Blitz

Jacky Chan and Relyonrelics Games

2007-12-19T22:11:00.000-08:00

Internet Explorer keeps telling me "New version of IE available"

2007-12-07T03:48:00.000-08:00

Although you have the latest version of Internet Explorer on your system installed, IE keeps telling you that a "New version of IE available".

To fix this:

1. Start the Registry Editor
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ Software \ Microsoft \ Active Setup \ Installed Components \ {89820200-ECBD-11cf-8B85-00AA005B4383}
3. Delete the "Version Available" key/value (right click the key and choose delete)
4. Close the Registry Editor

Winmodem Problems

2007-12-07T03:47:00.001-08:00

There are many reports from people having trouble with their Winmodem. Here are some possible solutions:

1. Close all applications (press Ctrl + Alt + Del and End all tasks, except Explorer and Systray)
2. Open Control Panel > Modems, then select the Winmodem and if you have more than one installed Properties > Ports > Uninstall

Note: If you have a Winmodem icon in Control Panel, use that to Uninstall instead

3. In Control Panel select System and select the Device Manager tab, and look for Unknown items and delete them all

Check Ports and Modems and if Winmodem still exists select Remove for this one also

4. In Windows Explorer, select your Windows 98 CD and go to \ drivers \ modem \ 3com-usr \ winmodem and run the wmregdel.exe file. Follow the on screen instructions
5. Select Start > Run > Shut Down
6. Turn off the power to your computer, wait for about 20 seconds, then power back on. When you get the New hardware detected wizard let it proceed, when appropriate select Have Disk, and either point it to your Windows 98 CD or to the Winmodem drivers you have on a floppy. Realize that if you use the drivers on the Windows 98 CD that they are generic and you'll need to update them later

The above should get your Winmodem working.

Note: be advised that if your (3Com) Winmodem is in the 112501 or 112502 serial group that it is a known buggy modem. I suggest you call 3Com on voice and ask for a replacement.

Re-enable DosBox support after upgrading to Windows 98

After upgrading to Windows 98, some Winmodems will lose DosBox functionality. If your Winmodem supports DosBox, please follow these steps to re-enable this feature:

Go to the Winmodem icon in Control Panel and select the Port Settings tab and uncheck Enable Dos Boxes, press the OK button.

Note: if you do not see the Enable Dos Boxes section your Winmodem does not support this feature.

Repeat the process by going to the Winmodem icon in Control Panel and select the Port Settings tab and this time CHECK the Enable Dos Boxes box and press OK button. Restart your computer.

If you get an error message: There Is No WinModem Found in Your Computer, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article No. 188601.

PCI Modem Does Not Work After Installing Windows 98

After you install Windows 98, your PCI modem (Winmodem) may not be recognized. When this occurs, the PCI modem may be listed as a PCI Serial Controller under Other Devices in Device Manager. This behavior occurs because the Windows 98 CD-ROM does not include drivers for PCI serial controllers. To resolve this behavior, update the driver for the device, here's how:

1. Select Start > Settings > Control Panel and double-click System
2. Select the Device Manager tab
3. Double-click the Other Devices branch to expand it, select PCI Serial Controller, and then click Properties
4. Select the Driver tab, and then click Update Driver
5. Click Next, click Search for a better driver then the one your device is using now (Recommended), and then click Next
6. Insert the driver disk or CD-ROM that was included with your modem
7. Click to select the check box for the drive corresponding to the media type (floppy disk drive or CD-ROM drive), and then click Next
8. If you receive an Update Driver Warning dialog box, click Yes
9. Click Next, click Finish, and then click Yes to restart your computer

"Not enough memory" message when converting to FAT32

2007-12-07T03:45:00.000-08:00

If you receive the message: "Not enough memory - change the config and the autoexec", copy the existing Autoexec.bat & Config.sys files to a temporary directory, then edit the original Autoexec.bat & Config.sys files, and delete their contents, so that you have just 2 empty files.

Note: If you are loading real-mode display drivers, change the display settings in Windows 98 to VGA, and change back after the conversion.

Restart Windows 98 and run the FAT32 converter. When succeeded, copy your original Autoexec.bat & Config.sys files back to the root (C:\) directory, overwriting the empty ones you created.

If you still get the "Not enough memory" message, try the suggestions from this Microsoft Knowledge Base Article No. 188561.

Bad Cluster(s) prevent converting to FAT32

2007-12-07T03:30:00.000-08:00

If you have 1 or more bad clusters on your hard drive, Windows 98 will not convert the drive. There are several solutions.

You can modify the registry to have scandisk rescan bad sectors. See Microsoft's Knowledge Base Article No. 127055.

Note by Roy Lehrer:

A little clarification on the referenced Microsoft's Knowledge Base Article might be in order. Basically this article say to change the last digits of a specific registry key value to 04. While this will work and will cause scandisk to re-check bad clusters it will also possibly re-set scandisk options you have previously set.

To prevent this from happening you should add 04 to whatever your last digits are instead of just changing them to 04.

In my case the last digits are normally 40 because I have Report MS-DOS mode name length errors enabled in the advanced options. If I follow the Knowledge Base Article and change the last digits to 04, the re-check of bad sectors occurs but not the name length error check because it has been disabled. On the other hand, if I add 04 to my current 40 and change the value to 44, then I get both features.

Keep in mind that the 04 change is not permanent, it remains only until scandisk completes, and you close it. Then a 04 would revert back to 00, and in my case the setting for name length error checks would be lost until I re-started scandisk and went into the advanced options and re-enabled it, by changing the value to 44 instead of 04, then when scandisk completes the value is reset to 40 instead of 00 and I retain this setting.

Although this registry hack does reclaim bad clusters, I am not sure just how good the test really is.
____________________________________________________________________________________
You can use PowerQuest's PartitionMagic to convert to FAT32. PM is known not to have any difficulties converting drives with bad clusters on them.

Unable to Access CD-ROM Drive After Installing Windows 98

2007-12-07T03:29:00.000-08:00

After you install Windows 98, you may be unable to access your CD-ROM drive. This can occur if you have a dual-channel IDE (Integrated Device Electronics) controller installed in your computer. To fix this:

1. Select Start > Settings > Control Panel, and double-click System
2. select the Device Manager tab
3. Double-click the Hard Disk Controllers branch to expand it, select your IDE controller, and then select Properties
4. Select the Settings tab
5. In the Dual IDE Channel Settings box, select Both IDE Channels enabled, and then click OK (2 times), and restart your computer

Fix Hard Disks Running in MS-DOS Compatibility Mode

2007-12-07T03:25:00.000-08:00

A BlitZ TechFile

If you view the information on the Performance tab (Control Panel > System), you may see a message:

Compatibility Mode Paging reduces overall system performance

Note: the message:

Some drives are using MS-DOS compatibility

...means that your floppy disk drive or CD-ROM drive are operating in MS-DOS compatibility mode. We discuss only hard disks operating in MS-DOS compatibility mode here.

To force Windows to attempt to reinitialize the protected-mode IDE driver you'll have to remove the noide entry from the registry:

1. Start the Registry Editor
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ System \ CurrentControlSet \ Services \ VxD \ IOS
3. Delete the NoIDE entry
4. Search your registry for BAD_IDE (You can Search the registry by pressing F3 while working in the registry editor.
5. Delete any BAD_IDE values you find

After you update the registry, restart Windows. Windows will then attempt to initialize the protected-mode driver for the controller. If no problems are encountered, the file system and virtual memory will operate in 32-bit mode, and Device Manager will not display an exclamation point in a yellow circle for the IDE channels.

If the protected-mode driver is not initialized properly, an error message will be displayed and the NoIDE registry entry will be re-created.

There are several reasons why your Hard Disks might be running in MS-DOS compatibility mode:

* An "unsafe" device driver, memory-resident program, or virus hooked the INT21h or INT13h chain before Windows loaded
* The hard disk controller in your computer was not detected by Windows
* The hard disk controller was removed from the current configuration in Device Manager
* There is a resource conflict between the hard disk controller and another hardware device
* The Windows protected-mode driver is missing or damaged
* The Windows 95 32-bit protected-mode disk drivers detected an unsupportable configuration or incompatible hardware

Microsoft released an update for Windows 95 OSR 2 & OSR 2.1, to fix a problem that would stop the computer from responding (hang) while the hard disk was being accessed, when using an IDE (ATA) hard disk and controller that support Ultra DMA mode.

To install this update, follow these steps:
1. Download the Remideup.exe [143KB] file to an empty folder
2. In Windows Explorer, double-click the Remideup.exe file you downloaded in step 1
3. Follow the instructions on the screen

Microsoft lists a number of Knowledge Base Articles on this subject:

82923 -
Methods to Detect a Boot-Sector Virus

126855 -
Windows
Support for Large IDE Hard Disks

130179 -

Troubleshooting MS-DOS Compatibility Mode on Hard Disks

136742 -
Drives Use
MS-DOS Compatibility Mode with Iomega Zip Drive

137405 -

Mh32bit.386 Device Driver Causes MS-DOS Compatibility Mode

151911 -
MS-DOS
Compatibility Mode Problems with PCI-IDE Controllers

152701 -
FAT32
Using Compatibility Mode with OnTrack Disk Manager

153164 -
MS-DOS
Compatibility Mode on National Semiconductor Controller

163317 -
MS-DOS
Compatibility Mode When Booting from Removable Disk

175629 -
Large IDE
Hard Disk May Run In Compatibility Mode

242607 -

Performance and MS-DOS Compatibility Mode Issues with VIA Busmaster Controller

Problems with Hard Disk Controller After Upgrading to Windows 98

2007-12-07T03:23:00.002-08:00

To solve problems with your hard disk controller after upgrading to Windows 98, see Microsoft's Knowledge Base Article No. 189518.

If your computer contains a PCI-IDE hard disk controller that employs serialization between the two IDE channels, you may experience the following problems:

* 32-bit file system access and 32-bit virtual memory are not available
* Device Manager displays an exclamation point in a yellow circle for the primary and secondary IDE channels

Removing and reinstalling the hard disk controller does not resolve the problem.

This can occur if the protected-mode driver for the hard disk controller was not properly initialized when you started Windows 98 previously. When this occurs, a noide entry is placed in the registry, preventing Windows 98 from making future attempts to initialize the protected-mode driver.

This problem can occur with an IDE controller that requires serialization between the primary and secondary IDE channels. The protected-mode drivers for these IDE controllers can fail to be initialized if one of the following situations occurs:

1. One IDE channel has a supported hard disk, and the second channel has a CD-ROM or other type of drive that requires real-mode drivers to be loaded. Because of the serialization between the two IDE channels, it is impossible to access the hard disk in protected mode and use the other device in real mode. This causes the protected-mode driver to fail initialization, and the noide switch is placed in the registry to prevent future errors. Both disk devices then operate in real-mode
2. The driver for the IDE controller is manually removed from Device Manager and then reinstalled, or the protected-mode driver is disabled and then re-enabled. Some PCI controller drivers are not designed for dynamic enabling and disabling, and can cause the protected-mode driver to fail initialization. To force Windows 98 to attempt to reinitialize the protected-mode IDE driver you'll have to remove the noide entry from the registry:

1. Select Noide.inf found in the \ tools \ mtsutil folder on the Windows 98 CD
2. Right-Click noide.inf or hold down the Shift key and press the F10 function key
3. Choose Install from the context menu to remove the noide entry

After you update the registry, restart Windows 98. Windows 98 will then attempt to initialize the protected-mode driver for the controller. If no problems are encountered, the file system and virtual memory will operate in 32-bit mode, and Device Manager will not display an exclamation point in a yellow circle for the IDE channels.

If the protected-mode driver is not initialized properly, an error message will be displayed and the NOIDE registry entry will be re-created. Windows 98 will use the MS-DOS compatibility mode file system the next time you start the computer.

When your hard disk(s) are running in MS-DOS Compatibility Mode, see this BlitZ TechFile for more details.

