WOOHOO! New Website... lookin' good!

Downloaded RC from it and will test first opportunity.

edit - and still awesome download speed...

how fast did it come down, what speeds were you getting? I never get to test this out, i can't justify wasting so much bandwidth!

BIG NEWS:
I've added a cool new little feature: an installation counter for your module choices. This will make it much easier to avoid being paranoid that you have the right choices selected. It does add a few seconds to navigation around the module choices, but the benefits vastly outweigh the small hit in performance.

If you're keen to try it out, download the attachment, and overwrite (back up the old one first!) the one in your program directory (in the CODE folder). It only works with the December 2007 release. I really got a kick out of using it, i hope you do too.

@ niknak: the setting referred to by soporific is usually called 'AGP aperture size'. If you have an AWARD BIOS, you may try to press CTRL + F1 once in the main BIOS screen - it offers advanced options. However, the aforementioned option should be a standard one, so chances to find it using that trick are slim. Worth trying, though.

@ soporific: a few months ago, I was banging my head on the walls because Yahoo Messenger 8.x was crashing while trying to listen to voice messages. After uninstalling a sh!tload of applications, I found the culprit as being MSXML 4.0. Dunno which version it was, as I've been performing bulk uninstalls at the time, trying to fix the issue. I was just thinking if anyone could test the current MSXML version included with Auto-Patcher against Y!M 8.0 and/or Y!M 8.1.



On another note: any news on the GUI?

Using FlashGet (6-part "split", ie. #of-connections) shows ~600kbs (however that figures...). Basically, just a few minutes (up to 10 maybe?).

Hi Soporific. I just put this question on your "good Soporific" website as well.

You were of great help with my installation of AP August 2007 Full + the September 2007 update, as well as RP7.11. As you may recall, I am the non computer generation, non techie guy to whom you gave much valuable counsel. When you release AP December 2007 Final, can I just install it over my “above” current installations? Will it have any problematic effect on RP7.11? Or, since everything is functioning exceptionally well, shall I just be content with what I currently have, forgetting about AP December 2007 Final + future updates? Thanks, all the best, Ken.

Hi Ken, thanks for your kind words. I recommend downloading the December 2007 release. You can safely install it over any previous release of AP, you don't have to uninstall first. I have created new 'groups' to use within the modules section, for you, i recommend using the 'Essential' group to select the titles to install. To select 'Essential' choose D in the modules section. You will see what i mean when you install the Dec 2007 release.

An UPGRADE version is just being finalised now, it should be available within 4 hours. Stay tuned ... size at present is 80 MB which is a **** site better than having to download 288 MB. You will need to have October installed though. I will make one for those who only have the August release as well, that will be tomorrow though.

Can anyone who tries out the new AUTOPACH.BAT with the install counter please give feedback on it ASAP? Is it worthy of inclusion? Let me know!

Thanks! Whoops, I never noticed the Unofficial VB updates! Guess I just used my earlier (default) choices for that module without noticing the 'Unofficial' part.
First time I've seen it, and just with these two.

Jan 25:
* December 2007 release candidate 2 is now available. Everyone is recommended to upgrade to the new version.

December 2007 RC1 to December 2007 RC2 (UPGRADE):
download link
Size: 1.3 MB
MD5: 7047D52532DE80FA3CD41BA0B1D6D1EE

October 2007 to December 2007 RC2 (UPGRADE):
download link
Size: 84 MB
MD5: 0B8FE05833F394E7B1094DD8B221563D

Hi soporific,
I like the install counter and I think it should be included!
I've installed the Dec 2007 RC1. Have not installed RC2 yet...
Mostly went okay.
There were some issues though...

- InfraRecorder update section gave an 'access denied' error when trying to remove the old version.

- The Twain update looped - probably because I already have the updated files...

- The 48BitLBA update looped - I had previous 48bit 4.10.0.2225 installed. I uninstalled so the new 4.10.0.2230 version would install.

- The SYSTEM.ini tweaks menu option gave me an 'out of environment space' error and went back to the main menu.
When I freed up some environment space to work around the error, it correctly detected my RAM as 1.5GB, but used the wrong formula to calculate.
It set MaxFileCache to 262144 which would have killed Windows! - my current (maximum) setting is 114688.
Probably because of this the Chunksize was set as 2048. I use 1024.
When I selected current SYSTEM.INI settings, the Chunksize, MinFileCache, and MaxFileCache did not match my current settings...

