Windows98 - Tech User Tips

This document contains information about features present in the official release versions (original release and Second Edition) of Windows 98 that may be of interest to technically inclined users.

• Getting Up and Running
• Keeping Your System in Shape
• Speed Tips (Updated)
• Troubleshooting
• Year 2000 features
• Power Management
• Hidden Features
• Win95+98 policies
• Uninstalling Windows NT
• Out of Environment Space
• Windows 98 Second Edition
• Setting Drive Letters
• Shortcut Keys
• Recycle Bin won't empty properly
• Link: Getting the most from Windows 98
• Link: Top 10 Tune-up Tips (New)

Section 1: Getting Up and Running

• Having trouble entering your phone number into Windows 98's Registration Wizard? Don't use hyphens or spaces. For example, enter the phone number as 6045551234
• Forget faxing? As far as we could tell, the "Print to Fax" functionality provided by Windows 95 looked like it had been completely removed in Win98 -- and, apparently with some haste. The official release version of the Win98 Help file still referred to the possibility of right-clicking and sending a document to a fax driver, yet no fax driver seemed to be available for installation. (It was, however, possible to open a received fax document in the Kodak Imaging program -- see the Help file for details.)

We were puzzled. Win98 beta users had access to a file called MS Fax update via the Windows Update Wizard (described in our Win98 Tech Tips article). The beta release's MSFax update even improved upon the Win95 fax program by enabling long distance and delayed fax functionality. However, the release CD of Windows 98 hides the MS Fax program away in an obscure directory called "OLDWIN95" (\tools\oldwin95\message\us\). There, you'll find the Windows 95 versions of MS Fax and Windows Messaging -- and they both install with a single mouse click.

It is not yet clear whether this Win98 Fax update will be available in a future "Windows Update" or, indeed, if it is even still being worked on. And, if you need more fax functionality than the anemic Win95 utility offers, you'll have to install a third-party alternative such as Symantec's WinFax. (If you have access to Microsoft Outlook 98 or Outlook 2000, these titles include a "lite" version of Symantec's WinFax.)

You might also try your hand at Cheyenne's BitWare32. BitWare32, says the company, is designed to work with most MAPI compliant messaging products. Cheyenne recommends using Outlook97 and/or Exchange/Windows Messaging 4.0 or higher. Other clients are known to work, but have not yet been tested thoroughly, according to Tech Support staffer Tal Altman.

Other third-party fax programs exist, but we've received some reports that early versions of Symantec's Winfax designed for Windows 95 are even more misbehaved under Win98 than they were under Win95. In fact, at this writing, Symantec refuses to support the old version and encourages users to upgrade to version 9. However, the old version can be made to work, insists a user named "Rennie," who sent in the following tip:

After the upgrade you lose the fax printer drivers as they are new. Reinstall Symatec WinFax Pro and when the install prompts to insert the Win 95 CD for the drivers, put in the Win 98 CD and everything will work fine. I have been using [it] for a couple of months now and have had no problems. Most of my info is from the private MS Beta Newsgroup that I can still access. So, reinstall the Symantec Fax proggies and fax your hearts out.

Some users report good results with a program called FaxTalk Communicator (it works well under both Win95 and Win 98), but note that it is rather anemic in its features, albeit less so than the "old Win95" utility Microsoft ships.

Section 2: Keeping your System in Shape

Windows 98 has a number of new features designed to help you keep your computer running smoothly.

Key Features:

