[Eck]

briton,

Of course you are correct when you do things the way you have done. I didn't!

I first installed 98SE, used Partition Magic to change the active partition to the 2nd NTFS and installed XP, then installed Debian which replaced all the Microsoft stuff in the MBR with Grub.

I set Grub to hide one partition, unhide and activate the other and chainload into it for both Windows partitions. Linux is on its own hard drive but Grub is on the 1st Windows partition on the first hard drive.

Using Grub I can leave it alone and boot into Linux or go down in the menu and it will hand over the process to whichever Windows I pick after doing its hiding, unhiding, activating magic. Sort of like BootMagic would do.

Now, if I erase the Linux drive Grub will not find its files and so nothing will boot. If I format Windows 98SE then Grub will entirely disappear from the MBR and Windows 98 will be the only operating system bootable unless I reinstall Grub again. XP, um, not sure where the heck its stuff is but I suspect nowhere as Grub is there and simply hands things over instead of using any Microsoft boot loader.

This is better than the Microsoft way of having XP boot both and them both seeing each other. You like the OS's seeing the files in the other but I don't (except for Linux). But perhaps not as good as your boot loader that lets you format any partition you want (except for the primary that the boot loader is on, which is likely on a single small primary, right?)

I tried that with BootIT NG and couldn't get it to work properly. You've had success with XOSL.

But as long as I don't need to format Windows I'm fine as Linux distro's just install their own Grub replacing the last one that was there. I'm nearly all the time in Linux anyway. I think the 98SE partition is the most dangerous for me to format as that might lose everything as that's where Grub is.

Hopefully, the installs of Windows are there to stay. They are only there for occasional use of Windows only things and I really don't want to mess with them much.

[RetroOS]

RetroOS, on Sep 9 2007, 04:31 PM, said:

...
However, after the OLE update installed and rebooted, I got a system message saying that C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\OLEDLG.DLL was missing...
...
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...

Hi soporific,
A reminder of the OLE update failure (several complaints previously), and the Q891711 version checking of two dlls to prevent back-dating.

EDIT: Okay, looks like MDGx has fixed the Q891711 issue...

This post has been edited by RetroOS: 27 September 2007 - 04:45 AM

[soporific]

joe tweaker, on Sep 27 2007, 06:41 AM, said:

soporific, on Sep 24 2007, 01:33 AM, said:

Issues: - the Unofficial Scripting Engine Update 5.6.0.8832 is available in the menu, but it never installs -- this is because i hadn't added this to the Optional Components module. D'OH!

Have you patched the COMPNTS.BAT module to install Scripting Update 5.6.0.8832 yet?
If you have, can we download just that patch now w/o having to download the entire project again?
(I'm assuming we'd only need to replace COMPNTS.BAT for that single fix.)

Or would you prefer that we wait til the next full release?

COMPNTS.BAT now has more changes than just the little bug i found. Looks like you'll have to download the UPDATE when its available.

Latest News:

The September 2007 FULL beta is available. I know its a big download, but for those where this doesn't matter, please try it out. It says Beta but this version is heaps better than August 2007. Trust me!

September 2007 FULL Beta is now available - 255 MB

The link will work in about 2 hours ... its uploading as i type.

EDIT: oops, the link works while its still uploading, please wait for 2 hours after the time of the last edit of this post, otherwise you'll just waste bandwidth on a broken version.

An much smaller UPGRADE version will be available tomorrow. I'm off to bed.

change log:

new: TriEdit - Cumulative TriEdit & DHTML Edit Control Vulnerability Fixes
new: kb932590 - Unofficial TZ Environment Variable Errors Fix
new: MSPaint - Unofficial MSPaint Update and Graphic Filters Pack (optional)
new: Contrl98 - Unofficial Control Panel Applets Lockups Fix
new: Revolutions Pack 7 by Tihiy
update: 98KrnlUp - Unofficial Update for KRNL386.EXE (4.10.0.2000)
update: RichEd9x - Unofficial Rich Text Controls Update (Sept 2007)
bug fix: the q329048 hotfix wasn't installing due to wrong file number check value
bug fix: the PNGFIX in the Manual Installs folder was broken.
bug fix: HTMLHelp was looping, should now be fixed.
bug fix:rootsup was looping, should now be fixed.

This post has been edited by soporific: 27 September 2007 - 10:42 AM

[RetroOS]

Hey soporific,

Java 5.0 Update 13 is out (http://java.sun.com/.../index_jdk5.jsp).
Is it too late to include it in the September 2007 release?