- There is something wrong with the Visual Basic menu... There is no official VB6 entry and yet I get this in the log (as mentioned by billygoat):
21:31:44 -- superceeded: -- VBRUN600 (Official Visual Basic 6.0 sp6 Runtime Files)
File: C:\WINDOWS\system\msvbvm60.dll
Current: 6.0.97.98
Attempted: 6.0.97.82

...And now for the BIG one...
BROWSEUI.DLL 6.0.2800.1915 from kb942615 kills my Windows Explorer (failure in EXPLORER.EXE).
The Desktop comes up okay, but anytime I try to open a browse window, it dies...
Now, the catch is that I have EXPLORER.EXE 5.50.4134.100 from Revolutions Pack 7.11.
I expect that the same thing would happen using 98SE2ME with the Me Explorer option installed.
It may or may not work with 98SE EXPLORER.EXE...
I have had to back-date BROWSEUI.DLL to 6.0.2800.1914 from kb939653.

I've been away awhile, but keeping up with changes via email subscription to this topic.
One thing I've had on my mind... back in the days before AutoPatcher, Gape's unofficial
service pack for 98SE had something called a "windows 2000 color scheme" which was more
pleasant than the default (gray) colors I've had since switching to UBCD and AutoPatcher.
That color scheme was one of the few things Gape's service pack included that AP does not.
Is it possible to add that "win 2000 color scheme" to AutoPatcher as an optional module?
(It seems like overkill to reinstall Gape's pack AFTER running AP or UBCD - just to get that
color scheme. It should be an OPTION in AP, so we don't have to run Gape's AFTER AP.)
I am soo sick of this default gray scheme that 98SE comes with.... Joe

Drugwash - Thanks for that tip for the Award bios, I always thought the bios had a lack of settings. I have found the AGP aperture size setting now.

Soporific - Setting the AGP aperture size to 4MB (lowest setting). This made no difference to the problem.

I totally agree with joe tweaker!
I had Gape's original USP 2.1a installed before I started using AP.
I have the Windows 2000 scheme at the moment. Much nicer.

So, sop, there's another thing to add to AP - Windows 2000 Appearance Scheme as used in Gape's original USP 2.1a.

BTW, have you looked at ASPI Layer 4.71.2?
Have a look: http://www.adaptec.com/en-US/speed/softwar...i_471a2_exe.htm
You can expand the compressed files (.??_) with the Microsoft EXPAND.EXE utility that comes with Windows 2000.
It also comes with Windows XP but will not work in 9x. Obviously you can expand the files in XP.
You will need to rename to add the last character of the extention.

Windows 95-98-98SE-Me - Let the Good Times roll.

Heh heh. We've been through the ASPI conversation. Almost no one wants the newer versions. When they work it's a miracle. The one in Auto-Patcher improves upon what comes by default with Windows and works all the time. The newer ones do nothing helpful and often just break things.

You do know that you can just move the color slider and get the Windows 2000 scheme? Same with playing with the title bars in there. The icons are from Gape's older Explorer.exe update, but you can also download a Windows Me theme from various places and get those as well.

I updated from October Full to the update November SP2 version of Auto-Patcher with not an issue. I did find that some kind of MS-DOS run thing was TSR'd for a couple of reboots afterwards, but it finally went away. I am ashamed to say my memory has totally failed me, I didn't write the name of it down, and I can't remember its name. But it showed up in the Close Program box along with winoldap and would require Windows to End Task it before shutting down.

Also, the My Computer was having a problem refreshing so right clicking it would show the desktop options instead of the My Computer options and double clicking My Computer would bring up its Properties instead of opening My Computer. A couple more restarts and that's gone (for now).

Things are just so darned slow on Virtualbox with 98SE that I'm afraid I didn't have the patience to run it for too much time after doing the Auto-Patcher upgrade, but those are the things that happened. The slowness is mostly things that access the web, and not thankfully the few programs I need to run in 98SE, but since I browse around a lot it is frustrating using 98SE virtualized. VMWare used to work tons better for me in that regard than Virtualbox does. Of course, I'm sure if I put XP on it things would be different. But that would do nothing for me as the programs I use in 98SE got broken by XP SP2, and that's why I want to virtualize 98SE.

Sorry, the last paragraph was just me whining.

The short answer is, go grab the latest tweaks pack, by a happy accident, it contains exactly what you are after. I will add it to the next release.

Hey Eck, now you mention it, I recall some years ago when I installed ASPI 4.7x, that it broke my tape backup...
The current improved 4.6 works just dandy!

Sop, have you had a chance to look at the Dec 2007 AP problems I've had?
My post: http://www.msfn.org/board/Auto-Patcher-Win...051#entry732051
The most critical being the BROWSEUI.DLL and Windows Me EXPLORER.EXE breaking!

AP Dec 2007 currently will break Windows Explorer for anyone that has RP and/or 98SE2ME option 3 installed (or any other reason for using EXPLORER.EXE 5.5)!!!