• System File Checker - scans files for errors, can extract single files from disk. You can optionally backup files you are restoring and/or write a log file documenting your changes. A search function allows you to check files matching any criteria you select. You can also restore default system information if things go awry.
• ScanReg - scans the Registry file and allows you to easily back it up at any time.
• Windows Tuneup -- using the new scripting agent, this new Wizard helps you define define times to automatically   defrag your hard disk, optimize applications for faster loading, scan for errors, clean up the disk to recover wasted space and, if any of your drives are compressed, tune the compression for maximum performance.
• System Information provides detailed info on conflicts/sharing, DMA, I/O and other settings, plus (relatively) plain-English descriptions of Registry and INI file settings. System Information's Tools menu provides access to several utilities, including Dr. Watson, a diagnostic tool that advises you when system files are altered or the system fails. For example, it informed us that Adobe Type Manager had altered our system files.
• There's also a system configuration utility that allows you to easily define which tasks run at startup, a Windows Report tool for collecting problem reports, a version conflict manager and -- best of all -- a graphical interfaces for controlling active entries in the System.ini, Win.ini, autoexec.bat and config.sys files.
• Running FDISK on a drive larger than 540MB now automatically prompts you whether you want to enable large disk mode. This sets the drive up as FAT32 if you choose Yes. We gained 28 percent more space on our 1GB drive after converting to FAT32. You can also run the converter from DOS, using an undocumented feature.
• ou know those warning icons in the Device Manager for devices that aren't working properly? Win98 has an Update Driver button that allows to to simply search for updated drivers. Yes, Windows 95 OSR2 had this, but Win98 goes further. Now, in addition to searching floppies, CD-ROM and other specified locations, it can access the Net via a feature called Microsoft Windows Update. Similarly, the Control Panel now has Internet links to Microsoft's website, Technical support and Windows Update pages. Microsoft requires you to register your copy of Win98 before using the Windows Update, but there is a workaround
• An Internet connection wizard (which you can run anytime by typing "inetwiz" into the Start Menu's Run dialog) eases the task of setting your PC up for modem- or Ethernet LAN-based Internet connections. Note that some recent OEM versions of Windows 98 Second Edition launch an MSN signup screen when the "connect to the Internet" icon on the desktop is launched. In this case, run "inetwiz" instead.

Troubleshooting: Be sure to check out the new HTML-based Help system, which now includes a number of wizard-based troubleshooters for solving common problems such as hardware conflicts, printing problems, etc. Also, check our Win98 Troubleshooting tips for additional techniques and suggestions.

Win98/NT Boot Emergencies

If you have your system set to dual-boot Windows NT (or Windows 2000), do not delete the file called NTLDR. If you do, you will be unable to boot Windows NT. If, however, this does happen, the easiest solution is to copy the NTLDR file (153K) onto a floppy from another NT system, select Properties and uncheck "Hidden." Then, startup your disabled system using a boot floppy, copy NTLDR to the C:\ directory of your system, and reboot.

Note that this is still true, even if you delete all the NT references from the BOOT.---- file, which causes Win95 or 98 to boot without displaying the NT loader menu.

To remove the Windows NT or 2000 dual-boot loader (thus disabling NT/Windows 2000), boot with a Windows 95 or 98 startup floppy and type "sys c:"

The Windows NT/2000 directory can then be removed from the system.

How the Windows Update works:

When you visit the site, the Windows Update Wizard will download an index file onto your computer from the Microsoft server, and  compare the available updates from the server with your computer hardware and software.  If there are newer versions on the server, you will be prompted with the option to install the most recent drivers and files available specific to your computer system. Keep in mind that each computer system will have its own unique set of available updates, as there are specific hardware and software files for specific systems. When we tested the service, many options available with which to update your system since our Beta version of the operating system already contained most of the latest files and drivers.

All files and drivers are digitally signed by Microsoft with a digital certificate. Therefore, the Update Wizard can verify the content and server locations prior to any download.

Beta Expiry Date

Ever wondered what happens when the "time limit" on beta versions of Win98 runs out? (RC0 of Win98, for example, expires on April 1, 2001.) So did we, so we set the clock ahead and rebooted. Bad Plan.  After that date, an annoying message appears every time you reboot, telling you your beta license has expired and advising you to upgrade to the final version. (A few months before the expiry date, a warning message starts appearing, telling you the deadline is coming up.) Fortunately, an unsupported patch exists that can remove or adjust the dates of these nag notices. It can also remove the version number that appears in the lower right-hand corner of the screen (even in the final release version!). Although we do not recommend the use of unsupported patches such as this, we dutifully acknowledge their existence.

To set Windows 98 to use year 2000 dates

• Open the Regional Settings Properties control panel and select the Date tab.
• Click the arrows under When a two digit year is entered, interpret as a year between to set the ending year.

