the last straw for me at the time.

98SE had run perfectly well on my now back in its retail box for quite some time Asus A7V880. My replacing that board with the Epox EP-8KRAIPRO board was both because that Asus model is known (and happened here as well) to freeze a lot when using an Athlon 3200XP and operating with 3200 SDRAM memory at the top 400MHz FSB speed. Games froze and DVD encoding froze with all the adjustments tried.

The other thing was, and was the reason I own 2 of these Epox boards, the Epox board is compatible with the SBLive MS-DOS driver's requirement for non-maskable interrupts. Hence my switching over to the Live card at this time. As long as I'm putting 98 on it I wanted the whole effect. Dos games within Windows and in MS-DOS Mode, along with the awesome sound of the old VXD Creative audio drivers.

Of course I broke a pin that comes out of the Audigy breakout box where it connects to the floppy power cable. Thank goodness it was only connected to a splitter. But that breakout box is now damaged. Wonder if I take it to one of the local Mom and Pop computer repair places whether they'll be able to solder a new pin in there without damaging the rest of the thing? I also wonder why the floppy power connectors are designed so that you need to yank them out with all the strength a human can muster. What, do they want you to break the pins? Anyway, I just switched the box with my Live Drive and put the SBLive in.

My first attempt of installing 98SE to the SATA hard drive that had contained Vista previously (and Vista just was too annoying to stick with on this old but still spiffy computer, churn churn of the hard drive, etc. Vista had already given the original drive it was on an early grave through its constant writes to it), immediately ended as soon as I installed the SATA driver. The message was that Windows requires VMM.VXD to be in the path. What that really meant was there was nothing there as the partition table was gone. I knew that from the last time so I didn't waste time wondering.

I bought a new normal ATA Seagate hard drive (nice sale at the store) and got back to work. I still (even now when most of my stuff is installed and working) wonder when I'm going to get the "Error loading device IOS, Real mode memory allocation failed" death message, but so far so good.

98's got 114 (really 110) GB of my 250GB hard drive now and I'm debating XP/Vista for the rest. Likely XP since I couldn't stand how Vista ran, but I sure hate wasting a lot of money AND I HAD PURCHASED 2 RETAIL VISTA UPGRADES!!! Oh well, maybe someday I'll use them. I'm almost 100% decided on XP. My 2nd hard drive is formatted FAT32 and empty except for the recycle folder 98 put in there. I have kept it hooked up. I hope installing Linux on it later won't mess up 98SE/XP when it erases whatever they put on there. But both ATA this time. I just deactivated the SATA controller in the Bios, which is a nice feature of this Bios. The Asus didn't have an off switch. Then again, that board's SATA worked on 98SE (albeit with no SBLive Dos support) whereas this one gets broken as soon as the driver is installed. But now there's no SATA recognized by the operating system so no driver can screw it up! Strange that this broken SATA isn't broken for XP, Linux (albeit for that broken bios message), but is for 98SE.

I used the Auto-Patcher and it worked great! Nice improvements since long ago when I last saw it. I did do the Via Motherboard Hyperions, USB 1.1 and USB 2.0 drivers beforehand. I just had to see that Windows would startup and not have a broken partition table after the driver install before I took the trouble of running the whole Auto-Patcher process. But I took MDGx's advice of waiting for all the rest of the hardware until after Explore98, 98SE2ME, and 98MP10 were installed.

The only hiccup was "A required DLL file was not found: MSASN1.DLL. This occurred 2 times and the 2nd time I took action. I think it involves running those pretty splash screens that programs have because as soon as I used System File Checker to extract MSASN1.DLL from the 98SE install cd to the Windows/System folder, the next bootup gave me the stupid music and, "EAX," announcement from the Creative splash screen that was missing before. It also got rid of, "Ctavstub-illegal operation exception in MSDXM.OCX." The first time I had the MSASN1.DLL message was at the beginning of the SBLiveware install where the splash screen with the thunderclap didn't happen. Then after the reboot and having the errors again I just did the System File Checker thing and all was solved. I think it was caused by 98MP10. But extracting the file fixed it.

