Well, my Win98 SE box has actually been quite stable, but then again, I do not frequently test different hardware. The last time I broke it was when I installed the generic USB mass storage driver, and used a version that did not match the locale. After manually restoring certain files from the WIN98SE CD it started working again.

To make a snapshot for backup, you can use any possible third party tools - Norton (Symantec) Ghost, Acronis True Image, Clonezilla.

Easy: Don't swap hardware and change drivers 🤣

Windows 98 is not good with that. Sorry if that's not the most helpful advice 😊

No need to be sorry. Both comments above are good advise 😀

Do either of you apply any Windows updates? What I found is the only way I have figured out. Does updating even matter, in regards to gaming system?

bytesaber wrote:

Do either of you apply any Windows updates? What I found is the only way I have figured out. Does updating even matter, in regards to gaming system?

I never do!

I tried that unofficial SP3 once, all it did was slow down the boot time 🤣

For gaming, I do not see any need in patching Windows 98. At least I haven't come across any issues.

I always install the Unofficial Windows 98SE Service Pack 2.1a, which does (under the main updates) mostly contain a combination of the official patches released by Microsoft for Windows 98SE.
After that, they diversified the subsequent unofficial service packs (from 3.0x onwards) by including fixes/patches and enhancements from later versions of Windows. Here I also feel that you are installing fixes/updates that is not required for games running on Windows 98SE.
I do, however, extract the USB stack from one of the later Unofficial Service Packs (like from version 3.2 or onwards) and install that separately in order to obtain USB support for mass storage devices.

I'm still in two minds whether I just need to update to DirectX 8.1a or to DirectX 9.0c (the last version supported for Windows 98SE), since by the time that DirectX 9.0 was released, Windows XP already hit the market and therefore most hardware and games would have been developed to make better use of Windows XP's features.
I usually update to Internet Explorer 5.5 SP2 (although, you can also update to Internet Explorer 6.0 SP1), but I wouldn't try to use any of these versions to browse the internet (most websites don't support those versions anymore anyway).

PhilsComputerLab wrote:

I never do! For gaming, I do not see any need in patching Windows 98. At least I haven't come across any issues.

I have just assumed the updates from Microsoft help with bugs. But I have no real proof of that. Interesting thought.

jesolo wrote:

I always install the Unofficial Windows 98SE Service Pack 2.1a, which does (under the main updates) mostly contain a combination of the official patches released by Microsoft for Windows 98SE.
After that, they diversified the subsequent unofficial service packs (from 3.0x onwards) by including fixes/patches and enhancements from later versions of Windows. Here I also feel that you are installing fixes/updates that is not required for games running on Windows 98SE.
I do, however, extract the USB stack from one of the later Unofficial Service Packs (like from version 3.2 or onwards) and install that separately in order to obtain USB support for mass storage devices.

I just looked at as, Microsoft has finished all the work they are ever going to do on Windows 98 fixes. So I just asked myself, Where can I just get all of their work? So yes, some of those patches may have little to do with gaming. It's just an aim to get as stable of a system as I can make. I do like your approach that you explained. I did not know that I could add mass storage that easily. I should consider that.

jesolo wrote:

I'm still in two minds whether I just need to update to DirectX 8.1a or to DirectX 9.0c (the last version supported for Windows 98SE), since by the time that DirectX 9.0 was released, Windows XP already hit the market and therefore most hardware and games would have been developed to make better use of Windows XP's features.

You and I share some thinking with this. My idea has been to build a system "capped" with nice DirectX 7 card. Some information about DirectX on Wikipedia, has explained that DirectX 7 and older, is meant to be compatible with all older versions. And "it seems to me" that the time period of the geforce 2 looks to be a nice stopping point for all older DOS and Win9x hardware. A very wild time of various devices. So I made a dual boot MS-DOS 6.22 / Win98 system built with Geforce2 TI and Voodoo2, along with some sound cards that are fun from the time. AWE64, Aureal Vortex 2, and SB Live!.

I made a separate XP based system with DirectX 9.0c, which also covers DirectX 9, 8, 7. Hardware for that era fit easily as their own build outside of Win9x. At least, that's what I've done. *shrug*

Any opinions welcome if someone things this is totally way off. I'm just making this up as I go.

This forum is for Windows games, not how to setup ancient versions of Windows. Ask in Marvin.

I do install IE6, DirectX 9 and Office XP. It just makes the OS feel more complete to me but don't worry about updates, mostly they patch security holes and no patching will fix that now. I can see the reasoning for keeping IE and Direct X at earlier versions on a practical level though.

Funny thing is main problem I have is windows not shutting down, even after applying the patch, one 1 PC I didn't have the problem till AFTER I applied it, That's when I stopped updating.

But yeh, 98 hates hardware changes, or changes in general, clean build is the only real way to keep things running smoothly. Even back in the day I used to do clean install at least once a year.

iirc with windows its ok to make a backup copy after installing what you need and cleanse the filesystem once in a while to copy over the original filesystem; its pretty quick too; iirc can be done mostly with xcopy or some such;

Moved to Marvin.

For future reference, here are the forum descriptions, please stay on topic when you are in each one: index.php

😀

I plan to install MS Security Essentials 2004 pack on my retro Windows 98SE PCs. Any interest in a MS Windows Security Update CD?

A few things I keep in mind and do on my W98 rigs:

* Keep the registry clean. Only install what you know you need. Do your research instead of just installing stuff to try it out, the uninstallers aren't perfect, and will leave registry entries behind in most cases. There are good registry cleaning apps, like RegSeeker, but there's always a chance those mess things up. It's better if you can avoid them completely by just keeping the registry as clean as possible from the beginning.

* Keep the hard drives defragmented. Diskeeper Workstation was my choice back in the W98 days.

* Lock the swap file size, and make sure it's not fragmented.

* Disable Active Desktop, Web Folders, etc. Also, Tweak UI is your friend when it comes to make the UI feel snappy. Disable all unnecessary animations, remove menu popup delays, etc.

i load the updates mainly because windows installer 2.0 is useful for some of my programs to be able to install, and you cant get the 98se version by itself anymore. But its needed for Damon tools 3.47

candle_86 wrote:

i load the updates mainly because windows installer 2.0 is useful for some of my programs to be able to install, and you cant get the 98se version by itself anymore. But its needed for Damon tools 3.47

Ah, yes, that is true. I remember installing the service pack to get Daemon tools going.

Fortunately most, if not all, of this old stuff is still somewhere on their download servers despite the lack of support. Found the MSI Installer 2.0 download, too, with a little bit of digging around: http://download.microsoft.com/download/Window … US/InstMsiA.exe

I just take a ghost image of any crispy OS install, including Windows 98. What I mean by crispy is OS + all the drivers + necessary updates + all the apps/software that I can't do without. By necessary updates, actually I only mean DirectX and USB drivers (NUSB), by necessary software I mean IE, ACDsee, 7zip, treesize, Daemon tools, etc.

I recently discovered that the NUSB drivers (version 3.3) causes problems under Windows 98SE, particularly with my Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback Wheel (USB version).
As soon as I install them, then Windows no longer recognises my steering wheel.
No problems with the USB stack that comes with the Unofficial Windows 98SE Service Pack 3.x.

The problem with the original one is, it requires product specific drivers for each of your flash disks, card readers, or external disks. With NUSB, it is just like XP, you just plug, and it plays.

And it has no side effects for my Sidewinder Precision Pro or 3D Pro Plus (well, they are both game port devices..🤣)