Has anyone else had the Explorer problem with RP or 98SE2ME option 3 installed?

I think that's caused by the installation of EXPLORE98, the MDGx package of the latest combined explorer.exe security patches and improvements, along with the nice Windows Me style icon.

That's not supposed to be installed if the Revolution Pack is used, and a warning is given about that in the EXPLORE98 documentation. I'm not aware what switch to toggle off in Auto-Patcher to stop its installation, but if it isn't one of the user toggle modules it certainly should be.

Even if a new version comes out of EXPLORE98, the old version must be uninstalled first and the system restarted, and the system must also be restarted immediately after its installation as well.

If not, we get a destruction of Windows! That dog won't boot!

Some measure must be added to check both if the Revolution Pack or Option 3 of 98SE2ME is installed, as well as to make sure that if a newer version of EXPLORE98 is in Auto-Patcher the program runs the uninstaller for it and restarts first (which would restore the original Windows 98SE explorer.exe), before running the installation of the latest Explore98 release. And then the system must be restarted immediately after EXPLORE98 is installed by Auto-Patcher as well.

Not sure how you can manage that, but something like that needs to be done. It is the best solution for users not using Revolution Pack or Option 3 of 98SE2ME (most users I would think), but care must be taken with it. The detection of an older version and one of those other optional explorer.exe versions (5.5 I think) is vital, and skipping it for the optional versions and the uninstallation before upgrading it is also vital.

Perhaps a user interaction page of Auto-Patcher for that module can be mandatory. If the user answers that he doesn't use or intend to use Option 3 of 98SE2ME or Revolution Pack then EXPLORE98 is automatically installed. If an older version of EXPLORE98 is detected, then the uninstaller for it is run and the system is then rebooted before running the EXPLORE98 module. And then it is rebooted again following its installation.

When I ran the new version of Auto-Patcher, it detected that the same version of EXPLORE98 was installed and so skipped its installation, which I was happy to see. It had been installed by my run of the October Auto-Patcher.

When I use 98SE2ME I use Option 2 and so did not experience this problem as I also do not use the Revolution Pack.

Hi Eck,
With RP installed, AP always skips installing EXPLORE98 update because the existing file is newer.
So, It has never back-dated EXPLORER.EXE.
My guess is that if someone installed the latest Unofficial Cumulative Update for IE6SP1 (kb942615) with the newer BROWSEUI.DLL onto Windows Me, it would do the same thing to Windows Explorer since it is the same file used in RP and 98SE2ME Option 3.
Of course, this version is also dependent on SHELL32.DLL, USER32.DLL, USER.EXE, (and some others as well) from Windows Me.
If any of these files are not from the same version set (98SE, Me etc)... Then BOOM BABY, Windows dies!
I had that problem when the Unofficial Q891711 update was back-dating USER32.DLL and USER.EXE before the installer was fixed.

I've been through all the possibilities, and it just plain appears that the latest BROWSEUI.DLL file is not compatible with Windows Me EXPLORER.EXE and therefore with Revolutions Pack, 98SE2ME Option 3, and anything else that uses Windows Me Explorer.
When I back-date the file to the previous release, everything works again.

Please keep the discussion going, i am taking note of it all ... RetroOS, i will answer your queries in the next few days, i'm not so productive on the weekend -- i will post a list of issues soon, everyone please ensure it is correct when you see it.

Hey...the only problems lately as have been adjustin system , DCOM 98 1.3 is on thy system in c:\windows \system ;yet Auto-patcher rc2 does not recogize as so......,this is wierd i ran A.P.Oct.07 and all was fine....hmmmmmmmm(loops once then skips and moves on to next updates thydreamwalker

System: freshly loaded win98se ..... 4.10.2222 A; IE 5.00.2614.3500; have not yet installed any email;
have installed AVG .......... avg75free_516a1225; the Boot Scanner is a nuisance ..... needs easy way to disable.

I am trying to print Auto-Patcher Module Contents - December 2007 from this webpage: http://soporific.dsleague.com/downloads/modules.html
My printer is an Epson ESCP2 Action Printer 5000 and the paper is tractor feed type.
For some reason, the printout skips every 2nd page ....... i.e., it prints on the 1st, 3rd, 5th, etc, page of paper.

Never mind ...... the default settings of 'Page Setup' was the problem. Sorry for bother ......
-- willperk

re: GUI is coming long term. It involves me clearing the decks enough so i can concentrate on learning the syntax of C++, it won't be anytime soon though. If anyone knows of any crash course sites or the like, please PM me.

Issues:
* MSXML 4.0 -- this should be fixed, uninstall any version later than kb927978, and then install kb927978. RetroOS is the man to turn to for identifying which MSXML we should be using.