Notes

• You can also open the Regional Settings dialog box at the Date tab by clicking Start, pointing to Settings, clicking Control Panel, double-clicking Regional Settings, and clicking the Date tab.
• The Year 2000 feature has a 100-year span. The default span is 1930 to 2029.

System Tips:

• Right-click your hard disk icon (as seen in My Computer) and choose Properties. A new Disk Cleanup button allows you to easily delete temporary files and old downloads. If you are sure you won't want to uninstall Windows 98 and revert to your old version of Windows, you can choose to "Delete Uninstall files," too. If you delete this uninstall information, you'll reclaim about 60MB of disk space, but you won't be able to easily uninstall Windows 98.
• Press Shift and right-click a document to see a new "Open With..." option. Choosing an application from the list that pops up and, if you want the change to be permanent, selecting "Always use this application..." is a fast way of changing file type associations in Win98 (or 95).
• A new Desktop icon makes an appearance in File Open and Save dialogs. Click it to jump immediately to the C:\Windows\Desktop level of your hard disk. Shades of the Mac!
• Try clicking this Desktop icon twice to see another useful feature -- it toggles between recently viewed directories.
• If you install a theme from the Win98 Plus Pack, it will change (permanently!) the background bitmap seen in the upper left corner of all windows when seen in "Web view" mode. Normally, this is a blue cloud but if, for example, you install the Science Fiction theme, it changes to an eerie (Martian?) red. To change it back to cloudy blue, copy the file "wvleft.bmp" from your Win98 CD or another machine into the Windows/Web directory. That folder, incidentally, is where many of the other Win98 graphics are stored, too. Most of the system graphics start with "w".
• Microsoft has changed the Windows 98 Online Update feature since its original appearance in early Beta releases. Although none are currently available, Microsoft says the update function can also search for third-party updates -- presumably a revenue generator like the obnoxious ads in WebTV for Windows, or the ISP Wizard in the Win98 dial-up wizard, where Microsoft gets paid for recommending the services of AOL, CompuServe and other providers.

Win98 supports a number of new functions that can make administration and technical support easier. Accessibility options are now Wizard driven. Plug and play hardware detection is now faster and, in our tests, more reliable overall. Printers, scanners and monitors now support ICM color management. Note that the device must be supported by WDM for this feature to work.

New networking functions include Virtual Private Network features and a Personal Web Server, plus the inclusion of previously separate Internet Explorer add-ons like NetMeeting, DirectShow, a VRML viewer (which we find to be faster than SGI's Cosmo Player, but inferior in other aspects to the SGI tool or the even better "Cortona" VRML client from www.parallelgraphics.com), RealPlayer and ShockWave support and more.

Indeed, Internet integration woven into nearly every aspect of the OS, from the Help system to the ability to preview GIFs, JPEGs, AVIs, MIDI files and other media types directly within any window.

If your system's ability to open a particular type of file somehow breaks, the easiest way to fix it is to click the document icon, then right-click while holding the Shift key. Select "Open With..." from the pop-up menu and choose the application you want to open it with. Click "Always open with this application" to make the selection permanent.

And here's another way:

If a program changes the registry so that IE is no longer the default viewer for JPEG, GIF or other files, it is easy to change it back. Here's how (using JPEG as an example):

• Start RegEdit.
• Press F3 and search for JPG
• Modify first value to say "jpegfile" (without the quotes).
• Modify the second value to say "image/jpeg."
• Quit RegEdit.
• Test IE by double-clicking a JPG. Repeat for GIF if desired, using "giffile" and "image/gif" designations in steps 3 and 4, respectively.

If you need to make Win98 (or IE4) look as much like Windows 95 as possible, TweakUI, a freely distributed, unsupported control panel from Microsoft can do this. It's available at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/download/tweakui.exe. Be sure to use version 1.1 or newer, designed for Win98.

A tool called RegClean can also be useful to help clean out old settings and eliminate errors from your registry.

The PROGMAN feature of Win95 is still included but, according to a file called SETUP.TXT installed with Win98, it is no longer supported and GRP files are no longer created or saved during installation. In other words, back up GRP files before upgrading to Win98!

