Download details - Windows 98
* MS05-026: A vulnerability in HTML
Help could allow remote code execution
Explains that Microsoft has released security
bulletin MS05-026. The security update in MS05-026, security update
896358, fixes a vulnerability in HTML Help that could allow remote code
execution.
* Fdisk
Does Not Recognize Full Size of Hard Disks Larger than 64 GB
When you use Fdisk.exe to
partition a hard disk that is larger than 64 GB (64 gigabytes, or
68,719,476,736 bytes) in size, Fdisk does not report the correct size of
the hard disk. The size that Fdisk reports is the full size of the hard
disk minus 64...
*
Exception 0E in Vredir error messages when you open network files
When you open several files that
are stored in a shared folder on a network, your computer may generate
one of following error messages on a blue screen, you may be unable to
continue normally, and you may receive more error messages on blue
screens if...
Troubleshooting - Windows 98
* You receive an "A required file
dhcpcsvc.dll was not found" error message when you start Combat Flight
Simulator 3
Describes how to resolve an error message that you receive when you
start Combat Flight Simulator 3 on a Windows 98-based computer.
* How to troubleshoot issues that
you may experience when you try to install or removing Money
When you try to install or remove
Microsoft Money, you may experience one or more of the following
symptoms: You receive an error message that resembles one of the
following: If you receive one of the following error messages, start
with Method 4 in...
*
"Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library Runtime Error" error message after
you install Office XP or an Office XP program
Describes the error messages that
you receive after you install Office XP or an Office XP program. To
resolve this problem, clean boot the computer by using MoSearch or
remove the "Support for Fast Searching" feature.
Web integration and shell enhancements
Windows 98 includes Internet Explorer 4.01. Besides
Internet Explorer, many other internet companion applications are
included such as Outlook Express, Windows Address Book, FrontPage
Express, Microsoft Chat, Personal Web Server and a Web Publishing
Wizard, NetMeeting and NetShow Player (in the original release of
Windows 98) which was replaced by Windows Media Player 6.2 in Windows 98
Second Edition.
The Windows 98 shell includes all of
the enhancements from Windows Desktop Update, an Internet Explorer 4
component, such as the Quick Launch toolbar, deskbands, Active Desktop,
Channels, ability to minimize foreground windows by clicking their
button on the taskbar, single click launching, Back and Forward
navigation buttons, favorites, and address bar in Windows Explorer,
image thumbnails, folder infotips and web view in folders, and folder
customization through HTML-based templates.
Windows 98 also integrates shell enhancements, themes and
other features from Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95 such as DriveSpace 3,
Compression Agent, Dial-Up Networking Server, Dial-Up Scripting Tool
and Task Scheduler. 3D Pinball is included on the CD-ROM but not
installed by default. Windows 98 had its own separately purchasable
Plus! pack called Plus! 98.
Title bars of windows and dialog boxes
support two-color gradients. Windows 98 menus and tooltips support slide
animation. Windows Explorer in Windows 98, like Windows 95, converts
all uppercase filenames to Sentence case for readability purposes,[4]
however, it also provides an option Allow all uppercase names to display
them in their original case. Windows Explorer includes support for
compressed CAB files.
Improvements
to hardware support
Windows Driver Model
Main article: Windows Driver Model
Windows 98 was the first operating system to use the
Windows Driver Model (WDM). This fact was not well publicised when
Windows 98 was released, and most hardware producers continued to
develop drivers for the older VxD driver standard, which Windows 98 also
supported. The WDM standard only achieved widespread adoption years
later, mostly through Windows 2000 and Windows XP, as they are not
compatible with the older VxD standard.[5] Windows Driver Model was
introduced largely so that developers would write source compatible
drivers for all future versions of Windows. Device driver access in WDM
is actually implemented through a VxD device driver, NTKERN.VXD which
implements several Windows NT-specific kernel support functions. NTKERN
creates IRPs and sends them to WDM drivers.
Support for WDM audio enables digital mixing, routing and
processing of simultaneous audio streams and kernel streaming with high
quality sample rate conversion on Windows 98. WDM Audio allows for
software emulation of legacy hardware to support MS-DOS games,
DirectSound support and MIDI wavetable sythesis. A Microsoft GS
Wavetable Synthesizer licensed from Roland shipped with Windows 98 for
WDM audio drivers. Windows 98 supports digital playback of audio CDs.