* InfraRecorder update section gave an 'access denied' error when trying to remove the old version.
- anyone else get this?
- RetroOS, was the old version installed by AP? If not, that makes sense.

* The Twain update looped
- this should have been fixed in RC2. Can anyone see if they can get it to loop again? Cheers!

* The 48BitLBA update looped
- i can't replicate this problem - however i've changed the INF, hopefully this will fix the problem

* SYSTEM.ini tweaks
- "The SYSTEM.ini tweaks menu option gave me an 'out of environment space' error and went back to the main menu. When I freed up some environment space to work around the error, it correctly detected my RAM as 1.5GB, but used the wrong formula to calculate. It set MaxFileCache to 262144 which would have killed Windows! - my current (maximum) setting is 114688. Probably because of this the Chunksize was set as 2048. I use 1024. When I selected current SYSTEM.INI settings, the Chunksize, MinFileCache, and MaxFileCache did not match my current settings"
- i will investigate this

* There is something wrong with the Visual Basic menu... There is no official VB6 entry and yet I get this in the log
- I moved the official VB6 to the Stability Hotfixes module for 2 reasons:
-- 1, It's not optional anymore as virtually everyone will get the superseded message. The only reason it will get installed is if you are using AP on a newly installed OS, or you actually don't have VB6 on your system. Who doesn't need VB6? Is there any good reason not to install it?
-- 2, by moving it out of the VB module we save having to reboot twice when using this module.

* BROWSEUI.DLL 6.0.2800.1915 from kb942615 kills my Windows Explorer (failure in EXPLORER.EXE), the catch is that I have EXPLORER.EXE 5.50.4134.100 from Revolutions Pack 7.11.
- i will revert back to kb939653, problem solved. I'll put a note on my updates list about this. Thanks for being such a useful beta tester.

* (wouldn't it be good to include the) "windows 2000 color scheme" ... I am soo sick of this default gray scheme that 98SE comes with
- i'll add it to the tweaks

* have you looked at ASPI Layer 4.71.2?
- yes i have and it sucks big time. 4.6 has never failed me yet, 4.71.2 has failed me twice. And others have reported similar, so its a def no. Still, thanks for the suggestion!

* How to toggle off the Windows Explorer update
- you disable the entire module, you can't individually disable the Windows Explorer update. I thought this was obvious!

* Incompatibilities with RP and 98SE2ME
- i really don't know what to do about this. I must admit to not testing very extensively with RP (but i do to some degree) but not at all with 98SE2ME. I suppose i should get around to it, but i can see that its going to be lots of work getting stuff to not blue screen on me. Maybe i'll make the next major release more 98SE2ME compatible, but until then i suppose that you 98SE2ME users gotta be careful using AP.

* DCOM 98 1.3 is on thy system in c:\windows \system ;yet Auto-patcher rc2 does not recogize as so
- i will look into this

* DCOM 98 1.3 ...... loops once then skips and moves on to next updates
- this is expected behaviour, i designed the program to do this. The 'looping' message is a result of AP thinking that an update hasn't yet been installed when in fact it has. Its the down-side of my system of independently checking if the update is installed. It usually means i've got the code wrong, but sometimes its because i've got a weird situation to deal with

That's it. If i've missed anything, don't by shy, say something. Thanks for all the feedback.

EDIT: regarding the groups, i've been slowly adding these over the various releases and i haven't had that much feedback, these groups are pretty much arbitrary. If anyone cares to make suggestions as to what goes in each group, they will most likely get their wish. Assuming the suggestion isn't a lunatic one, that is. Even the group names were pulled out from somewhere dark on the spur of the moment, so they're fair game as well. The groups i'm talking about are: MOST, SAFE, and ESSENTIAL. The ALL and NONE groups pretty much speak for themselves.

I wonder what's the problem with ASPI 4.71.2... I just checked my system with Nero Info Tool and says everything's OK. Both wnaspi32.dll and apix.vxd are 4.71 (0002) from July 17, 2002.
What is it that I should check, to see if there's any problem with it?

As for MSXML, what's it useful for? Any examples? I completely removed any trace of MSXML in Add/Remove and I have no idea if there's any other version left around.

some games such as rise of nations need msxml

Just to clarify, after uninstalling all MSXML4 entries, for example, MSXML 4.0 SP2 (KB936181), from Add/Remove Programs, the actual MSXML4.DLL file needs to be deleted from the Windows SYSTEM folder (normally C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM) before installing kb927978. Otherwise the file stays the same!
See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/936181/en-us for details.


Yes it was the previous AP installed version.


