Decided to Move on From Windows 98SE

[Monroe]

dencorso: "Download and save Virtual PC 2004 SP1, while it's still available. It's one of the real pearls MS offers for free!"

... thanks again, just finished downloading Virtual PC. Can't wait to try that out.

[LoneCrusader]

...why Windows XP and not Windows 7?

No Classic Start Menu!

At least Vista has this

Hi dencorso,

Last call to stock up on Win98-compatible hardware, the shelves will be empty next year.

You bet I'm doing it already. Just bought a pair of never-used A7V600-X motherboards (I love those boards) for a trifle (DDR, no SATAII, who, but one of us, would want them?)!

Yes, I too have accumulated quite a stockpile of Windows 9x compatible hardware. Motherboards I think I have covered. (My girlfriend called me a "motherboard hoarder" the other day LOL ) High-end AGP video cards and RAM are my biggest concerns right now. Especially given the fact that Kingston DDR RAM is NO LONGER AVAILABLE from Newegg

[Multibooter]

You bet I'm doing it already.

I stocked up on spare Asus P5PE-VM motherboards some time ago. I still have to test and then stock up on Intel Core 2 X6800 Extreme CPUs, prices have come down, but they are still not cheap.

Here a potential item to stock up: The external USB enclosure http://www.ebay.com/itm/5-25-3-5-USB-Enclosure-w-Fan-for-SATA-HDD-CD-DVD-BD-/190350685036?pt=US_Drive_Enclosures_Docks&hash=item2c51c8f36c for SATA burners. So-so workmanship, noisy fan which I disconnected, but altogether highly recommended because it has a great chipset and its own manufacturer-provided Win98 driver. Eventually it will be gone, and Frys in California doesn't have any external enclosures for SATA burners.. I have put a Pioneer BDR-203 SATA blu-ray burner in it, it works fine under WinXP and Win98SE with both the manufacturer/ebay-dealer-provided Win98SE driver v1.04 and with nusb. Info about the chipset inside is at http://www.jmicron.com/Product_JM20329.htm No idea what the "Support 4K sectors HDD command" claim there would mean under Win98SE.

[Multibooter]

I am using the same older ZoneAlarm version on XP that I was using with Windows 98SE.

My system got much faster after I got rid of ZoneAlarm. I am using Kerio Personal Firewall v2.1.5 now.

I have a simple question for anyone using Ghost to do an image backup ... when you have 2 different partitions on a hard drive ... one NTFS and one FAT32 does Ghost just copy the whole hard drive image on one DVD or do you have to run Ghost separate for each partition (NTFS and FAT32)?

I have never backed up a drive or a partition to a DVD with Ghost v11.0.2.1573 standalone, only to a .gho file on a HDD. My backups with Ghost are usually partition backups, not backups of the whole HDD. I back up the WinXP partition under Win98 with Ghost.

To back up my Win98 installation I do not use Ghost, but WinRAR under WinXP. I save under WinXP the \Windows\ and \Program Files\ folders of the Win98 installation as a .rar file, and the install-to folders on various partitions as separate .rar files, whenever a new software is installed. The installation of Win98SE on my laptop is nearly 9 years old and unfortunately spread out over various partitions.

...there is one "radical"solution that someone posted on another forum ... open up the notebook and permanently disable or remove the WiFI adapter and use my Netgear card

I am using on my old latops Netgear WPN511 wireless PC Cards, which have worked fine under Win98SE and WinXP. Netgear may have removed the Win98 drivers from their site. My Dell Inspiron 7500 laptops do not have a built-in wireless card, only an optionally built-in modem, which is quite easy to remove. Maybe the wireless card can be disabled in your hardware profile.

... want to try everything else first, including XP fully before I open up the notebook for WiFi removal surgery

You will need the repair/service manual for your laptop, don't try without it. It takes me about 40 minutes to take all the parts out of my laptop, including the motherboard and the PCMCIA cage, but about 2 hours to put the pile of pieces back together again. I have done it quite a few times, and damaged 2 laptops in the process. Taking apart a laptop, and putting it back together again, is much more difficult than doing the same with a desktop.

[jaclaz]

I'll put the seed for a nice flamewar (the usual NT vs. 98, NTFS vs. FAT32, King Kong vs. Godzilla one) starting from a statement by Multibooter :

6) to search for files. Win98 Find is much superior to the WinXP Search:

a) WinXP Search also searches in .zip archives, making it painfully slow if big .zip files are in the search path, and occasionally it seems to be making endless loops

You are talking like you were an editor making a review of a couple "new" OS's.

You are - just like most of MSFN members, an OS tweaker!