Where is MS Fax?

2007-12-07T03:23:00.001-08:00

MS Fax is on the Win98 CD-ROM at \ tools \ oldwin95 \ message \ us

First find and run wms.exe. This will install Windows Messaging. Then find and run awfax.exe, this installs Winfax Lite.

You'll also find a wms-fax.txt file in that folder, you should read that first.

Troubleshooting Windows 98 Startup Problems and Error Messages

2007-12-07T03:21:00.000-08:00

For more information on Troubleshooting Windows 98 Startup Problems and Error Messages, see Microsoft's Knowledge Base Article No. 188867, or use Microsoft's Startup and Shutdown Troubleshooting Wizard.

Unable to Connect to Secure Web Page Using Internet Explorer

2007-12-07T03:17:00.000-08:00

If you try to connect to a secure Web page, you may receive an error message:

* Internet Explorer 4:

An error occurred in the secure channel support

* Internet Explorer 5:

The page cannot be displayed.
Cannot find server or DNS Error

To fix this:

1. Select Start > Settings > Control Panel, and then double-click Internet
2. Select the Advanced tab
3. Under Security, make sure that the following check boxes are selected:

* PCT 1.0
* SSL 2.0
* SSL 3.0

4. Click OK

(picture IE 5)

DNS error:

1. Select Start > Settings > Control Panel, and then double-click Internet
2. Select the Connections tab, click Connect to the Internet using a local area network
3. Under Proxy Server, click Advanced
4. Type the appropriate proxy server address and port in the Secure box, click OK (3 times)

PC Card Power Management: Modem not found ready

2007-12-07T03:14:00.003-08:00

When you have enabled PC Card Power Management, sometimes your modem may not work when you try to use it. However if you try again, it works right away.

To resolve this, you have to set an extra dely:

1. Start the Registry Editor
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINES \ System \ CurrentControlSet \ Services \ Class \ Modem
3. Select the key for the modem you are trying to use
4. Select Edit > New > DWORD Value from the menu
5. Name the new value ConfigDelay
6. Set the Value to 3000, for a 3 second delay
7. Close the registry editor

My Desktop Icons are Constantly Refreshing

2007-12-07T03:14:00.001-08:00

If your having problems with Desktop icons (or the icons in Control Panel) constantly refreshing themselves, you need to increase the cache size for your icons:

1. Start the Registry Editor
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \explorer
3. Right-click an empty space in the right pane
4. Select New > String Value
5. Name the new value Max Cached Icons
6. Double-click on the Max Cached Icons string and enter a value of 2000 (The Max Cached Icons value data range is between 100 and 2000. The default value is 500)
7. Close the Registry Editor and restart Windows

P.S. it could take up to 3 restarts before this fix "takes".

Troubleshooting Video problems

2007-12-07T03:13:00.001-08:00

If your having problems with your Video, first make sure you have the latest drivers for your graphics adapter.

In Windows 98, graphics hardware acceleration features can be turned off when system performance indicates incompatibility problems:

1. In Control Panel, open System, select the Performance tab, and then click Graphics
2. Drag the slider to change the Hardware acceleration setting, as summarized in the list below. Then click OK

* The default setting is Full, which turns on all graphics hardware acceleration features available in the display driver
* The first notch from the right can be set to correct mouse pointer display problems. This setting disables hardware cursor support in the display driver by adding SwCursor=1 to the [Display] section of System.ini
* The second notch from the right prevents some bit block transfers from being performed on the display card and disables memory-mapped I/O for some display drivers. This setting adds SwCursor=1 and Mmio=0 to the [Display] section of System.ini, and SafeMode=1 to the [Windows] section of Win.ini
* The last notch from the right (None) can be set to correct problems if your computer frequently stops responding to input, or has other severe problems. This setting adds SafeMode=2 to the [Windows] section of Win.ini, which removes all driver acceleration support and causes Windows 98 to use only the device-independent bitmap (DIB) engine rather than bit block transfers for displaying images

Uninstalling updated Device drivers, system patches, or hot fixes

2007-12-07T03:05:00.000-08:00

Device drivers, system patches, or hot fixes you installed using the Windows Update feature, can be uninstalled using the Restore page from the Web site. If you are unable to connect to the Windows Update Web site, you can uninstall the latest updates by using Update Wizard Uninstall found on the Tools menu of Microsoft System Information ( Select Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Information).

Existing files and drivers are automatically backed up before the new ones are installed.

Install Plus for Windows 95 Pinball

2007-12-07T03:04:00.000-08:00

If you want to install the Pinball game from Plus! for Windows 95, you can do this by using the pinball.inf in the \tools\mtsutils directory on your Windows 98 CD.

1. Copy the pinball.inf file to your hard disk
2. If your CD-ROM drive is not drive D, edit the line

layoutfile = d:\pluslayt.inf

to point to your CD-ROM drive letter

Before doing this, right-click the pinball.inf file, choose Properties and remove the check mark from Read-only.

3. Insert the Plus! for Windows 95 CD-ROM in your CD-ROM drive
4. Right-click the pinball.inf file and choose Install from the menu

CAB File Errors During Windows 98 Setup

2007-12-07T02:37:00.000-08:00

When you try to install Windows 98 or a component that requires copying files from the original Windows disks or CD-ROM, you may receive one of the following messages:

*

Setup has detected the following decoding error:
Could not decode this setup (.CAB) file. Setup will
attempt to recover from this situation, click OK to
continue.

*

Setup cannot copy all of the files from your Windows
98 CD. Clean the Windows 98 CD with a soft cloth,
return it to the CD-ROM drive, and then click OK. If
you receive this message again, read the CAB Errors
section of the Setup.txt file. This file is in the
Win98 directory of your Windows 98 CD.

These errors can occur for any of the following reasons:

* Your Windows 98 CD-ROM may be damaged, dirty from smudges or fingerprints, or may be scratched.
* Your CD-ROM drive is not functioning properly. The CD-ROM may vibrate too much for the laser to accurately read the data.
* Your computer is over-clocked. Extracting files from the Windows 98 Second Edition cabinet files is memory-intensive. If your computer is over-clocked beyond the default settings, it can contribute to decoding errors. Computers that are not over-clocked but have a cooling problem can also experience decoding errors.
* Your computer has bad or mismatched RAM or cache. For example, you are using EDO and non-EDO RAM, or you are using different RAM speeds. Even if Windows 98 seems to run without problems, the additional stress of extracting files and accessing the disk may contribute to decoding errors.
* Your computer has Bus Mastering or Ultra DMA enabled in the BIOS and in Device Manager. The data may be moving too quickly for the system to keep up.
* You are using a third-party memory manager.
* There is a virus on your computer.

To resolve such error messages, follow these steps:

1. Remove the CD-ROM from the CD-ROM drive, rotate it one-quarter to one-half a turn, reinsert the CD-ROM into the drive, and then click OK.
2. Remove the CD-ROM from the CD-ROM drive. Clean the CD-ROM with a soft cloth, reinsert it into the drive, and then click OK.
3. Check your computer for a virus using virus-detection software.
4. On one of your hard drives, create an empty folder and name it Win98. Copy the contents of the Win98 folder on the CD-ROM to the Win98 folder. If you are unable to copy the contents of the Win98 folder on the CD-ROM to you hard disk, the CD-ROM may be damaged.
5. If you are still receiving CAB errors in Windows 98, you can manually extract all the Setup files from the Windows 98 CD-ROM to your hard disk and run Setup from there. It requires approximately 300MB of free hard-disk space to extract the Windows 98 files. You can use the Ext.exe utility to extract the Windows 98 files. This utility is located on the Windows 98 Startup disk and in the \Oldmsdos folder on the Windows 98 CD-ROM.

To manually extract the Windows 98 files, follow these steps:

1. Insert the Windows 98 Startup disk into the floppy disk drive, and then restart your computer
2. At the command prompt, type ext
3. When prompted for the location of the cabinet files, type the path to the Win98 folder that you created in step 4 above
4. When prompted for the files to extract, type *.*
5. When prompted for the location where the files are to be extracted, type the path to the Win98 folder

Note: This does not extract the files in the Precopy1.cab and Precopy2.cab cabinet files

6. After all the files have been extracted, run Setup from the Win98 folder on your hard disk
7. If the above steps do not fix the problem, you can try to slow down your computer by changing your computer's CMOS (BIOS) settings. Bus mastering, external/internal cache, RAM settings/timings, and other settings contribute to the speed at which your computer runs. For information about how to change these settings, consult the documentation for your computer.

SU00xx Error messages

2007-12-07T02:36:00.000-08:00

SU0010, SU0012, SU0015, or SU0016

If you receive one of these messages during Setup, see Installing Windows 98 on a System Running Windows NT and Installing Windows 98 on a System Running OS/2 in the Setup.txt (excerpt from) for more information.
SU0011

Your hard disk is password-protected. You must first remove the password protection. For more information, see your computer documentation.
SU0013

To set up Windows 98, your startup drive must be an MS-DOS boot partition. If your startup drive is formatted as HPFS or NTFS, you must create an MS-DOS boot partition before running Setup. For more information about creating an MS-DOS boot partition, see your computer documentation.

You may also receive this error if you have third-party partitioning software such as EZ drive or Disk Manager installed. If so, reboot your system and run Setup from an MS-DOS command prompt. For more information, see Upgrading to Windows 98 - a Guide
SU0018

"Setup cannot create files on your startup drive and cannot set up Windows 98. There may be too many files in the root directory of your startup drive, or your startup drive letter may have been remapped."

The root folder of a drive can hold a maximum of 512 entries (files or folders). This message indicates that Setup has detected too many directory entries in the root folder of your computer, and Setup cannot create the files it needs to set up Windows 98. Move or delete some files from the root folder of your drive, and then run Setup again.

Note: Files with long filenames use more directory entries than files with 8.3 filenames. Because the number of entries in the root is limited to 512, the root directory can fill up with fewer files if long filenames are used.
SU0167

A file or folder called Desktop exists on your computer. Rename or move your current Desktop folder, and then run Setup again.
SU0410

Setup cannot open a required file, possibly because the file is missing or damaged, or because your computer does not have enough memory.

If you have already created a Startup Disk, quit Setup, shut down your computer, insert the Startup Disk, and then restart the computer. Then, run Setup from the MS-DOS command prompt.
SU99xxxx

SU99 is a prefix that is added to all errors that Setup does not have a specific error message for. These errors are often caused by low conventional memory. If you have already created a Startup Disk, quit Setup, shut down your computer, insert the Startup Disk, and restart the computer. Then, run Setup from the MS-DOS command prompt.

How to Check for a Faulty Math Coprocessor

2007-12-07T02:33:00.001-08:00

To determine if the math coprocessor installed in your computer is faulty, follow these steps:

1. Open System in Control Panel
2. Select the Device Manager tab
3. Double-click System Devices, and then double-click Numeric data processor
4. Click the Settings tab
5. The following message is displayed in the Diagnostics box:

* Your computer's numeric data processor has passed all diagnostic tests and appears to be working properly

or

* The numeric processor in this computer can sometimes compute inaccurate results when dividing large numbers

It's obvious that if you get the second message, you have a faulty Math Coprocessor. In that case you can switch of the use of the Math Coprocessor, by selecting the Never use numeric data processor on the same Settings tab.

Office 97 SR-1 / SR-2 Info

2007-12-07T02:32:00.002-08:00

If you run the Office 97 SR-1 patch on a Windows 98 computer, the chances are that the patch will NOT update your Office 97 files and you'll get NO direct warning of that failure!

For all the details visit Woody's Office Watch

Microsoft has updated the Office SR-1 Patch, the SR-1 patch is now fully optimized for Windows 98 and earlier operating systems.

The new (International) version can be downloaded from:

http://office.microsoft.com/downloads/9798/sr1off97detail.aspx.

Other language versions available at:

http://office.microsoft.com/assistance/9798/sr1international.aspx

The (Updated) Office 97 SR-2 patch is out. For details & download [23 MB], visit the Office Update site.

