UNOFFICIAL Windows98 Second Edition Service Pack 2.1a (Freeware)

Is anyone familiar with this:

UNOFFICIAL Windows98 Second Edition Service Pack 2.1a (Freeware)

Microsoft has never released a service pack for Windows98 SE. But I made a Service Pack for Windows98 SE users. It contains all Windows98 SE updates from Windows Update site and more.

It is a self-extracting and self-installing pack like Microsoft's update files. Thus, you cannot choice individual files. However, the pack installs only required fixes for your system. Uninstallation is possible from Add-Remove Programs. However, I don't recommend uninstallation of the pack, if you don't face any problem.

This is *only* for WINDOWS 98 SECOND EDITION ENGLISH. I highly recommend that you should backup your system before installing the pack. You must have at least 32 MB of RAM.

It contains only operating system updates. It does NOT contain Internet Explorer 6, DirectX 9, Media Player 9 and their updates.

For support and discussion, please go to the forum.

You may like to consider using the excellent "service pack" generously compiled by Alper Coskun: http://exuberant.ms11.net/98sesp.html

 

I downloaded it but have yet to test it. It is not complete and therefore somewhat useless at the moment. From what I understand there is a couple of bugs in it yet.

 

I've seen this before. If it were me, I'd avoid it like the plague. I think it's legitimate but I think you're playing with fire when you do something like this. Look at the problems MS has with service packs. They have the ability to put them through some pretty extensive tests before releasing them and they still have problems.

I have to wonder though as to what avenues these guys have available when it comes to testing them. Do they write them and install them and call it good? Do they have any beta testing program? Or, are we the general public the beta program?

Do yourself a favor and stay away from it. In my opinion (FWIW) you're playing with fire with these things unless you install it on a computer that means nothing to you. If you've got an old one laying around, give it a try on that. Just my two cents worth.

 

Exactly my thoughts. I have spare hard drives laying aorund that I will test it on in the future. For now I am creating my own update disk by saving the updates in separate folders that are named in order of install. As I download each batch they go into a new folder. I am in no rush seeing as the updates will continue until June 30th. My main PC will be switched to WinXP Pro Retail when SP3 is release with no bugs. The only reason I will make the 98SE update disk is because I still like to use it on some older PCs that XP will not run decently on.

 

princessmandi8--

Not sure what the "more" is, but why not rather get the official Windows Updates from MS at the Windows Update site?
Depending how faithful you have been to get these over the years, you may find you have very little or nothing to update. And you will not install a whole bunch of stuff that could be very out of date by now.

 

I think the concern is in regard to MS not offering any of the updates for Win9X/ME after June 30th. this year. Anyone wishing to continue reinstalling those OSes willl have to save the updates.

 

Thank U guys....
I will pass on this as U suggest. (another reason for the post was to make others aware of it, in case it was a "winner ".
I have been using my 98SE machine since 98; always check for updates, so I think I have nothng to worry about in that regard. I have an original MS win 98SE CD, and I guess if I ever run in to a problem, I can alway reinstall 98SE.
My other machine is XP SP2 Home.....and I consider myself not as proficient as with 98SE......so I am still learning.
The only reason that I am keeping my 98 is to enable me to respond to questions on 98 from my "volunteering" on AllExperts.com (incidentally, I have answered over 2,600 questions....but as suspected the 98 users are diminishing and my questions likewise.
Anyway, thanks again

 

Ummm, I beg to differ.

The "and more" refers to optional components that are made available during setup. You check the ones you want.

I have been using this pack since the beginning. A real timesaver. I also use MDGx's 98SE2ME (needs my Me cd) and the IE, WMP, DirectX, and 98SE updates and add-ons available from mdgx.com. Also, the Maximus Decim MDAC updater.

These are quite mature packages that include on line support on the msfn.org forums. Quite superior to depending on Window Update, as they also include several quick fixes unavailable through Microsoft unless you pay for them.