The other hiccup was the old problem of 98SE2ME where the bootup afterwards left all of MDGx's lines still in AUTOEXEC.BAT. I just deleted them as everything in there had happened correctly and all 98SE2ME stuff had been installed correctly. For some reason it just doesn't always clean up AUTOEXEC.BAT when it's done. I you leave the lines there it will keep trying to run that stuff on every bootup!

Oh yes, the Auto-Patcher. Not much to report, unfortunately. It was simply perfect, except for having 891711 installing even though it was deselected. But the unofficial one installed too, so I don't mind. And I do toggle on and off stuff so any of the other choices I made were respected.

To Max_04, I went in to that laptop stuff as I did for all the potential toggles just to see exactly what they were and whether I wanted/didn't want them. I believe you can respond, while you're setting things up to run, that you want the laptop stuff installed anyway even though it detects your machine as a desktop. I answered no and it listened, but if you run it again try to specifically go to that section and allow it to detect, then answer its question that you do want them installed. If left automatic, I guess it won't install them unless it successfully detects automatically that you have a laptop. By going in there yourself it looks as though you can toggle it on anyway.

So far I don't have that destructo IOS Error message that seems to always signal the end of my use of Windows 98SE, but you can understand why I always grit my teeth everytime I start up the system! Yes, I've had that happen on any board I've tried in the last few years and not only with SATA drives. It was only the Via SATA driver install that would actually destroy partition tables while on the SATA drives. At least I licked that problem by turning off the SATA controller and using ATA drives. But the IOS error is non motherboard specific. It even happened to me on an Intel 440BX!

I gave up on the McAfee stuff. Just Avast and ZoneAlarm free (last 9x ZoneAlarm) right now, and I'll add Spybot S&S to it. Nero 7.2.3.2b installed and runs fine. MSN Mess 7.0, fine, WorksSuite 2005 plus the Digital Image Anniversary Edition, fine. Firefox, Thunderbird, Acrobat Reader, Flash, Shockwave, QuickTime 2.1.2.59 and 6.5.2, RealPlayer10 fine. WMP 9 with the MDGx 10 upgrade fine (except for my needing to extract that file). All is just running smooth! This is too good to be true.

I did need to uninstall all of Flash and Shockwave as the Microsoft suites install Shockwave 8 which substitutes Flash 7 for the nice version 9 that Auto-Patcher installs. Installing them again after all is wiped works fine. See why I said not to bother installing Flash as part of Auto-Patcher? I have to remove it all anyway.

Can this stability last? It sure would be nice!

Edit -

Oh yeah. Stupid NVidia driver and the shutdown problem. But, no wacky strange resolution changing during the 98SE startup bootsplash. So that's nice. But I can restart the computer, but not shut it down without holding the power button.

And another thing. I had thought that the old problem I had in the past of the My Computer Icon remaining the old Explorer.exe one even though the new one appears in Display Properties was back, but as soon as I installed the NVidia drivers the one on the desktop changed to the newer one. I guess that one needs better than the standard PCI VGA driver to appear? Don't know. Removing shelliconcache hadn't fixed it but when I finally got to installing the NVidia driver that did.

And, why does the right click My Computer Properties page show different amounts of memory all the time. I mean, it's jumped around from 1024 to 1023, to 1011, and to the current 1005 MB of RAM. What's up with that?

I used the Tweaks in the Auto-Patcher after initially just setting the MaxFileCache to 524288 just to keep things booting right until I got all these packs with their tweaks installed. I saw a bunce of stuff that's new to me in the Auto-Patcher's tweaks so I gave them a go this time. When MDGx's 98SE2ME added MaxPhysPage=40000 I just deleted it. No sense limiting it to a gig when that's all I'm using in the first place. Might as well leave that without that setting.

Can you explain what some of your additions to system.ini do? They're in there, but I just have never heard of some of them. Oh, when 98SE2ME changed the upper MaxFileCache limit I just left that. Your's were in the 100,000 range and his is the old 393216. I just figured bigger was better and left his in there. But what are some of the others that you put in there for?

I noticed the Auto-Patcher does its thing a lot quicker than the old days, and so does MDGx's 98SE2ME for that matter. Speed is good so no problem there.