Yep, that figures... I never installed RC2.


Makes sense.


The only problem was the BROWSEUI.DLL file. I'm still successfully using all the other security patched files from kb942615.
I suggest just replacing the one BROWSEUI.DLL file in kb942615 with the file from kb939653.
That way we get nearly all the security updates.


Roger!


If you were referring to the dialog a couple of posts back, this was really a historical explaination rather than a current problem.
Aside from the BROWSEUI.DLL problem, I have no other current problems with AP and RP/98SE2ME.

after installing ASPI Layer 4.7 you must install ASPI32.EXE then reinstall ASPIINST.EXE
which will give you 4.71.2 without problems

The problem is that ASPI 4.71.2 doesn't work for all models of CD and DVD drives. Don't ask me why, it just doesn't. If your drive works fine, then you won't find a problem with 4.71.2

Actually I have one minor problem, but I have no idea who's at fault: all DVDs are shown as having a 2GB capacity, although they've been burned at full capacity. Everything else works.
DVD unit is a Samsung SH-S182D. I've had a CD unit Plextor PX-54TA before (and at the same time with the DVD, for a short time) and had no problems with it at all.

About MSXML, looking in the System folder I only found MSXML 3 SP7 files but there's no uninstall entry for such package in Add/Remove. I'm not playing any games on this machine so I'm reluctant to installing the recommended MSXML4 just for kicks.

Now, since I'm still here, apologies but I'm gonna go slightly off-topic: does anyone know of a fix when some applications can't recognize folder names that contain dots (such as Folder.name.dat)? In Explorer can only be seen as Folder.name (everything after last dot is considered as extension) and some apps fail to read files in such folders.

Drugwash,
The uninstall instructions only apply to MSXML4 not 3, 2, or 1.
You should install the latest supported MSXML4 anyway.
If you install a piece of software that uses MSXML4, and you don't already have MSXML4 installed, it may install an older and more security vulnerable version...

Thanks but it's not security that I care about but more like compatibility with applications. If apps are gonna crash or misbehave because of some package, then I'd rather have an older version of it or none at all.

I might try it at some point though - just not right now.

Hi soporific,
I have found a problem with AP's detection for the OLEUP install.
I have some software that has online updating. It's worked okay updating for some time.
However, the last update decided that I was running Windows XP SP2 (as everyone does... NOT), and installed XP SP2 OLE files...
As you can imagine, or know, Windows did not like this and most of my start-up apps failed and Explorer became unstable.
So, I manually ran OLEUP from AP and rebooted. Problem gone.
When I ran System File Checker, it showed that OLEAUT32.DLL had changed.
OLEAUT32.DLL was updated from 2.40.4522 to the newer 2.40.4519. Anyone thinking it's a typo see here (post #912).

Getting to the point, what this means, is that AP is not detecting the OLEUP update install correctly since AP said it was already installed, when in fact it was not up to date...

Another small fix needed in AP.

Thanks for finding this, ive made a new function called 'FILK' (not that you needed to know that) and this little guy checks 2 files for their versions, if either are lower than what i coded for then the update goes ahead. So, those who had the latest version of OLEPRO32.DLL but not the latest OLEAUT32.DLL will get the install going ahead. The only problem here is if the user has one of those 'higher' versions of OLEAUT32.DLL AND they have the latest OLEPRO32.DLL -- AP will think its installed. Is this likely to happen?

I hope to understand this issue... maybe this could be a special case to use an additional MD5 or byte check (over version check) on the OLEUP files (in/out of package).

Looks like someone didn't read carefully my earlier post regarding dependency chains. Some files needs a thorough check for both 'less than' and 'higher than' in terms of version number. And it's compulsory to know which goes with what. A complete scheme of interdependency between packages as well as interdependency between individual files, based on versions.
It's a heavy job.

Hi soporific,
One problem that is ready to jump out and bite me, is that because of the OLEAUT32.DLL versioning quirk, the lastest compatible version of the file actually has a slightly lower version number but is newer!
If anyone has an even higher version than 2.40.4522 of OLEAUT32.DLL installed then it won't be for long!
Sure there is MD5 checking as mentioned, but this only checks if a file is already there but is no use for versioning...
The other aspect of checking is the file date. OLEAUT32.DLL 2.40.4519 is newer (31 July 2006) than 2.40.4522 (19 June 2003).
Most system files will maintain the original file timestamp.
Some files however, will change to the install date (and increase size...), for example some of the Internet Explorer 6 SP1 files.
It's some type of serialisation process of the files during install. Not sure why...