Windows 98 Second Edition improves WDM audio support by adding
DirectSound hardware mixing and DirectSound 3D hardware abstraction,
DirectMusic kernel support, KMixer sample-rate conversion (SRC) for
capture streams and multichannel audio support. All audio is sampled by
the Kernel Mixer to a fixed sampling rate which may result in some audio
getting upsampled or downsampled and having a high latency, except when
using Kernel Streaming or third party audio paths like ASIO which allow
unmixed audio streams and lower latency.
Windows Driver Model also includes Broadcast Driver
Architecture, the backbone for TV technologies support in Windows. WebTV
for Windows utilized BDA to allow viewing television on the computer if
a compatible TV Tuner is installed. TV listings could updated from the
Internet and WaveTop Data Broadcasting allowed extra data about
broadcasts to be received via regular television signals using an
antenna or cable, by embedding data streams into the vertical blanking
interval (VBI) portion of existing broadcast television signals.
USB
Windows
98 had more robust USB support (e.g. support for USB composite devices)
than Windows 95 which only had support in OEM versions (OSR2.1 or
later).[6] Windows 98 supports USB hubs, USB scanners and imaging class
devices. Windows 98 also introduces built-in support for some USB Human
Interface Device class (USB HID) and PID class devices such as USB mice,
keyboards, force feedback joysticks etc. including additional keyboard
functions through a certain number of Consumer Page HID controls.[7] It
includes a WDM streaming class driver to address real time multimedia
data stream processing requirements and a WDM kernel-mode video
transport for enhanced video playback and capture. USB audio device
class support is present from Windows 98 SE onwards. Windows 98 Second
Edition also introduced support for WDM for modems (and therefore USB
modems and virtual COM ports). Microsoft driver support for both USB
printers, and for USB mass-storage device class is not available for
Windows 98; support for both was introduced in Windows 2000; however
generic third party free drivers are available today for USB MSC
devices.
ACPI
Windows 98 introduced ACPI 1.0 support which enabled
Standby (ACPI S3) and Hibernate (ACPI S4) states. However, hibernation
support was extremely limited, and vendor-specific. Hibernation was only
available if compatible (PnP) hardware and BIOS are present, and the
hardware manufacturer or OEM supplied compatible WDM drivers (non-VxD)
drivers. However, there are hibernation issues with the FAT32 file
system,[8] making hibernation problematic and unreliable.
Other device support improvements
Windows 98, in general, provides
improved—and a broader range of—support for IDE and SCSI drives and
drive controllers, floppy drive controllers and all other classes of
hardware than Windows 95.[8] There is basic FireWire (IEEE 1394) support
as well as integrated Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) support (The USB
Supplement to Windows 95 OSR2 and later releases of Windows 95 did have
AGP support). Windows 98 has built-in DVD support and UDF 1.02 read
support. The Still imaging architecture (STI) with TWAIN support was
introduced for scanners and cameras and Image Color Management 2.0 for
devices to perform color space transformations. Multiple monitor support
allows using up to 8 multiple monitors and/or multiple graphics
adapters on a single PC. Windows 98 shipped with DirectX 5.2 which
notably included DirectShow. Windows 98 Second Edition shipped with
DirectX 6.1.
[edit]
Networking enhancements
Main
article: Winsock
Windows 98 networking enhancements to
TCP/IP include built-in support for Winsock 2, SMB signing,[9] a new IP
Helper API, Automatic Private IP Addressing (APIPA) (also known as
link-local addressing), IP multicasting (including IGMPv2 support and
ICMP Router Discovery - RFC 1256), and performance enhancements for
high-speed high bandwidth networks (TCP large windows and time stamps -
RFC 1323, Selective Acknowledgement (SACK) - RFC 2018, TCP Fast
Retransmit and Fast Recovery). Multihoming support with TCP/IP is
improved and includes RIP listener support.