Okay, that's it for now.

Yes please ... i've never had the opportunity to test this aspect as i've never had a laptop to test on. Please send me any details you think relevant.


This is a known problem that was identified by RetroOS, i've posted the solution a few posts above this.

About Flash and not bothering to include it: I do listen to all suggestions, but for removing Flash i'm not convinced. I certainly use it and don't want to have to install it again and again after i do wipes of my OSes and rebuild them. I am leaning, however, towards breaking AutoPatcher into components -- eg Core and Addons -- much like the now illfated AutoPatcher project -- and so stuff like Flash will go into addons and you won't have to worry about it.

It means quite a bit of work to write a system for easily separating the project so i want to see what people think first. Obviously, you would be in favour, Eck.

Thanks for the fix soporific.
I tested it and it worked as designed - no more blue screens - I can run Auto-Patcher and leave it to do it's thing!
Perhaps you could add to the Q891711 note about MDGx's 98SE2ME with Tihiy's Revolutions Pack?
Even better would be to version check the two Q891711 files...
The Explorer and Shell updates version check okay and will auto-skip with Revolutions installed.

I have noticed another small issue that KB837009 keeps looping...

An even less important note that you have a couple of duplicate lines in AutoPach.bat:

is duplicated in :DoSkips and :GoReport sections.
Just for your information.

I can't wait for the August release!
Go soporific!

kb837009 has always caused problems ... i've got a different solution than before which should fix it. It's not possible to release the fix before i release August 2007 but i'm pretty sure it will work and fix your prob.

re the dupe code, yep its been on my to-do list ... i just got it out of the way then ... it was always a naughty thing having the lists duped -- when i checked they weren't in sync as it was! Anyway, its now fixed.

News:
new feature: when you run the report, after its finished if you don't use CTRL-C to close the program down, it actually restarts the program instead of just exiting out. No-ones ever commented before but i thought it strange for the first time just today ... you are most likely to be wanting to install some updates after running a report, especially if the count is not zero. If you don't want to, you just CTRL-C out and its only Q to quit out if you actually don't want to install anything.

Out of interest, is the august release going to incorporate updated instructions/an easier method for integration into UBCD?

Thanks,

Wrayal

Actually, its on my to-do-list as the next thing to tackle after i release both versions (FULL and UPDATE) of August 2007. It won't take too long to accomplish but i will play around a bit to make sure its all good. I'm toying with going with 2 or 3 post-install reboots -- at the moment, the code does it all in two but it really is an amazing amount of installations to get thru and i was shocked i tell you, shocked that the previous versions managed to install using only 2 reboots after the first boot to desktop.

So, the August release WON'T include instructions, but i WILL post them ASAP - should be only a couple of days.

Also, there has been very little feedback with people's experiences building a UBCD slipstreamed with AutoPatcher files. Can ANYONE who has built a UBCD with slipstreamed AutoPatcher files report on how it went installing? ANY feedback much appreciated. Even if to say it all worked.

Ta.

DOTNET11.exe is same as DOTNETFX.exe (kind of). Difference is MSInstaller has been stripped out and a different "setup" program has been inserted. Also here is a link to DotNet 1.1 Service Pack 1 info...
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=867460
It contains a "patch" module... In DOTNET11.exe?

Have been doing "basic testing" of UBCD, sloooowly inserting patch-by-patch and re-installing. DirectX is a looooong install! Some modules "moved" to different locations since the install switches/method has been changed (but you knew that...). Some "oddball" errors, unknown causes as of yet (still may be a CPU cooling problem?). However, after changing all "/W" to "/WAIT" (old DOS-style to Windows-style) in START instructions, appeared to have corrected(???). If Mplayer9+Codecs not installed but instead MP7.1 (from IE install) then some "fixes" missing (and my point is?).

Full integration of AP into UBCD would probably work flawlessly... create an "AP Integrator" for selective UBCD installations? Work, work, work!

Did you get your G-mails ok? Respond off-line please...

