 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Microsoft Windows 98 Ash Nallawalla ash@melbpc.org.au |
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Most people probably know by now that Microsoft Windows 98 (Win98) was
launched on June 25, with little fanfare. Was there anything to celebrate? Just over three years have passed
since the launch of Windows 95 (Win95) and while there were updates along the way, Microsoft probably decided
to repackage it as an updated operating system. Some cynics said that Microsoft needed to plug a revenue
"hole" caused by the delay of NT 5.0. Others said that this product is not worth the price.
What is Windows?
For the benefit of new users, I should explain that PCs need software called an operating system. Its task is
humble but essential, and very complex. It keeps tabs on your hardware (the mechanical and electronic
components) and your applications (the software you run). Win98 is an operating system (OS). Some people
believe that there are better OSs about, but for the majority of us, some version of Windows drives our
PCs.
In use
Many of us have used Win98 for a few months. Some hated it and went back to Win95 and some, like myself,
think that it is great. As most people have read the reviews, I will mention some of the highlights here. I
will also list some of the comments I saw in newsgroups, some of which I experienced on my PC.
Win98 pays special attention to the Internet, notably Internet Explorer v4.0. The Desktop has improved
greatly. The new Web View option enables you to browse through your computer like a Web site. You can make a
Web page or other HTML document your desktop wallpaper. Audio, video, and animations media play better than
ever. For those in the US, Win98 also supports broadcast data services.
A significant improvement is in hardware compatibility. Win98 includes hundreds of new printer, modem and
other drivers. It supports Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) drives, larger hard disks (greater than 2 GB),
multiple monitors and Universal Serial Bus (USB).
Why upgrade?
People who have the later release of Win95 (OSR 2.1) and freely-available IE 4 will see few apparent benefits
in upgrading to Win98. FAT32, available in OSR 2.1, is a major feature in Win98 and enables the creation of
partitions larger than 2 GB. As I was upgrading from the original release of Windows 95, this feature was the
most useful to me. I also found it best to format my old disks and start from scratch than upgrade on top of
Win95.
Some of the new features not in OSR 2.1 only affect owners of new PCs, such as support for the Universal
Serial Bus and IEEE 1394 (FireWire). Software developers will enjoy the multiple-monitor support (although
they should be using Windows NT!).
We in Australia cannot yet take advantage of the Digital Satellite System (DSS) and DirecTV support, which
can feed up to 320 GB of data in a week and offer interactive TV guides.
FAT 32
I saw many people with problems with converting a drive from FAT 16 to FAT 32. This was an attractive
proposition because FAT 32 uses less space on a disk to store the same file, particularly on drives larger
than 127 MB. As drives are getting extremely cheap, there isn't a great attraction in saying that you could
store, say, an extra GB in a 4 GB drive. Yet it is pointless being wasteful and there is a practical benefit
in being free to have a single drive letter containing several gigabytes.
Some people, including myself, had problems converting a drive to FAT 32 on some PCs and none on others.
There was a lot of dubious advice seen on the Net, but my own discovery was simple and applies to many
installation situations: do it in "Safe Mode".
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Automated power
management
I like the automated power management (APM). It shuts down a drive and other hardware after a period of
inactivity, which saves electricity. Some people have noticed their system clock losing time, as much as a
minute per hour. They need to have APM enabled.
No fax?
Some people have been unable to find Microsoft Fax or have had trouble installing Symantec WinFax Pro. The
solution is on the CD-ROM in the directory \tools\oldwin95\message\intl
Powertoys?
Do not use the Win95 Powertoys, the unofficial collection of useful utilities. The Win98 CD-ROM contains just
Tweak UI, a very valuable tool that you should check out. There is no need to install the old DeskMenu as the
Quick Launch toolbar includes a Show Desktop icon by default. Clicking it closes all open windows and shows
the desktop. The old DosHere and Explore from Here toys will work but should be installed individually.
More resources
I appreciate that my PC now does not run out of "resources" after a long day's worth of Web surfing. A
resource is a finite allocation of memory that cannot be recovered, once lost, which is caused by buggy
software. This was almost a daily problem under Win95.
USB
Universal Serial Bus (USB) is a new external bus standard that supports data transfer rates of 12 Mbps. A
single USB port can daisy-chain up to 127 peripheral devices, such as scanners, mice, modems, and keyboards.
USB also supports hot swapping. It will replace serial and parallel ports completely, so you may wish to buy
peripherals that support USB (only when it is time to upgrade them).
Disables competitor software?
Some have claimed that the setup routine "deliberately" disables files used by competitors' software and
installs different versions of those files. This is not true.
If the setup routine detects that a program has installed a newer shared DLL than the version that comes with
Win 98, the new file is moved to a new location, and is replaced by an older version of the same file. The
program may no longer work properly, if at all. This was done so that Win 98 does not have to grapple with
DLLs that were released after those used to test Win 98. In many cases, Microsoft released the DLLs to the
vendors in the first place.
The Version Conflict Manager (VCM) keeps track of such disabled files and provides a way to switch the files
back. To find it, click Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Information, Tools, Version
Conflict Manager. Run it after you first install Win98 as an upgrade with all your applications
installed.
No sharing?
If you try to install Word 6.0 and get an error message that share.exe is not found, copy the one from
Windows 3.1 into your \windows\command directory. If you can't find your Windows 3.1 copy, no problem;
copy any text file to that directory and rename it share.exe. The silly program just looks for the file name;
it does not use it.
Note: If you choose to run FAT 32, share.exe no longer works in MS-DOS mode.
Disk defragmentation
Some people have noticed that the new disk defragmenter gets to about 10 percent and then runs extremely
slowly (it is best to run it overnight.)
You can reduce the delay by going to the Settings option and unchecking the box "Rearrange program files so
my programs start faster." With this option unchecked on a 4 GB drive, defragmentation takes about thirty
minutes. With it checked, it could take about two hours. Make sure no other running process can interrupt it,
as it will restart and take all night to do the job.
There is a hidden directory called \windows\applog, which is used to store system information
collected from taskmon.exe, which is run at startup. It generates log files ending in .LGx for the programs
you run. The last letter "x" identifies the drive where the executable resides. For example, a program on the
D:\ drive will generate a *.LGD extension. These plain ASCII files can be opened with notepad.exe or a word
processor. The information collected includes the location of the components, their load order and associated
DLL files. A file called optlog.txt is generated after every defragmentation run.
Updates
A nice feature of Internet Explorer 4.01 is Windows Update. It compares your configuration against the latest
version available and you can choose to download the new version.
Bugs?
If you take my advice and install Win98 on a freshly formatted PC, you will see the least number of problems.
This way, you will install applications over any DLL installed by Win98, not the other way around. You will
also need to check with the Web site of your application vendor to see if you need any recent patch. That is
always a good habit, even if you are not upgrading the operating system.
Reprinted from the December 1998 issue of PC Update, the
magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