The folks designing them are not amatuer's. I wouldn't disuade anyone from using Gape's service pack or the other fixes offered by these folks to get 98SE running smoothely, especially on modern hardware.

It can be done manually through mdgx.com downloads, but certainly not by trusting Microsoft to provide what is needed these days. They're concentrating on XP, understandably. These folks keep 98SE optimized for today's environment.

 

My 98SE setup is running quite smoothly on an AMD 2400+, Epox 8KHA+, 512MB Kingston PC2700, MSI MX4000 T-128 setup just using Windows Update. I have IE6 SP1, WMP 9 and DirectX 9.0c. It handles whatever I throw at it. As I said I will test the Unofficial update download later, but at this point I see no reason. If anything I will upgrade to WinXP Pro retail seeing as this PC will handle it.

 

I wouldn't install it on a mature system. If you were to format and install Windows fresh, then it would be useful. Make sure to do your reading and install the other updates too. My order:

Winzip
Chipset drivers
IE6SP1
98 Resource Kit
DotNet SP 1.1, SP1, 2.0
DX9.0c
Video Drivers
Plus!98 (Only the games and themes)
WMP 9, Bonus Pack, WMEncoder 7.1
Unofficial 98SE SP (With ASPI, TweakUI, and Memory Optimizations)
Soundcard, Modem, Printer, Scanner, Ethernet Card (but not to internet yet)
Works Suite (Or Office, whatever you use) and Office Service Pack
All 98SE Addons, IE 6 Updates, Direct X Updates, WMP Updates etc from MDGx.com downloads
98SE2ME (Option 2)
Maximus Decim MDAC and USB Packs
Firewall
Connect wire to Ethernet
Windows and Office Updates online from Microsoft
Firefox and Thunderbird
SunJava, Acrobat Reader, Quicktime 2.1.2.59 and 6.5.2, RealPlayer, etc.
Virus Scanner, Spybot S&S, etc.



I had been using Windows XP for the longest time. But, since my system could handle it, I decided to upgrade to Windows 98SE.

It runs even better now.

See! There are different perspectives on this stuff.

 

I paid for WinZip years ago. Have ver. 9.0 saved to disk.

I have all of the newest drivers burned to disk.

I have this burned to disk. I do a custom install.

Never needed it.

No need for .NET.

Saved to disk.

I get my updated drivers from the manufacturer. Stock work great.

Unnecessary bloat.

There are better. Have WMP 9 on disk.

I use Force ASPI, burned TweakUI 1.33 to disk and have a full tweak list I do myself.

First step is to install mobo, video and Ethernet drivers then updates.
Once updated I install Panda Titanium. I do my tweaking and installation of programs after.

Only install Excel and Word. the rest is unnnecessary bloat.

I would have already applied all updates that I saved to disk.

Does not apply to my setup.

See above. Already have USB update for my board from manufacturer burned to disk.

Included with Panda plus I have a hardware firewall.

Been there, done that.

Not needed. I use Excel and Word from Office 97 Pro.

Fireflop and Turdbird are ****. I prefer Opera and Gmail.

SunJava is download from them. Get updated version. Same with Adobe.
Quicktime is a disease and so is Real Player. Use alternatives.

I only use SpywareBlaster, AdAwareSE, RegCleaner(jv16) and CCleaner. Panda is quite proficient at protection.

As you can see I prefer knowing what is installed on my system and I prefer tweaking the settings myself so I know what has been altered. I have also done a few XP installs on lesser PCs that run just as fine with no problems.

 

So, we do similar things.

The Maximus-Decim USB is just for some specific native USB drivers so 98SE will natively support them like Windows Me does. If you don't use any of those, you wouldn't have any use for it.

I've also made sure to use the latest versions of updates and programs, as you do!

For 98SE, I really don't need DotNET either as the ATI driver for 9x doesn't have the Catalyst Control Panel, just the normal ATI one that doesn't need DotNET. I just install it because then Direct X 9.0c will then install the Managed Direct X updates that do require DotNET. Do I need that? I don't know. But I figured it couldn't hurt to already have it in case some new program or game makes use of it.