@ soporific:

About issue with laptop hotfix, the notebook used is an old Clevo 8700P.
PIII 500 Mhz
256 MB of RAM
ES1978 Maestro-2E (audio card)
ATI Rage LT Pro 8MB AGP 2x (video card)
Masterizzatore DVD-DL
Hard disk 60GB

Probably on this notebook doesn't work because I've done a standard installation of Windows (as if was a Desktop). It's boring to put every time CD for each minimal thing... and I don't know what to do with synchronization tools of Windows.

Max, can you run the following code and send me the result?

It will produce a file called LapTop.txt in the root of the C drive. Or it may not. Please let me know!

EDIT: this line "REGEDIT /e "C:\LapTop.txt" "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE ..." is one long line.

It doesn't work.

Another small bug on Auto-Patcher, when the program opens I_Result.txt automatically to the end of patching.
Auto-Patcher takes only first part of report relative to the first installation.
Scrolling to the end of report, there isn't nothing to new. This event happen only when the program attempts to open I_Report.Log.

Sept 6:
* August 2007 UPGRADE is now available - 17.2 MB
- MD5: 4711C8E25A63236AA9A397377864A4E8
Please Note: this upgrade installer requires you to have the July 2007 release already installed

Sept 5:
* August 2007 FULL is now available - 248 MB
- MD5: 4AF21A04599C1ED6400A859CA394266D

see the first post for more info.

All right! Used the updated August over the last one today and it performed fine.

I turned off the ethernet card in Device Manager, all the Avast virus scanner resident modules, set ZoneAlarm not to run at startup, printed the Auto-Patcher report of what it detects was already installed, and then toggled off all the stuff it had said it already had.

It was a bit unclear whether I needed to toggle the already installed stuff off but just to be sure, I did.

The full run the first time last week with the July version didn't need any Environment adjustments, but this run had the out of environment space problem and the usual fixes didn't work. I let it modify the Autoexec with the increased default environment space and it went fine.

Do I still need to keep the REM line that says to keep the line there, trust me? Or is that just for the running of Auto-Patcher?

The new additions and the ones Auto-Patcher said hadn't been detected all installed fine, and resetting my internet stuff back on all went well.

So far so good on Windows 98SE (and XP, which is also installed on its own primary partition with the opposing one hidden while the active one is, um, active). Got no idea about that old IOS Error stuff but I'm holding my breath things stay stable.

My brother's visiting, after which I'll get set to install Debian on the 2nd hard drive. Got no idea what'll happen as all my previous times I had switched the Windows SATA HD to boot 2nd and installed Grub to the ATA Linux HD's mbr and did the map entry into Grub's Windows sections. Since their both ATA now with Windows the primary and Linux going onto the same controller's secondary connector I guess I'll need to either put Grub onto the Windows mbr or try putting it onto the Linux root partition of its own HD and attempt to use BootMagic as a boot loader instead. I really am not sure which is best/which would work. Theoretically either way should work. Grub is nice but I didn't like what happened one time when I tried to reformat and reinstall Windows. I wound up with Windows not being able to install because the partition table was corrupted and at the same time Linux was unbootable on the other hard drive (that didn't have Grub on it) as well. Total start over, when I had only wanted to redo one Windows install. Yeesh!

Messing with multi non-Windows and Windows OS's and partitions is rather confusing no matter how much you think you know about it. Multi boot loaders like BootIT NG are just as flaky and confusing. I just hope the Debian install can handle things as easily as it did when I had a SATA/ATA mix. I hadn't even needed to adjust Grub as it booted Linux or Windows automatically the way the Debian installer set it up right the first time.

Anyway, Auto-Patcher updating went fine! Thanks for keeping up with this and enabling users to easily get the latest improvements without figuring out which to use ourselves. It's a very easy to use and thorough installer!

But wouldn't that take a lot of time? Matching what you have installed to what AP thinks you are missing ... and then settings all the options the right way ... wouldn't that take ages to set up? Have no fear!! Try it!! Just run AP again and set it to install everything you want installed. You should find that nothing installs. I always run AP twice to make sure NOTHING installs twice --- if it does, i have a problem somewhere.