It is 10 years + we do have XP, and we do have "fixes" for most if not all it's drawbacks (as much as we have them for Win98).

You don't want the stupid search look into .zip's?

Get rif of zipfldr.dll .

You want to compare Search speed between 98 (on FAT16/FAT32) to that of XP (on NTFS)?

Get rid of the stupid XP search and get a good app (some examples):

http://reboot.pro/index.php?showtopic=6848

,

Come on , there are tens of things that suck big , both in 9x/Me and in NT/2K/XP (not necessarily the same ones ), but for almost *any* of them there is a way out/workaround/better solution!

jaclaz

[Monroe]

jaclaz ... I knew you would show up with your "flame thrower"! Always nice for your input ... I have seen your input in several other forums when I'm searching on Google. I happen to also like the Find Files/Search on Windows 98SE, not crazy about the XP model but I found this web site with registry fixes, there are so many I have not been able to look at every one ... however they have a simple registry fix called : #49. Old Style Search Engine On or Off ... it takes the cartoon character away. These are all registry fixes for XP. Will take a chance and put the link here since Windows 98SE and XP and dual boots are being discussed. I found about five items so far but there are so many, I just haven't had time to check them all. There are two columns of fixes. Looks like over 800 registry fixes.

Registry Edits for Windows XP

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

Multibooter ... yes I have all the manuals, got them right away when I bought the notebooks and I have downloaded videos to save from YouTube ... several on taking a Thinkpad model (my models T41 - T42) apart to replace a keyboard and such.

thanks,

Edited May 12, 2012 by duffy98

[Monroe]

Just a quick update ... I took my 1st T42 notebook to the WiFi spot and it connected fast and perfect. This has XP now completely installed and many fixes ... It shows me all the available networks in the area. With Windows 98SE and the IBM drivers it never did this ... if it connected, I only saw numbers (no names) and really had no idea where I was connected. Working great at this moment so I guess XP will be staying on my notebooks ... those drivers were supposed to also work with 98SE or there were a few others just for Windows 98SE only but the WiFi just didn't work or look right. Well, this is a really huge development for me ... end of frustration, I hope unless XP has a surprise down the road.

...

[PROBLEMCHYLD]

Just a quick update ... I took my 1st T42 notebook to the WiFi spot and it connected fast and perfect. This has XP now completely installed and many fixes ... It shows me all the available networks in the area. With Windows 98SE and the IBM drivers it never did this ... if it connected, I only saw numbers (no names) and really had no idea where I was connected. Working great at this moment so I guess XP will be staying on my notebooks ... those drivers were supposed to also work with 98SE or there were a few others just for Windows 98SE only but the WiFi just didn't work or look right. Well, this is a really huge development for me ... end of frustration, I hope unless XP has a surprise down the road.

...

This might be our only HOPE

[submix8c]

ARG! Pushed a wrong key and lost my "reply".

re - "older hardware" - PC Recycler in my city gives $5/Tower and $3/lb-Boards. They get from offices and govt due to upgrades. Also resell "best" parts after stripping (DDR, Better/Best AGP/PCI, PATA Peripherals, etc) for real cheap. Catch them when a shipment comes in and "make an offer they can't refuse" (older Towers). They don't even keep non-Dual Core PC's. (They also do PC Repair, BTW)

For "hoarders", a great place to unload your "too old" or "don't want anymore".

[Multibooter]

You don't want the stupid search look into .zip's?

Get rif of zipfldr.dll .

Hi jaclaz,

I fiddled around with WinXP Search some time ago, but I wasn't happy with it, I forgot why and I didn't document it, so when I want to search my 1TB software archives, I boot into Win98SE and use Win98 Find, or I connect the external HDD to be searched to my 2nd computer on my desk, if Win98 is currently running there. I have posted below the note about WinXP Search from my personal InfoSelect v3.0 notebook, which contains my personal notes of the past 18 years, easily searchable:

----- BEGIN INFOSEL NOTE ----

*MS Search (WinXP) 10/10/2010

. is not as good as the MS Find (Win98), which can look into the Win98 root kit

How to keep MS Search (WinXP) from looking into .zip archives

-> Start -> Run: [without quotation marks] "regsvr32 /u I:\WINXPSP2\system32\zipfldr.dll"

(this is the DLLUnregisterServer) 10/3/2010

in window RegSvr32: "DllUnregisterServer in I:\WINXPSP2\system32\zipfldr.dll succeeded" -> Ok

. to reset to default again: regsvr32 I:\WINXPSP2\system32\zipfldr.dll 10/3/2010

NOTE: afterwards you have to associate .zip again with WinRAR

How to remove the dog with the wagging tail

. run MS TweakUI v2.10 (WinXP)

-> Explorer -> select "Use Classic Search Engine in Explorer" 1/15/2010

NOTE: after disabling/enabling searching in .zip files, you may have to re-associate .zip with WinRAR 11/24/2010

------ END INFOSEL NOTE --------

Thanks for posting the link mentioning FindOnClick, which I plan to try out eventually. I am looking for a good search utility which can also search .iso files, any suggestions?