Well, in lieu of specific alternate suggestions i'm going with what i've got so far. And where i previously referred to a 'higher' file version number i was referring to the versioning quirk you mentioned, i should have used more that just quotes to explain what i meant, sorry ... you previously mentioned that AP thought that the latest update was already installed when in fact it wasn't, i think this issue should now be fixed.

So, people, i want to finally release December 2007 Final ... so if you still think i have work to do, please speak up now or forever hold your peace! For issues in particular, the 48BitLBA loop is still outstanding from RC1, i haven't got any feedback if RC2 fixed this (i was never able to replicate the problem)

Cheers.

EDIT: change log as it currently stands

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
December 2007 Final (unreleased)
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
change: the check for OLEUP now uses 2 file version checks

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
December 2007 RC3 (unreleased)
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
rolled back the Unofficial Cumulative Update for Internet Explorer 6 sp1 to the previous one (replaced kb942615 with kb939653)
updated: Sun Java 2 Runtime Environment 6 update 4
added: Windows 2000 style theme to schemes list
fixed: small bug with Unofficial Microsoft Scripting Engines v5.6, the wrong file version check value was being used

EDIT 2: oops, forgot about the problems in AutoSystemINI --- will fix pronto.

About the 48bitLBA, well I don't know what will happen on a real system. As I mentioned I ran October FULL, updating to the latest RC2 afterwards. Both times the 48bitLBA was installed and no error or message about being already installed was displayed or in the log. It just installed it again.

Guess that's a loop?

And yes, I'd say go ahead and release it. The fixes, rolling back the Internet Explorer Cumulative to the one that doesn't cause problems with 98SE2ME Option 3 and/or Revolution Pack (not that I've ever tried Option 3 or Revolution Pack, but I think the coming Revolution version 8 and/or Uberskin looks like something I'll finally go ahead and play with as improving the look and feel of 98SE without interfering with other system files and having a small memory footprint is something I can finally sign on to) is more important than a couple of minor bugs.

After all, Windows Update would break a lot more things than Auto-Patcher ever would. It's already a more stable updater than Windows Update ever was. Interesting that a few folks working on whatever their specialties are can do a better job than hundreds of Microsoft software designers at updating their own operating system.

I'm going to shortly be putting a real Windows 98SE partition on my computer's hard drive and get away from using Virtualbox for it. That thing's just too slow when guesting 98SE. Can't stand using it that way. My first computer (AMD K6-2/300 with 66MHz FSB) was a speed demon in comparison! So I'm hoping the new Auto-Patcher comes out like, today or tomorrow, so I get all the new thingagabob's and fixes that come along with it. I'll be too busy watching the Election news today anyway so tomorrow looks like it'll be a good day to wipe that hard drive and get started. Gonna try to just keep the Linux hard drive as it is, as with Grub in the root partition my messing with the Windows hard drive shouldn't give me too much trouble if I just disconnect it and reconnect it once I get 98SE and Vista back on the first drive. I'll just unmount the Windows drive and delete the folder and fstab entry first and then recreate it with the new info once back in Linux. Guess I'll try to figure out the BCDEasy method of adding the XP boot files to the 98SE C: drive so Vista's boot loader can boot 98SE. That's one I haven't done yet. I already use Vista to boot Debian, but this looks a bit more complicated.

The only thing that puzzles me while passing by this thread is why would this release be called 'December' when we're already almost one week into February...

Oh and another question that just popped in my mind: approximately how many reboots would AP perform on a vanilla 98SE? Attached to my testing machine (166MHz CPU, 32MB RAM) I got a defective monitor that after a few hours of usage, once gone into off mode (temporarily during a reboot or low power mode) it will stay that way, unless powered off for minutes to hours.

Add my vote for calling it the February 2008 release... it's less confusing that way.

It restarts the computer a lot. Then again, there are no user interactions once setting it up and telling it to go ahead. It just installs stuff, restarts the computer, waits for about 15 seconds for Windows to finish loading everything and starts again itself, rinse and repeat many times.

So if you don't mind not being able to watch its ms-dos window telling you what it's currently doing, it will just keep at things until fully patched and then at the end you just hit the any key (the space bar) and it exits, leaving the log file open so you can read it and save it (Save As...) wherever you like in case you uninstall Auto-Patcher and still want to keep the log (I save it as a txt file). No need to do that, but I like to have it besides its own .log in its folder. I print it out too.

It's possible this would be a problem on future runs because occasionally there may be a loop and it will need your interaction to proceed. If that happens on your first run you're in trouble if you can't see the question it asks you. In that case you'd need to get that monitor going somehow!

Hmmm. Maybe the name of the month Auto-Patcher uses is the month he started working on the next version? I'm just glad soporific makes it so I don't care what he calls this thing.

