Google Earth on Win98SE ( research )

[Win98SEonSteroids]

---------------[Entry #___1]

This version of Google Earth works the best for Win98SE .

( no blurred areas on the rendered image --

unless image is censored or not available )

( Rick Chauvin's ) -- GoogleEarthForW98-v4.0.2416.zip

===== Great work Rick -- Thanks =====

Here is the link to the most recent revision (textfile)

of the Win98SE system tweaks to help

Google Earth v4.0.2416 ( Rick Chauvin's work )

run smoothly ---[without crashes] .

Win98SE system tweaks for Google earth

Edited September 19, 2008 by Win98SEonSteroids

[dencorso]

I tweak the "MemoryCacheSize" and DiskCacheSize" in the windows registry .

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Google\Google Earth Plus\Cache]

"MemoryCacheSize"=dword:00000100

"DiskCacheSize"=dword:00000300

MemoryCacheSize= 256 MegaBytes

___DiskCacheSize= 768 MegaBytes

[...]

If I try to set the cache settings within Google Earth ,

the program will not take my settings .

It will say that I do not have that much memory . . .

and will reset my "MemoryCacheSize" to 32 megabytes ( sometimes).

I confirm that tweaking GoogleEarth cache in the registry is the only way to do it that works.

[Win98SEonSteroids]

---------------[Entry #___2]

IExplorer "files cache" use by recent versions of Google earth.

"href:// linkpath/file.kml" ( or kmz) -- Stale overlays,textures, and satellite imagery.

****************************************************************

- Google Earth 4.0 has enabled http caching for

network links, overlays, and icons

while Google Earth 3.1 and earlier does not.

Consequently, 4.0 clients may fetch

what appears to be stale files if the server does not supply a

max-age, expires or no-store cache control directive,

see: http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec14.html

To avoid this the problem servers should be reconfigured

to supply the appropriate directive.

To correct a current problem,

users can either manually refresh network links

or overlays using the right-click context menu item "Refresh"

or otherwise clear their Internet cache

**********************************************************

Due to using the Firefox browser ,

previously I had disabled a LOT of the Internet Explorer

( internet options ) as a PROTECTION . . .

due to the Internet Explorer / Explorer.exe shell integration.

To accomodate Google Earth,

I have changed internet files cache refresh to:

Internet Properties_______General TAB

____Temporary Internet files___[settings_button]

____Settings(Popup)

Check for newer versions of stored pages.

[o] Every visit to the page

[_] Every time you start Internet Explorer

[_] Automatically

[_] Never

Edited October 23, 2008 by Win98SEonSteroids

[Win98SEonSteroids]

---------------[Entry #____3]

I will be researching the depth of integration

( in relation to the "won't open or save KMZ files" )

Reference

http://groups.google.de/group/google-earth...689ad9c40461db4

the Google Earth integration with Internet Explorer . . .

in order to process the href LINKS ( kml / kmz )

in the XML container document ( *.KML, *.KMZ files )

this section:

*************************************************

Earth relies on the browser for URL fetching,

so these SECURITY SETTINGS could be a stumbling block

in the NetworkLink pipeline.

*************************************************

Edited September 19, 2008 by Win98SEonSteroids

[Win98SEonSteroids]

---------------[Entry #____4]

The problem is NOT how much RAM ,

but - what You do with the RAM You have.

Google Earth Community Users Group

http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb

In the discussion (by Google Earth users )

Re: Performance issues (was Who'da believed it?)

it appears that the users of --->WinXP and Vista<----

need large amounts of RAM installed

for Google Earth to function properly . . .

( in some cases 4 GigaBytes of RAM )

I believe this is because

the LOAD of (too many) layers turned on ( at startup)

brings in an overload of RAM consuming data . . .

which is handled ( poorly )

by too much swapfile activity on their systems .

