Interesting. But why Acrobat Reader 5 instead of Reader 6? (Reader 6 is one of few apps that won't install on 98FE, but it should work on SE.) If it's because Reader 5 is more lightweight, then I would suggest going with a different app entirely, like Sumatra or Foxit, though I have no idea what the last versions for Win9x were.

I would also be inclined to go for IE6 SP1 followed by the bugfix described at http://www.frankprovo.com/win98ie6filesproblem.htm , but I suppose just sticking with 5.5 SP2 is fine.

Also, it seems to me the Visual Basic 4 runtimes will be needed sooner or later, unless they're included in the unofficial service pack.

One of my favorite little widgets was TClockEx, but that's purely personal preference. Keeping an eye on the free System Resources is a very handy way to prevent accidental crashes, though.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/tclockex.html

I choose Acrobat 5 for two reasons: 1- It's more lightweight than 6, as you mentioned. 2- I do it out of habit. You're right that Sumatra and/or Foxit are probably better choices. I'll look into this later to find what the final Win98SE versions for those are.

IE6 SP1 in Win98SE is pointless. As you already mentioned, it has the nasty bug that may or may not be fixed by the link you provided. Also, at this point in time, it is just as outdated and useless as IE 5.5. I only install IE 5.5 to provide some compatibility for games that insist on launching or accessing a web browser. At the time most of those games were made, IE 5.5 was the dominant and current browser available. If we're going to try to provide some semi-current browser capability, Firefox v2.0.0.20 is the better choice over IE6 SP1.

Thanks for the recommendation for TClockEx! I'll check that out later. I was unaware of that one.

You might want to consider automation but really after I have a system setup I make a backup image anyway
http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/49892-unatten … for-windows-98/

I would stay away from Adobe Acrobat for security reasons and bloat. If you do use it then lock it down.
Last time I tested years ago Foxit 2.3 worked on 9x without kernelex.

Consider Retrozilla for a browser. It's not perfect but it's the most updated browser that works on 9x without any tricks.

I doubt anything needs shockwave anymore.

PDFCreator 1.2.0
Windirstat 1.1.2 - Drive space analyzer

Combined-Community-Codec-Pack-2007-07-22 Should work on 98SE.
ffdshow_rev2352_20081124_clsid.exe
klmcodec345.exe K-lite Codec Pack

Imgburn 2.5.5.0

Miranda 0.9.2.0 Chat Program

WinSCP 4.3.2

Clamwin 0.97.1

SetupVirtualCloneDrive5450 Virtual CloneDrive (If you don't like Daemon Tools)

Flash - I want to say I used Flash 10.3 without Kernelex...not sure.

Java - Java 6 Update 7 works fine in 98SE without kernelex (Oracle has still been updating Java 6 I think it's in the update 100+ now...doubt that still works on 9x tho)

Active Directory Client Extensions (this enables NTLMV2 on 95+/NT4)

Import Patcher - http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/154868-import … dency-problems/
If you want to get newer versions of programs working on 9x or even if you want to figure out why your old program isn't working then this is useful.

DosFreak,

Thanks!

I too use ImgBurn under Win9x and modern operating systems. I didn't include it in my guide because I think of it as non-essential. I was trying to keep my guide as simple as possible while still including what I consider to be the most essential stuff. If I included everything I install in my builds, the guide would have been much longer. I also like EZ CD v5.01 and Nero 6 Ultra.

KT7AGuy wrote:

Disable ACPI
If your BIOS has an option for disabling ACPI, then you should disable it. On some systems, it may be referred to as "IPCA" or something else. Additionally, set the BIOS option for "Plug n Play OS" to "NO" unless you have a PCI sound card. If you have a PCI sound card, set the BIOS option for "Plug 'n' Play OS" to "YES".

any info on the speedup this actually gices? does it free cpu, ram or speed up i/o?

KT7AGuy wrote:

Copy everything from "C:\Win98CD\TOOLS\OLDMSDOS" to "C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND". Don't overwrite anything.
Copy everything from "C:\Win98CD\TOOLS\RESKIT\HELP" to "C:\WINDOWS\HELP". Don't overwrite anything.

what exactly is that, please?

KT7AGuy wrote:

Install Ethernet drivers, if necessary.
Make sure TCP/IP is installed and working.
Set Primary Network Logon to "Windows Logon" to avoid password prompts.

are there specific cards which work best with old windows? is htere anything like offloading present in cards from back then? does it work in the old windows?