Funny that the last version didn't break anything on my virtualized system. Maybe that's because the Internet Explorer cumulative update doesn't effect things adversely unless using 98SE2ME Option 3 or Revolution Pack?

Whatever, I'll just use whatever the latest version is when I'm ready and not use the Explorer 5.5 included programs, like I never have anyway. I suppose when the new version comes out it'll patch things by going back to the older IE Cumulative so there won't be a problem installing that Revolution stuff after that. I don't think the next Revolution Pack is going to install that Windows Me explorer.exe anyway. Things are changing with that new Uberskin thing, thankfully.

re: the version name of Auto-Patcher -- my reasoning is thus: I want the name to reflect the date AP will get you up-to-date to. So, for those not following the progress on MSFN, i want them to be sure they know where they're up to with regard to updates. Right now, there's no way i can call it February 2008 because any updates released this month won't be a part of February and may give the wrong impression. I could call it January 2008, that satisfies my criteria - but December 2007 still is my preferred name because it gives a better impression of where you will be updated to.

re: the number of reboots -- i can't give an exact figure because its determined by the selection but generally its one reboot per module whatever that works out to be.

I was about half a day too impatient. I just used RC2.

What do you know? I was really impatient and lazy too. I did print out stuff from a thread over at the EasyBCD forum where they were discussing adding the XP boot files to 98SE and using Vista's boot loader for my triple boot with Linux and 98SE. But the idea of wiping things and going through all that when everything works now just didn't appeal.

I tried VMWare on Vista. And, this was the "what do you know," my goodness, VMWare is heads and tails better than Virtualbox when using a Windows 98SE guest. It's nearly the same as using a real computer. Not quite, but surely better than Virtualbox which made 98 run in a way that I would never use it even with the full audio and video drivers I had figured out how to get and use (SciTech and Realtek).

VMWare is real zippy! And Auto-Patcher did a fine job too (well, that always worked).

The audio works much better, with the Creative Ensoniq ES1371 a much better card to virtualize than that Intel AC97 chip that Virtualbox uses. Went through a few hoops with the Creative software cd I have as the VXD driver it installs first crashes and can't be used on the VMWare 6.02 like it could on earlier VMWare releases. I had to be patient and wait through the crash and blue screen until the rest of the Creative software (PlayCenter, Wave Studio, Recorder, Mixer, etc, but make sure to remove the check from the Dos Drivers as the WDM's won't work with them) got installed and then before rebooting upgrading manually with Device Manager to the WDM drivers on the same Creative cd. I went through a lot of experimenting and manually deleting all the Creative registry entries (find, find next) and driver files in the System folder until I figured out that was the way to do it. After a reboot it all works together. Even their EAPCI8M.ECW midi synth plays midi's nicely. And mp3's sound great. Video files play without all the herky jerky and missed synchronization of the same on Virtualbox.

Actually, 98SE on VMWare performs faster on Vista than Vista itself does. I know that sounds ridiculous, but on my hardware Vista really isn't a good performer so a virtualized 98SE is superior. Plus, no wondering why suddenly I need to wait 40 minutes here and there when Vista decides to thrash my hard drive for no apparent reason since I wasn't doing anything at the time. What the heck is that thing doing? It's not defragmenting. It's not indexing (nothing new to index). It's not Windows Defendering. It's just working hard at some mysterious process (all scanners active so it's not spyware, unless it's Microsoft spying on me). I haven't a clue but it makes me get the heck out of Vista and run to Linux after it's done. Who wants an OS that needs to use your computer for such great lengths of time with unknown, hidden activities and uses the hard drive so hard that the user can't do anything while it's doing it?

Maybe I will just wipe it (but, darn I spent so much money on it) and use the real 98SE instead.

In any case, GREAT WORK on the Auto-Patcher and thanks a bunch for it!

...All's Well, RC2 UPGRADE works great on older PC(PentiumMMX-233mhz-6.5gb-64mb)-<yet UBERSKIN RP8*???works ,though not as well as RP7 overall in comparison>,.....RevPack 7.11.5 works great..too!!!<ADDED NEW - SESP 3.03a update fixes problems from MDCU 2.50 for some reason > I also acquired a Chem PC(with PentiumIII-128mb-11gb-450mhz);added 98se with all clean installs of every update ever yet published -Works fine yet USB has problems for some reason with infra red update in APrc1,So just use ethernet connection instead....***Since adding AP-RC2&SESP3.03a..I can now use Qwest CD to solve connection problems ..(as this would NOT work before..for some odd reason??/ even Qwest was amazed as i could use MSN as I could do so before>>>Just Keep Up da Great Work As All helps!!!!thx,thydreamwalker 98SE survives!!!