The DHCP client has been enhanced to include address
assignment conflict detection and longer timeout intervals. NetBT
configuration in the WINS client has been improved to continue
persistently querying multiple WINS servers if it failed to establish
the initial session until all of the WINS servers specified have been
queried or a connection is established.
NDIS
5.0 support means Windows 98 can support a wide range of network media,
including Ethernet, Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI), token ring,
Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), wide area networks (WANs), ISDN,
X.25, and Frame Relay. Additional features include NDIS power
management, support for QoS, WMI and support for a single INF file
format across all Windows versions.
Windows
98 Dial-Up Networking supports PPTP tunneling, support for ISDN
adapters, multilink support, and connection-time scripting to automate
non-standard login connections. Multilink channel aggregation enables
users to combine all available dial-up lines to achieve higher transfer
speeds. PPP connection logs can show actual packets being passed and
Windows 98 allows PPP logging per connection. The Dial-Up Networking
improvements are also available in Windows 95 OSR2 and downloadable for
earlier Windows 95 releases.
For networked computers that have user
profiles enabled, Windows 98 introduces Microsoft Family Logon which
lists all users that have been configured for that computer, enabling
users to simply select their names from a list rather than having to
type it in. The same feature can be added to Windows 95 if Internet
Explorer 4.0 is installed.
Windows 98 supports IrDA 3.0 that
specifies both Serial Infrared Devices (SIR) and Fast Infrared (FIR)
devices, which are capable of sending and receiving data at 4 Mbit/s.
Infrared Recipient, a new application for transferring files through an
infrared connection is included. The IrDA stack in Windows 98 supports
networking profiles over the IrCOMM kernel-mode driver. Windows 98 also
has built-in support for browsing DFS trees on SMB shares.
Windows 98 Second Edition added Internet Connection Sharing
(IP forwarding and NAT capabilities). Windows Me later supported NAT
traversal by means of UPnP. UPnP and NAT traversal APIs can also be
installed on Windows 98 by installing the Windows XP Network Setup
Wizard.[10] An L2TP/IPsec VPN client can also be downloaded. By
installing Active Directory Client Extensions, Windows 98 can take
advantage of several Windows 2000 Active Directory features .
Improvements to built-in utilities
System tools
A
number of improvements are made to various system tools and accessories
in Windows 98. Microsoft Backup supports differential backup and SCSI
tape devices in Windows 98. Disk Cleanup, a new tool, enables users to
clear their disks of unnecessary files. Cleanup locations are extensible
through Disk Cleanup handlers. Disk Cleanup can be automated for
regular silent cleanups.
Disk Defragmenter has been improved to
rearrange program files that are frequently used to a hard disk region
optimized for program start.[11] Scanreg (DOS) and ScanRegW are Registry
Checker tools used to backup, restore or optimize the Windows registry.
ScanRegW tests the registry's integrity and saves a backup copy each
time Windows successfully boots. The maximum amount of copies could be
customized by the user through "scanreg.ini" file. The restoration of a
registry that causes Windows to fail to boot can only be done from DOS
mode using ScanReg.
System Configuration Utility (also
known as Msconfig) is a new system utility used to disable programs and
services that are not required to run the computer. A Maintenance Wizard
is included that schedules and automates ScanDisk, Disk Defragmenter
and Disk Cleanup. Windows Script Host, with VBScript and JScript engines
is built-in and upgradeable to version 5.6.
System File Checker checks installed versions of system
files to ensure they were the same version as the one installed with
Windows 98 or newer. Corrupt or older versions are replaced by the
correct versions. This tool was introduced to resolve the DLL hell issue
and was replaced in Windows Me by System File Protection.
Windows 98 also supports a Fast Shutdown feature that
initiates shutdown without uninitializing device drivers. Write-behind
caching for removable disk drives. A FAT32 converter utility for
converting FAT16 drives to FAT32 without formatting the partition was
included.
The Windows 98 Startup Disk contains
generic, real-mode ATAPI and SCSI CD-ROM drivers and has been
preconfigured to automatically start MS-DOS mode with CD-ROM support
enabled. For computers without an operating system and that do not
support booting from optical drives, the Startup disk can be used to
boot into MS-DOS and automatically start Windows 98 setup from the CD.