------------------------------------------------------------------

When Google Earth LOCKs-up ( or crashes during experimentation )

___I managed to get it to initialize

by restoring its' Windows registry values for

DiskCacheSize____to_dword=00000190(400) ---- 400 MegaBytes

MemoryCacheSize_to_dword=00000020(32) ---- 32 MegaBytes

by deleting the (dbCache.dat.index) and (dbcache.dat)

in the

C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Google\GoogleEarth\dbCache.dat.index

directory.

Edited October 19, 2008 by Win98SEonSteroids

[Win98SEonSteroids]

---------------[Entry #____5]

SOLUTION: low texture resolution problem --

(blurring when zoomed in) .

Post # 6 (from TOP) by Bernhard

the way the Operating System

( in his case Windows Vista )

reports the amount of RAM memory available.

" Google Earth seems to have a problem with

0x100000000 bytes of memory being reported

and reverts to a memory saving low resolution texture mode."

Bernhard is offering a solution to a problem

caused by Microsoft Vista's "Service Pack 1" .

His suggestion ( limiting Windows amount of RAM use )

(Win98SE version of his suggestion here)

Start msconfig.exe

On

the 'General' TAB

the 'Advanced ' button

[tick] the 'Limit memory to [xxx]MB

---Accept the Windows value there ( 999 or less )

[click] (OK)

[click] (Apply)

---Allow Windows to reboot.

---------------------------------------------------------

System.ini

[386Enh]

MaxPhysPage=40000

This creates an entry in the System.ini ( under 40000 )

-----------------------------------------------------------------

I have placed the NEW . . . Limit memory option

and all related revisions into my

---------------[Entry #____1] post

at the start of this TOPIC

To the TOP

Edited September 19, 2008 by Win98SEonSteroids

[Win98SEonSteroids]

---------------[Entry #____6]

Seeking an answer to

****_KMZ files will not open in Google Earth_****

* Also, I cannot save a KMZ file from my installation of Google earth .

( may be a separate issue -- as to "How To save as kmz"

As there is an ability to use 'Google Maps' to

open KMZ files and OVERLAY in Google Maps . . .(online)

I have been using 'Google Maps' as a tool

to help configure IExplorer v6 for the proper security settings,

so that it ( IE6) performs all the "scripting", "ActiveX"

that is required to see a kmz file overlay

on Google Earth's cousin ( Google Maps ) .

I had the security settings "so tight" at first to :

no scripting, no ActiveX components, no javascript, etc.

As well as separately using the

Norton Script Disabler/Enabler application

NoScript.exe

(NoScript MFC Application)

I used the 'Google Maps' site's error prompts

to enable what was needed ( in sequence).

Till finally ,

their user uploaded KMZ files were being displayed

within my IExplorer 6 browser window.

'Google Maps' was doing all of the KMZ file decompression

by way of their server responding to the webpage that I was viewing .

Edited October 21, 2008 by Win98SEonSteroids

[starcraftmaster]

hey make google sketch up work on windows 98/me

[Win98SEonSteroids]

*** Didn't get a chance to experiment with UpDated scripting.

Major Win98SE CRASH ( about a week ago ) .

Edited October 21, 2008 by Win98SEonSteroids

[Win98SEonSteroids]

The problem had to to created on

the previous 'cleanup' and 'shutdown' ( the night before) .

Could not have been:

Run SFC ( system file checker)

Run Scandisk ( Windows version)

Copy Windows , Program Files, Online, Software directories

___ to 2nd and 3rd hard drive.

Could be A BUG in the (newest) version of

SpyBot - ' search & Destroy ' version 1.6

( which modifies the Windows registry -- to delete entries )

I did not install the 1.5x versions

( due to the talk on the SpyBot forum)

For a while the author's server could not be accessed.

And there were NO responses to e-mail (from the author).

Many discussions on the forum were about crashed systems

after installing ( 1.5x versions) .