You will need to have the SR-1 before applying SR-2, see this Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 171749 to check if SR-1 is installed on your system.

In some instances the SR-2 patch will not detect that SR-1 is installed. For a work-around see this Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 192816

Information on other language versions.

There's now an Office 97 Version Checker available from Microsoft [121 KB], you can run this first to see if your computer has SR-1 installed and is ready for the SR-2 patch (you need to have the SR-1 patch installed in order to install the SR-2 patch).

The best option is to get the Replacement CD:

To get it call Microsoft Supplemental Parts at 800-370-9272 and order the Office 97 SR-2 Replacement CD. This is the Full Version of Office 97 with the SR-1 and SR-2 fixes included.

Supplemental Parts is the only place you can order the Replacement CD. To get the Replacement CD, you must own a retail version of Office 97 or Office 97 SR-1. OEM customers are being given other instructions to obtain the CD.

You have to give the CD's code number and the Product ID number. If you don't ask specifically for the Office 97 SR-2 Replacement CD you would get the SR-2 Patch.

There is no charge for the Replacement Office 97 SR-2 CD.

Note: The Office 97 SR-2 contains Outlook 97, not Outlook 98. Use Custom Install to insure you do not install it if you only want to use Outlook Express or are running Outlook 98.

UK users can call 0345 00 2000

Open and Explore options on Start Menu are disabled

2007-12-07T02:32:00.001-08:00

You have to check all the drive letters in the TweakUI appelet ( My Computer tab) from A: to Z: to re-enable those choices when right clicking on the start button.

TweakUI can be found on your CD-ROM in the \tools\reskit\powertoy folder.

Restore Suspend option

2007-12-07T02:23:00.000-08:00

The suspend option disappears when the machine fails to resume 2 consecutive times. Resetting the registry values will bring the option back.

It would be valuable to know exactly what is causing the machine to fail to resume. You can visit the Windows 98 APM troubleshooting site for more information.

To recover the Suspend or Stand by Option:

1. Start the Registry Editor
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ System \ CurrentControlSet \ Services \ VxD \ Vpowerd
3. Subtract 00000200 from the Flags entry
4. Set the SuspendFlag entry to 0
5. Restart Windows

LoadPowerProfile is Listed Twice in System Configuration - Startup

2007-12-07T02:22:00.000-08:00

If you view your systems Startup configuration in Microsoft's System Configuration Utility (access from Start > Run, type msconfig in the Open box and press OK), you may notice two entries for Power Management. Both listed as Rundll32.exe powerprof.dll,LoadCurrentPwrScheme.

If you view Microsoft System Information > Software Environment > Startup Programs (access from Start > Run, type msinfo32 in the Open box and press OK), you will notice that one is loaded from the Machine Run protion of the registry, while the other is loaded from Machine Service.

This is by design. The first instance runs as soon as the GUI is up. This is so that power management is running even if no one logs on. The second instance runs after logon, and loads the user settings.

Windows 98 Second Edition Hangs During Suspend

2007-12-07T02:21:00.000-08:00

Windows 98 Second Edition may hang when the machine is being suspended.

This is due to an obscure bug, which exhibits itself when the path specified for the swapfile in the [386Enh] section of the System.ini file includes a lowercase drive letter.

The name of the swapfile used by Windows 98 can be changed by adding a PagingFile= line to the [386Enh] section of the System.ini file. If the path specified for the swapfile includes a lowercase drive letter, it can cause Windows 98 Second Edition to occasionally hang during a suspend.

To fix this:

1. Select Start > Run and type msconfig in the Open: box, then press OK
2. Select the System.ini tab
3. Click the + sign next to the [386Enh] section to expand it
4. Select the line PagingFile= and click Edit
5. Change the lowercase drive letter to uppercase
6. Click Apply and OK
7. When prompted, restart your computer

When you try to resume your computer from Suspend mode, your computer may take 30 seconds or more to resume. This behavior can occur if you have a network adapter that is not attached to an active network connection.

When your computer enters Suspend mode, the drivers for your protocols are unloaded. When you try to resume your computer, Windows attempts to load the drivers for your protocols, and then bind them to the network adapter. If an active network connection is not found, a time out occurs and causes the delay.

To resolve this behavior, you either have to connect to an active network connection, or disable your network adapter:

1. Select Start > Settings > Control Panel, and then double-click System
2. Select the Device Manager tab, double-click the Network Adapters branch to expand it, and then select your network adapter
3. Select Properties, click to select the Disable in this hardware profile check box, click OK (twice), and then click Yes to restart your computer

Troubleshooting Power Management problems

2007-12-07T02:20:00.000-08:00

The Microsoft APM team has done an exceptional job of setting up a Web site dealing with APM issues.

Visit http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=/support/windows/tshoot/apm98/default.asp

When your attempt to put Windows 98 in Standby mode, you may receive the following error message:

Your computer cannot go on standby because a device driver
or program won't allow it. Close all programs and try again.

If you close all programs and attempt to put Windows 98 into Standby mode again, you receive the same error message.

This can occur if a program, driver, or hardware device is preventing Windows 98 from going into Standby mode. To resolve this behavior, use the Power Management Trouble Shooter tool to determine which program, driver, or hardware device is preventing Windows 98 from going into Standby mode.

Remove My Documents folder from the Desktop

2007-12-07T02:15:00.000-08:00

You can remove the My Documents folder from the Desktop simply by right-clicking the My Documents icon and selecting Remove from Desktop.

Only the Icon will be removed, the folder (C:\My Documents) will still be on your drive.

To put the My Documents folder back on the Desktop, simply right-click an empty spot on the Desktop and from the context menu choose New > My Documents Folder on Desktop.

To change the location of the My Documents folder, right-click the My Documents icon and choose Properties. Here you can change the location.

Remove Version number from the Desktop

2007-12-07T02:13:00.000-08:00

To remove the version number from the Desktop, install TweakUI (you can find it on your CD-ROM in the \tools\reskit\powertoy folder), on the General tab in the Effects box is an option to troggle Show Windows version on desktop.

Communication Tips

2007-11-20T01:13:00.000-08:00

Dial-Up Networking 1.4 Upgrade
DUN 4.0
Get disconnected frequently? Try this:
How to Speed-up your Connecting time
Stop Automatic Dialing
Automatic Re-dialing
Trace Internet Routes
View Your TCP/IP Configuration
Increase Modem Speed in Windows 98
Viewing Available IRQ's

Dial-Up Networking 1.4 Upgrade

2007-11-20T01:07:00.000-08:00

Microsoft has released an updated version of Dial Up Networking (DUN) for Windows 95 & 98. In fact, it's a security update, that fixes several security issues with implementations of the Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) used in Microsoft Virtual Private Networking (VPN) products, and it also improves the stability of PPTP connections.

Note:

Before you try to obtain or install the DUN 1.4 upgrade, verify which version of Windows is running on your computer. To do so, right-click My Computer. If you are running Windows 98 Second Edition, it will be displayed as below.

Release Notes

* Microsoft Windows 98 Dial-Up Networking 1.4 Upgrade Release Notes
* Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition Dial-Up Networking 1.4 Upgrade Release Notes

Download

* DUN 1.4 for Windows 98 [505KB]
* DUN 1.4 for Windows 98 Second Edition [459KB]

DUN 4.0

2007-11-20T01:05:00.002-08:00

Note

Although this update is still available, we suggest to use the new Dial-Up Networking 1.4 Upgrade instead.

In August 1998 Microsoft released a new version of Dial Up Networking (DUN) for Windows 98. In fact, it's a security update, that fixes several security issues with implementations of the Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) used in Microsoft Virtual Private Networking (VPN) products.

Customers who are not using PPTP for network security are not affected by this issue.

Fixes

Download the patch from: ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/softlib/mslfiles/dun40.exe

Strong Encryption Versions (128-bit):

Customers in the United States and Canada can download the strong encryption versions of these updates from: http://mssecure.www.conxion.com/cgi-bin/ntitar.pl

Microsoft has published this Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) article 189771 about the issue.

After you install Windows 98 Second Edition, the 128-bit data encryption won't work, and you will get this error message when you attempt to create a Dial-Up Networking (DUN) connection that uses 128-bit data encryption:

Error 629: You have been disconnected from the computer you dialed.

Double-click the connection to try again.

If you try to (re)install the 128-bit version of the Windows 98 Dial-Up Networking Security Upgrade (Msnt128.exe) file, you are unable to do so. When you double-click the Msnt128.exe file, you receive the 128 bit encryption for Dial-Up Networking (Not for Export) dialog box. When you click OK, you quit the Msnt128.exe program.

This is caused because Windows 98 Second Edition includes a newer version of the 40-bit DUN files that replace the 128-bit DUN files.

You can get a new 128-bit DUN Security Upgrade for Windows 98 Second Edition when Microsoft makes it available. To see if the 128-bit DUN Security Upgrade for Windows 98 Second Edition is available, view the following Microsoft Web site:

http://support.microsoft.com/Support/NTServer/128Eula.asp

Note that after accepting the License Agreement, the list of 128-bit software is available.

Get disconnected frequently? Try this:

2007-11-20T01:05:00.001-08:00

If you get disconnected frequently, try this extra modem setting:

1. Go to Modems in Control Panel (Start > Settings > Control Panel)
2. From Modems select Properties, select the Connection Tab, click the Advanced button
3. In the Extra settings dialogue box, enter S10=50

This will force the modem to stay connected without a carrier, up to 5 seconds.

How to Speed-up your Connecting time

2007-11-20T01:04:00.001-08:00

To Speed-up the time it takes for DUN (Dial Up Networking) to establish a connection with your ISP (Internet Service Provider):

1. Select your connection in DUN (Start > Programs > Accessories > Communications > Dial-Up Networking)
2. Right-click your connection and choose Properties
3. On the Server Types Tab, under Advanced Options, make sure that the check-box for Log on to network is unchecked
4. Under Allowed network protocols select only TCP/IP

Stop Automatic Dialing

2007-11-20T00:35:00.000-08:00

To stop your browser - or any other Internet aware application - from automatically dialing up your ISP:

1. Click Start and select Programs > Settings > Control Panel
2. Open Internet Options
3. Select the Connections tab
4. Check Never dial a connection
5. Also click Start and select Programs > Accessoires > Communications > Dial-Up Networking
6. From the Connections menu, choose Settings... and check prompt to use Dial-Up Networking

See this tip if you get a "Do you Want To Close Your Connection?" prompt when closing your Internet aware programs.

Automatic Re-dialing

2007-11-20T00:31:00.001-08:00

You can configure Windows 98 Dial-Up Networking to automatically re-dial your connection:

1. Click Start and Select Programs > Accessories > Communications
2. Select Dial-Up Networking
3. Select your connection
4. From the menu select Connections > Settings
5. Check Re-dial and select the number of times to re-dial (2-100) and Click OK
6. Close Dial-Up Networking

If you have a dial-up connection configured to automatically redial your Internet service provider (ISP), you may receive the following error message after the fifteenth automatic redial attempt:

Could not detect modem. It may be in use, turned off,
or not installed properly

For a solution, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 258838

Trace Internet Routes

2007-11-20T00:30:00.001-08:00

Included with Windows 98 is a program called Trace Route. Open a DOS window and type tracert location name. The location name can be any IP address or number, for example tracert www.windows-help.net.

The program will then trace the route from your Internet provider to that location, and show you every computer system along the way.
Watch as you jump from coast to coast and over oceans via satellites and high speed connections instantly. Also very useful for when you can't connect to a site - it will show you if something is down along the way.

View Your TCP/IP Configuration

2007-11-20T00:29:00.001-08:00

In order to see your present TCP/IP configuration, Microsoft has included a program called winipcfg which gives you details of your setup. Start it using the Run command (from the Start button).

