This is what I based my config.sys/autoexec.bat on
https://www.mdgx.com/mem7.htm

This post has alot of Win98 software mentioned.
Generic Win98SE Installation & Setup Guide

Personally I prefer the less is more approach for what is really just a gaming PC. Updated drivers are a must. The basic Win98 ones are typically out of date.
Only updates I apply if required by something else. For Win98 this is usually just installer 2.0
https://archive.org/details/instmsi

Daemon tools and archive software of your choice are a must. Anything else comes down to personal taste

The system came with Daemon; I installed 7Zip 9.20 which is buggy on Win98SE, and I need to install WinRAR. I will look at the sites you recommended now. Thanks! 😀

Now I need docs. for the DOS mode drivers installed with Win98SE. BTW, will QEMM work with Win98SE in DOS mode?

how is 7zip buggy under win98se? i use it practically every day. i still use qemm 9 on my win95 rtm box, but i dropped it for win98se.

are you booting directly into dos with bootgui=0 option in msdos.sys? this will give you the most flexibility with a boot menu and multiple configurations. jemm386 (or jemmex) is a popular alternative to emm386. i use it with xmgr.sys instead of himem.sys. here is my config.sys (xhdd is smartdrv replacement; xdvd2 is optical device driver):

1DOS=HIGH,UMB
2DEVICE=D:\XMGR\XMGR.SYS /B /N24
3DEVICE=D:\FREEDOS\BIN\JEMM386.EXE NOEMS
4DEVICEHIGH=D:\XMGR\XMGR.SYS
5DEVICE=D:\XMGR\XHDD.SYS /S64 /O /R16 /H
6DEVICE=D:\XMGR\XDVD2.SYS /D:DVD01 /H

xmgr also works well with umbpci to get upper memory in real dos mode:

1DOS=HIGH,UMB,NOAUTO
2DEVICE=D:\UMBPCI\UMBPCI.SYS
3DEVICE=D:\XMGR\XMGR.SYS /W
4DEVICE=D:\XMGR\XHDD.SYS /S64 /O /R16
5DEVICE=D:\XMGR\XDVD2.SYS /D:DVD01

Well, on two Win98SE systems, 7Zip seems to have a problem with extracting to a different drive: the files appear in the folder containing the original archive file. Also, it occasionally locks up when I compress files using the LZMA2 compression technique--or maybe that's just the command-line version. It might be my particular version. I have 9.20. What's yours?

BTW, I'm booting to Windows, but, when I open the config.sys and autoexec.bat files, the config.sys file was totally empty, and the autoexec.bat file only had two lines in it except the lines written by Open Watcom when I installed it, but those were just SET statements. I do know how to edit these files--I just need the docs on the options available for each driver. I also want recommendations for other useful drivers. Right now I have CTMOUSE and PALMZIP downloaded. I probably don't need it, but I'd also like a disk cache for DOS mode. I have XMSDSK for DOS mode but don't want it to start with Windows, as I have a Windows-based RAM drive that saves its contents upon shut down. Thank you for your advice, though.

i use the same version of 7zip. it might not be the last workable version with win98se, but it is the most accessible download on the website. i confess i never extract to a different drive. it's faster for me to right-click 'extract here' and manually move it afterwards. i also always use the 'ultra' preset when compressing.

xhdd is my favorite hdd cache. it is part of the xmgr package. when used with the xdvd2 cdrom driver a single cache can be shared between the two with the /o option. i like older versions of xhdd with the /r option which allow me to create the hdd/cdrom cache above the first 16mb of extended memory to avoid conflicts with other tsr's that expect to use that space. newer versions of xhdd can accomplish this as well, but the method is way more convoluted now.

i also like the doskey and doslfn utilities available with freedos. i use SHSUCDX as my mscdex replacement and mouse.com instead of ctmouse.exe for the smaller footprint.

I usually right-drag a .7z file to the destination and click Extract to Folder. I will Google xmgr now. Thanks.

I Googled it and found https://www.vogonswiki.com/index.php/Useful_DOS_utilities. I kind of like them, but I would prefer QEMM as a memory manager. I like SETEDIT and just downloaded it. I also just looked--although briefly--at 4DOS. Is it compatible with Win98SE? I will now try the Garbo mirror in my browser now. Thanks!