I have installed at times every single update manually, but since I trust Gape's continuously updated Service Pack and MDGx to continuously provide current updates on his site I have found that using the Service Pack saves me some time (like, 10 hours).

It has been years since I've had confidence enough in Microsoft to just go to Windows Update and trust it'll provide all the proper updates. I do go there, as you see in my order, afterwards just to get the latest Internet Explorer security fixes. But, even those are on the MDGx site. Since I do prefer official updates (most of those on the MDGx site are, but some are unofficial if the Microsoft one's proved buggy), I use the Windows Catalog to get the most recent one's if I want to save them.

For example, Windows Update is the only way to get the latest WMF, WMP, and IE Cumulative updates. If you just go there, you'll get them. But if I want to use Windows Catalog and save them to a cdr, some are actually in the Windows Me section and are the same as the one's installed by Windows Update automatically on 98SE. So, instead of using MDGx's unofficial one's I save the one's from Windows Catalog.

So I do prefer official updates, as long as they have been found to work. For example, the 891711 update from Microsoft (even the updated one they provide) is still buggy. So for that I use MDGx's unofficial one, as well as the Unofficial KRNL386 that also helps 891711 work properly.

I've never seen any advantage to using Quicktime or RealPlayer Alternatives. The official players are adjustable to not do things folks don't like, and provide some nice features.

A lot of this is just personal preference. But I saw no reason to diss the Service Pack or other voluntarily provided resources. The vast majority of the pack is official updates. The unofficial stuff, when they are automatically installed by the pack, are simply fixed versions that actually work. The user selectable extras (like ASPI) are nice to just get installed all in one shot.

It's just, nice! And, completely safe in my experience.

 

My plan is to create a couple of backup harddrives with a custom minimal install of 98SE and IE6 with all of the updates after the final update releases before June 30th. I will only allow the generic drivers to load that way the hardrive can be imaged to another that will be used on a PC. Once it is imaged I can then load the correct drivers and programs. This should save time.

 

UNOFFICIAL Windows98 Second Edition Service Pack 2.1a (Freeware)
http://exuberant.ms11.net/98sesp.html[/QUOTE]

The Host Website does not allow download "Resumed Supported ", it is impossible to download at a strech from slow Dialups from:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4131.html

 

Unofficial Win98SE Service Pack Works Great

I have been using the UnOfficial Win98SE Service Pack for some time now, and have never had anything but great results with it. I have installed it on many machines (more than a dozen) without a single hiccup. Not only does it patch many bugs and security flaws, but it also automatically tweaks Win98SE for maximum performance. I used to have to perform those tweaks by hand, manually editing system.ini amd win.ini. I highly recommend the UnOfficial Win98SE SP.

http://exuberant.ms11.net/98sesp.html


.High*Ping*Drifter.

"When in doubt, I whip it out! "

 

ROFL!

What a signature. Try to avoid public places. Word gets around. (Speaking from unfortunate experiences when I was a pre-teen.) May have stopped me from being President, or something.

Awesome package. Gape is coming out shortly with another updated version. There's no need to wait, for those setting up a system now, but I'm sure he'll incorporate some of the updated fixes they've come out with since the last version.

For anyone using this, don't forget you still need to get the Internet Explorer, Direct X, Windows Media Player, and MDAC updates, as well as any operating system add-on's not included in his pack that you want. His pack is like Windows Update with some extra bonus's but you certainly need to round out with the other stuff.

 

FWIW--The UnOfficial Win98SE Service Pack has not been updated for some months now. So while it is better than nothing, going to the Windows Update site is a better way to update until support stops.

 

Of course making sure to go to Windows Update as long as it is still available is advised to make sure you didn't miss anything.

But there's no way I would depend upon it. The Service Pack is stable and fixes many things that Microsoft has never posted fixes to on Windows Update.