Increase Modem Speed in Windows 98

2007-11-20T00:27:00.000-08:00

In Windows 98, your modem may seem to work fine, but the true fact is, the baud rate for you COM Port doesn't allow you to reach top-speed. To improve your port's speed:

1. Click Start, Select Settings > Control Panel, open System
2. Click the Device Manager tab, and click on the "+" sign next to Ports (COM & LPT)
3. Select the port your modem uses, click Properties, then click the Port Settings tab, and set the Bits per second to 115200 bps, that way you won't have a sort of filter on the Port.

115200 bps is the maximum setting for a "Standard" COM port. If you encounter problems, try setting this value lower. With System Monitor you can check if there are any problems. System Monitor (sysmon.exe) can be Installed by starting the Add/Remove Programs Properties in Control Panel, select the Windows Setup tab, double click on the System Tools entry and select System Monitor

(If you are not sure which COM port your modem uses, click on the "+" sign next to the Modem Icon in Control Panel and select your Modem. Click on Properties and choose the Modem Tab. Here you will see the COM port used by your modem)

4. For most Modems you can use Hardware in the Flow control drop-down box

The Maximum speed at which Windows 98 communicates with the modem is set in Control Panel > Modems, click the Properties button on the General tab. Windows 98 selects a conservative default speed, to prevent data loss on slower computers. So if you are using a fast computer (defined by MS as a 80486 or Pentium), set a faster speed here. If applications report data errors, lower your speed.

In Windows 98 Microsoft opted for some limited support of the setting known as MaxMTU in Windows 95.

1. Select your Dial-Up Adapter from Network in Control Panel
2. Click Properties and select the Advanced tab
3. In the selection box on the left, select IP Packet Size
4. Now you can select a setting in the Value drop-down box, choices are: Automatic, Large, Medium and Small
5. The settings Large, Medium and Small will put a IPMTU value in the registry entry for your Dial-Up Adapter of respectively 1500, 1000 or 576

For for more information, visit the InfiniSource Internet Information Center Web Site. Here you'll find info on the MaxMTU fix, and other settings to increase your comm's speed.

It is not widely known, but the serial ports on motherboards and add-in cards that use some specific I/O controllers will support operation at speeds greater than 115200 bps:

* ALI:
M1543(Aladdin V south bridge)

Serial ports provided by these chips will run at 230400 and 460800 bps.

* NS:
PC87308
PC87307 / 87317
PC97307 / 97317
PC87309
PC87338

Serial ports provided by these chips will run at 230400 / 460800 / 921600 bps.

* SMC:
37C665IR / 666IR
37C669 / 669FR,37N769
37B72x / 77x / 78x / 80x,37C67x / 68x / 93x / 93xAPM / 93xFR,37M60x / 61x,37N958FR

Serial ports provided by these chips will run at 230400 and 460800 bps.

* WinBond:
W83877TF (TF only, A/F/AF not supported)
W83977F /AF /TF / ATF

Serial ports provided by these chips will run at 230400 / 460800 / 921600 bps.

All they need is the proper software to enable and program these high speed modes.

For Win95/98, getting greater than 115Kbps requires two parts:

1. Executing a small program at boot time to enable the high speed mode
2. An updated serial.vxd that knows how to program the high speed rate

The file SHS17.ZIP from http://www.devdrv.com/shsmod/ provides all you need to determine if your serial ports are compatible and, if so, to take advantage of the high speed operation that these chips support.

Viewing Available IRQ's

2007-11-20T00:26:00.001-08:00

1. Right Click on My Computer
2. Select Properties
3. Select the Device Manager tab
4. Select Computer and click Properties
5. This will show which IRQs are currently in use

You can also see the I/O, DMA and Memory usage by your hardware.

Fine Tune Windows 98

2007-11-19T02:02:00.000-08:00

Preview Media Files (in Windows Explorer)

Adding a File Type to the 'New' Menu

Adding cascading menus to the Start button

Adding Notepad to Send To

Change Icon spacing on your Desktop

Change Color Depth without restarting

Change the color of your Title Bar

Change the name of your Recycle Bin

Change the Refresh rate of your Graphical Adapter

Change the size of Icons on your Desktop

Change the Start-up and Log off screens

Clear the Run Menu

Compressing the Windows 98 Registry

Cool Hardware Diagnostic Tool

Deleting Files without moving them to the Recycle Bin

Display start up Menu without pressing F8 on start up

Get rid of Shortcut Arrow

How to Enable ACPI Support in Windows 98

Improving Performance

Log on automatically at System Startup

Multiple File Registrations in windows 98

One Click Shut Down or Restart

Optimizing Removable Disk Drive Performance

Play a Midi File on Startup

Prevent a CD-ROM from automatically launching

Prevent programs from changing your File Associations

Quickly clear the (Recent) Documents Menu in windows 98

Remove All Icons from your Desktop

Remove Documents Folder from Start Menu

Remove Favorites Folder from Start menu

Remove Find components from the Start menu

Remove Find Folder from Start Menu

Remove Run command from Start Menu

Remove the "Log Off user" from the Start menu

Remove the Recycle Bin from the Desktop

Remove the Speaker Icon from the Tray

Removing Programs listed in the Control Panel's Add/Remove Programs Section

Restore Windows 95 like cascading menus to the Start Menu

Saving Memory by adjusting your CD-ROM Cache

Select your Monitor in windows 98

Show all hidden files in windows 98

System Configuration Utility

To Start the Registry Editor in windows 98

Turn off Menu Animation in 98

Turn off the Recycle Bin's delete confirmation prompt

Turn off Window Animation

Turning off Password at start-up

Windows 98 Easter Egg; the easy way

How to Enable ACPI Support in Windows 98

2007-11-19T01:47:00.000-08:00

ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) is an open industry specification co-developed by Compaq, Intel, Microsoft, Phoenix, and Toshiba.

To enable ACPI support in Windows 98, you must have an ACPI- compatible motherboard and an ACPI 1.0-compliant Basic Input/Output System (BIOS).

To enable ACPI support on your Windows 98, or Windows 98 SE system, you need to use either of the following methods:
Reinstall

Reinstall Windows 98 using the /p j command-line switch. This adds the ACPIOption string value with a value data of 1 to the registry. To run Windows 98 Setup using the /p j command-line switch, click Start > Run, and type the following command in the Open box, and then click OK:

setup /p j

Reinstalling Windows 98 is the best way to ensure that all devices are configured correctly.
Change the registry

Force ACPI detection by manually adding the ACPIOption string value to the registry, and then use the Add New Hardware tool in Control Panel to redetect your computer's hardware. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Since your CD-ROM drive is disabled by the Plug and Play BIOS during hardware detection, manually copy the Windows 98 cabinet (.cab) files from the Windows 98 CD-ROM to your hard disk. To do so, follow these steps:

* Create a new folder on your hard disk (let's call it Win98cab)
* Copy the contents of the Win98 folder on the Windows 98 CD-ROM to the Win98cab folder you created
2.
* Start the Registry Editor
* Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \CurrentVersion \ Detect
* In the right-hand pane right-click an empty space and choose New > DWORD Value
* Name it ACPIOption, double-click it, and change the value to 1
* Close the registry editor

3. Select Start > Settings > Control Panel, and then double-click Add New Hardware
4. Click Next, click Next again, click Yes (Recommended), and then click Next. ACPI should be detected and installed. After your computer is restarted, all ACPI-enumerated devices are set up again.

Note: If you are prompted for files that the Add New Hardware Wizard cannot find, click Cancel or click Browse and locate the folder to which you copied the Windows 98 .cab files. Do not click Skip File, as this can cause Windows 98 to stop responding (hang) when you restart your computer and require you to reinstall Windows 98.

If there are duplicate entries in Device Manager after enabling ACPI, click a duplicate device that is not showing a conflict, and then click Remove.

For example, if two video adapters are listed, one has a resource conflict indicated by an exclamation point in a yellow circle next to the device. Remove the working video adapter and restart your computer. The device with the resource conflict is the one that should now be running in ACPI mode.

Note: After using method 2 to enable ACPI support, some devices may still detect a conflicting counterpart even after you remove them. If the device is working correctly, use method 1 to reinstall Windows 98 using the /p j command-line switch.

Before running either method, use ScanReg to make a backup of your registry. ACPI is not a fully mature standard, and any little bug in your BIOS or system drivers are going to have you want to uninstall ACPI support. If you want to uninstall ACPI support, just restore the registry backup you made prior to enabling ACPI on your system.

ACPI Errors

When Windows 98 boots, you may get a red or blue screen with an ACPI error code.

Red screens indicate that the problem is probably related to a hardware or BIOS problem. Blue screens indicate that the problem is probably related to software or is an obscure problem.

* An error code on a red or blue screen with the format 1xxx indicates an error during initialization phase of the ACPI driver and usually means the driver cannot read one or more of the ACPI ables.
* An error code with the format 2xxx indicates an ACPI machine language (AML) interpreter error.
* An error code with the format 3xxx indicates an error within the ACPI driver event handler, usually when the event handler is running a control method as the result of a general-purpose event (GPE).

Related Microsoft Knowledge Base Articles

Q189091,
Windows 98
Does Not Support ACPI Passive Cooling Mode

Q190362,
Computer
Appears to Hang When You Resume from Standby Mode

Q190508,
Plugging
and Unplugging Power Cord May Hang Computer

Q190715,
Computer
Hibernates When Standby Is Pressed

Q195564,
Computer
with Accelerated Graphics Port Hangs After Suspend

Q196008,
Computer
Stops Responding When You Try to Shut It Down

Q222902,
Sleep
Button May Be Disabled After Wakeup on ACPI Computer

Q229126,
Packard
Bell Computer Restarts Continuously

Q231772,
CPI Not
Functioning Correctly with ASUS P2B-Series Motherboards

Q232915,
Windows 98
Second Edition May Not Shut Down or Restart in MS-DOS Mode

Q233086,
Setup
Hangs During Hardware Detection on HP Computer

Q239700,
Hang on
Resume with Ultra DMA Device and ACPI BIOS with _GTF Support

Q241084,
Computer
Hangs Entering ACPI S4 Mode with a USB Device Connected

Q244870,
Computer
Hangs Using Some Versions of the E100bnt.sys Driver File

Q245107,
Computer
Battery Power May Drain Faster with USB Device Attached

Q257961,
"Invalid
Page Fault" Error Message in Browseui.dll at Shutdown

Q258010,

Performance Problems Inserting CardBus Card with TI-14xx Controller

Q258680,
Screen
Saver Activation While Suspended May Result in Hang

Q259253,
ACPI
Computer with Anti-Virus Software Installed Stops Responding When You Restart
Computer

Q261313,
Some Flash
Cards May Not Work with ACPI-Enabled Computers

Optimizing Removable Disk Drive Performance

2007-11-19T01:45:00.001-08:00

Optimizing Removable Disk Drive Performance

Windows 98 gives you the option to use write-behind caching to improve the performance of removable disk drives, such as the Iomega ZIP or JAZ drive.

To set write-behind caching for removable disk drives:

1. Open System from Control Panel, select the Performance tab, select File System, and then select the Removable Disk tab
2. Select the Enable write-behind caching on all removable disk drives check box and click OK

If this causes a problem with disk operations, clear the Enable write-behind caching on all removable disk drives check box.

2007-11-19T01:37:00.000-08:00

IMPORTANT: Know what you're doing when using this information! You might have to re-install your system when getting it wrong (So make a backup before)! I provide links to the documents at Intel® and other places where you can read the full information. I provide this information because people are asking for it. It is YOUR system, it is YOUR responsibility!

* Bus Master IDE General Overview
* How to enable Bus mastering
* Test your Hard Drive for DMA capability
* Troubleshooting

Bus Master IDE General Overview

Traditionally IDE devices where programmed to transfer data in PIO (Programmed I/O) mode. In this mode data is transferred to and from IDE devices via CPU instructions. This requires a relatively large amount of dedicated CPU time, especially when transferring large amounts of data. A typical machine today will use 40% of the CPU doing hard drive transfers in PIO mode and use only 25% of the CPU doing hard drive transfers in DMA mode, on the same hardware.