Section 3:Tech Tips

Where am I?: The official release of Windows 98 added a couple of features that weren't present in the publicly available beta 3 build: when you are browsing a local drive, the icon at the top right of the Explorer window is a Windows logo (on a blue background in RC0; black in RC3 and final releases); when you are browsing the Web, it changes to the  icon of Internet Explorer (again, differing between releases. RC0 uses the familiar "e" icon, while a rotating globe is substituted in RC3/final). Also, a "Desktop" icon is now present in the open and save file dialogs of most applications, to help you return easily and quickly to the Windows 98 desktop.

uGeek.com takes exception, as we do, to recent news coverage by CNet and ZDnet in which freezeup and slowdown problems with Compaq Presario computers are blamed on Microsoft. We own a Compaq Presario computer here at PC Buyer's Guide and it, too, was less reliable than a computer running an out-of-the-box version of Windows 98.

If you have this problem, or any slowness on any Windows 98 computer, do the following:

Click on Start, select Run, type in msconfig and click OK, click on the Startup tab, and uncheck everything except ScanRegistry and SystemTray. Reboot.

Speed up the Desktop: The active desktop slows the system down a little. Turn it off (right-click on the desktop and deselect "View as Web Page") for maximum speed. Note that this disables the Channel bar, too.

Tweak the System: The page at http://www.tweak3d.net/tweak/win98/ lists a number of tweaks that can speed up the system. In particular, to speed up Windows, try adding the following setting to your CONFIG.SYS file:

Stacks=0,0

See also: http://www.flipchip.net/win98opt.htm "Getting the most from Windows 98"

Power Management: Win98's power management is enhanced over that of earlier releases, although Microsoft's ACPI does not provide any significant improvement to battery life in portables over the older APM standard. However, ACPI essentially puts power management under the control of the OS, so applications that have been specially written can better control power-saving features. The version of Microsoft Office expected in 1999 will include ACPI support, as Win98 does today. Note that some power management features require an ACPI enabled PC.

A Windows 98 service Pack, released around Xmas '98, optionally turns on ACPI (Advanced Configurable Power Interface) and APM (Advanced Power Management), rather than requiring, as the original releases does, that Win98 users manually turn it on. Note that you may also have to update your PC's BIOS in order to implement APM or ACPI. This Win98 update is also part of Win98 Second Edition. Alternatively, you can install (or re-install) Win 98 from the Emergency Floppy with the command-line switch /pj  in order to implement it. Turning on ACPI in your system's BIOS and "Hibernate" in Windows 98's Power control panel will give the system "Software Off" and "Instant On" capabilities.

If your system crashes upon waking up from suspend mode, set the power management level to "always on." Note that some modems are incompatible with the suspend features on certain models. Also, we've noticed that some graphics drivers, such as the Apr98 version of the 3DLabs Permedia2 driver, cause the system to be unable to enter Suspend mode. (The Dec97 Permedia2 drivers allow Suspend to work correctly, though.)

ACPI is supported by Intel's DPMA (Dynamic Power Management Architecture). The 430TX was the first DPMA-compliant chipset. Virtually all current PC motherboards support this standard.

You may also want to explore the "Disable Fast Shutdown" option accessible via the MSCONFIG applet. (Type "msconfig" into the Start Menu's  RUN dialog.) On one of our test systems, it solved a shutdown/restart glitch.

View as Web Page: Win98 remembers your view preferences for each window. If you want to see preview icons for HTML files, PowerPoint presentations, Word documents, TIFF images, GIFs, JPEGs, AVIs, and MIDI files, select "as Web Page" from the view menu. You can set this on or off as a default using the View menu's Folder Options.

Multiple Monitors: If you are lucky enough to have an extra video card and monitor, you can put them to good use in Win98. It supports as many monitors as you can connect to your system (nine max.). Control them from the Settings tab in the Display panel. Note, however, that some the drivers for some display cards don't properly support dual displays. AGP graphics cards based on the Permedia2 chip, for example, needed a software upgrade (now available from www.3dlabs.com) to work properly with multi-display mode in Win98.