I would first use the Service Pack and any other manually downloaded updates. Then, as a final step check with Windows Update to make sure you have what Microsoft still considers important enough to post.

On this computer the only update for me on Windows Update on a clean install after applying all my stuff was the latest Windows Media Player security fix. (Gotta remember to get that from Windows Catalog.)

Of course, this argument will be ended by Microsoft itself in a few months. For the average user the choice of using the Microsoft download site and guessing what order and which files to install or using the Unofficial Service Pack will be an easy decision! Of course, the average user probably will barely remember Windows 98 at that point.

But I will!

"Works Better, Plays Better!" Better than XP, if setup correctly on compatible hardware.

 

People:

With the exception of Eck and a few others who are familiar with the msfn board associated with the 98SE Service Pack project, I haven't seen a more clueless bunch of individuals in one place than I find posts right here.

Perhaps most of you don't know who I am, and that's fine; I have no need for self-aggrandizement or any other ego-trip-related nonsense.

What I do:

I am a consultant to businesses and home users of all flavors of Windows. I have no problems either lambasting or praising any aspect of Windows, whether MS or third-party. If the shoe fits...

What I have done:

[Not enough space here; the list starts in the '60's.]

What I have done that is relevant:

Been an active contributor to the 98SE Service Pack and related projects. [Look inside at the acknowledgments; I'm the same ID on both forums.]

The main problem here as I see it is everyone here is afraid to realize just how god-**** bloody awful Windows Update really is. Bloviating about an opinion about what you want it to be is living in a fairy tale world. The real word is that WU already has, and will continue to let you down, and really hard!

The Unofficial Service Pack for 98SE is unofficial primarily because MS had abdicated totally on this point. Clearly there has been the need for several such SP's from them. Look at the way they have supported the NT family over the years: NT 3.51 through XP all have service packs. Do you honestly believe that the 9x world doesn't need any save the one that was brought out briefly after Win95 was originally released? [Yes, there actually is one! It updated Version 9.50 to 9.50a and introduced the program now known as QFECHECK to keep track of the updates. But all of the rest of the 9x world consisted of re-releases, the kind you have to pay for, not Service Packs! We had 95B, 95C, 98, 98SE, ME, but no Service Packs]

So, for starters, the 98SE Service Pack was not created out of any consideration for the volatile media announcements of MS, but rather out of the problems that have existed for years.

In the case of 98SE, WU basically is a cruel joke. In the case of XP, it represents a cover story for a bigger lie: That MS actually has a handle on the bugs of XP.

The truth about WU is that it is merely part of the overall damage control MS tries to wield to figuratively keep the villagers [substitute some of the readers here] from storming the castle.

The actual truth is something more like this:

1) Windows 98 Second Edition is basically as good a system as MS is able to support; that they choose to abandon it is basically their problem; it only becomes yours when you choose to let them manipulate you, and, not so incidentally, collect additional "tithes" in the form of you just go buying the next great hope that doesn't fail to dis-satisfy.

Notice I didn't say that MS isn't able to WRITE a better system. They already did that years ago: That system's name is OS/2. But once the ownership of that system was in dispute, they decided to bad-mouth it and not support it. Legal and contractual points aside, it's rather interesting to hear Bill Gates and company talking about how bad something is that they themselves actually wrote!

In any case, actual support even for 98 Second Edition really *****, just not as big-time as for Windows XP, despite what anyone here ignorantly believes.

I'll later go into just how much you have been let down, but first I want to expound on just what the 98SE SP represents:

Basically it's a grass-roots effort to undo the damage of an arrogant MS to not properly support an O/S, yet get paid the job as if they had. With few exceptions, what is in the SP is MS code, often bungled in terms of availability, or in some cases, deliberately buried by some self-appointed MS internal people who think they know how to fine-tune company policy.