DMA (Direct Memory Access) mode of operation allows the DMA channels to handle data transfer so that it's not required for the CPU to monitor the transfer, thus reducing CPU overhead. The transfer rate for a particular data transfer event will not noticeably increase.

Theoretically DMA mode 2 allows up to 22.2Mb/sec and UDMA (Ultra DMA) allows up 33.3 Mb/sec, whereas PIO mode 3 & 4 allow only up to 16.6 Mb/sec. (But in real-world operation actual data I/O rates are significantly less for all).
More information on DMA and UDMA can be found at PCGuide.

You can use this procedure to test your HDD for DMA support.

Now to measure and compare the speed of your hard drive while operating in different modes I would suggest you to download the shareware utility called HD Tach.

The measurements which are important here are Read burst speed, Read speed and CPU utilization. When operating in PIO mode the Read burst speed is more or less equal as the maximum Read speed data transfer rate, whereas the CPU Utilization is typically above 30%. In DMA modes the Read burst speed is typically 25 to 50% higher than the Read speed data transfer rate, and the CPU Utilization usually drops below 25%. In UDMA modes the Read burst speed is typically double the Read speed data transfer rate (although it can be significantly less), and the CPU Utilization is usually the same as for DMA mode (less then 25%).

To Bus Master your system and determine whether your drive supports DMA:

1. Open System Properties in Control Panel (select Start > Settings > Control Panel)
2. Select the Device Manager tab
3. Click the + sign next to the Disk drives entry
4. Select the drive you want to enable for DMA and click Properties
5. On the Settings tab, there should be a DMA check box, if this box is unchecked, place a check mark. If there is no check box (or it is grayed out), your motherboard chipset does not support the bus master interface. If the check box is not checked after you restart your system, your hard disk probably has been automatically disabled again because the hard disk may not support a multiple-word DMA protocol. For more information see Microsoft's Knowledge Base Article No. 159560

You can use the same procedure to Bus Master your CD-ROM Drive.

Note: You do not need to install Bus Master drivers, they are already build in the Windows 98 system.

It seems that when using this method (as opposed to buying a system which had DMA (properly) enabled by the OEM), an entry of the registry is not updated. To check, Open the file Mshdc.inf (found in \Windows\Inf), and look for the header [ESDI_AddReg], it should look like:

[ESDI_AddReg]
HKR,,DriverDesc,,"ESDI Port Driver"
HKR,,DevLoader,,*IOS
HKR,,PortDriver,,ESDI_506.pdr
HKR,,IDEDMADrive0,3,01
HKR,,IDEDMADrive1,3,01

If the two bold-faced lines shown above appear (with the other 3 lines), you are set. If not, add the 2 (bold) lines, and manually remove all IDE devices from Device Manager (Control Panel > System, Device Manager tab), the system will tell you to re-boot, and it will re-detect the controller, and set them up in DMA mode.

To determine whether your IDE hard disk supports multiple-word DMA protocol, you can test the primary IDE drive and the secondary IDE drive using debug.

To test the primary IDE drive:

1. Restart the computer. Press the CTRL key to get the Windows 98 Startup menu, and then choose Command Prompt Only
2. At the command prompt, type debug
3. At the hyphen prompt, type the following lines, pressing Enter after each line. Do not type the comment

Note: The first character of each line is the letter o, not the numeral zero

If the number returned after entering i 1f1 is 00, the hard disk accepts the DMA protocol timing that you entered with the o 1f2 statement, and the hard disk supports DMA. A return value of 04 indicates that the hard disk does not support a DMA multiple-word protocol. If the value returned is not 00 or 04, you may not have typed the characters correctly, or you may need to quit Windows.

PIO mode 3 hard disks may support multiple-word DMA mode 1. PIO mode 4 hard disks should support multiple-word DMA mode 2. If you have a PIO mode 4 drive that does not support multiple-word DMA mode 2, it is possible that the hard disk has a firmware problem. Contact the hard disk manufacturer, and verify the firmware version.

4. To quit Debug, type q and press Enter

To test the secondary IDE drive:

1. Restart the computer. Press the CTRL key to get the Windows 98 Startup menu, and then choose Command Prompt Only
2. At the command prompt, type debug
3. At the hyphen prompt, type the following lines, pressing Enter after each line. Do not type the comment

Note: The first character of each line is the letter o, not the numeral zero

If the number returned after entering i 171 is 00, the hard disk accepts the DMA protocol timing that you entered with the o 172 statement, and the hard disk supports DMA. A return value of 04 indicates that the hard disk does not support a DMA multiple-word protocol.

If your drive does support a DMA multiple-word protocol and the DMA check box will not remain enabled, the IDE controller may not be compatible with the Microsoft IDE bus mastering driver.

4. To quit Debug, type q and press Enter

If you're having problems with Standby - Resume, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article No. 193473

Improving Performance

2007-11-19T01:34:00.000-08:00

Although Windows 98, when running on an identical setup as Windows 95, outperforms the latter, there are still a few "tweaks" to improve the performance of Windows 98.

Although today's hard disk drives are fast, you might want to limit the use of the Virtual Memory (swap file). One easy way to achieve this is to limit the amount of memory Windows allocates to the Disk cache (replacement for Windows 3.* smartdrive).

You can check on the amount of memory used by Windows for the Disk cache by using System Monitor. If you haven't installed it, go to Control Panel (Start > Settings > Control Panel) and choose Add/Remove Programs. Select the Windows Setup tab, select System Tools from the Components window and press Details. Scroll down to the entry for System Monitor and click OK. This will place an entry for System Monitor in your Programs > Accessories > System Tools.

To view your Disk cache size:

1. Start System Monitor (select Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Monitor)
2. To add an item to be displayed, select View > Add Item
3. The entries for the Disk Cache size are found under the Memory Manager category (Disk cache size, Maximum disk cache size, Mid disk cache size, Minimum disk cache size)
4. You can also find the items to monitor your Swapfile here

On a typical machine (32MB RAM installed), with only Windows 98 installed, the Disk cache size (right after a fresh reboot, with nothing else running) was reported at 12MB, while the Maximum disk cache size could go up to 27MB.

To limit the amount of memory used by Windows for the Disk cache:

1. Open System.ini (select Start > Run and in the Open: box type sysedit)
2. Add the following two lines to the [vcache] section (add the section if it's not there):

MinFileCache=1024
MaxFileCache=8192

Note: Some users only use a maximum setting, others a maximum and minimum setting. Just experiment and find what's best in your situation.

These values limit the size of the vcache (in kilobytes), so that Windows is prevented from using more of your available RAM for the vcache. This will increase the amount of free memory available to your system, so that when you open another program it is not paged to disk immediately due to lack of free memory.

The MinFileCache (=Minimum File Cache) setting prevents Windows from shrinking the cache below 1024Kb. As a rule of thumb, use 25% of your RAM for the MaxFileCache. In general, most users say that a MaxFileCache (=Maximum File Cache setting) of up to 9Mb works best for them, even if they have more RAM available. Just experiment with these settings to find what works best for you.

The settings explained above are valid if you use FAT16 on your hard drives. When using FAT32, we advise you to leave the vcache managed by Windows. The reason for this is that with FAT32 in combination with an "aligned" program, Windows 98 can run applications from the disk cache itself. Unfortunately the only "aligned" programs so far are the MS Office programs so until more authors align their programs on 4K page boundaries, the overwhelming majority of programs will still be causing two copies of an app to be in RAM until the disk cache is re-used. This would mean that for the time being the Windows 95 guidelines for assigning VCACHE size (as above) are still good guidelines to follow for Windows 98. If you don't use FAT32, then this is a non-issue since with FAT16 the alignment process does not work and Windows 98 can never run an application from the cache.

Optimizing the Swap File

The best way you can ensure high swap file performance is to make sure that the disk containing the swap file has enough free space so that the swap file size can shrink and grow as needed.

We do not suggest setting a minimum/maximum swap file size. Windows 98 does a much better job managing the swap file then Windows 95.

If you have multiple drives, the swap file should be placed on the drive with the fastest performance, unless that disk is overused.

If you put the swap file on a dedicated partition, use the largest possible cluster size [32KB].

If you have 24MB or more RAM, you can optimize performance by selecting Network server as the typical role of your computer:
Change the Typical role of your computer

1. Select Start > Settings > Control Panel
2. Open System, select the Performance tab, click on File System under the Advanced Settings header
3. On the Hard Disk Tab, select Network Server as Typical role of this computer.

The setting you use controls the size of various internal data structures used by the 32-bit file access driver (VFAT).

When you use the Mobile Or Docking System setting, VFAT allocates memory to record the 16 most recently accessed folders and the 337 most recently accessed files. This consumes approximately 4KB of memory.

When you use the Desktop Computer setting, VFAT allocates memory to record the 32 most recently accessed folders and the 677 most recently accessed files. This consumes approximately 8KB of memory.

When you use the Network Server setting, VFAT allocates memory to record the 64 most recently accessed folders and the 2729 most recently accessed files. This consumes approximately 16KB of memory.

Optimizing I/O Transfers by Using Direct Memory Access

The advantage of using direct memory access (DMA) with integrated device electronics (IDE) CD-ROM and disk drives is that it lowers CPU usage during I/O transfers.

To Bus Master your system and determine whether your drive supports DMA:

1. Open System Properties in Control Panel (select Start > Settings > Control Panel)
2. Select the Device Managertab
3. Click the + sign next to the Disk drives entry
4. Select the drive you want to enable for DMA and click Properties
5. On the Settings tab, there should be a DMA check box, if this box is unchecked, place a checkmark. If there is no check box (or it is grayed out), your motherboard chipset does not support the bus master interface. If the check box is not checked after you restart your system, your hard disk probably has been automatically disabled again because the hard disk may not support a multiple-word DMA protocol. For more information see Microsoft's Knowledge Base Article No. 159560.

You can use the same procedure to Bus Master your CD-ROM Drive.

Note: You do not need to install Bus Master drivers, they are already build in the Windows 98 system.

See this page on information how to test your system for DMA capabilities.

Optimizing DVD File System Performance

Digital Versatile Discs (DVDs) uses the main file system cache (VCACHE), and there are no performance settings for end users to change.

Optimizing Removable Disk Drive Performance

Windows 98 gives you the option to use write-behind caching to improve the performance of removable disk drives, such as the Iomega ZIP or JAZZ drive.

To set write-behind caching for removable disk drives:

1. Open System from Control Panel, select the Performance tab, select File System, and then select the Removable Disk tab
2. Select the Enable write-behind caching on all removable disk drives check box and click OK

If this causes a problem with disk operations, clear the Enable write-behind caching on all removable disk drives check box.

Networking

* Run only one network client, if possible. For example, configuring a computer with both the Client for Microsoft Networks and Microsoft Client for NetWare Networks requires more memory than running a single client
* Run a single network protocol. For example, running Microsoft TCP/IP, NetBEUI, and the IPX/SPX-compatible protocol requires a larger working set than running a single protocol
* Run the fewest possible network services. Running File and Printer Sharing services, the Microsoft SNMP agent, and so on, all require memory and increase the working set of Windows 98

Network Settings can be changed by accessing Control Panel > Network.

MS Office

If you have MS Office installed, you can increase the performance of your computer by removing Find Fast from your StartUp folder. Normally Find Fast will from time to time index the files on your drive(s), to speed-up opening them in MS-Office. We personally don't care if we have to wait the additional milliseconds when opening a document in Word, at least we know what we're waiting for!

To reclaim the space used by the find-fast index, go to Control Panel, select Find Fast, select your hard drive(s) and from the Index menu, choose Delete Index. When you've deleted your Index, choose Close and Stop.

More information on the Office 97 Find Fast utility can be found on Microsoft's Web site.

Another utility installed by Office 2000 is MDM (Machine Debug Manager). MDM is part of the Front Page Express debug software, and is utilized by a very few. Unless you need debug, it shouldn't be hogging resources.