Also, are you going to include MDGx's August 27 release of 98MP10?
Your one is February...

Keep up the good work!

This post has been edited by RetroOS: 05 October 2007 - 02:59 PM

[soporific]

RetroOS, on Oct 4 2007, 07:09 PM, said:

Hey soporific,

Java 5.0 Update 13 is out (http://java.sun.com/.../index_jdk5.jsp).
Is it too late to include it in the September 2007 release?

Also, are you going to include MDGx's August 27 release of 98MP10?
Your one is February...

Keep up the good work!

Java 5.0 Update 13 made it in, but the latest 98MP10 hasn't as yet. See details below.


Latest News:
Oct 15:
The final September 2007 UPGRADE is now available:
September 2007 UPGRADE - 31.2 MB
MD5: BBF60F778688E7DB98FA36D08C163A97

Please Note: There are a few changes to the final September Upgrade release which will make your Auto-Patcher slightly newer than the FULL release. Changes from the UPGRADE version and the FULL (beta) version are listed below.

Change log: September 2007 Final

new: Backup4all 1.3.0 (file & directory backup) (optional)
update: AutoSYSTEMini Tweaks Installer version 1.5 (the original version was 1.0)
update: Sun Java 2 Runtime Environment 5 update 13 (optional)

Change log: September 2007 beta

new: TriEdit - Cumulative TriEdit & DHTML Edit Control Vulnerability Fixes
new: kb932590 - Unofficial TZ Environment Variable Errors Fix
new: MSPaint - Unofficial MSPaint Update and Graphic Filters Pack (optional)
new: Contrl98 - Unofficial Control Panel Applets Lockups Fix
new: Revolutions Pack 7 by Tihiy (manual updates folder)
update: 98KrnlUp - Unofficial Update for KRNL386.EXE (4.10.0.2000)
update: RichEd9x - Unofficial Rich Text Controls Update (Sept 2007)
update: Q891711 - Unofficial Fix for Newer Cursor & Icon Format Vulnerability (updated INF code)
bug fix: the q329048 hotfix wasn't installing due to wrong file number check value
bug fix: the PNGFIX in the Manual Installs folder was broken.

[pixturesk]

I currently have the Unofficial Win98 SE Service Pack 2.0.1 on my computer. Shall I then further install the Auto Patcher for Win98SE? If so, shall I first install the large 248 mb August/07 main file, then the Sept/07 upgrade? If I attempt the large install, are the instructions easy to follow? I am not of the computer generation so please make your reply easy to follow. Thanks.

[soporific]

pixturesk, on Oct 16 2007, 10:19 PM, said:

I currently have the Unofficial Win98 SE Service Pack 2.0.1 on my computer. Shall I then further install the Auto Patcher for Win98SE? If so, shall I first install the large 248 mb August/07 main file, then the Sept/07 upgrade? If I attempt the large install, are the instructions easy to follow? I am not of the computer generation so please make your reply easy to follow. Thanks.

Yes to all your questions.

Seriously, i consider very carefully the question of user friendliness and i think the installation and usage of Auto-Patcher for Windows 98se is very user friendly.

[pixturesk]

Thanks Soporific. The main + update installs went perfectly. My next step is to Norton Ghost my "C" drive again with your complete package intact. It was quite revealing just how much was missing on my Win98SE configuration. A Network Status icon (two flashing monitors) has shown up in the systray near the clock which I can't seem to remove (like to keep that section simple), originating from C:\Windows\System\iptest.exe, also shows up in "Start", "Accessories", "System Tools". Is there some easy way of removing this icon? Again, Thanks very much for your invaluable contribution to us non-techie Win98SE users.

[soporific]

pixturesk, on Oct 18 2007, 02:21 AM, said:

A Network Status icon (two flashing monitors) has shown up in the systray near the clock which I can't seem to remove (like to keep that section simple), originating from C:\Windows\System\iptest.exe, also shows up in "Start", "Accessories", "System Tools". Is there some easy way of removing this icon?

Yes there is. Those flashing network icons are part of Tihiy's Unofficial Improved Replacement Tools, so open up Control Panel, open "Add/Remove programs" and look for "Unofficial Improved Replacement Tools". Choose to uninstall, reboot and it will all be gone. You can always re-install via Auto-Patcher if you want it back. Thanks for the feedback.

[AbyssHunted]

See below...

This post has been edited by AbyssHunted: 17 October 2007 - 02:51 PM

[AbyssHunted]

Tried the September Final Release, works great!