Windows 98 includes an improved version of the Dr. Watson
utility that collects and lists comprehensive information such as
running tasks, startup programs with their command line switches, system
patches, kernel driver, user drivers, DOS drivers and 16-bit modules.
With Dr. Watson loaded in the system tray, whenever a software fault
occurs (general protection fault, hang, etc.), Dr. Watson will intercept
it and indicate what software crashed and its cause. All of the
collected information is logged to the \Windows\DrWatson folder.
WinAlign (Walign.exe and Winalign.exe) are tools designed
to optimize the performance of executable code (binaries). WinAlign
aligns binary sections along 4 KB boundaries, aligning the executable
sections with the memory pages. This allows the Windows 98 MapCache
feature to map directly to sections in cache, resulting in a significant
increase in performance through more available memory.[13] Walign.exe
is included in Windows 98 for optimizing Microsoft Office programs.
Winalign.exe is included in the Windows 98 Resource Kit to optimize
other programs.
Windows Report Tool takes a snapshot of
system configuration and lets users submit a manual problem report
along with system information to technicians. It has e-mail confirmation
for submitted reports. The system could be updated using Windows
Update. A utility to automatically notify of critical updates was later
released.
A Critical
Update Notification in Windows 98
[edit] Accessories
Windows
98 includes Microsoft Magnifier, Accessibility Wizard and Microsoft
Active Accessibility 1.1 API upgradeable to MSAA 2.0. A new HTML Help
system with 15 Troubleshooting Wizards was introduced to replace
WinHelp.
Users can configure the font in
Notepad. Microsoft Paint supports GIF transparency. HyperTerminal
supports a TCP/IP connection method allowing it to be used as a Telnet
client. Imaging for Windows is updated. System Monitor supports logging.
[edit] Miscellaneous improvements
* Telephony API (TAPI) 2.1
* DCOM version 1.2
* Ability to list fonts by
similarity determined using PANOSE information.
* Tools to automate setup such as
Batch 98 and INFInst.exe support error-checking, gathering information
automatically to create an INF file directly from the registry of the
machine, customizing IE4, shell and desktop settings and adding custom
drivers.
* Several
other Resource Kit tools are included on the Windows 98 CD. * Windows
98 has new system event sounds for low battery alarm and critical
battery alarm. The Windows 98 startup sound was composed by Ken Kato.
* Windows 98 shipped with Flash
Player and Shockwave Player preinstalled.
Windows 98 Upgrade cover.
[edit] Windows 98 Second Edition
Windows 98 Second Edition (often shortened to SE) is an
updated release of Windows 98, released on 5 May 1999. It includes fixes
for many minor issues, improved WDM audio and modem support, improved
USB support and FireWire DV camcorder support, the replacement of
Internet Explorer 4.0 with Internet Explorer 5.0 and related shell
updates. Also included is Wake-On-LAN support (if ACPI compatible NDIS
drivers are present) and Internet Connection Sharing, which allows
multiple computers on a LAN to share a single Internet connection
through Network Address Translation. Other features in the update
include DirectX 6.1 which introduced DirectMusic, improvements to
Asynchronous Transfer Mode support (IP/ATM, PPP/ATM and WinSock 2/ATM
support), Windows Media Player 6.2 replacing the older Media Player,
Microsoft NetMeeting 3.0, MDAC 2.1 and WMI. A memory overflow issue was
resolved which in the older version of Windows 98 would crash most
systems if left running for 49.7 days (equal to 2³² milliseconds).[16]
Windows 98 SE could be obtained as retail upgrade and full version
packages, as well as OEM and a Second Edition Updates Disc for existing
Windows 98 users. Windows 98 Second Edition did not ship with the WinG
API or RealPlayer 4.0 unlike the original release of Windows 98, both of
these being superseded by DirectX and Windows Media Player.
Cover of the Windows 98 Second Edition
Upgrade (From Windows 95/3.1x) Box
Release Version Release Date Internet Explorer
Windows 98 4.10.1998 25 June
1998 4.01
Windows 98
Second Edition 4.10.2222A 5 May 1999 5.0
[edit] Upgradeability
Several components of the Windows 98 original release and
Windows 98 Second Edition, can be updated to newer versions. They
include:
* Internet Explorer 6 SP1
* Windows Media Format Runtime and
Windows Media Player 9 Series on Windows 98 SE and Windows Media Player
7.1 on Windows 98.