To remove MDM:

1. Start the Registry Editor
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ RunServices
3. Delete Mdm.exe from the list

It could also be necessary to rename Mdm.exe. Find Mdm.exe on your hard drive (in \Windows\System), and rename it to Mdm.ex_.

MDM is also part of the Microsoft Script Editor installation, additionally, if the system has Internet Explorer version 5 or later, Mdm.exe can still be configured to start at the startup of Window 95 or Windows 98, if the script debugging feature in Internet Explorer is turned on. You can turn off this feature within Internet Explorer. On the Tools menu, click Internet Options. On the Advanced tab under Setting, make sure that Disable script debugging is selected.

Win386.swp

Recently it was discovered that the Win386.swp file (Windows virtual memory) could be set to Read-only. This will course a number of errors, some of them are:

* Control Panel and My Computer icons may change to the default Windows icon
* There was an internal error and one of the windows you were using will be closed. It is recommended that you save your work, close all programs, and then restart your computer
* There is not enough free memory to run this program. Quit one or more programs, and then try again
* Internet Explorer cannot open the site http://c:\windows\web\controlp.htt
* This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down. If the problem persists, contact the program vendor

When you get these error messages, and you click the Details button, any of the following error messages can be displayed:

* IEXPLORE caused an invalid page fault in module Mshtml.dll at 015f:70c449bb
* IEXPLORE caused a stack fault in module Shdocvw.dll at 0167:77c8ebe0
* IEXPLORE caused a stack fault in module Shlwapi.dll at 0167:70bd3114

To resolve this:

1. Select Start > Find > Files or Folders
2. In the Named box, type win386.swp
3. In the Look in box, select drive C, and then click Find Now (the box Include subfolders should be checked)
4. Right-click the Win386.swp file, click Properties, and then click to clear the Read-only check box
5. Click Apply, and then click Close

Welcome To BLitZTec

2007-11-16T01:47:00.002-08:00

Here u can get all sorts of answers about systems and its configurations

If there any doubt please contact us.

System Configuration Utility

2007-11-16T01:47:00.001-08:00

You can start the System Configuration Utility (Msconfig.exe) by selecting Start > Run and typing msconfig in the Open box.

According to Microsoft's information, the System Configuration Utility automates the routine troubleshooting steps that Microsoft Technical Support engineers use when diagnosing issues with the Windows 98 configuration.

Msconfig permits you to modify the system configuration through a process of elimination with check boxes. The System Configuration Utility also allowes you to create a backup copy of your system files before you begin a troubleshooting session. This is to ensure that the modifications made during your troubleshooting session can be reversed.

More Information on the procedures for troubleshooting are found in the Msconfig Help file.

Compressing the Windows 98 Registry

2007-11-16T01:44:00.000-08:00

Windows 98 now compresses the registry by default. If there is more than 500KB of empty space in the registry, Windows 98 will compress the registry at the next restart. This is controlled by the line Optimize=1 in the Scanreg.ini file in your \Windows directory.

To compress the registry manually:

1. As always we suggest you to make a backup of the registry before you begin. If you're running in Windows, restart in MS-DOS mode (click Start > Shut Down, and choose Restart in MS-DOS mode from the Shut Down Windows menu
2. At the MS-DOS prompt type: scanreg/backup, this will backup your registry
3. Now type scanreg/opt
4. Scanreg will compress the registry
______________________________________________________________________________________
RegClean

Over time, your computer's registry may begin to contain corrupted, unused, and unnecessary registry keys, especially if keys are not removed when you uninstall a program. As a result, you may begin to experience problems when using OLE to embed objects or Automation to control other programs.

Microsoft's RegClean utility is designed to clean up unnecessary registry entries in your registry. For more information, read the Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 147769 (This article seems to have been removed from the Microsoft Knowledge Base. However, I have a local copy for you to read).

The latest version of Microsoft's RegClean [781 KB - version 4.1a, build 7364.1] is safe to use with Windows 98.

Preview Media Files (in Windows Explorer)

2007-11-16T01:42:00.000-08:00

It's possible to "preview" media files (wav, midi, avi, mov, mpg) in Windows Explorer, if you have Internet Explorer 4.x or 5.x installed with the Desktop Update.

1. Using Windows Explorer navigate to \Windows\Web, find the file Folder.htt and Open this in Notepad (or your favorite text editor)
2. Serach for wantMedia = false and replace this with wantMedia = true (you'll see a warning in that line "cool, but may hinder media file manipulation")
3. Now select a folder on your hard drive containing Media Files (Such as \Windows\Media) right-click an empty area and select View > as Web Page, and select a media file!

Change Color Depth without restarting

2007-11-16T01:41:00.000-08:00

To be able to change your color depth without having to restart:

1. Right-click an empty space on the Desktop and from the context menu select Properties
2. Select the Settings tab
3. Press the Advanced button
4. On the General tab, under the Compatibility header, place a check-mark in the box for Apply the new color settings without restarting
5. Click Apply and OK (2 times)

Note: for some programs it may be necessary to restart your computer, after you change the color depth.

Remove All Icons from your Desktop

2007-11-16T01:37:00.000-08:00

Here is how to remove all the icons on your desktop:

1. Start the Registry Editor
2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ Current Version \ Policies \ Explorer
3. From the menu select Edit > New > DWORD value
4. Name it NoDesktop
5. Double-click this entry and give it the value 1
6. Close the registry editor and reboot your computer

To restore the Icons on the desktop, you have to change the value of the NoDesktop Key to 0.

You can also use my Tweaking Toolbox for Windows, one of it's functions is to hide/restore the Icons on the desktop.

For more information & free trial, check the Tweaking Toolbox for Windows pages. .

Remove the Recycle Bin from the Desktop

2007-11-16T01:30:00.000-08:00

To remove the Recycle Bin from your Desktop:

1. Start the Registry Editor
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ Current Version \ Explorer \ Desktop \ Namespace
3. Expand the Namespace by double-clicking on it
4. Delete the Key {645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E} (the one with the value Recycle Bin)
5. Close the registry editor and press F5 to update the Desktop

To restore the Recycle Bin, you have to add the {645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E} key, so the best thing to do (before you remove the key) is to backup the Key, this can be done by selecting the key {645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}, and from the menu choosing Registry > Export Registry file, give it a name, choose a location where to save it, and check to make sure that in the Export range box Selected branch is selected.

Note: The Recycle Bin will only be removed from your Desktop. You can still access the Recycle Bin from Explorer.

Note: The Recycle Bin can also be removed from the Desktop with TweakUI (you can find it on your CD-ROM in the \tools\reskit\powertoy folder).

You can also use my Tweaking Toolbox for Windows, one of it's functions is to let you remove the recycle bin from the Desktop.

For more information & free trial, check the Tweaking Toolbox for Windows pages.

Windows Sounds And Logos - Never Before Seen

2007-11-07T01:43:00.000-08:00

Remove Find Folder from Start Menu

2007-10-24T04:39:00.000-07:00

Here's how to remove the Find Folder from the Start menu:

1. Start the Registry Editor
2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer
3. Right-click an open area in the right pane and select New > DWORD Value
4. Name it NoFind
5. Double-click this entry and add the value 1
6. Exit RegEdit and restart Windows

Warning! Removing the Find menu, will also disable the Find command in Windows Explorer, so pressing F3 to search won't work anymore.

To reverse just change the value back to 0.

You can also use my Tweaking Toolbox for Windows, one of it's functions is to remove the Find folder from the Start menu.

For more information & free trial, check the Tweaking Toolbox for Windows pages.

Remove Find components from the Start menu

2007-10-24T04:38:00.001-07:00

You can remove the Find: On the Internet and Find: People from the Start menu:

1. Start the Registry Editor
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ explorer \ Find Extensions \ Static
3. Click on the + sign in front of the Static Key
4. To remove the Find: On the Internet option, delete the InetFind Key

To remove the Find: People option, delete the WabFind Key

Note: We recommend making a backup of these keys first! Select the key you want to delete, and from the Registry Editor's menu choose Registry > Export Registry File. Give it a useful name and save it.

It is also possible to Remove Find Folder from Start Menu.

Remove the "Log Off user" from the Start menu

2007-10-24T04:36:00.000-07:00

To remove the "Log Off user" entry from your Start menu:

1. Start the Registry Editor
2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer
3. Right-click an open area in the right pane and select New > DWORD Value
4. Name it NoLogOff
5. Double-click this entry and add the value 1
6. Exit RegEdit and restart Windows

To put "Log Off user" back on the Start menu, simply rename the value to 0.

This can also be done using TweakUI (you can find it on your CD-ROM in the \tools\reskit\powertoy folder).
Click on the IE4 tab, and remove the check mark from the Allow logoff box.

You can also use my Tweaking Toolbox for Windows, one of it's functions is to remove the Log off command from the Start menu.

For more information & free trial, check the Tweaking Toolbox for Windows pages.

Remove Favorites Folder from Start menu

2007-10-24T04:34:00.001-07:00

To remove the Favorites Menu from your Start menu:

1. Start the Registry Editor
2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer
3. Right-click an open area in the right pane and select New > DWORD Value
4. Name it NoFavoritesMenu
5. Double-click this entry and add the value 1
6. Exit RegEdit and restart Windows

To put your Favorites back on the Start menu, simply rename the value to 0.

This can also be done using TweakUI (you can find it on your CD-ROM in the \tools\reskit\powertoy folder).
Click on the IE4 tab, and remove the check mark from the Show Favorites on Start Menu box.

You can also use my Tweaking Toolbox for Windows, one of it's functions is to remove the Favorites folder from the Start menu.

For more information & free trial, check the Tweaking Toolbox for Windows pages.

Remove Documents Folder from Start Menu

2007-10-24T04:30:00.001-07:00

Here's how to remove the Documents folder from the Start menu:

1. Start the Registry Editor
2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer
3. Right-click an open area in the right pane and select New > DWORD Value
4. Name it NoRecentDocsMenu
5. Double-click this entry and add the value 1
6. Exit RegEdit and restart Windows

To reverse just change the value back to 0.

Note: These settings can also be changed with TweakUI (you can find it on your CD-ROM in the \tools\reskit\powertoy folder).

You can also use my Tweaking Toolbox for Windows, one of it's functions is to remove the Documents folder from the Start menu.

For more information & free trial, check the Tweaking Toolbox for Windows pages.

Remove Run command from Start Menu

2007-10-24T04:28:00.000-07:00

Here's how to remove the Run command from the Start menu:

1. Start the Registry Editor
2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer
3. Double-click the entry NoRun and change the Value Data from 0 to 1
4. Exit RegEdit and restart Windows

To put the Run entry back on the Start menu, just change the value of the NoRun key to 0

You can also use my Tweaking Toolbox for Windows, one of it's functions is to remove the Run command from the Start menu.

For more information & free trial, check the Tweaking Toolbox for Windows pages.

Windows 98 Easter Egg; the easy way

2007-10-24T04:24:00.000-07:00

You might have heard about the Windows 98 Easter Egg; it requires you to click on several places on the Regional Settings applet in Control Panel; quite a hard thing to do.

Well, here's the easy way to get to the Easter Egg:

1. Right-click an empty space on your Desktop, and select New > Shortcut from the menu
2. Copy the line below in the Command line field:

You need to select all the text. You can do that by placing your cursor in the text-box above; and pressing the Home key on your keyboard to make sure that the cursor is at the left margin. Now, while you hold down the Shift key, press the End key. Right-click with your mouse inside the box (make sure the text is selected) and select Copy from the menu. Once you've done this, you can past the info in the Command line box.

3. Press Finish
4. Right-click this new shortcut, and from the menu choose Properties
5. In the Run field, select Minimized. Also make sure that the Start in field shows C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\WELCOME

That's it!

