Shameless self bump.

I've massively improved slipstream success by implementing the editing of layout.inf files to reflect updates.

This has allowed me to successfully slipstream Windows 95 OSR Unofficial SP1 1.0.5, complete 120GB HDD support (including fdisk, format, etc), and the 2.1GHZ CPU limitation patch into OSR2.5 w/ IE integration removed. The only quirk was that I had to delete rpcrt4.dll from Unofficial SP1.

You can grab the update pack here: https://my.pcloud.com/publink/show?code=XZ6um … HXGNQAn6zSNp0jy

Could you slipstream the 2004(final) update to Win98? That would be of interest.

Ohh the security update disc? I'll see what I can do over the weekend. Of course I can only provide the updates packed so you can make it yourself using my tool, for legal reasons etc

Yep, and yeah so long as the tool can point to an iso/dir of the updates that's fine.

Does the memory patch work on systems with greater than 1gb of memory? Setting all that up can be a real pain.

It's interesting. Mainly most people around here are just using the retro system for gaming, and so unless a hotfix or a patch will either improve system stability, or compatibility than its not of much use for someone who doesn't have a problem getting their games to run.

Problem I have with all of those service packs is for the most part unless your hardware or software configuration has a specific irregularity or issue that a specific patch will solve, your games run just fine. But when you do need to patch for specific problems most of the time you only need one of these patches or a couple patches to get everything stable not like 300 patches that just make the computer slower and do nothing for FPS of stability to play a game.

All that being said, It would be great to have some alternative service pack unlike 2.1 and 3.6 and all of the jazz that only contained patches that actually effect gaming and hardware stability. Something that was no less than 20 updates or something that actually improved gaming performance and stability. Because lets be real no amount of updates are going to make 98se a modern OS that can be used as a daily driver, unlike 2000 or XP. 😀 Which can still be barely used as a daily driver. 😵

mothergoose729 wrote:

Does the memory patch work on systems with greater than 1gb of memory? Setting all that up can be a real pain.

It can if you adjust your vcache settings, but at that point you risk instability. You may as well purchase the real patch from RLoew, but his website seems to be down: http://rloew.x10host.com

Warlord wrote:

All that being said, It would be great to have some alternative service pack unlike 2.1 and 3.6 and all of the jazz that only contained patches that actually effect gaming and hardware stability. Something that was no less than 20 updates or something that actually improved gaming performance and stability. Because lets be real no amount of updates are going to make 98se a modern OS that can be used as a daily driver, unlike 2000 or XP. 😀 Which can still be barely used as a daily driver. 😵

I somewhat agree with your sentiments. See, I'm fine with patches as long as they're Microsoft official. That is how I feel however, toward unofficial patches. So the interesting thing is that Unofficial SP2 2.1a for 98 and SP1 for 95osr are mostly microsoft updates, and any unofficial is stuff they've added that they felt was essential. Mostly related to said issues of stability and performance, and hardware support like HDD capacity and RAM.

Unofficial SP2 3.6 however, is exactly what everyone on this forum as described: a complete abomination that mixes files from Win2000 and later when there's no reason to.

I made this tool precisely because everyone has different opinions on what an ideal 9x setup would be. I tested the application with a 98se disc that only had additional hardware support and drivers, then used it to make a 95se disc with only hardware support and a service pack that covers most of everything stability and performance wise. What you'd find ideal is completely different.

Warlord wrote:

It's interesting. Mainly most people around here are just using the retro system for gaming, and so unless a hotfix or a patch will either improve system stability, or compatibility than its not of much use for someone who doesn't have a problem getting their games to run.

Problem I have with all of those service packs is for the most part unless your hardware or software configuration has a specific irregularity or issue that a specific patch will solve, your games run just fine. But when you do need to patch for specific problems most of the time you only need one of these patches or a couple patches to get everything stable not like 300 patches that just make the computer slower and do nothing for FPS of stability to play a game.

All that being said, It would be great to have some alternative service pack unlike 2.1 and 3.6 and all of the jazz that only contained patches that actually effect gaming and hardware stability. Something that was no less than 20 updates or something that actually improved gaming performance and stability. Because lets be real no amount of updates are going to make 98se a modern OS that can be used as a daily driver, unlike 2000 or XP. 😀 Which can still be barely used as a daily driver. 😵

I guess the problem with that is which patches affect gaming?
Like you I see no point in updating a gaming PC with OS that hasn't received support in years. I find the only update I need is Installer 2.0 and that's for deamon tools.
I know some people need the USB mass storage driver, but plenty of others don't. Some swear by the shutdown patches but I find that breaks my PC's from shutting down.