More seriously, users of multiple displays may be disappointed to discover that when a second display is active, the 3D graphics acceleration on your primary display is disabled. for example, say you've got a Permedia2-based Graphics Blaster Exxtreme card as your primary display adapter and install an ATI Rage II-based All in Wonder as your secondary display adapter. When both are enabled, the Graphics Blaster Exxtreme's OpenGL benchmark score (running the X29 benchmark) drops from a blistering 185 fps to the same level as the All in Wonder's laggardly 41 fps.

Unfortunately, this means that games like Flight Simulator 98, which can take good advantage of multiple views, will not deliver optimum performance in a multi-display configuration. A partial workaround is to disable the non-primary displays in the Display properties settings page, launch the OpenGL application and finally re-enable the secondary displays. However any subsequent applications will revert to software OpenGL.

It’s also worth mentioning that you should set up your AGP card to be the default if you have two graphics cards in your system and you do not want the PCI card to be the primary graphics adapter. Most PC BIOSes released since early 1999 provide an option to do this. However, if your BIOS does not and there is no update available from the motherboard manufacturer, there may be no solution to the problem -- your PCI card will be the default in a dual-display setup. Generally, it is preferable that the high-performance AGP slot becomes the primary display, it does not.

Lastly, we’ve seen circumstances when a dual-PCI display configuration cannot start up. The Device properties dialog for the secondary display adapter complains that the memory is in use and advises turning off EMM386 (which typically isn’t turned on!). While this isn’t always a solvable problem, the best course of action is to make sure both displays are using Windows 98-native drivers.  If that fails, try switching the positions of the PCI cards.

Smooth Screen Fonts, Show icons in all possible colors: These functions, previously part of the Plus! pack for Win95, are now standard. You can Show window contents while dragging, too. These options are all in the Effects tab of the Display  panel.Use the Channel Bar as an Application Dock: Shades of NeXT! You can drag your favorite applications or documents (and even the My Computer or Network Neighborhood icons!) into the channel bar, where they turn into tiny icons and text. You can resize the channel bar and hide or show it at will using the Display panel. Right-click on a toolbar to access the Toolbars menu that allows you to add or remove these custom bars.

Built-in Tour: Win98, like Internet Explorer 4.0, has a built-in tour of IE's key features. See it here: res://ie4tour.dll/tour.htm. A VRML browser is also provided on the CD, and, in a slightly different form with a "WorldView 2.1" splash screen, via Windows Update. There's also a hidden feature (known as an "easter egg") concealed in the "About Internet Explorer" dialog box. Ctrl-drag the "e" icon to the world in that dialog and then back over the words "Internet Explorer" to reveal a hidden "Unlock" button. You're on your own from there....

Need Security? As many teenagers have discovered, you can bypass the "password login" prompt in Windows 95 and 98 by simply hitting ESC. Fortunately, there is a way to beef up the security. See the article Win95+98-policies.htm for details. It's also worth mentioning that, unlike Win95, Win98 does not store and send passwords over the network as plain text.

Fun Features

Customizing the Startup and Shutdown screens.

It's quite easy to change the Windows 98 (or 95) startup and shutdown screens. Logo.sys is the startup screen. Logow.sys is the "please wait..." screen, and Logos.sys is the "it is now safe..." screen. Just replace these with BMP files of your design (renamed as above, of course), and that's it! There is some debate as to whether Win98 has subliminal images embedded into its clouds, as Windows 95 was rumored to have.

Customizing Command Keys.

Win98 has the ability to assign a user-definable command key (or keys) to any shortcut. This allows any of the items in your Start menu (or elsewhere on the system) to be invoked by simply pressing a key or key sequence. right-click the shortcut (after making a shortcut, if necessary), choose properties and then, in the Shortcut Key area, press the key or sequence you want.

I use this method to customize the keys used to invoke programs in my Start Menu.