Just to let everyone know, i tried installing SESP 3.03a after using AP with most options installed. To my relief, hardly any new system files were installed meaning AP has most if not all of the updates Gape has included. But there is still a point in installing SESP 3.03a after AP in that you get some extra eye candy (boot screens) and there are some performance tweaks you will benefit from. Most importantly, the 2 projects seem to work well together. SESP 3.03a could also be considered a replacement from using AP at all as it will bring your Win98 machine up-to-date much like AP will. But AP has the benefit of containing EVERYTHING which means you can use it no matter what the state of your system is. SESP 3.03a can't do this, you need some stuff installed first. But, SESP 3.03a is looking really really good. Congrats to Gape.

I installed AP Dez. Final on a new installed Win 98 Se

so these updates looped

service 9x , tools 9x ,ttfpack ,2 to 4 digit conversion tool ,unofficial html help ie 6 but newer file HHCTRL.OCX 5.2.3790.2847 is in windows / system ??????? so is it installed or not ?
after i installed these updates manually with no problem something is bad with the installation routine !

i suggest mdcupl for nicer icons like win me

NEWS: firstly, 2 files were left out of the Final Upgrade installer -- NDP11sp1.exe and DCOM98Up.exe -- for those who wanted to install .NET Framework 1.1 or the Unofficial DCOM98 update should re-download the Upgrade package again. Sorry about this, i gotta lay off the cough syrup obviously. The link will be available as soon as 30 MB uploads, should be only a few more minutes at time of typing.

barbarien, could you run AP again using the same module options as before but use the VERBOSE mode (ie use START_DEBUG.bat instead of START_ME.bat to start AP) and PM me the debug text file. Also, give me your log file as well. Loops usually happen on a system that has been in use for a while, i'm quite surprised that you are getting so many on a new installed Win98 se.

My Logfile

HEY UMMM...THE FILES"Final Upgrade installer -- NDP11sp1.exe and DCOM98Up.exe -- for those who wanted to install .NET Framework 1.1 or the Unofficial DCOM98"...SHOULD BE STILL IN A.P.RC1 COMPONENT FILES INSIDE THE UPDATER AS MINE WERE THERE BEFORE I DOWNLOADED NEWER UPGRADE FILES RC2(Maybe they were there to begin with from A.P.OCT.UPGRADE???...) thydreamwalker

Does one of the new updates change the way Internet Explorer reacts to Visual Scripting? Because I now have a weird situation where on almost any web page I get a box saying IE needs to download Visual Scripting support, and that it is available on my hard drive. I click to have it go ahead, and I notice the remainder of the web page is loaded, usually some picture boxes. If I browse to another page the situation repeats, I get the prompt to install Visual Scripting, give it the go ahead, and the page loads properly. It only takes a second or so but I would think that once it does this once it should stay installed, no?

Perhaps I need to reinstall something? I haven't messed with the Advanced Internet Options tab. All levels on the security tab are at the default levels.

I had thought that perhaps installing the WorksSuite 2005 and OfficeXP, and the SP3 and all Office Updates from Microsoft along with the Works update might fix it. That stuff installs some system type files related to Visual Scripting I think. But all that works but this problem hasn't changed. You think perhaps running Maximus-Decim's MDAC update pack might install something properly that I somehow have a mismatched version for now? The only updates I have now are those installed from Auto-Patcher, and I did toggle on those Visual Basic Runtime Library modules so I have all that installed too.

I was about to go on to the next step, which is running 98SE2ME, then 98MP10, then EXPLOR98.EXE. I toggled all that stuff off in Auto-Patcher including the ani fixes and the Explorer replacement module so I could run those things myself with the above packages. I kept the default of off for the shell98 and memory fix, copy large files fix too. I figure that if I have problems I can go back and run Auto-Patcher and toggle those unofficial patches to on but I'd try things first without them. All those Office installs worked fine and I haven't started copying huge amounts of things from my cdr's yet so I don't yet know if I can do without those fixes or not. I used to install them all the time but as you set them to off by default I figured I'd try things out without them.

yeah, i've noticed this too but i never did enough testing to see that it always asks you if you want to download 0 bytes in order to use scripting. I just assumed you said yes once and then that was it. A wild guess from me would point the finger at Java 6 Update 4 as i started to notice the issue around the time i decided to go with Java 6 instead of 5. But i haven't confirmed this theory yet. The other suspect would be the unofficial scripting update.

I've been running Java 6 Update 3 and now Update 4 (BTW fixed a web page I had a problem with...).
I have never had the mentioned problem.
However, I'm not sure if I have the unofficial scripting update installed.
When did you include it in AP? - I've installed up to Dec 2007 RC1 but have not installed Final (or RC2) yet.