Play a Midi File on Startup

2007-10-24T04:20:00.000-07:00

You can play a Midi file at startup - instead of a wave file - here's how:

1. Select Control Panel > Sounds and make sure that the entry for Start Windows is set to [None]
2. Create a shortcut to your favorite Midi file in \Windows\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp (you can do this by selecting your favorite Midi file, clicking the right mouse button, and dragging it to the StartUp folder. When you release the mouse button, a menu will pop-up, one of the choices will be Create Shortcut(s) Here)
3. Right-click the shortcut you just added to the StartUp folder, and select Properties
4. Select the Shortcut tab, and in the Target: box type:

5. In the Run: box select Minimized

Where is the full path to your midi file (c:\directory name\midifilename.mid).

Change the Start-up and Log off screens

2007-10-24T04:19:00.000-07:00

1. There are two files in the \Windows directory, both are 320 x 400 bitmaps
2. LOGOW.SYS is the "Windows is shutting down" screen
3. LOGOS.SYS is the "You may now shut...." screen
4. You can edit these files or create your own, they just have to be 320 x 400 bitmaps

If you have 640x480 images, here's how to make them 320x400 and keep their normal appearance when they are displayed at start up or shutdown:

1. Open the desired image in Paint
2. Choose Stretch/Skew under Image
3. Select Horizontal and change the percentage to 50
4. Choose OK
5. Choose Stretch/Skew again
6. Select Vertical and set it to 104
7. Choose OK
8. Choose Stretch/Skew again
9. Select Vertical again and set it to 80
10. Choose OK
11. Choose Attributes under Image and there it is - a 320x400 bitmap

Remember to save it with the .SYS extension.
To create your custom Start-up Screen

Create a file as described above, and name it Logo.sys. Place this file in the Root directory (e.g. C:\)

Removing Programs listed in the Control Panel's Add/Remove Programs Section

2007-10-24T04:17:00.000-07:00

If you remove an installed program and its files by deleting the files, it may still be listed in the Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel. To remove it from the list:

1. Start the Registry Editor
2. Open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Uninstall
3. Delete the program entry here
4. Close the Registry Editor and restart Windows

You can use TweakUI (you can find it on your CD-ROM in the \tools\reskit\powertoy folder) to clear the Add/Remove Programs section.

You can also use my Tweaking Toolbox for Windows, one of it's functions is to remove programs listed in the Control Panel's Add/Remove Programs Section.

For more information & free trial, check the Tweaking Toolbox for Windows pages.

Deleting Files without moving them to the Recycle Bin

2007-10-24T04:16:00.001-07:00

When you want to Delete files without moving them to the Recycle Bin, hold down the Shift key while pressing Delete (or right-clicking Delete with the Mouse).

The above solution lets you select files to delete immediately, you can also make this a default solution for all files you want to delete:

1. Right-click the Recycle Bin and select Properties
2. On the Global Tab, select Do not move files to the Recycle Bin

If you select Configure drives independently, you can choose from which drive you want to delete files immediately.

Clear the Run Menu

2007-10-24T04:13:00.000-07:00

To remove items from the Run menu:

1. Start the Registry Editor
2. Open HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ RunMRU
3. To delete an entry, simply delete its key
4. To delete multiple entries, highlight all of the keys you want to delete, then press delete
5. Close the Registry Editor and Restart Windows 98

Note: Do not delete the (Default) or MRUList values.

To clear the Run menu every time you start Windows 98:

Install Tweak UI, you can find it on your CD-ROM in the \tools\reskit\powertoy folder.
Click on the Paranoia tab, and put a check mark in the Clear Run history at logon box.

You can also use my Tweaking Toolbox for Windows, one of it's functions is to clear the MRU lists.

For more information & free trial, check the Tweaking Toolbox for Windows pages.

Cool Hardware Diagnostic Tool!

2007-10-24T04:12:00.000-07:00

The hardware diagnostics tool (Hwdiag.exe) which was first included in Windows 95 OSR2, is included in Windows 98. To start, type hwinfo /ui in the Run box on the Start menu.

Hwdiag.exe lists every key in the Windows Registry that refers to hardware in your system. The entries are color-coded:

* Registry entries are displayed in green
* File attributes in magenta
* Configuration Manger information in brown
* Error messages in red
* Warnings are displayed in blue
_______________________________________________________________________

If you see error's for IRQ Holder for PCI Steering, read Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 272291.

Saving Memory by adjusting your CD-ROM Cache

2007-10-24T04:02:00.000-07:00

If you don't use your CD-ROM player that often, your system might be assigning memory for it's cache which you could reclaim. Here is how:

1. Right click on My Computer
2. Select Properties
3. Select the Performance tab and click the File System button
4. Select the CD-ROM tab
5. Note how much memory you are assigning to the CD-ROM cache and adjust as you would like

The Minimum is 64KB (No read-ahead selected and the slider to Small) and the maximum is 1238KB (Quad-speed or higher and the slider to Large).

________________________________________________________________________

Optimizing DVD File System Performance

Digital Versatile Discs (DVDs) uses the main file system cache (VCACHE), and there are no performance settings for end users to change.

One Click Shut Down or Restart

2007-10-24T03:57:00.000-07:00

To Shut Down or Restart Windows with one mouse click:

1. Right-click the Desktop and select New > Shortcut
2. In the Command line box type:

3. Click Next and give it the appropriate name (Shut Down or Restart)

To change the icon on the shortcut, right-click on the shortcut, and select Change Icon. Some nice icons can be found in \Windows\System\shell32.dll.

Log on automatically at System Startup

2007-10-24T03:52:00.000-07:00

To have Windows 98 Log on automatically every time you start Windows:

Install Tweak UI, you can find it on your CD-ROM in the \tools\reskit\powertoy folder.

Click on the Network tab, and give it your User name and Password.

Get rid of Shortcut Arrow

2007-10-24T02:21:00.000-07:00

Shortcut icons have a small curved arrow in the lower-left corner. To remove the arrow, follow these instructions:

1. Start the Registry Editor
2. Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ lnkfile
3. Delete the value IsShortcut
4. Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ piffile
5. Delete the value IsShortcut
6. Close the Registry Editor and restart Windows

Note: These settings can also be changed with TweakUI (you can find it on your CD-ROM in the \tools\reskit\powertoy folder).

You can also use my Tweaking Toolbox for Windows, one of it's functions is to remove the Shortcut arrow.

For more information & free trial, check the Tweaking Toolbox for Windows pages.

Change the name of your Recycle Bin

2007-10-24T02:18:00.000-07:00

To Change the name of your Recycle Bin:

1. Start the Registry Editor
2. Search (Ctrl+F) for Recycle Bin
3. Make sure the check boxes of Keys, Values and Data are checked and click Find Next
4. At the first result, double-click the result and rename the "Recycle Bin" occurrence to whatever you prefer to call it
5. Press F3 or Find Next in the Find window
6. Cycle between step 4 and 5 until no more occurrences of "Recycle Bin" are found
7. Close the Registry Editor and restart windows

You can also add Rename to the right-click context menu of the recycle bin. To do so:

1. Start the Registry Editor
2. Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ CLSID \ {645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}
3. Select the ShellFolder
4. Select the Attributes key, right-click and choose Modify
5. Change the value from 40 01 00 20 to read 50 01 00 20
6. Close the Registry Editor

You can also use my Tweaking Toolbox for Windows, one of it's functions is to let you change the name of the recycle bin directly, another function is to add Rename to the right-click context menu of the recycle bin.

For more information & free trial, check the Tweaking Toolbox for Windows pages.

Display start up Menu without pressing F8 on start up

2007-10-24T02:17:00.000-07:00

When you want to display the start up menu at the time you start Windows, you need to press F8. There is also a way of displaying it automatically:

1. Use Explorer and find Msdos.sys in the root directory -- it is a hidden file (see Show all files to see how to show hidden files in Explorer)
2. Make a copy of the Msdos.sys file in your TEMP directory, or any other directory. (just in case...)
3. Right-click Msdos.sys and select Properties
4. Uncheck the Read-only attribute
5. Open a Msdos window (click Start > Programs > MS-DOS Prompt and type edit C:\Msdos.sys
6. Under the [Options] section, type:
BootMenu=1
BootMenuDefault=1
BootMenuDelay=xx (where xx is the delay in seconds)

7. Save the file
8. In Explorer right-click on Msdos.sys, select Properties and check the Read-only attribute

You can also use TweakUI (you can find it on your CD-ROM in the \tools\reskit\powertoy folder) to change these settings on the Boot tab.

Turn off Menu Animation

2007-10-24T02:15:00.000-07:00

You can turn off the menu animation (sliding menu) so that the menu will pop-out instantly. To do so:

1. Right-click on the Desktop, and select Properties
2. Select the Effects tab
3. Uncheck Animate windows, menus and lists

Turn off Window Animation

2007-10-24T02:12:00.001-07:00

You can turn off the animation displayed by Windows 98 when you minimize and maximize windows. This makes navigating Windows 98 a lot faster, especially for those that don't have super fast video cards.

1. Start the Registry Editor
2. Go to HKEY_USERS \ .DEFAULT \ Control Panel \ Desktop \ WindowMetrics
3. Right-click an empty space in the right pane
4. Select New > String Value
5. Name the new value MinAnimate
6. Double-click on the MinAnimate string and enter a value of 0 for OFF or 1 for ON and click on OK
7. Close the Registry Editor and restart Windows

You can also use TweakUI (you can find it on your CD-ROM in the \tools\reskit\powertoy Folder) to turn off Window animation.

You can also use my Tweaking Toolbox for Windows, one of it's functions is to change the visual effects Windows uses.

For more information & free trial, check the Tweaking Toolbox for Windows pages.

Restore Windows 95 like cascading menus to the Start Menu

2007-10-23T04:39:00.000-07:00

Windows 98 changed the behavior of the menu's under the Start Menu. In
Windows 98, when a menu is to tall to fit on your screen, you will see a
scroll arrow at the bottom, allowing you to scroll further down. In Windows
95, a second menu would appear next to the first, where the entries who would
otherwise not fit on your screen would be displayed.
To restore the Windows 95 like behavior:

1. Start the Registry Editor
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \
CurrentVersion \ explorer \ Advanced
3. Right-click an open area in the right pane and select New > String
Value
4. Name it StartMenuScrollPrograms
5. Double-click this entry and add the value false
6. Exit the registry editor

To restore Windows 98 behavior, simply rename the value of
StartMenuScrollPrograms from false to true.
You can also use my Tweaking Toolbox for Windows, one of it's
functions is to allow you to change between a Cascading and
Scrolling Start menu.
For more information & free trial, check the Tweaking Toolbox for Windows
pages.

You can also add Windows 2000 like functionality to the Windows Explorer
View > Folder Options > View tab. With the registration settings below,
you will create a check box called Multi-Column Start Menu, which will
let you change between the two styles "on the fly". This is a big advantage if
multiple users are using the same computer, and the users prefer different
styles of the Start Menu.
To add this functionality you will need to add a bunch of registry
settings. We have made a reg file for you, W2K-Start-Menu.reg, which
you can download from our FTP Site. Once you downloaded it, just double click
on it, and answer Yes when asked if you want to add the information to
the registry. You can also right-click the file and select Edit,
to check it's contents. This is how it should look:


REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer~
\Advanced\Folder\StartMenuScrollPrograms]
"Type"="checkbox"
"Text"="Multi-Column Start Menu"
"HKeyRoot"=dword:80000001
"RegPath"="Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer\\Advanced"
"ValueName"="StartMenuScrollPrograms"
"CheckedValue"=dword:00000000
"UncheckedValue"=dword:00000001
"DefaultValue"=dword:00000000
"HelpID"="update.hlp"

Note: the ~ break after \explorer is artificial. This
will be on 1 line.

Adding cascading menus to the Start button

2007-10-23T04:25:00.000-07:00

1. Click the Start button once with your right mouse button. You
should see a context menu pop-up
2. One of the items should be Explore, click this with your left mouse
button
3. An Explorer file management window opens. In the left pane should be a
directory tree, the right pane should display the contents of the Start Menu
folder
4. Right-click any empty space within the right pane. A context menu should
appear, click New > Folder
5. The Explorer will create a highlighted icon called New Folder. Type
the following string, all on one line, replacing the words New Folder
with this new line. You must type the period, the curly braces, all four
hyphens, and the hexadecimal numbers exactly as shown. After the closing curly
brace, press Enter

To make it more easy for you to copy/paste, we've put the strings in a text
box.