Uninstalling Windows 98

1. Although Windows 98 includes an uninstall option that allows you to revert back to Windows 95, there are some situations where this feature can become disabled or unavailable.
2. If you use the Disk Clean Up option to recover the disk space used to hold this uninstall information (approximately 67 MB worth), the Uninstall Windows 98 and "Delete Windows 98 Uninstall information" entries in the Add/Remove Programs panel will disappear.
3. While we were testing Windows 98, we reinstalled it on top of itself. While this is admittedly not something that everyone is likely to do, it is worth mentioning that it disabled the uninstall capability.Careless use of RegEdit could also result in a disabled uninstall option or a multitude of other problems. Still....
4. Uninstall is not available if the drive is compressed, or if it is converted to FAT32. See SETUP.TXT on the Win98 CD for details.

If you have to manually revert back to Windows 95, we recommend booting from the Emergency floppy that Windows 98 builds during the installation process. This floppy disk includes a CD ROM driver (supporting most popular IDE and SCSI drives) that makes it easy to reinstall Windows 95 or Win98. We had varying amounts of luck trying to reinstall Windows 95 into the same directory as Windows 98. In one of our tests, it ended up a serious mess. Fortunately, we had this machine set up to dual-boot Windows NT. We were able to boot that OS and rename the Windows directory to a different name and then install Win95 from scratch. Note that installing to a different directory will require you to reinstall all your applications.

On another machine, we couldn't even get Windows 95 OSR2 to recognize a valid serial number. We eventually resorted to installing the original 1995 version of Windows 95 from floppy disks (We answered "No to all" when it warned us that we were installing older versions of some files), but were able to avoid having to reinstall our original Windows 95 applications. In general, we recommend a clean install of any OS for best results.

Uninstalling Windows NT

If you already have Windows NT installed on your drive and want to install Windows 98 instead, there is a easy way to uninstall WinNT 4.0 without reformatting the hard disk. The most complete description we've seen is at http://www.j51.com/~sshay/win95/unwinnt.html.

Out of environment space

Here is the solution to the commonly seen "out of environment space" problem, provided by Jack Surveyer:

To increase the environment space, add the following command to your Config.sys file (or change the line already there):

• shell=c:\command.com /p /e:4096

This command gives you an environment of 4,096 bytes. If you receive "out of environment space" messages, you should increase the environment further. This is another example of how some DOS skills are still quite essential in the Win 98 environment.

Recycle Bin Won't Empty Properly

In some cases, typically after a clean install of Win98, you may find your system unable to delete an apparently invisible file from the Recycle Bin. Instead, you'll get the message " Error Deleting File: Access is Denied. Cannot Delete file <something-or-other>. Check to make sure that the Disk is not full or write protected". Oddly, if there are other "real" files in the bin, it will delete those, but the "trash in the bin" icon doesn't go away. Even more peculiar: if you use the Drive Cleanup feature to remove the files, the Recycle Bin does change back to the "Empty bin" icon... but the next time you throw a file in there and attempt to empty the recycle bin the problem reappears.

A: The answer is to restart in MS-DOS mode and CD to the C:\RECYCLED directory.

Look inside that directory. You'll probably find the file or a directory containing that file, typically with a weird character in the file name such as an

"=" sign or something that freaks Windows out. That's why Windows (or Norton Utilities!) can't delete it.

Just type DEL *.* when you're in the "evil" directory, move up a level, RMDIR any unwanted (empty) folders inside the recycle bin, and you're fixed!

For Further Reading

• The latest Windows 98 info from Usenet.
• An Installation Guide to Windows NT 4.0.
• Windows 95 tips - resetting Windows password, configuring Hard drive power down settings, etc.
• PC Magazine's Guide to Memphis - Installation tips and upgrade advice.
• PC Week - ZAW and Windows 98.
• Brian Livingston's Windows 98 Secrets
• ACPI
• PC98
• Device Bay
• Tweak3D's Windows 98 Tweak Guide
• CNet: Windows 98 Hacks
• Tips n Tricks: http://www.geocities.com/kruiser59/tipsandtricks1.html
• (June 20, 2000) Bootdisk.com: Top 10 Tune-up Tips 
• (July 21, 2000): Windows Insider has a number of useful tips, including: how to Solve Windows Shutdown Problems and how to remove third-party
• ISP "branding" from Internet Explorer.

In the near future, we'll be adding additional information and links to this page. Check back soon!