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squareguy wrote:

I am not a fan of unofficial *packs* as I simply do not trust them.

Usually that's a sensible stance to take, but with Windows 98 it really is the most convenient option, and it's widely enough used that anything untrustowrthy would have been spotted by now.

I only install USB storage drivers and DX7 or DX8 depending on video card and the speed of the system. But these systems are not online.
It could be though that my disc has many updates included, I do not use an original disc (but I do own more than one).

SquallStrife wrote:

squareguy wrote:

I am not a fan of unofficial *packs* as I simply do not trust them.

Usually that's a sensible stance to take, but with Windows 98 it really is the most convenient option, and it's widely enough used that anything untrustowrthy would have been spotted by now.

Same, I use one of the unofficial service packs (especially for USB and some other things)

Skyscraper wrote:

I only install USB storage drivers and DX7 or DX8 depending on video card and the speed of the system. But these systems are not online.

I use an original W98 SE disc and don't install any updates. Does any update in this unofficial service pack affect / help running old games?

KieranD212 wrote:

Unnoficial SP3 http://www.htasoft.com/u98sesp/

At the minimum the pack that contains all the official windows updates for 98SE.

I use this same unofficial service pack and its great. It also gets regularly updated. Out of the many options available on install, I only select the main core updates, uninstall java, clock update, tweak ui, activate dma, paint brush update and another thing I cant remember. I've used it in 5 builds now without an issue and Windows runs very stable without a single issue.

Actually I lie, I did have one issue the first time I used this service pack but that was when I chose the option for performance tweaks or whatever its called. Selecting this option gave me startup errors. I say go for it!

Don't install any updates either. bare basic build works best I rekon.
I also found the shutdown fix stops the PC powering off 1/2 the time while unpatched it works fine. If the PC shuts down OK without the patch I leave well enough alone. If it doesn't shut down I'll apply the patch and it may still not shutdown anyway, but at least I tried.

I do install Tweak UI and IE6 but that's more for the way I like things then for speed/stability.
And DirectX of course

Just at least DirectX 7.0a and KernelEx.

I've had Unofficial Servicruft pack 3 bring a system to a startup General Protection Error before, so I wouldn't trust that either. Probably interfered with my MSVC6 stuff

Ok I will reword the question slightly. What updates, if any, need to be installed in order to function properly, besides Direct X.

To the folks not installing any updates. How fast of a computer have you installed Vanilla Windows 98SE on and not experienced problems? I am talking about CPU and hard drive, not amount of RAM.

Thanks for all the suggestions thus far.

squareguy wrote:

Ok I will reword the question slightly. What updates, if any, need to be installed in order to function properly, besides Direct X.

To the folks not installing any updates. How fast of a computer have you installed Vanilla Windows 98SE on and not experienced problems? I am talking about CPU and hard drive, not amount of RAM.

Thanks for all the suggestions thus far.

Besides DirectX, just the USB storage driver.

Fastest computer was a Pentium 4 3.2 GHz with Voodoo 2 and Voodoo 2 SLI 😀 Pentium III-S 1.4 GHz also no problem. But I always stay within limits when it comes to the hard drive (128 MB max) and memory (512 MB).

Good to know Phil, thanks.

I had no problem on a similar Pentium IV system either.

Awesome, thanks!

Perhaps you were thinking of the startup error Windows 95 had with K6-2 CPUs running at 350MHz or more?

Yeah perhaps I was vaguely remembering something from the past.

I remember studying the documentation of that unofficial patch and I couldn't see anything that made me go "wow that's important". But I don't go online with that machine either, so if that's what you want then that's a different story I guess.

I can't see why some of you are saying not to install any updates at all. I mean, the unofficial service pack contains all the windows 98 se hotfixes/updates. It gives you the option to install these without needing to install anything else the pack contains. Not installing the hotfixes would be like someone saying "don't update your Windows 7". Microsoft obviously released these hotfixes to correct certain issues people were having at the time. The startup/shutdown issue I as well as others here have/we're having is present sometimes even without the service pack. As I mentioned above, the only time I had a startup issue was when I selected to install the performance tweaks and the shutdown issue is recitfied with a hotfix contained in the service pack.

Oh, I do also recommend using Opera in place of Internet Explorer as many websites have since dropped support for IE6 and thus will give you issues. The last windows 98 supported version is 9.64 but I've found 10.61 works fine as well.

Well let's get specific. What hotfix / patch is in that service pack that addresses anything gaming related?

I haven't run into a single bug / issue and I use W98 SE a lot 😀

I don't update XP either, just stay at SP2 and everything works.

philscomputerlab wrote:

Well let's get specific. What hotfix / patch is in that service pack that addresses anything gaming related?

I haven't run into a single bug / issue and I use W98 SE a lot 😀

I don't update XP either, just stay at SP2 and everything works.

You make a valid point Phil. None that I can think of are really "gaming related" yet they do address other issues microsoft found their users were experiencing like any OS I guess. Windows is one of those OS's that people could use indefinitely without issues whereas others may experience certain issues like the shutdown problem. A problem that has a hotfix.

Personally, even through I'm normally a believer of the saying "if it's not broke, don't fix it", I'd rather install it regardless of the fact that I'm not experiencing any issues at all and not have to worry about any of them rearing their ugly heads if you know what I mean. Only issues I've ever really come across have been driver related.

EDIT: it does fix the issue with using more than 512mb of ram with Windows 98. That's gaming related in a way 😀