I don't want any indexing done by a search tool. One large folder, for example, with the German-language Digitale Bibliothek is 119GB and contains currently 426.729 files in 1258 sub-folders, so indexing would take a little while. Also, indexing by MS Office probably enabled the awful Tenga virus to infect most .exe files on my laptop and on an external 1 TB software archive drive, with blazing speed, 2 years ago. BTW, InfoSelect v3.0 did not get infected by Tenga, because its .exe file is an ancient "New executable (Win 3.1)", and I was able to search my notes after the infection, while most other software ceased working. One more reason to keep an instance of old Win98, with old software.

I am not particularly interested in searching NTFS partitions, since nearly all my stuff is on FAT32, the NTFS Data partition on each of my external HDDs contains only a small number of huge files >2GB.

Edited May 12, 2012 by Multibooter

[dencorso]

Get rid of zipfldr.dll .

+1! I do it like this:

I) regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll

II) ren zipfldr.dll zipfldr.not

(step II is not really necessary, but helps prevent it from being reregistered silently, when WFP is disabled).

And, since we're on the subject, IMO, the best way to disable WFP is the following:

Get this, but don't run it.

Open it, instead, with 7-zip, and grab inside sfc_os.dll and sfcfiles.dll, and put them in a temp folder.

Now, from true DOS or from Win 9x, rename those original two files in the Win XP SYSTEM32 folder

And then drop the replacements from the temp folder into the Win XP SYSTEM32 folder.

When you next start Win XP, WFP will be permanently disabled.

No registry mod is required, and if you ever decide to reverse, it's just a matter of using the original files again.

[jaclaz]

And, since we're on the subject, IMO, the best way to disable WFP is the following:

Naah, that is the way to COMPLETELY disable it, simpler (and IMHO enough) is just empty sfcfiles.dll :

http://www.vorck.com/windows/xpsp4.html

http://www.vorck.com/windows/software.html

no hacked files, a single filed replaced, SFC continues running and check just an empty list.

jaclaz

[Multibooter]

II) ren zipfldr.dll zipfldr.not

(step II is not really necessary, but helps prevent it from being reregistered silently, when WFP is disabled).

And, since we're on the subject, IMO, the best way to disable WFP is the following: ....

I don't quite remember, but the reason why I gave up on WinXP Search may have been that some time after disabling the search in zip files, WinXP Search started to search again inside of zip files, without my having done anything. Maybe there was a small system crash or a bad shutdown under WinXP, and an earlier registry was restored, who knows. One major issue with WinXP is that I have not the faintest idea what's under the hood, but maybe the problem is not WinXP, but my lack of knowledge.

Here a good description of WFP: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_File_Protection

Maybe disabling WFP is not that good an idea, WinXP seems to repair itself after a bad crash. But after some bad crashes, which have occurred already several times on my desktops, WinXP couldn't come up anymore, it was in a crashing loop after the desktop came up, and the only way I could recover was to restore with Ghost a good WinXP backup partition. This example also shows that data files should not be stored on the same partition as WinXP.

[Multibooter]

You don't want the stupid search look into .zip's?

Get rif of zipfldr.dll .

Looks like good old Jaclaz-style: A can of worms innocuously thrown in.

Any ideas about how to search in .iso files? I currently have maybe 100+ .iso files extracted to a separate HDD partition "EXTRACTED", and search this partition with Win98 Find. It works, but it is not a good solution.

[dencorso]

And, since we're on the subject, IMO, the best way to disable WFP is the following:

Naah, that is the way to COMPLETELY disable it, simpler (and IMHO enough) is just empty sfcfiles.dll :

http://www.vorck.com/windows/xpsp4.html

http://www.vorck.com/windows/software.html

no hacked files, a single filed replaced, SFC continues running and check just an empty list.

jaclaz

The empty sfcfiles.dll is one of the files I recommended. It's precisely the same file creatd by Damian Bakowski & fdv, with a version property tag added, that identifies it as v. 5.1.2600.5515. The other file uses jdoe's patch. Either can disable WFP completely. So using both is bulletproof. And making no change in the registry ensures easy reversibility, if ever needed. So, at the end of the day, you're recommending just half of the procedure I indicated. It works. But twice as sure is better.