*
Windows Media Encoder 7.1 and Windows Media 8 Encoding Utility
* DirectX 9.0c
* MSN Messenger 7.0
* Significant features from newer
Microsoft operating systems can be installed on Windows 98. Chief among
them are NET Framework versions 1.0, 1.1 and 2.0, Visual C++ 2005
runtime, Windows Installer 2.0, GDI+ redistributable library, Remote
Desktop Connection client 5.1 and the Text Services Framework.
* Several other components such as
MSXML 3.0 SP7, Microsoft Agent 2.0, NetMeeting 3.01, MSAA 2.0,
ActiveSync 3.8, WSH 5.6, Microsoft Data Access Components 2.81 SP1, WMI
1.5 and Speech API 4.0.
* Office XP is the last version of Microsoft Office to be compatible
with Windows 98.
*
Although Windows 98 does not fully support Unicode, certain Unicode
applications can run by installing the Microsoft Layer for Unicode.
* With "KernelEx" several newer
applications like Firefox 3 or Opera 10 can run[18]
Press demonstration
The release of Windows 98 was preceded by a notable press
demonstration at Comdex in April 1998. Microsoft CEO Bill Gates was
highlighting the operating system's ease of use and enhanced support for
Plug and Play (PnP). However, when presentation assistant Chris
Capossela plugged a scanner in and attempted to install it, the
operating system crashed, displaying a Blue Screen of Death. Gates
remarked after applause and cheering from the audience, "That must be
why we're not shipping Windows 98 yet." Video footage of this event
became a popular Internet phenomenon.
Microsoft planned to discontinue its support for Windows 98
on January 16, 2004. However, due to the continued popularity of the
operating system (27% of Google's pageviews were on Windows 98 systems
during October–November, 2003),[20] Microsoft decided to maintain
support until July 11, 2006. Support for Windows Me also ended on this
date.[21] By that time, Windows 98 market share had diminished to
2.7%.[22] Windows 98 is no longer available from Microsoft in any form
due to the terms of Java-related settlements Microsoft made with Sun
Microsystems.
System requirements
* 486DX2/66 MHz or higher processor
(Pentium processor recommended)
* 16 MB of RAM (24 MB recommended, it's possible to run
on 8 MB machines with /nm option used during the installation process)
* At least 500 MB of space
available on HDD. The amount of space required depends on the
installation method and the components selected, but virtual memory and
system utilities as well as drivers should be taken into consideration.
* Upgrading from Windows 95 (FAT16) or 3.1 (FAT):
140-400 MB (typically 205 MB).
* New installation (FAT32): 190-305 MB (typically
210 MB).
* Note 1:
Both Windows 98 and Windows 98 SE can have significant problems
associated with hard drives that are over 32 Gigabytes (GB) in size.
This issue only occurs with certain Phoenix BIOS settings. A software
update has been made available to fix this shortcoming.
* Note 2: Also, both Windows 98
and Windows 98 SE are unable to handle hard drives that are over 137 GB
in size with the default drivers, because of missing 48-bit LBA support -
whole disc data corruption is likely. Third party patches are available
to fix this shortcoming.
* Note 3: It is also possible to compress a Windows 98 installation
using DriveSpace 3 to less than 120 MB, using maximum compression,
without deleting many files. Installing Windows 98 on a HDD that small
is usually useless, because it doesn't leave much room for programs, but
can be accomplished by moving the DriveSpace 3 container file there.
* VGA or higher resolution monitor (640x480)
* CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive (floppy
install is possible but slow)
* Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device (optional).
Like its predecessor, Windows 95, and its successor,
Windows Millennium Edition (Me), users can bypass hardware requirement
checks with the undocumented /im setup switch. This allows installation
on computers with processors as old as the 80386.
[edit] Physical RAM limit
The maximum amount of physical RAM in a PC that Windows 98
supports is 1.5 GB.
Labels: Software