Some people just feel complete with windows as up to date as it can be, and I do get that.
But for us I think we are better off just applying the 2 or so hotfix's manually and knowing its a clean system

Why does it have to be ether alll or none for patches? Wouldn't it make sense to have the option?

I have bought rloew's slipstreaming tools years ago - I have not really used them though... turned out for me that using the setup INI to do silent installs during setup was enough for my needs... so I actually wanted to see those utils again since this thread reminded them to me and @^&($*%(^*@$% google mail decided they are viruses and the attachments cannot be downloaded! horrible!
Luckily I found them in my HDD but still... 😒

DosFreak wrote:

Why does it have to be ether alll or none for patches? Wouldn't it make sense to have the option?

Precisely why I wrote this. People can make their own "update packs" share them and distribute them with little work.

As for kolderman's request, it doesn't look great so far. I extracted all the needed files (it literally has a list of files to extract per os and per update) and tried it out in a VM. Problem is that many of Security Update cds updates were IE centric, and therefore explorer. I got a bypassasble bsod for a driver not being able to be installed, a few false positive file corrupted errors during 2nd boot, and on final boot explorer.exe refused to start and that was that. In order to accomodate your request I'd have to look up each and every update (thankfully there aren't many), and delete the files that are IE or outlook related. It would work if IE5/6 were slipsteamable, but alas they aren't.

On the other hand, if you guys have a "20 or so" updates you'd like to pick out from here:
http://www.mdgx.com/web.htm#98SE
And more specifically here, which are only critical security updates:
http://erpman1.tripod.com/w9xmeupd.html

I can throw together a "Vogons Approved" update pack for all of you. I sorta made this to eventually do that anyway.
Remember the files have to match whats on the original cd:
http://www.synthmind.com/Win_98_CAB_file_listing.htm.
So nothing IE related unless its IE4, and nothing DX related unless its DX6. The only exception to this rule is drivers, and I may be able to attempt NUSB again now that I learned how layout.inf works.

Some of the best patches are unofficial ones but they are far and few in between and the official ones that matter are very few.

1. 98lite has the ability to shell swap 98se to use the 95 osr 2.1 explorer a very useful unofficial patch for very slow computers, however 95 explorer can introduce compatibility issues with some programs.
2. TCP IP stack 1.4 is a pretty decent upgrade along with modified vip386 and tcpoptimizer regs to increase network speed to facilitate faster file transfer speed.
3. Installer 2.0 is needed to install some things.
4. Direct X 7
5. some ME files like the defrag utility greatly increase defrag times when using tradition hard drives.
6. some of the VC visual basic updates might be important to run a game or some software.
7. rleow has a few useful patches for hardware compatibility. but most of them are not free, most people use the xeno86 patch for 1gb ram.
8. lists goes on but majority of the useful updates In my opionon are very small.
9. there are a couple patches to increase hardware compatibility but its probably less than 5 pathes for those and they revolve around HDD size, memory size or cpu speed, none needed for period correct hardware unless you are really trying to push it. The ones that cme to mind are the 120gb patch, io.sys update, fdisk patch etc.
10. Adaptec ASPI drivers are useful, not so sure if they increase speed or not.

TLDR those unofficial update packs introduce tons of unneeded bloat for just basic gaming and operating the computer, and just make the computer slower or can cause crashes.

Good suggestions. Unfortunately many of them are not slipstreamable (beyond dropping in the EXEs so can you access them from disc after you're finished installing). Basically the HW support and ME files that I tested it with already are about it. TCP IP Stack 1.4 is a maybe, it depends on if it adds new files not in the original CABs. 98Lite is also a good one, but that should be optional and it already provides its own means to slipstream it I'm pretty sure.

Things you can't directly slipstream, I know you can make into a "post installation" script using some MSBATCH.inf magic. Unfortunately the tool that generates them still needs 98 to run.

And nah, I don't believe all the packs are bad, just every unofficial sp that was made by PROBLEMCHYLD rather than Gape.

Sometimes you don't want some of these patches as they are meant for systems with ACPI and WDM-only drivers and these will f*ck your performance or even your configuration if you have a system with VxD-only drivers, or you actually want to use them for some reason, as for example, DOS Box support for your soundcard, modem emulation, DirectDraw6-7 apps or Glide in certain configurations. That's why i said before you have to tune your install for what you actually want to do with it. Isn't like these old Win9x rigs will be your main PC in almost all cases, but them will have an very specific purpose. Just install the necessary enough to accomplish that purpose. You don't need KernelEx for example, when you actually only want Win9x to use a specific win9x old game or app... Or you don't need DirectX9 when you will use a game that is optimized for Dx6 or 7... Although you would actually need it if your game is for Win9x Dx8+.

hyoenmadan wrote:

Sometimes you don't want some of these patches as they are meant for systems with ACPI and WDM-only drivers and these will f*ck your performance or even your configuration if you have a system with VxD-only drivers, or you actually want to use them for some reason, as for example, DOS Box support for your soundcard, modem emulation, DirectDraw6-7 apps or Glide in certain configurations.