I'm a bit troubled that this wasn't clear... i've been crowing about this feature of AP from the very start! Maybe you can suggest how and where we tell people about his feature ...

Perhaps just a comment on one of the initial screens stating that Auto-Patcher is designed to detect already installed updates and features. So if a module finds a component has already been installed it will not repeatedly install it. No need to toggle off an already installed feature as it is a feature of Auto-Patcher that this detection is done automatically as part of a running module's process.

It didn't really take more than a couple of minutes though, so it wasn't a big deal. I just wasn't sure and didn't want something going wrong because of a reinstall of something. Since I printed out the list it made when I had it run its detection, it was easy to do the toggling with that list in hand.

When I had used Auto-Patcher previously in much older versions, I had only ran it once each time. My Windows 98SE installations hadn't been lasting long enough for a new version to come out with newer updates. You'll recall, that was when I was suffering from the eventual IOS error whenever I was trying to setup Windows 98SE.

So, being that this was my first encounter with running an updated version of this program after having previously ran it I was just trying to play it safe. Plus I wanted to be sure that the stuff I had originally turned off was also toggled off this time and that the new updates were set to be installed.

Since the program announced that it would not apply my saved module settings because they were from an older version, I did need to go in and toggle those things I do not want to the bypass position.

I've got that right, correct? The few things I didn't want were set to be installed, so I needed to go in and turn those parts off.

I'm sure if I ran it again with the same version of Auto-Patcher, it would find and apply the saves I made and so my additional check of each process wouldn't be necessary. But if left to defaults, I'd get that stuff. That would be bad. I just feel it doesn't take too long to make sure it's all set to install what I want and not to install what I don't want.

A separate note:

I had already fixed up the erroneous install of that something 947 and 891711 official versions even after toggling off those in the July Auto-Patcher. I uninstalled Explore98, rebooted, uninstalled "947, rebooted, uninstalled 891711, rebooted, and reinstalled Explore98.exe. That fixed it all up.

Since Explore98 was the standalone version I also needed to toggle that off this time. Or, maybe I didn't have to? I guess that's your point. Even though it's set to install by default, you are saying that Auto-Patcher will detect that I already have that installed (even with the standalone version) and so would automatically not reinstall it.

Not sure, given the shape of my computer, how valid this report is, but posting it just in case others had the same problem. The Autopatcher August 2007 got stuck at the following point. The report and log are also attached.

Jack, thanks for the feedback ... also for the log files ... there is one more thing you can do: can you run AP in verbose mode (debug mode) and after it all stops, send me the debug.txt file that you will find in the \logs directory of the program folder. Cheers man.

I also have to ask: have you finally got good RAM sticks? Because if you don't there's no point reporting issues like these because for all we know its the RAM talking, not the program code. Last time i heard you were still dealing with less than perfect sticks ...

I've upgraded Auto-Patcher to the last version, there are still loop problems in:

1. DX_Media
2. HTMLHelp
3. kb937143
4. Servic9x

I'll try on a fresh installation, but something say me that this situation will happen again.

Hi Soporific, I've installed August release with little drama.
The KB837009 install looping is now fixed and of course the Q891711 selection bug is fixed.

However, after the OLE update installed and rebooted, I got a system message saying that C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\OLEDLG.DLL was missing and an application could not start (typical MS message that does not actually tell you what the application is!!!).
Anyway, I did find an OLEDLG00.DLL file in C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.
After checking the OLE update INF, I found this file referenced.
It looks like it's supposed to be deleted when it's finished.
So I deleted OLEDLG00.DLL, extracted the OLE update, and copied over OLEDLG.DLL...
There appears to be some issue with the latest OLE update install.
I have not gone through the INF in detail yet.

All I need now is version checking of user32.dll and user.exe (like you do for other updates) for update Q891711.
Then I could select everything to install without worry about Revolutions...
Oh well, maybe one day...

Thanks for the feedback, i will investigate all this and get to the bottom of it before i release another version. Stay tuned for that one day...

Other two loops to verify:

4. kb918547
5. RootsUpd

Let me know.

PS: I suggest you to create an installer for Shdocfix, I've already create it without problems (for IE6SP1 version).
If you want I can send you it also if it's only for italian systems with IE6SP1.