Some of the problems faced by the people who are in this project are as follows [with special reference to WU where needed]:

For no accountable reasons, some KB articles that clearly fix palpable problems never made it to WU. Other than being too pre-occupied with counting their profits, MS can offer no credible excuse for why some of these patches either were never available to WU, or worse, in some cases, once were, and then disappeared! The patches themselves clearly were ear-marked for WU, but "somehow" become obscure or never rose out of obscurity. Oh, and this is not an opinion; we have members on MSFN who can cite chapter and verse about "lost" updates which are no longer available on WU, but formerly were, and no longer are, and not due to being replaced by an update now available, etc.

Some of MS's policies with regard to these "lost" updates are totally arrogant, and in some cases attempts to extort money out of fools willing to part with their loot, meaning some corporate types who paid serious money to get the fixes they really needed. And fortunately for all who pay serious attention to the SP and related matters, some kindly individual who worked at said corporations took a chance, flying in the face of official MS policy, redistributed some of these fixes. Regardless of their back-story, these are official MS updates, complete with KB articles [some of which have themselves disappeared; there are websites devoted to "lost" articles archiving], and you just cannot get them from WU. This doesn't mean you don't need them, just that WU let you down because you were manipulated into assuming that just because WU doesn't have it, you don't need it, despite the obvious need for a reality check.

The "trail" to obtain some of these fixes is incredibly arcane involving hundreds of "war stories" that make for interesting reading, if you can find them in print. Some people don't want to raise their hands and take credit; some fear some possibly legal action from MS I suppose... [It is apparent that some websites have been shut down over the years for actions related to this, but I digress...].

Some updates were mis-released on WU; misreleased? Yes, this means that you cannot apply the updates to 98SE yet they are there. Why? Because the INSTALLERS of the updates are broken, sometimes on purpose, to serve the venomous language of some MS manager who takes it upon himself to proclaim the obsolescence of a product long before there is any truth to the statement. I am NOT talking about the hindsight argument that support was extended to this June, I mean long before the entire issue came up, some MS ******* proclaimed 98SE dead BEFORE its official original deadline, and had updates designed to only update ME! Fortunately for us all, his own programmers did "the right thing" and there are "sneaky" ways to apply the updates, just not from WU itself. [Here's an example: There is a Media Player update for all of 9x; it's an internal update of Media Player itself, not even a 9x-specific update. When you use WU, it isn't offered to a 98SE user at all. If you are an ME user, you can get it, possibly even now if it hasn't "disappeared" like certain other ME updates already conveniently have! If you retain the update, and attempt to install it on 98SE, it won't install because it says you are using the "wrong" system, etc. However, all actual WU updates of this calibur support switches that allow their "innards" to be displayed; just run the binary of the update on the command line and add in /? at the end to see the available options, etc. If you make the update "naked" and run it manually, the zealot-manager-imposed restriction lifts; reading the .inf file inside the update clearly reveals the update was designed for the entire family of 9x and it works as intended! The way WU updates are released is that there is this inner layer, and an optional internal script that runs the outer layer, to impose restrictions on usage, etc. Thus, by eliminating the arbitrary arrogant scripting restriction, the code, written by MS's programmers to apply the fix to 98SE as well, etc., can actually run, etc. There have been other examples of this abuse within WU; it has affected 98 First Edition and NT 4.0 as well, etc.]

Then we have a whole 'nother category of WU problems: The installers of the updates are just plain broken. You get WU to run the update, but the actual innards doesn't take! Further attempts to get WU apparently believe you have the update installed, but it's just plain wrong! The reason is that WU checks to see if either it explicitly installed the update, or by QFECHECK information in your registry you don't need the update, etc. In this case the former applies, but the latter doesn't.

But this is just plain wrong! The update never actually took! The reason is that the only way it could have ever worked is if you had always had the latest and greatest from WU johnny-on-the-spot from 1999 onward. By merely coming to WU since then, and letting it decide what and when and in what order, it screws up and makes these broken updates never get properly applied.