Huh. I've only ever worked with ACPI and WDM systems, so I never knew this. Really excellent point.

[EDIT] Looks like I got it done early kolderman. Here you go:
The update pack: https://my.pcloud.com/publink/show?code=XZbU6 … 7qViJzIFkM78a9k
The list of updates: https://my.pcloud.com/publink/show?code=XZuU6 … JpntqXgaYhCb4sX

Contents of SecurityUpdate2004Slip.txt:

1KB 274548
2KB 823559
3KB 256015
4KB 811630(partial)
5KB 245729
6KB 273727
7KB 249973(partial)
8KB 313829
9KB 314147(partial)
10KB 238453
11KB 259728

Awesome ill check it out 😁

Welp, I went through the update pages and narrowed it down to these. Which do you guys want, and more importantly, which do you guys definitely NOT want? I already filtered out everything related to printing, security, and ACPI.

• bhdd31.zip (120gb+ hdd support)
  scanfrag.exe (120gb+ hdd support)
  iosys98.exe (2GB+ DVD support)
  nusb24e.exe (USB1 support if at all, may or may not work)
  Q216204.exe (Fixes incorrect identification of some intel cpus)
  dst_9xme.exe (Updates timezone daylight savings to 2011)
  q253912.exe (1GB RAM support)
  Q272991.exe (Fixes networking errors)
  Q311561.exe (Fixes potential HDD corruption in MS-DOS mode)
  rootsupd.exe (Updates root certificates to 2008)
  Q271277.exe (Fixes hanging with removable disk)
  KRNL386.EXE (Fixes Stack Corruption)
  Q932590.EXE (Fixes Environment Variable Errors)
  Q926247.EXE (Fixes SNMP Memory corruption)
  98UPDSYS.EXE (Updates Intel CPU Microcode)
  Q249824.EXE (Fixes device add/remove errors)
  Q310695.EXE (Fixes an ambiguous error with DVD playback)
  293793USA8.EXE (Fixes Vredir Errors)
  Q277628.EXE (Fixes an ambiguous "access denied" error with VFAT.VXD)
  239696usa8.exe (Fixes hanging after suspend)
  278368usa8.exe (Fixes a memory leak with ATIMUNI.SYS)
  274175usa8.exe (Fixes copy errors when 8 levels deep in a CD/DVD)
  272621usa8.exe (Fixes Virtual Memory tab showing negative HD free sizes)
  qfe-winse-q245065-en.zip (Fixes an ambiguous error with usb keyboards)
  311561USA8.EXE (Fixes MS-DOS hard disk errors)
  306453usa8.exe (Fixes USB Stop Error)
  274370usa8.exe (Fixes Digital CD Audio errors)
  249146usa8.exe (Fixes Disabled Sounds with usb devices)
  249635usa8.exe (Fixes an ambiguous error with usb drivers)
  Q257821.EXE (Fixes winsock time-out error)
  Q240896.EXE (Fixes OpenGL IPF error)
  291362usa8.exe (Fixes hanging with USER32.DLL + USER.EXE)
  281533usa8.exe (Fixes USB Driver Trap 14 error)
  Q278456.EXE (Fixes vredir errors)
  Q269604.EXE (Fixes Directsound Error with DSOUND.DLL)
  253697USA8.EXE (Fixes OpenHCI Controller issues with fast pcs)
  273017USA8.EXE (Fixes Scandisk running on every boot)
  290831usa8.exe (Update to the above)
  258680usa8.exe (Fixes hang upon screensaver)
  237493usa8.exe (Fixes System Date error)
  236926USA8.EXE (Fixes prematurely transmitted packets)
  240075up.exe (Fixes usb issues with AMD CPU + VIA USB Controller)
  241052usa8.exe (Fixes issue with password screen)
  250514usa8.exe (Fixes access violation with SPOOLSS.DLL)
  Q192425.EXE (Fixes kerberos network error)
  4756US8.EXE (The classic shutdown supplment)
  Q246817.EXE (Update to the above)
  aspi_471a2.exe (updated ASPI drivers)

can u add me scandisk and defrag. id probably remove nusb and make that optional becasue it cause error for people who uninstall internet explorer or shellswap. nusb 2.0 on that point is a lot more forgiving if i recall right but not sure.

ME Scandisk and defrag are already included in the first two. As for nusb 2.0, I'll take a look. Maybe it'll be more slipstream friendly as well.