Just two things I noticed, though:

Any patches that require Windows Installer (e.g. Sun Java Platform) and are run directly from the .msi files tend to loop or have problems installing. However, these installers worked fine as long as I called them using msiexec.exe. You may want to change how you call the .msi installers in the future.

Also, the CD/DVD Burning software you have doesn't want to install. It says my computer is missing an "OLEDLG.dll" from the system directory. However, I found an "OLEDLG00.dll", and I made a copy and renamed the copy as "OLEDLG.dll" and it worked fine. You may want to adress that too.

[pixturesk]

Soporific, just a final point of clarification. Will you continue to supply updates to the main AutoPatcher for Win98SE software? I am current as of now. Are these updates monthly or just when new material becomes available? I just completed the task of burning an ISO image of my "C" drive using Norton Ghost, WHAT A RELIEF that everything is there, safe. Again thank you for your brilliant contribution to the continual use of Win98SE. With much appreciation, Ken.

[briton]

soporific - for your to-do list sometime, could you look at http://www.msfn.org/board/Enable48BitLBA_B...st&p=702190 which is a post about the 48bitLBA patch failing when a "disk address translation program" was used. I replied to North of Watford on that thread, but maybe you want to include a stronger warning about disk access management software or something.

This post has been edited by briton: 18 October 2007 - 11:25 AM

[Eck]

Hey again,

Yeah guys, isn't this thing the greatest thing since sliced bread? Not only is it a stable time saver that helps out a new installation, but can ensure just about any system has whatever is available to keep the 98SE as secure as it can be (as far as the operating system, browser, media player, Direct X, etc) in these days of these forums really being the only way for keeping up as much as is possible without Microsoft support.

And isn't it nice that this forum and the folks therein have continued to patch up anything they find that it is possible to improve upon?

And I don't see soporific retiring from this. No sign of it anyway. So I'd expect that if the other gurus keep pushing out improvements, fixes and upgrades then he'll keep the Auto-Patcher going so we can all partake in the goodies without hassling trying to figure out what order, what to replace, how to do it, etc. Just run the latest Auto-Patcher and you're all set.

I just applied the latest Update version and it all went completely smooth. Yeah, I'm still having it give me the list first and checking it, as well as toggling things off or on as I see makes the most sense for me. I never just hit go until I run through all the sections and set it up how I want to use it. Especially for the things that are always set to install but have a toggle available and that I know I don't want.

But I've gone through two update packages on top of the original and all have installed and ran nicely on the current system. 98SE is available and ready to run whatever I want to on it with a whole lot of improvements over how it ran in the years everyone was using it.

I mean, no copy large files or freezing My Documents folder hassles. No mysterious breakage in Internet Explorer, though I only open that to see whether it's still working. I use Firefox and Thunderbird for real work, and anyway I'm in Linux for that kind of thing and return to 98SE for older Windows 98 era games and programs.

So I agree that we should thank soperific, MDGx, Gape, Maximux-Decim, Tihiy, and yes a thank you to LLXX (oh boy, was that the right forum name for her? Still sorry we can't still have her around. Some really important contributions from her there), Eidenk, and all who have and still work on this stuff for us. We're a small group now, we keepers of the 9x alive type of thing. It really was a nice operating system and never really got many of its bugs and kinks dealt with by the manufacturer during its official lifetime. The Ladies and Gentlemen around here have really fixed things up as much as they can be without source code. Incredible job, really.

[soporific]

Eck, on Oct 21 2007, 03:59 PM, said:

And isn't it nice that this forum and the folks therein have continued to patch up anything they find that it is possible to improve upon?

i remember very clearly my transformation from a local Windows 98 updater (you know: friends, family, the guy down the street, etc) to the guy that puts out Auto-Patcher and UBCD for a wide international audience and it was DEFINITELY because of this forum. I was sick and tired spending hours and hours on re-installs of Windows 98 and i was sure there was a way to 'automate' it. I searched and searched and the web pages that always seemed to come up were from this place called MSFN. So I lurked for about 2 weeks, got all the info that i needed, and went to work. When the first version of UBCD was working and it did the job, i was SOOOOO over-joyed that i had created this enormous time-saver that i immediately stopped lurking and basically posted the instructions of how to do your own UBCD. That was version 1 way back in 2005 and hasn't it come a long way!?! The first UBCD had 33 hotfixes which was all that Windows Update said i needed. Boy did i have no idea how worthless what Windows Update reported was !! LOL.