KT7AGuy wrote:

Install PS2Rate v0.4
http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/ps2rate.html

is there any measurable impact on precision and performance? is this using up cpu or i/o?

KT7AGuy wrote:

Replace the installed Win98SE versions of ScanDisk and Defrag with the WinME versions. Just overwrite the existing files with the WinME versions:
c:\windows\defrag.exe
c:\windows\scandiskw.exe

what do we get from this exactly?

KT7AGuy wrote:

Verify that DMA is enabled for the Hard Drive and Optical Drives.

would SCSI help here? or does it only work with NT systems?

mrau wrote:

KT7AGuy wrote:

Replace the installed Win98SE versions of ScanDisk and Defrag with the WinME versions. Just overwrite the existing files with the WinME versions:
c:\windows\defrag.exe
c:\windows\scandiskw.exe

what do we get from this exactly?

Apparently they're faster. The Win98 defrag is pretty lousy and I sure wouldn't want to keep using it one way or another, but I forget what alternatives exist. (MyDefrag, I think?)

KT7AGuy wrote:

would SCSI help here? or does it only work with NT systems?

Using SCSI would involve getting a SCSI interface card and a SCSI drive, which would likely be much more trouble than it is worth.

mrau wrote:

KT7AGuy wrote:

Disable ACPI
If your BIOS has an option for disabling ACPI, then you should disable it. On some systems, it may be referred to as "IPCA" or something else. Additionally, set the BIOS option for "Plug n Play OS" to "NO" unless you have a PCI sound card. If you have a PCI sound card, set the BIOS option for "Plug 'n' Play OS" to "YES".

any info on the speedup this actually gices? does it free cpu, ram or speed up i/o?

It's not for improving speed. It's for improving stability.

mrau wrote:

KT7AGuy wrote:

Copy everything from "C:\Win98CD\TOOLS\OLDMSDOS" to "C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND". Don't overwrite anything.
Copy everything from "C:\Win98CD\TOOLS\RESKIT\HELP" to "C:\WINDOWS\HELP". Don't overwrite anything.

what exactly is that, please?

Those are the legacy DOS programs and Windows help files. If you copy them as I outlined, you'll have immediate access to them from within Windows without having to access your source files or Win98SE CDROM. This is just something that I like to do. It can be considered entirely optional.

mrau wrote:

KT7AGuy wrote:

Install Ethernet drivers, if necessary.
Make sure TCP/IP is installed and working.
Set Primary Network Logon to "Windows Logon" to avoid password prompts.

are there specific cards which work best with old windows? is htere anything like offloading present in cards from back then? does it work in the old windows?

I really like the D-Link DFE-530TX+ network cards. I'm sure there are plenty of others that work just as well, or even better.

mrau wrote:

KT7AGuy wrote:

Install PS2Rate v0.4
http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/ps2rate.html

is there any measurable impact on precision and performance? is this using up cpu or i/o?

PS2Rate is something I install on all of my Win9x PCs, but rarely use. This is more important if you're really into FPS games and need to tweak for accuracy. The program doesn't run in the background and doesn't consume any extra system resources. However, setting the mouse refresh rate to 200Hz may require a few extra clock cycles from the CPU. However, I'm sure this is so small as to be unnoticeable. For more info about mouse DPI and refresh rates, check this out:

http://donewmouseaccel.blogspot.com/

mrau wrote:

KT7AGuy wrote:

Replace the installed Win98SE versions of ScanDisk and Defrag with the WinME versions. Just overwrite the existing files with the WinME versions:
c:\windows\defrag.exe
c:\windows\scandiskw.exe

what do we get from this exactly?

The WinMe versions are faster and more efficient.

mrau wrote:

KT7AGuy wrote:

Verify that DMA is enabled for the Hard Drive and Optical Drives.

would SCSI help here? or does it only work with NT systems?

I've got a SCSI adapter and drives that I've been using from back when I ran a pure DOS system. Nowadays, it runs under Win9x just fine.

However, if your system doesn't have an onboard ATA133 controller, then you're better off just finding a nice Promise Ultra 133 TX2 controller and using IDE/PATA drives. SCSI stuff is expensive and more complex to configure. Save your money and avoid the headaches.

Jorpho wrote:

mrau wrote:

what do we get from this exactly?