The only fix for this is one of two things: 1) Install 98SE from scratch and apply the problematic fixes BEFORE you do a whole host of other things, such as upgrading to IE 6 SP1, 2) Just use the SP. It's installation method isn't broken; it delivers the fixes you need regardless of the state of irrelevant things that tick off broken MS installers, etc.

The main point about the SP is that where possible, which is well over 99.5% of the time, this is unmodified MS official WU-wannabees-albeit-never-weres or actual released to WU updates. As you might expect, they do what they say, namely fixing a stated specific problem documented in an MS KB article, most of which are available as of this writing on MS's KB section of their website.

In some cases, freeware substitutes are offered as an option. Some of us like the idea of the XP notepad program that can handle large files instead of abdicating to WordPad, which can be horrible for certain purposes. And btw, if anyone cares, unlike XP, all 9x versions can cause the Win 3.1 WRITE program to NOT be dummied up to be replaced by WordPad. Thus, in 9x we have choices that MS has decided for you to make you not have a choice. [WRITE cannot run under XP, as well as a bunch of other small items certain people like, such as the .CRD-handling program of Win 3.1, that are not a problem at all to add to 9x if desired, etc.]

No one is asking you to install meta-pad, but you might like it instead of the stock Notepad in the 9x world; Just because XP has a better built-in notepad doesn't mean it's a free ride; there are other problems that are just below most people's radar, and that is not by coincidence, but clearly rather by design [and the design of WU as it is currently practiced by MS].

I also have criticisms of the 98SE SP, which is still in the process of evolving, since it IS a VOLUNTEER project for which none of us get paid! Hopefully, I can help guide it forward; it's pretty **** good as it is and still actively moving forward.

While we discuss this, notice that for 98SE, WU is virtually dead. You can count the number of relevant updates for 98SE on the fingers of an amputated hand.

I think the last one released for 98SE had to do with that EMF problem that affects literally every version of Windows. And yes, MS released a fix for 98SE. However, there's a problem: It doesn't quite work! It appears that "support" from WU today at best means a completely untested product. Fortunately, a member of the MSFN forum has already released a secondary patch file to run after the MS release [and is totally in keeping with managed updating WITHOUT WU the way corporate types used to be taught how back when they actually cared about 98SE!] that makes the MS code actually get installed properly. But no thanks to MS or its WU for any of that!

Prior to that, there is the problem Eck brought up, where it has been determined that MS's fix just isn't completely viable; it just fails to do what it tries to do; plain buggy code. Some intrepid MSFN people have come up with their own fixes to prevent the holes in the logic of this fix.

Yet, despite this, the 98SE SP provides the MS standard one, just like WU; no one is forcing you to accept these good attempts to fix an inept MS bad fix; you can apply it after-the-fact; most people knowledgable on the subject would recommend it.

But the point is that no one wants to "degrade" the quality of the SP by introducing any mandatory changes that are in any way "suspect" on the off chance you buy into the baloney that MS is all-powerful and never makes a mistake and that mere mortals by comparison couldn't do a better job, etc.

We understand the mass manipulation power of WU as MS practices it; we hope you learn to overcome it!

In a few cases, innards that are optional appear in the SP that fall into the category of personal preference. Since all of them are optional, no one has the right to complain that they are there; I believe in every instance they aren't even in checked boxes by default.

But some of them are nifty: For example, various individuals over the years have implemented cosmetic changes to various Windows systems. The techniques are well known and work just fine if you do it correctly. Some of these are specifically available in Win2K already. Someone figured out how to apply the overall look-and-feel color schemes to 98SE as an option; all of the work is based on MS stuff that was applied to the shell-level code of Win2K. Whether you know it or not, much of the code at that level of the system comes from either NT 4.0 or Win2K, and I mean the code from MS itself. [Take a look in some of the Apr 23, 1999 release files of 98SE - that's its official internal release date; the files are for Windows NT 4.0; some later files from readily available 98SE updates, easily obtained even from WU in most cases, clearly points out they are part of Win2K, which was eventually released less than a year later; still some others are part of ME, which was released less than 6 months past Win2K]

Again, an option, but "try it, you'll like it" applies here. Lots of satisfied users of the SP, and no one bitching that this stuff doesn't work. [Personally, I hate much of it! Don't get me started on silly stuff like "My Network Places" when I don't even much like "Network Neighborhood" and in any case, any half-way sophisticated user can make up their own icon verbiage, and some others can design their own icons. The means to do so has always been in Windows since the 3.1 days, etc.]