Anyway, if this forum wasn't filled with the sort of passionate DIY computer engineers like i am, i wouldn't have hung around.

And Eck, "greatest thing since sliced bread"? Oh shucks dude, how does a guy kept a semblance of modesty when people talk about his projects like that?

Still, thanks anyway. But like you said, the real credit goes to the team working together by providing feedback to each other using this forum. Yay!

[eidenk]

Thanks for your kind words Eck. I don't think I deserve them actually as besides hanging around and insult someone from time to time I haven't done that much if anything at all really.

I think you forgot to mention three very important contributors, Petr, erpdude and the_guy, who are all in the top ten IMO.

A big round of applause to everyone.

[pixturesk]

Thanks again Soporific. Just a suggestion from this non techie, not of the computer generation. After installing AutoPatcher for Win98SE + the September/07 update + cleaning up my computer files (defrag, scanning for viruses, cleaning up the registry), to make sure that I maintain my entire Win98SE in tact, I made an ISO image of my"C" drive (took 9 cd) with Norton Ghost 2002, so if I have to format my "C" drive for any reason, I can just copy my Win98SE ISO back to my "C" drive, without having to re-install anything, just carry on as if nothing went wrong. Now I think I can relax + wait for your further updates Soporific. As with the others, I congratulate your efforts. Thanks again, Ken.

[briton]

Eck, on Sep 26 2007, 07:02 PM, said:

I set Grub to hide one partition, unhide and activate the other ...

Thanks for the explanation. I avoided that - for some reason (maybe going way back to mainframes lol) I like to keep OS types separated as early as possible. Therefore, I use XOSL to control everything. You might find it useful and it is so easy to reinstall with previous settings and then update with a couple or three files you can keep on a thumb drive. The trick I found was to keep whichever bootloader a Linux distro prefers (usually GRUB or LILO) with that distro so that it will automatically update to point at the latest kernel. But to GET that distro booted, I have to point at the bootloader from XOSL. That way, despite many OSs having their own boot managers (whether Windows or Linux), there is a master boot manager in front of them which I can restore if they remove it and which can find the partition to point to without difficulty.

If I move, remove, add, change location on disk etc of any partition or partitions, I simply need to stop at XOSL and tell it where they are if it doesn't know already (not bad for freeware ). Of course, I am controlling the moves/resizes etc manually using a combination of Ranish Partition Manager (my primary partition control as it really is manual!) and a DOS bootable thumbdrive with GParted on it (don't ask - it just works out faster that way) so there is never a time that some boot management or partition software will do something I didn't intend it to - again not bad for freeware.

As many other users, I do NOT consider that Windows installations are there to stay - I regularly wipe the partitions and reinstall Windows and Linux versions from scratch. Naturally, that is a good time to reconsider partition sizes, positions etc. The same applies to Linux distros - I manually create the partition table before installing them and I put GRUB or LILO wherever I want it but not as the primary boot manager.

Now how all that applies to AutoPatcher is simple. Whenever I am going to run Autopatcher, I first reboot into XOSL and set the default boot to the Win98 partition being patched. That way, if Autopatcher reboots (and more especially if it does so more than once), it can do so unattended.

And how it applies to your situation as guru should be obvious. If you have some kind of Master boot manager at the front of the line and point it at any other bootloaders such as Grub which you need to have there, you can be all things to all men AND use beta versions of patchers etc. It would also mean that your Grub would be where a more restricted user (say a user with only one OS and that being a Linux distro) would have it. I am not sure Autopatcher will affect your MBR anyway even if you were worried that a beta version might, you could have GRUB (or another bootloader/manager) pointing at a GRUB NOT on the Win98 partition. That would isolate the "real" GRUB you need to protect from the partition you would be using beta updaters on.

Just a thought. Sorry - a little off-topic but my first response was because I understood your previous post to suggest that Autopatcher was changing things on partitions other than the Win98 one it was working on.

[RetroOS]

Once again, soporific, you have released a superlative update pack!
Some nice core updates.
The install since August 2007 release went mostly without a hitch...

I did however have two issues.
1. 98KRNLUP update looped - It ran okay when I manually ran the update after Auto-Patcher.
2. MSPAINT update had errors:

This update spawns it's own DOS session that does not benefit from your enviroment 'out of space' fix...
After Auto-Patcher, I ran msconfig to reduce startup environment variables, and ran MSPaint update without errors.

