It's officially unofficially supported by Windows 9x community, namely folks over at MSFN.org, there's an official service pack that is regularly updated and contains nearly every critical update released by MS, it also includes ALOT of nifty updates, and upgrades as options such as ZipFolder capabilities, and Universal Plug and Play [STAY away from this package though, on my 440BX system THAT was the cause of all the stuttering, I just confirmed it, and I am reporting it to PROBLEMCHYLD [the dev who does the unofficial Service Pack for Win98 SE/ME].

There's also KernelEx which is a compatability layer allowing more modern day software to work natively under Win9x/ME.

sebaz_ri wrote:

EDIT:So basically now i know that installing SP3 is asking for trouble

No, the SP3 for Windows 98SE is amazing and really extends the life of Win98SE. It's just the Universal PNP that has been the issue for me, I don't have any uPnP devices so having it installed was causing system issues. Those issues might not exist for people that do have uPnP devices but I don't know.

According to PROBLEMCHYLD, he said "
Do you have any Universal Plug and Play devices? If you don't, then its no need to install it. If you do have UPNP devices, you still have to configure it. The service pack only install files, you have to do the actual configuring yourself. Maybe someone with an 440BX chipset and such devices can help us."

So let me reitterate, the SP3 is AMAZING, just don't take a chance with having Universal PnP installed, just skip that option entirely. 😀

This was a fun read. Here's my few cents.

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

Or did Windows 98SE update through the Internet just like XP?

Yes, Win98SE updated via windowsupdate.com, just like NT4.0, W2K, and XP. As of April 2011, internet updating still worked, and this is how I updated the system for the Ultimate 486 Benchmark Comparison. A few months later I noticed that internet updates had been disabled by M$ for Win98SE. Windowsupdate still worked for NT4.0 a bit longer, but no longer work now.

PhaytalError wrote:

I'll be reinstalling Win98 SE today [probably multiple times] because I need to see which patch in the SP3 is causing the issue, and then report it.

If you use Norton Ghost to make a drive image just after you've installed Win98SE, you don't need to go through the reinstallation process numerous times.

PhaytalError wrote:

sebaz_ri wrote:

EDIT:So basically now i know that installing SP3 is asking for trouble

No, the SP3 for Windows 98SE is amazing and really extends the life of Win98SE.

Could be, but there is no Spanish localized version and that's why i don't use it, and also that's why i haven't run into any problem yet