Windows 98

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Windows 98
(Part of the Microsoft Windows family)
Screenshot
A typical Windows 98 desktop.
Developer
Microsoft
Web site: www.microsoft.com/windows98
Release information
Release date:	June 25, 1998 [ info]
Current version:	4.10.2222A (April 23, 1999) [ info]
Source model:	Closed source
License:	Microsoft EULA
Kernel type:	Monolithic kernel
Support status
Unsupported as of July 11, 2006[1]

Windows 98 (codenamed Memphis) is a graphical operating system released on June 25, 1998 by Microsoft and the successor to Windows 95. Like its predecessor, it is a hybrid 16-bit/32-bit monolithic product based on MS-DOS.

The first edition of Windows 98 is designated by the internal version number 4.10.1998, or 4.10.1998A if it has been updated with the Security CD from Microsoft. Windows 98 Second Edition is designated by the internal version number 4.10.2222A, or 4.10.2222B if it has been updated with the Security CD from Microsoft. The successor to Windows 98 is Windows Me.

Contents 1 Windows 98 Second Edition 2 New and updated features 2.1 New driver standards 3 System requirements 4 Press demonstration 5 Advantages and disadvantages 5.1 Advantages 5.2 Disadvantages 6 Windows 98 System tools 7 Editions 8 Expanding modules 9 Product life cycle 10 References 10.1 General references 11 External links

[edit] Windows 98 Second Edition

Windows 98 Second Edition (SE) is an update to Windows 98, released on May 5, 1999. It includes fixes for many minor issues, improved USB support, and the replacement of Internet Explorer 4.0 with the significantly faster Internet Explorer 5. Also included is Internet Connection Sharing, which allows multiple computers on a LAN to share a single Internet connection through Network Address Translation. Other features in the update include Microsoft NetMeeting 3.0 and integrated support for DVD-ROM drives. However, it is not a free upgrade for Windows 98, but a stand-alone product. This can cause problems if programs specifically request Windows 98 SE, but the user only owns Windows 98.

[edit] New and updated features

Among the new features of Windows 98 are better AGP support, functional USB drivers, and support for multiple monitors and WebTV. It also features support for the FAT32 file system, allowing it to support disk partitions larger than the two gigabyte maximum accepted by Windows 95. It is also the first version of Windows to support ACPI. As in later releases of Windows 95, Internet Explorer continues to be integrated into the Windows Explorer interface (a feature called Active Desktop).

[edit] New driver standards

Windows 98 is the first operating system to use Windows Driver Model (WDM). This fact was not well published when Windows 98 was released and most hardware producers continued to develop for the older driver standard, VxD. This resulted in the misconception that Windows 98 can use only VxD drivers which it is not true. The WDM standard spread years after its release, mostly through Windows 2000 and Windows XP, because these systems were no longer compatible with the older VxD standard. Today, even if hardware producers are not developing drivers optimized for Windows 98, the drivers written to WDM standards are compatible with Windows 98–based systems.

[edit] System requirements

• 486 DX2, 66 MHz or higher processor
• 16MB of RAM (24MB recommended)
• at least 500 MB of space available on HDD. The amount of space required depends on the installation method and the components selected, but virtual memory and system utilites as well as drivers should be taken into consideration.

• Upgrading from Windows 95 (FAT16) or 3.1 (FAT): 140-400 MB (typically 205 MB).
• New installation (FAT32): 190-305 MB (typically 210 MB).
• NOTE: Both Windows 98 and Windows 98SE can have significant problems associated with hard drives that are over 32 Gigabytes (GB) in size. This issue only occurs with certain Phoenix BIOS settings. A software update has been made available to fix this shortcoming.^[2]

• VGA or higher resolution monitor
• CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive
• Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device.^[3]

[edit] Press demonstration

The release of Windows 98 was preceded by a notable press demonstration at Comdex in April 1998. Microsoft CEO Bill Gates was highlighting the operating system's ease of use and enhanced support for Plug and Play (PnP). However, when program manager Chris Capossela plugged in a scanner and attempted to install it, the operating system crashed, showing a BSOD.^[4] Bill Gates said that "this must be why we're not shipping Windows 98 yet." Video footage of this event became a popular Internet phenomenon.

[edit] Advantages and disadvantages

[edit] Advantages

Windows 98 is a hybrid 16/32-bit operating system. It has quite low system requirements, therefore it can gain full potential even on older machines.