* Initially these folders you create will be empty. Just drag & drop
items from the regular folder into the folder on the Start menu.
The folders mentioned above (under *) are not as useful as the others.
These three folders have to be updated "by hand", where as the others are
updated by the system, e.g. if an item is added to the Control Panel, this
folder on the Start menu is automatically updated, while if you add another font
to your system, you will have to copy it to the Fonts folder on the Start menu
as well to make it show up there.
We just thought we let you know all the options. We use the Control Panel &
URL History folder at Windows-Help.NET, and find them nice time-savers!
You can also use my Tweaking Toolbox for Windows, one of it's
functions is to create the Special Windows folders.
For more information & free trial, check the Tweaking Toolbox for Windows
pages.

You can also create a new folder entry (like the Programs folder):

1. Click the Start button once with your right mouse button. You
should see a context menu pop-up
2. One of the items is Explore, click this with your left mouse button

3. An Explorer window opens in \Windows\Start Menu
4. Right-click any empty space within the right pane. A context menu should
appear, click New > Folder
5. This will create a highlighted icon called New Folder, just name it
how you like. You can add shortcuts and/or actual files in this folder. The
location on your hard drive is: \Windows\Start Menu\<your folder>

Turning off Password at start-up

2007-10-23T03:17:00.000-07:00

If you have a network installed, each time you log on you will be asked for a
password. To disable this:

1. Right-click on the Network Neighborhood icon and select
Properties
2. On the Configuration tab, select Windows Logon in the
Primary Network Logon box
3. When Windows prompts you to restart your computer, click No
4. Click the Start button, point to Settings, then select
Control Panel
5. Double-click the Passwords icon
6 On the Change Passwords tab, click the Change Windows Password
button, click OK, then set a blank password

If you have Client for Microsoft Networks selected in the Primary
Network Logon box, each time you log on you will be asked for a password.
The improvement in Windows 98 is such that if you press Cancel at the
Logon box, you won't be able to access the Network.

To have Windows 98 Log on automatically every time you start Windows:
Install TweakUI, you can find it on your CD-ROM in the \tools\reskit\powertoy
folder.

Click on the Network tab, and give it your User name and
Password.

Quickly clear the (Recent) Documents Menu

2007-10-19T00:32:00.000-07:00

To clear the (Recent) Documents Menu requires some clicking. Here's a quick
and dirty way to be able to clear them with a double-click:

1. Create a batch file with the line:

(To make it more easy for you to copy/paste, we've put the text in a text
box)
To create a batch file, just create a .txt file using NotePad and
rename the .txt extension to .bat.

2. Save the batch file into a convenient directory
3. Create a shortcut to the batch file on the desktop
4. Right-click the shortcut and choose Properties > Program tab
5. Under Run, choose Minimized
6. Check the Close on Exit box
7. Click OK

Now just double click on the shortcut's icon to clear the document menu.
To clear the Documents menu every time you start Windows 98:
Install TweakUI, you can find it on your CD-ROM in the \tools\reskit\powertoy
folder.
Click on the Paranoia tab, and check the Clear Document history at
logon option.
It's also possible to remove the Documents folder from the Start menu.
You can also use my Tweaking Toolbox for Windows, one of it's
functions is to clear the MRU lists.
For more information & free trial, check the Tweaking Toolbox for Windows
pages.

Adding a File Type to the 'New' Menu

2007-10-19T00:12:00.000-07:00

To add a file type to the New menu, which can be found on the context
menu, when you - for example - right click on the Desktop, follow these steps:

1. In the program that creates the file type you wish to add, create a blank
document with any preferences you wish to use. Save it immediately
2. Copy this file to \Windows\ShellNew -- it is a hidden folder. (see
Show all
files to see how to show hidden files/folders in explorer)
3. Start the
Registry Editor
4. Open HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT and find the extension for the file type you
wish to add
5. Select the file type you wish to add and right-click, choose New > Key
from the context menu
6. Call the new key ShellNew
7. Select the new key, right-click, choose New > String Value from the
context menu
8. Call it FileName
9. Double-click on the string, and modify it to be the filename of the blank
template file you created, including the extension
10. Exit the registry editor and restart Windows

To Start the Registry Editor

2007-10-19T00:11:00.001-07:00

1. Click on Start
2. Click on Run
3. Type Regedit
4. Press OK

WARNING!

Be very careful while you are running RegEdit.
You can easily render your machine un-bootable if you play with settings you aren't familiar with!

You may want to immediately back up your Registry before doing any
editing.

Show all files

2007-10-19T00:08:00.000-07:00

By default, Windows 98 does not show hidden or system files.
Also file types which are registered with the system (i.e. there is a program
associated with the file type), are shown without extension when you view
your files in Windows Explorer.
To see all files:

1. Open Windows Explorer, and select Folder Options from the
View Menu
2. Click on the View tab, go to the Hidden Files header and
choose Show all files, and press Apply

3. To see your file extensions for all files,
make sure that the check-box for Hide file extensions for known file types
is unchecked

Prevent programs from changing your File Associations

2007-10-19T00:03:00.000-07:00

When installing a new application or program, these will often change your
file associations, so that associated files are launched by the new
application/program. If you had another application/program which was previously
associated with that file type, double-clicking will no longer start this
application/program, but the new one instead. Some programs offer you the choice
of associating certain file types with them when you run the Installation
program, but to help you setting the file associations yourself, here are two
tips:

1. A shortcut for choosing a new program to be used with a certain file type
is to hold the Shift key while right-clicking on a file, and choose
Open With... from the context menu. After choosing the program, place a
check-mark in the Always use this program to open this type of file

Turn off the Recycle Bin's delete confirmation prompt

2007-10-19T00:00:00.000-07:00

To turn off the Recycle Bin's delete confirmation prompt:

Right-click the Recycle Bin
Select Properties from the context menu, and select the Global
tab
Make sure that the check box for Display delete confirmation dialog box
is unchecked

Prevent a CD-ROM from automatically launching

2007-10-18T23:36:00.000-07:00

Inserting a CD-ROM into the drive will in many cases launche the program
contained on the CD (this is called Autorun, and the launch is controlled by a
file on the CD called Autorun.inf). To disable this feature:

Open Control Panel (Start > Settings > Control Panel), and
double click System Properties

Select the Device Manager tab

Double-click the CD-ROM icon, and right-click your CD-ROM drive

Select Properties, and click the Settings tab

Uncheck the Auto insert notification check box

Click OK, and then Close. You'll have to restart
Windows for this change to take effect

You can also use Tweak UI
(found on your Windows CD-ROM in the \tools\reskit\powertoy Folder), one
of Microsoft's PowerToys. Tweak UI can be disable both data & Audio CD's
by turning off the Play audio CDs automatically and Play data CDs
automatically options in the Paranoia tab.

Multiple File Registrations

2007-10-18T23:30:00.000-07:00

To be able to open a file with more than one program, follow these
instructions:

From Windows Explorer's menu select View > Folder Options, select
the File Types tab

Find the file type you want to work with and double click it

In the Edit File Type dialog that opens you will see a box marked
Actions. This is where Windows 98 stores the actions to be taken when
you double click on a file, drag it to a printer, and so on. You can have more
than one Open, so long as each action is a unique character string. For
example, you could edit the Gif file type registration so that you have one
entry named Open and another named Open (Paint Shop Pro). For each entry edit
the actions needed to open the file with the appropriate application

To add an entry, simply press New and in the New Action
dialog box, type the name of the action in the Action box

You can use the Browse button to find the Application used to
perform action

Highlight one of the entries and click the Set Default button. That
will be the application used when you double click on a file of that type. If,
however, you right click the file, all of the entries you placed into the
Actions box will appear on the context menu making it easy to open the file
with the application of your choice

Adding Notepad to Send To

2007-10-18T23:24:00.000-07:00

Create a shortcut to notepad.exe in the \Windows\SendTo Folder:

Click Start, Select Programs and start Windows Explorer

Select the \Windows\SendTo Folder

Right-click an empty space in the folder, and from the context menu choose
New > Shortcut

In the Create Shortcut window, enter C:\Windows\Notepad.exe
in the Command line box

Note: If you installed windows in another directory, or on another
drive, you'll have to replace the C:\Windows\ with the correct path

Press Next

We suggest removing the .exe from Notepad.exe in the
Select a name for the shortcut box

Press Finish

Then you will have the option to view file contents by right-clicking on the
file and "sending" it to Notepad.

Change the Refresh rate of your Graphical Adapter

2007-10-18T23:17:00.000-07:00

You can change the Refresh rate of your Graphics Adapter easily:

Right-click on the Desktop

Choose Properties from the context menu. On the Settings tab
press the Advanced button. Select the Adapter tab.

Depending on your graphics card (or monitor) you can have a choice of
- Adapter Default / Optimal
- Actual refresh rates (e.g. 72Hz / 75Hz / 78Hz)

After setting your refresh rate, press Apply

You will be presented with some information that Windows is going to
adjust the refresh rate, and not to worry if your display becomes garbled or
unusable, because Windows will in that case restore the original settings. Hit
OK

You will be presented with another screen telling you that the settings
have changed, and if you want to keep this (new) setting. If you don't
reply (or reply NO), Windows will restore the original refresh rate

You must select a monitor in order to set refresh rates. If Monitor is set to
[unknown monitor], no custom refresh rates are available.

Refresh rates are affected by the capabilities of both the display adapter
and the monitor. Windows 98 makes available all the refresh rates within the
combined capabilities of the display adapter and the monitor.

Select your Monitor

2007-10-18T23:15:00.000-07:00

Windows 98 will not always detect your Monitor. This is done
by design. Many monitors don't like to be "poked". To select your monitor:

Right-click on the Desktop

Choose Properties from the
context menu. On the Settings tab press the Advanced button.
Select the Monitor tab. If your monitor is not listed (correctly) here,
press Change

Select your Monitor from the list, or if
you have a driver disk for your monitor, select have Disk

Click Apply, and follow any other
instructions on screen

Change the color of your Title Bar

2007-10-18T22:39:00.000-07:00

To change the color of your Title Bar:

Right-click on the Desktop
Choose Properties from the context menu. On the Appearance tab look in the Item list box. Once you find Active Title Bar and Inactive Title Bar you can change the color from the Color and Color2 boxes

Change Icon spacing on your Desktop

2007-10-18T22:38:00.000-07:00

To Change the Icon spacing on your Desktop:

Right-click on the desktop
Choose Properties from the popup menu. On the Appearance tab look in the Item list box. Once you find Icon Spacing (Horizontal) and Icon Spacing (Vertical) you can choose different values
Once you are satisfied hit OK
Press F5 to Refresh the Desktop

Change the size of Icons on your Desktop

2007-10-18T22:17:00.000-07:00

To change the size of the Icons on the Desktop:

Right-click on the Desktop
Choose Properties from the context menu. On the Appearance tab look in the Item list box. Once you find Icon you can choose the size from the Size box
To hit the Apply button, once you are satisfied hit OK

Remove the Speaker Icon from the Tray

2007-10-18T22:10:00.000-07:00

The speaker icon in the lower-right of your toolbar (Tray), enables you to open the Volume Control by clicking on it. To remove the icon:
1. Right-click the speaker icon and choose Adjust Audio Properties from the menu
2. At the bottom of the Audio Properties window, there's a check-box Show volume control on the taskbar, removing the check-mark in the box will remove the Icon from the Tray.
Now if you ever want to restore the Speaker icon in your Tray, you have to:
1. Click Start, Select Settings > Control Panel
2. Open Multimedia, and place the check-mark back in the Show volume control on the taskbar box (on the Audiotab)