Anyone who has gotten here has already proven that they know how to read, and isn't a victim of the "sound-byte" syndrome. So, let's get back to how WU has let XP users down:

The real truth about XP is that there are something like 300 [or perhaps more] updates not available from anywhere "officially" much less WU!

Most disturbingly, many of them read like when XP was so new, there wasn't yet SP1. The difference is that these bugs were CAUSED by SP2!!

The dates on these are fascinating; go read the relevant KB articles [Oh, cannot find the articles? Gee, I guess you can't get there from here, sorry; but these articles are readily available -- if you know to look for them! Havent got the time? Well, with six-digit numbers, there's merely one million of them to research! How lazy of you!]

It is quite interesting that some of them, never to appear in WU, appear as recently as September 2004, about a month after SP2 was released. Some continue to pour out of MS with much more recent dates as we are roughly now about 1.5 years past SP2. The list just keeps on growing...

It is quite arguable that a more stable XP system, with a whole lot of work applied, can be obtained by applying SP1 only, as well as literally several hundred additional updates, some of which can be obtained from WU. Most cannot; they were only included within SP2, so WU has decided [for you!] that it doesn't have to supply them. Still think the WU route serves you so well?

Microsoft has announced that Vista will be released sometime, perhaps at the end of this year, perhaps sometime next year. It really doesn't matter; look at MS's track record: Has anything EVER been released on time? A good position to take is to add n months to an MS promise where n is between 3 and 16 months.

Regardless of this, MS has arrogantly announced that the SP3 for XP won't be released until AFTER Vista launches [and gets them even more money!]. Thus, anyone want to speculate on just how many months and years before we get WU to support what is currently AVAILABLE [if you "know where to look" and I do NOT mean WU!]?

WU has also let you down in more short-range ways: Why do some fixes become available to WU as much as 9 months after they are released as security bulletins? I maintain a list of fixes from MS. Let's call it the "I haven't the foggiest why these aren't yet at WU" list. In some cases, as much as 9 months after I already downloaded them, and routinely install in my customers' machines, they arrive, as if by magic, in WU. Is that an effective "timeliness quotient" for WU for you?

Turning to the somewhat separate subject of IE/OE SP1: I would assume most readers who use 98SE want IE 6.0 SP1 instead of IE 5.0, the released-with-system version [or even IE 5.5, released with ME].

Think WU gives you all of the updates for that either? Think again:

There are at least 38 updates [I have all 38; I'll reserve judgement that there aren't still more] to IE, and yes, while some of them CLAIM to be cumulative, I frankly don't trust that completely. But that point doesn't matter either way, because clearly some of them are NOT cumulative at all! I obtained all of them in a straight-forward way by doing a modicum of research at microsoft.com. But some of them never were and apparently never will be at WU.

This issue applies to anyone using 98 First Edition, 98SE with or without the SP, ME, NT 4.0, Win2K, and even XP as long as you do not install SP2.


So, if I have woken any of you up to reality, then I have done my job. Anyone who wants more information about the 98SE SP or related issues is welcome at the MSFN group, etc.

cjl [I have no financial connection with any organization mentioned in this post]

 

After reading your diatribe I need to ask one question. Why aren't you using an alternative OS? I find my Win98SE setup quite stable and secure from using Windows Updates, Opera and Panda. I do my own tweaking. It's not hard and the time to do it is inconsequential to me.