If installed on a bare hard drive, Windows 98 uses the FAT32 filesystem. It supports FAT16 and FAT12 for compatibility with floppy disks created with older versions of Windows and with MS-DOS. I/O on disks large than 128 GB is slower and less secure than with newer filesystems, and unlike its successor NTFS, FAT32 doesn't support file encryption.

The graphical user interface (GUI) runs on a DOS-based layer. This is partially an advantage and disadvantage. DOS has some limits (such as the number of disk buffers or simultaneously-opened files), but through its environment memory managers, drivers or other applications can be loaded which can improve overall system performance and functionality.

Windows 98 also offers full support for DOS applications in the form of being able to boot in "DOS Mode" (MS-DOS can be booted without booting Windows or putting the CPU in protected mode). This differs from the emulation used in Windows NT-based operating systems in that the latter cannot handle devices such as modem or LAN cards which are required for some DOS applications.

Since DOS programs provided their own device drivers, some DOS programs, such as those that require a Sound Blaster compatible sound card, cannot run on newer computers without Windows (which provides Sound Blaster emulation in some sound card drivers).

LAN cards that are not NE2000 compatible generally cannot be used at all by DOS programs, with or without Windows.

DOS Mode also offers the ability to fix certain system errors without entering GUI. For example, if a virus is active in GUI mode it can often be safely removed in DOS mode, by deleting its executable files, which usually cannot run without Windows.

While in "DOS Mode", the 32-bit Windows layer can be started with the same DOS command that was used for older versions of Windows going back to Windows 1.0: WIN.COM

The biggest advantage of this operating system is its compatibility with older versions of Windows and MS-DOS. It can successfully run very old applications that were written for Windows 3.0, while also being able to run new applications and applications written for Windows NT.

Another advantage is its small size in comparison to newer Microsoft operating systems. While newer Microsoft OS take up several GB of disk space, Windows 98 can be installed requiring less than 250 MB of HDD space, offering more room for applications and files. It also has a very small memory footprint, so it doesn't reduce the overall system performance the way current OS do on older systems. When installed on newer systems, Windows 98SE can boot within 15 seconds and shut down within 3 seconds, giving it a huge advantage in speed when comparing it to current versions of Windows.

[edit] Disadvantages

Windows 98 has never been as stable as common users required, for many reasons. Often the software developers of drivers and applications had insufficient experience with the creation of programs for the 'new' system, therefore causing many errors which have been generally described as "system errors" by users, even if the error was not caused by parts of Windows or DOS. Windows 98 can gain extreme stability, on par with newer versions of Windows, by using the newest device drivers and careful installation of the OS and careful selection of application programs.

Other OSes that were available at the same time as Windows 98 either were multi-user or had multiple user accounts with different access privileges, which allowed important system files (such as the kernel image) to be immutable under most user accounts. In contrast, Windows 98 was a single-user, single-account operating system, so all processes could modify all files on the system that weren't open, in addition to being able to modify the boot sector and perform other low-level hard drive modifications. This enabled viruses and other clandestinely-installed software to integrate themselves with the operating system in a way that was difficult for ordinary users to detect or undo.

Windows 98 only offered two protections for system files: The Hidden, System, and Read-only attributes (which viruses were free to undo or even ignore), and an option (enabled by default) to not show the contents of the C:\WINDOWS, C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM, or C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 directories within Windows Explorer.

Its biggest limit is hardware handling. Windows 98 doesn't support more than 512 megabytes of RAM natively, this being an internal limitation of the system. RAM over this limit can be used by changing the system settings: Open the win.ini file, go to the 'VCache' section and add 'MaxFileCache = 524288' at the end of the section.

There is no native support for SATA drives, multi-threading or multi-core processors, and most hardware manufacturers do not ship drivers for Windows 98SE any more, so current high-end graphics cards and peripherals do not work properly or at all.

Legacy support (1994 – release date) is excellent. For example, Windows 98SE may have a driver for 3Com network card made in 1995, but later versions such as Windows 2000 and XP would neither natively support that card nor be compatible with the VxD driver. This is one of the greatest advantages of DOS-based operating systems such as Windows 95 and 98 SE.

Some newer application installation wizards refuse to install on Windows 98 systems, sometimes even when the application doesn't actually need a newer version of Windows. This is seen as a move by Microsoft and affiliated companies to 'peersuade' customers to upgrade to more advanced operating systems.