Apparently they're faster. The Win98 defrag is pretty lousy and I sure wouldn't want to keep using it one way or another, but I forget what alternatives exist. (MyDefrag, I think?)

Not only that, win98 defrag & scandisk can handle lower amount of clusters than winME version.
That will became an issue as original win98 tools would refuse to works on drives with such large amount of clusters.

WinME tools also has its caps tho, you'll hit that limitation too if the clusters/drive are too high.

Nice checklist, should really do the same, I always loose a driver or 2 and then have to find out which version still worked with 98
I go down the other path and install as little as possible, PDF reader's flash, etc are all left off. Mine are 100% gaming machines.

I've changed to 3 partitions though, C:\ for OS and programs, D:\ for games E:\dump (for drivers, installers, game ISO's etc.
That way if I need to reinstall I have everything in 1 place and many 9x games don't need a full install with a fresh OS

Very well done! I liked reading it a lot and I've already added it to Vogons Wiki (see my sig) as there was a gap between 95 and ME and this guide will do perfectly fine!

DosFreak wrote:

You might want to consider automation but really after I have a system setup I make a backup image anyway
http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/49892-unatten … for-windows-98/

The 7 year later 98SE was deleted though.

There is msbatch (which is located on the 98FE install disk, but it works with 98SE and ME. Virtual PC is nice since one can try out lots of stuff there quickly), but msbatch might be a bit old-fashioned these days.

Thanks for the compliments! 😊

When I'm building a Win9x machine, it's not for serious use in any sort of production environment. I'm also not deploying a large number of PCs, so automation is a bit overkill. Besides, I'm a bit OCD so I prefer a hands-on approach rather than trusting a script. I also make images of my completed systems after I build them, so this sort of thing only needs to be done once per system. None of this is all that hard, difficult, or time-consuming. The worst part is installing Office 2000, should you want that. Getting it and all the patches and updates installed takes forever. This is why I left Office out of my list. It's not necessary for a legacy gaming PC.

Really, if you need some sort of Office suite on a Win98SE machine, OpenOffice v2.4.3 is probably the better choice anyway. It's much newer and way easier/faster to install.

Regarding PDF readers: I feel that this is essential software, even for a legacy gaming PC. Nowadays, almost all of my manuals and documentation are archived in PDF format. Having a reader installed is important, IMO.

I stopped using any version of Office a long time ago.

What 9x msbatch installs is concerned, to me it was more about trying to not having to do the same things over and over again (like for instance selecting my country and timezone, I don't move between countries that much anyway 🤣). But tbh, when it comes to 9x I have used non-scripted installs for the vast majority of my builds.

How do you slipstream drivers in Windows 98 SE?

Stretch wrote:

How do you slipstream drivers in Windows 98 SE?

I never even bothered with XP, let alone 9x.

Perhaps some driverpacks exist (which usually are not integrated into 9x install media), but I always preferred to pick my own drivers.

But if you want to read more about the tweaking of install media, I can highly recommend you take a visit to msfn.org forums 😀

Stretch wrote:

How do you slipstream drivers in Windows 98 SE?

I've never done it, but I understand RLoew has some tools that will do it. Contact him here:

http://rloew.x10host.com/
or
http://rloew1.us.to/

For Win2K and newer, you want this:

http://www.nliteos.com/index.html

I found this post on msfn Trying to use Infinst to add drivers to win-98 install which I will try when I have time to spare.

Nice OP but you need some "why" on before some of the sudden "Install this" instructions. Why should I install Plus 98, for example?

leileilol wrote:

Nice OP but you need some "why" on before some of the sudden "Install this" instructions. Why should I install Plus 98, for example?

Right. I make the mistake of assuming that folks will automatically know why they should take or ignore my suggestions. When I get a chance, I'll edit and add some commentary on each step.

Regarding Plus98: You should install it because it's nifty! 🤣

Edit: I added some comments. Please let me know what you think. Are there any other parts that could use some editing?

Didn't the unofficial 98SE SP2.1a already add support for USB mass storage? Or was it compressed (zip) files?
And somewhat related, the final 2.x Dutch unofficial SP was 2.0a or something (a very little behind the English one).

And in general giving your opinion is perfectly fine, but (as already pointed out by leileilol) I would also like to know why it's such a great idea.

Question about the partitioning: I made it a habit to use several partitions and keep Windows on its own partition (this is good in case I were to need to reinstall Windows (wouldn't loose any savegames etc) and it helps keeping the Windows partition unfragmented).