However...
It appears that this update has actually back-dated MS Paint and some of my filters...
MSPAINT.EXE - 5.00.1740.1 -> 5.00.1523.1
BMPMP32.FLT - 2000.10.02.0 -> 99120800
PCDIMP32.FLT - 2003.1100.5510 -> 98110900
PCXIMP32.FLT - 2000.10.02.0 -> 99120800
TGAIMP32.FLT - 2000.10.02.0 -> 96091600
TIFFIM32.FLT - 2000.10.25.0 -> 98112600

Aside from MSPAINT.EXE, the *.FLT files' dates mostly matched their versions.
I will probably restore these files from backup soon...

[Eck]

Yes, the Paint update hit me with an error as well, about some files not being able to be replaced. I only had it install it because I remember I used to install that update all the time. Perhaps users of stuff like OfficeXP already get some of those file formats? Maybe some older versions are in the Paint update and aren't exactly intelligent. If they can overwrite they do, and where some Office, Microsofty type of thing prevents it, they error.

Don't know. Try a bunch of files in Paint and see if they'll open, edit, save to different formats. I hardly ever used Paint except for a simple change of something from bmp to jpeg or backwards.

Thanks for the details, briton. I guess I bought the wrong boot manager when I was just starting out with Linux and wanted to try something like you're talking about. I bought BootIT NG, which a bunch of folks seemed to be praising at the time, and saw XOSL as an alternative but BootIT appeared to be more feature filled so I went with that.

It worked fine for my 98SE and XP mix, but when I started trying to install Linux (OpenSUSE 10.2 at the time, when it was new), I just couldn't get it to use the partitions I had made for it, or have it create partitions (on a second hard drive or included on the first with the other OS's) and preserve the shared data partition I wanted to keep. It always wanted to format that. It was just a hassle that I couldn't get working.

For me, who enjoys operating systems but generally likes only one version of such type (98SE and XP aren't that different except for a few things that were broken for me on XP and so is still nice to have), I saw Grub as an easy one stop shop for only one Linux distro and a couple of Windows versions. It's performed nicely for me once I figured out what configuration works for mixing Linux and Microsoft. I had just Vista and either OpenSUSE or Debian Lenny for a while (now using Debian Lenny with 98SE and XP) but Vista churned my hard drive incessantly and not just when doing its indexing. I'd install a program or move some files around and the computer would be nearly impossible to use as Vista would be usurping the hard drive to write all the changes to its Previous Versions crap. Just about the worst part of using the old GoBack and Vista included it without the ability to go back to the XP style of only making Restore Points for its operating system files once in a while. Couldn't stand it and went back to XP and added back 98SE to the mix.

I just didn't see that the hassle, which it was during my BootIT NG experience, of messing with a boot loader was necessary for 2 or 3 operating systems. But the advantage of the boot loaders I lose it the ability to easily format any Windows and install fresh. Reinstalling Windows boot sectors and/or Grub SOMETIMES works okay but often times things get messed up. So you see that I'd like not to have to mess with Windows all that much. Changing Linux distro's is easy. Just install one and it'll replace Grub with its own version of the same. Just make sure the Windows things are mounted properly and tinker a bit with the automatically included Windows sections in Grub and I'm back up and going. The auto settings distro's use work fine for one Windows and one Linux but need to be adjusted for other combinations.

You'd thing I'd be pretty much settled in now, but just a few days ago I replaced a very impressive new OpenSUSE 10.3 with a return to Debian Lenny. I just felt in the mood for messing with Debian, with all the talk of the new release of Ubuntu. Heh, I feel no lure at all to install Ubuntu even though I burn it to a cdr to take a look at it Live. What do I need that for when I can have the real thing (Debian)? If I used the boot loader method like you, I could just shrink, stick its Grub in its own partition and keep everything. But then, there I go again not liking mostly the same software needing attention on both systems. Too much to bother with.

Hmm. I wonder what I'm going to do when I receive the boxed set of OpenSUSE 10.3 I ordered in a fit of thankfulness for a job well done on the distro? Unless I'm peeved at something in Debian I'll likely store it away for a rainy day.

Ha! Eidenk, I know even we had our encounters here. But that takes nothing away from when I've seen something written by you that applied to something on my system as well, when I've lurked around reading various threads. Don't sell yourself short, but yeah, you can be pesky at times. But that's great because you add color to the picture of the forum. Without characters of many kinds life gets boring.

Plus I was ROFL when reading some of your, shall we say, stronger exchanges with some other posters. I'm always grateful for a funny.