I just tried Garbo and didn't find one that said it was compatible with Win98SE. BTW, I forgot to mention that the file I tried in Garbo is a disk cache. I think SmartDrv would be good but am looking for alternatives.

I found VCache, but it has some issues. 🙁 I'll try the docs for SmartDrv now, but I forgot to mention that I don't have access to the Win98SE compter right now--it's at my mother's house, and I only go there sometimes on the weekends. 🙁

I just found out that SmartDrv does not work in Windows 98 mode. 🙁

I am looking at the instructions for EMM386 right now. I need a list of my computer's RAM usage in DOS, i.e. what's used by the BIOS and hardware and what's available for UMBs. I remember using such a utility a long time ago. It came with an alternate memory manager. I think the program was UMBPCI but could be wrong. Can somebody give me the name of such a utility?

I just Googled a disk cache and found some information on the DOSSTART.BAT file. I totally forgot about this! I can use this for reverting to DOS mode. I also found some other information on the config files. 😀

I downloaded XMGR. I think QEMM is better, though. 😀 I think I'm mostly ready for my Win98SE minitower at my mother's house now. 😀

BTW, I used to have QEMM97 at my mother's house but don't know if the manual is still there, as my mother's hoiuse got flooded a while ago. 🙁 Where can I find the manual in .pdf format?

looks like there is a pdf as the first hit when googling 'qemm 97 pdf'. the iso image probably has something as well.

Thank you. 😀

I also want a version of the ANSI.SYS driver for DOS mode. Any other ideas on what I can add to the setup to make it more fun?

I have the XrX logo tools and some available Win98 start-up logo screens from http://www.xrx.ca/logoutils/ and want to install them on the Win98SE system. I also converted screenshots of some old Commodore 64 games to Win98 start-up screens if anybody's interested.

Harry Potter wrote on 2023-04-06, 21:24:

I also just looked--although briefly--at 4DOS. Is it compatible with Win98SE? I will now try the Garbo mirror in my browser now. Thanks!

I have 4DOS 7.50 installed in Windows 98 SE. I don't remember where I got this, let me know if you can't find it. I might have gotten it from the author's site which was jpsoftware.com, not available now but it's on the wayback machine, see e.g. http://web.archive.org/web/20060611221042/htt … om/download.htm

It's a Windows install - it shows up in Add/Remove Programs, and as far as I can tell it added a Start Menu folder because I wouldn't have called it lowercase "4dos" myself 😁

Harry Potter wrote on 2023-04-06, 21:41:

I just found out that SmartDrv does not work in Windows 98 mode. 🙁

Windows does it own disk caching. See e.g. System Properties -> Performance -> File System... -> Hard Disk, it has a "Read-ahead optimization" setting.

Maybe there are third-party utilities which can provide their own caching - I suspect Norton/Symantec might provide one - but they'd probably have to be Windows 9x-specific.

Harry Potter wrote on 2023-04-06, 21:56:

I am looking at the instructions for EMM386 right now. I need a list of my computer's RAM usage in DOS, i.e. what's used by the BIOS and hardware and what's available for UMBs. I remember using such a utility a long time ago. It came with an alternate memory manager.

EMM386 can sometimes figure that out for itself without you needing to tell it.

Since you've used QEMM before, possibly the utility you used in the past was Quarterdeck Manifest (the command name is MFT).

Harry Potter wrote on 2023-04-09, 13:00:

I also want a version of the ANSI.SYS driver for DOS mode. Any other ideas on what I can add to the setup to make it more fun?

I like using a .COM-style ANSI driver, it's more convenient to load on demand. PC Magazine released one. I think you can find many such ANSI drivers in places like simtel shovelware CDs. https://almy.us/dospage.html has one called NNANSI which I learned about because gog.com included it with some old Zork 1-3 games. I've never actually used NNANSI but the author has responded to many emails from me about XLISP-PLUS so I think he's pretty great!

Something you could add to make it more fun specifically in the area of ANSI is to have your DOS mode AUTOEXEC.BAT run "TYPE SOMEFILE.ANS" where SOMEFILE.ANS has some ANSI art in it (maybe Google "ansi art") or a menu or something.