Win98 to be phased out. Collect the updates?

As a result of Microsoft's settlement with Sun on the Java issue, the co. is pulling Windows 98 next week (so http://www.msnbc.com/news/1002736.asp?cp1=1 )

The MS website still says web based support will stay for a long time.
( "Microsoft will also continue to offer a variety of self-help resources on the Product Support Services Web site until at least January 16, 2006, two years after phone support for Windows 98 ends on January 16, 2004. These resources include the Microsoft Knowledge Base and Newsgroups. [...] Microsoft will offer paid-incident support for Windows 98 and Windows 98 Second Edition (SE) through January 16, 2004. Windows 98 and Windows 98 SE downloads for existing security issues will continue to be available through regular assisted-support channels at no charge during this time. [...] Web-based self-help support will be available for at least one year after assisted support ends. "). Reading that, I was still not 100% sure Windows Update would stay on for that long. If anybody has really read the tea leaves, please illuminate us!

Today I decided not to take chances and to download the patch collection right away. It all went rather smoothly. The collection is available here:
http://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/catalog

You have to use Internet Explorer - all other browsers will be immediately derailed. The page will helpfully count the number of items you select, and IE will keep tab of your download history.

The download can be done with one step for selection, and one single download process proper. The result will be a reasonably well organized directory tree structure containing the updates in folders named after knowledge base articles, each patch being accompanied with a "read more" in .html format.

I made a fairly complete selection, including all patches and a few things I never dl'ed before, like .NET, IE6, the latest Media Player, and support for many languages.

The total download size was a bit over 150MB.

 

Hi Flippo,

This was a sweet, selfless post to pin up, for us. As a procrastinator and gently puhed by your reminder, I took the advice and have downloded and burned all to a cd.

I had all of these, but they are spread out over any number of cd's. I kept meaning to do this "tomorrow ". Guess I ran out of tomorrows.

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this.

 

Yes, mucho gras for the compilation!

 

Filippo,
We discussed this subject at our Computer Club Meeting this past Tuesday, and thanks for the Info.
I also downloaded & then burned a CD with all the Goodies.

Again THANKS!!

 

Filippo--My understanding is that Windows Update will continue to work for Win98 past the cutoff date, but nothing new will be added. Just how the Update Catalog site
http://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/en/default.asp?corporate=true
will work is something again. You could always enter WinMe as the system for which you want updates and take the chance they will work on Win98. Or maybe MS will not permit downloads for any OS other than the one it detects on the PC.
Maybe those with Win95 still can tell us what they get when they run WinUpdate.
P.S. And then there is the Security Update site
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/current.asp
Again, theoretically you are taking a risk they will mess up a PC with Win98 on it.

 

Great idea! Didn't work for me though. I started adding item to my download basket, but after adding 12 items, I started getting a JavaScript Permission Denied error...

I think I have most of them installed, and I have multiple backup copies of my harddrives, so I should be ok for a while...

 

>> Again, theoretically you are taking a risk
>> they will mess up a PC with Win98 on it.

Without even attempting a "cross-version update ", I am pretty sure some late EULAs (eg WMP9?) includes verbiage that could be construed as an authorization to make changes that would potentially bomb your OS into malfunctioning under whatever excuse of compatibility / security / trustworthyness.

Even without such legal rights, there's plenty of room for unofficial bombs. In a binary only distro like Win9x, without any security model and well known for its instability, memory leaks, and self destructiveness, there's little keeping the issuer from placing some Easter Egg that will innocently nudge a few machines at a time into gentle malfunction, triggered by some harvested entropy.

We can only hope this is not the case, but our supplier's legal history tells us it just might be.

I care about this because I sort of like Win9x (after changing a lot of stock stuff), and I plan on running it forever for backward compatibility (pun intended).

 

Win98 to be phased out. Collect the updates?

Did I miss something? I went to Microsoft's download site, selected all the downloads and went to the 'download basket'. The directions said 'type your path where you want to save the downloads and hit 'download now'. The only place I saw to do that was in the address bar. I typed the path to my desktop but the download button never lighted up so I could download. I hit the enter key and it took me to my desktop page in the browser but lost the download page. When I hit the 'Back' button, I found I'd lost all the items in my download box. So, I repeated the thing twice with the same results. The 'Download Now' button never activated for me.
What am I doing wrong?

Dusterpilot

 

I have a question ( or two )

If I were to follow the posted links etc. and did downloaded the complete set of Updates and saved them to my spare HD;

Would that download list only include the Critical Updates or does it include all the others too ?

Would I still have the capability of choosing which ones that I wanted to install ?

Would I still have the capability of installing one or two at a time ?

I would think that all of the Critical ones would be OK. ( maybe ) I did have a couple that did mess things up.

But the rest are Pick-N-Choose. Many of them are not needed as they can be system/user dependent.

BillyBob

 

As posted in the PC Mechanic newsletter today, Microsoft will continue to provide all updates and patches for Win98 through 2006.
To download and save all updates, use this url:
http://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/en/default.asp?corporate=true

 

reboot--That is good news.
You can see that the link you provided is the first one in my post above (Windows Update Catalog), but I was not sure if Win98 would still appear on the list, since, as you can see, Win95 does not. Hence my suggestion to use WinME if necessary.
I still would like to hear from users of Win95 if they can use Windows Update. If yes, that would suggest users of Win98 will be able to do the same. We just will not get anything new.
BillyBob--A visit to the Update Catalog site should answer your question whether updates other than Critical will be available. It seems very few are. That is why I would hope a user of Win95 can tell us what is still available, if anything, from the Windows Update site.

 

Welshjim

Thanks for the Info.

But I will need to put that visit off till next year.

This machine will be getting a much deserved 10 day rest.

BB

 

Critical Updates

They seem to be all here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows98/downloads/corporate.asp

 

Gianni--Looks good. Thanks.

 

Update Locations ...

Hi everyone,
I’ve just found this thread. I must admit that my computer with Win 98 SE installed on it has been a bit neglected lately as I use my main computer with XP home edition installed for work (and there has been a lot of that lately).

I was surprised to learn that Win 98 is to be discontinued. I followed your advice Filippo, and went to the Win 98 download site where I found no less than 58 Critical updates and Service packs!

I was a little disparaged that I was prompted to "browse to the download location of your choiceâ€. A little disparaged because I had hoped that I could download all updates to a new folder of my own creation: - "Critical Updates and Service Packsâ€. Does anyone know if I can use this folder to put all 58 updates in or do I have to find each and every folder of each program and download each update to each relevant folder?

Thanks in advance,
H.

 

Hi Pete C

Sounds pretty straightforward. I thought it would be ok, I just thought I'd better check first.

Thanks for your advice, I'll do just that this afternoon.

I appreciate it.


Regards,
H.

 

Confused as usual...

1. Gianni...I went to the site you recommended. The download points to 15 or 16 files instead of just ONE dl, and that was for just ONE security update!
Are you supposed to dl each file separately? How confusing...how are you supposed to know to which update they belong??

2. Someone mentioned a *download basket* at the catalog. All I get at Windows Catalog is a bunch of advertising and no updates found at all???? Searched for Windows 98 se updates and was told there was nothing found.

Tried another place and it wanted to INSTALL them and did not give me any choice.

Where is this download basket found???