Edited October 21, 2008 by Win98SEonSteroids

[Win98SEonSteroids]

Have moved steadily along to take advantage of this

learning opportunity , while ( re-attaching / re-installing )

6 years worth of applications.

Same method was used for the Google Earth install

* which is back up and running.

Due to this <crash> , It's nice to see the 3D solar system program

'Celestia' through the Primary Nvidia adapter ( In all its' splendor).

A result of the newer "super-tiles" method ,

using HIres textures subdirectories --(5 levels)

makes its' rendering very similar to Google Earth ( zooming in )

level0 - 2 tiles

level1 - 8 tiles

level2 - 32 tiles

level3 - 128 tiles

level4 - 512 tiles

level5 - 2048 tiles

Edited October 21, 2008 by Win98SEonSteroids

[RJARRRPCGP]

*** Didn't get a chance to experiment with UpDated scripting.

Major Win98SE CRASH ( about a week ago ) .

Just BOOTed up.

Went to reading any News about Wachovia Bank's stability.

Had 'Doogie Howser' TV streaming from HULU.com .

Suddenly "Doogie" streaming 'locks up' .

On re-BOOT , strange cascade of errors.

First something about Batmeter.dll missing call too (blah, blah) .

Then after click [OK] to close warning ,

more cascading errors . . . then lockup.

Tried booting from 2nd Hard Drive. Same cascade off error messages.

Managed one completed boot ( fragile) on 2nd Hard Drive .

Attempted to copy 'Program Files' and "Windows' folders from

3rd Hard Drive back to 1st .

Same cascade of BOOTup errors .

A cascade of errors that came out of nowhere and when wasn't using unknown software, often means unstable hardware, likely because of the processor overheating.

Edited October 12, 2008 by RJARRRPCGP

[Win98SEonSteroids]

Thanks for input RJARRRPCGP ,

. . . the overheating possibility could have been HULU TV stream related .

In this system re-install journey ,

_I'm learning that for Google Earth to LOGIN to its' server ,

_You cannot DISABLE ( active scripting ) for Internet Explorer.

Edited October 21, 2008 by Win98SEonSteroids

[Win98SEonSteroids]

The Google Earth COM interface is registered

as part of the Google Earth installation process.

But since the install of GoogleEarthForW98-v4.0.2416.zip was

a NON-standard install < unzip , place in directory, and RUN >

the COM interface was ' NOT registered ' .

(Ref)

http://earth.google.com/comapi/

************************************************

If, for some reason,

you need to register the Google Earth COM API again,

execute GoogleEarth.exe with "/RegServer" as a command line argument.

For instance,

assuming GoogleEarth.exe is located in C:\Program Files\Google\Google Earth,

use the following command line to register Google Earth's COM API:

"C:\Program Files\Google\Google Earth\googleearth.exe" /RegServer

To unregister the Google Earth COM API, use the following command:

"C:\Program Files\Google\Google Earth\googleearth.exe" /UnregServer

************************************************

When I used [RUN] from the Win98SE StartMenu and added the command

"C:\ <path to Google Earth EXEfile > \googleearth.exe" /RegServer

I found a whole new set of Google Earth entries

in the Win98SE registry , beside the existing entries for

Google Earth.etafile

Google Earth.kmlfile

Google Earth.kmzfile

Edited October 21, 2008 by Win98SEonSteroids

[Win98SEonSteroids]

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AppID\{7E7898C9-8E34-4314-9670-771BC5343D0E}

Keyhole

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AppID\{46A99B9C-4AC8-4EE9-AF7D-D02816CEC314}

GoogleEarth

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.eta

(Default) Google Earth.etafile

Content Type----->"application/vnd.google-earth.eta"

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.kml

(Default) Google Earth.kmlfile

Content Type----->application/vnd.google-earth.kml+xml

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.kmz

(Default) Google Earth.kmzfile

Content Type----->application/vnd.google-earth.kmz

Edited November 12, 2008 by Win98SEonSteroids