I too got that message after oleup.exe which I installed independently in the past - I noted this on another thread, I think it was one of MDGx's threads. In my case the 'application which could not start' was RoboForm

@ soporific:

please keep updated your autosystem.ini:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showto...94034&st=40

with last changes of SYS_Inst.bat.

If you release an updated version of autosystem I can use that instead SYS_Inst.bat of Auto-Patcher that doesn't work on localized versions of Win98SE.

In Auto-Patcher infact appears '?' instead correct value of RAM detected in automatic.

Solve also this... and excuse me for disturbance.

This, is a Recording...

Thanks for the information.

But we already are fully aware of it.

Since 98 is actually no longer supported by MS we a fairly sure that the 98 projects are pretty safe and should be around for a looooong time.

After reading this entire thread, I downloaded and ran the August FULL Autopatcher on my 98SE computer. For the most part it worked beautifully, with a few minor exceptions:

Prior to Autopatcher I had never installed any browser other than Firefox, but I allowed it to install MS IE6 SP1 in order to fully patch my system. FireFox itself is still working fine, but other programs seem to have forgotten FireFox was my primary browser. Since running Autopatcher, whenever I click on links in Eudora and Thunderbird, they now open Internet Connection Wizard instead of opening FireFox. I assume MSIE must have taken over as my default browser when it was installed. Could someone remind me how to make FireFox my default again? Do I have to change settings in Eudora AND Thunderbird individually? Or is there a master setting somewhere that resets all other programs at once? Also, should I setup a connection for MSIE first, for windows update or other apps, even though my intent is to continue using FireFox as my primary browser?

Second, before running Autopatcher, I was using Rogsoft Notepad+ 1.11 as my Notepad replacement. I noticed you had an Unofficial Update for Windows Notepad in your Critical and Recommended System Updates Module, but as comments here implied you were checking files for version numbers, date stamps, sizes, etc, before applying your patches, I assumed Autopatcher would leave my replacement alone. To my horror, Autopatcher replaced my Notepad+ replacement with Windows Notepad!

I tried reinstalling Rogsoft Notepad+ 1.11 after Autopatcher finished. I followed the directions and recopied the original Notepad+ back over Windows Notepad. Now Notepad+ is reinstalled, but in files > 32KB the search function is broken. In larger files, after about 32KB of text, instead of finding the next match, it moves the cursor to the end of file, or to some random position. I also have Notepad+ installed on a system running 98FE, and on that computer searches in Notepad+ work correctly regardless of file length, the same as they did on this system before the Unofficial Notepad Update was installed. Can anyone tell me what else the Unofficial Notepad Update changes? Or how to make Notepad+ work correctly on files > 32KB on this system again?

In hindsight, I should have looked at your batch files first, and should have deleted the UNOTEPAD section in HFSYSTEM.BAT before running Autopatcher. Perhaps in the next version you could make that section OPTIONAL? Or put it in an OPTIONAL module? More important, we/I need to understand why it breaks functionality in Notepad+ after being installed, as it would not be an issue if all I had to do was reinstall Notepad+.

I also had looping problems and could not install the HTML Help or August 2007 RootsUpd, no matter how many times I ran Autopatcher. I've seen this mentioned in a few other posts, so I know both of these are items to be fixed in the next release.

Lastly, I noticed some strange leftovers after Autopatcher was done. There's a new folder named V4 on my C: drive whose only contents are a cab file and a text file, and a temp subfolder with another copy of the same cab file. Do these serve any purpose, or are they junk I can safely delete? I assume log files in C:\Windows\Temp can also be deleted. Am I correct on this? Also, prior to Autopatcher I already had Sun Java Runtime 1.5.0 Update 06 installed. Update 12 just created a new folder under C:\Program Files\Java, without removing Update 06 first. So now I have entries for both updates (06 and 12) in Add/Remove Programs. Can I just remove Update 06, without causing any harm to Update 12? Or should I remove both, and then run Autopatcher to put Update 12 in again?

Thanks again for creating Autopatcher, and for any help on the points described.