Although Windows 98 is small by today's standards, it was considered to be extremely bloated in its own time, when many computers with as little as 8 MB of RAM were still in widespread use.

The FAT32 filesystem retained the need of older versions of FAT to be periodically defragmented. Defragmentation became more time consuming as the size of hard drives grew.

[edit] Windows 98 System tools

• Scandisk - well known program used to maintain the file system. It offers a DOS and a GUI version. Used to check the integrity of the file system and files stored within.
• Defrag - Disk defragmenter, used to counter the negative effects of filesystem fragmentation. It collects fragmented file parts, reconnects them and rearranges all files in optimal order, thus speeding up file access and allowing faster boot times. Note that Microsoft changed the utility shipping with Windows 2000 and XP, which operates faster than the previously used program but can destroy data when partitioning hard disk drives. This happens as, contrary to the old program, the new defragmenter doesn't necessarily put all files on the same sectors, resulting in the deletion of files when an used drive is partitioned.
• Scanreg - used to restore the System registry. It tests the registry's integrity and saves a backup copy each time. The maximum amount of copies is eight. Due to a bug the oldest registry copy available cannot be restored (before restoration, the current configuration is backed up and it erases the oldest registry backup listed). The restoration of a faulty registry can only be done in DOS mode. Important DOS commands: scanreg/opt - optimizes the registry by deleting dead entries; scanreg/fix - repairs registry settings.
• Msconfig - a system utility used to disable programs and services which are not required to run the computer. It is a very efficient tool that can multiply the system's stability and speed.
• Sysedit - a system utility used to modify system configuration files in a text window.
• Regedit - allows manual editing of the registry.

[edit] Editions

Release	Version	Release Date	Internet Explorer	USB Support	FAT32 Support	UDMA Support
Windows 98 Retail	4.10.1998	June 25, 1998	4.0	yes	yes	no
Windows 98 Second Edition	4.10.2222	May 5, 1999	5.0	yes	yes	no

[edit] Expanding modules

Windows 98SE can be upgraded with various versions of DirectX, including version 9.0c. Note that DirectX 8.1 is the last release not incorporating DRM. Microsoft .NET Framework including version 2.0 is supported. The highest Internet Explorer release available is version 6.0. It can handle the Visual C++ 2005 library and L2TP/IPec VPN client by Microsoft and MSIA services (for *.msi installations). Windows Media Player 9.0 can be installed without problems, but, like DirectX 9.0, it introduces DRM and thereby reduces file operations to 'legal' copying or modification.

[edit] Product life cycle

Microsoft planned to discontinue its support for Windows 98 on January 16, 2004. However, due to the continued popularity of the operating system (27% of Google's pageviews were on Windows 98 systems during October-November, 2003),^[5] Microsoft decided to maintain support until July 11, 2006. Support for Windows Me also ended on this date.^[6]

[edit] References

1. ^ Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, and Windows Me Support ends on July 11, 2006. Microsoft. Retrieved on June 10, 2006.
2. ^ Staff (December 28, 1999). Windows 98 Large IDE Update. Microsoft Windows Update. Microsoft Corporation. Retrieved on August 30, 2006.
3. ^ System requirements from the Microsoft Windows 98 SE manual
4. ^ Rick Lockridge, Associated Press, Reuters. "Windows 98 crashes during Gates' Comdex demo", CNN, April 20, 1998. Retrieved on August 30, 2006.
5. ^ Zeitgeist. Google Press Center. Google (October-November 2003). Retrieved on April 22, 2006. Note: A graphic depicting the decline in use of Windows 98 from June 2001 to June 2004 as an operating system to access Google is available on Wikimedia Commons; IMAGE.
6. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5164450.stm

[edit] General references

• Windows 98 Homepage. Microsoft. Retrieved on April 22, 2007.

[edit] External links

• HPC:Factor Windows 98 / 98SE Patches & Updates Guide
• A discussion board at MSFN containing links to unofficial upgrades and patches for this system.
• Windows 98 System Requirements
• GUIdebook: Windows 98 Gallery - A website dedicated to preserving and showcasing Graphical User Interfaces
• Windows 98/98SE UpgradePack - Accumulative patch for recent Windows 98 updates
• BBC News: BBC News: Microsoft shuts down Windows 98
• PC World: The shut down of Windows 98 is a cause for concern
• Daylight Saving Time (DST) Fix
• Tweak UI - Allows you to change hidden windows settings easily without having to manualy edit the windows registry.