Main

 
JEM of a Tip - 98

JEM of a Tip - 98

April 6, 2000

Here are some Win98 tips I've come across and find helpful. I installed W98 in December 1998.

Check out the W95 tips also. Many also work in W98.

Table of Contents

General Win98 Tips

JEM of a Tip: Arranging the desktop and Explorer settings is very difficult in W98. I have in fact found it almost impossible. Windows Annoyances also reports similar experiences. I really have no tip yet but am looking. The TweakUI Exporer Tab "Save Explorer Settings" does not work either.(010299) I've given up! (022899) Use PC Mag's Extra ViewFix to fix some of these - highly recommended! (040299)

JEM of a Tip: Drag short-cuts to the W98 Quick Launch toolbar of the Taskbar. Its the same as putting a short-cut in the tray using an appropriate utility except the util is not needed. (010299)

JEM of a Tip: ERU (Emergency Restore Utility) was in W95 and the W98 betas but was not included on the final W98 version. I'm not sure why but I used the W95 version and ERU seemed to work fine but ERD "hung" my system. Beware!. (010299)

JEM of a Tip: Most updates to W98 must be installed via the WWW from Microsoft. This is a nice feature so long as it works (010299)

JEM of a Tip: Here are some installation notes I wrote after installing W98 over W95. Click Here. (010299)

JEM of a Tip: Be careful installing Win98 SE (second edition). There seem to be lots of problems with older PCs. Defi9nitely take the option during installation to save files for an un-install. Also, Microsoft (www.microsoft.com) has a shut-down patch update if your PC won't shut down. There are issues also with HP external CD burners and its Shuttle connector (I never got it to work). I personally uninstalled SE in favor of Service Pack A. (042000)

Return to Top

Windows Explorer Tips

JEM of a Tip: As mentioned above, using TweakUI in Control Panel to set Windows Explorer like you want does NOT work. (010299) Get ViewFix (see above)!

JEM of a Tip: You need to install MSIE5 in order to get cascading menus from the toolbar (the >> item). (Thanks Jamie) (040600)

Return to Top

Internet (MSIE and other stuff) & Networking Tips

JEM of a Tip: Get PowerToys for IE from the Microsoft WWW site. This includes a Toggle program to turn on viewing graphics on WWW pages. They install this in the Links toolbar of MSIE4. I recommend deleting it from there and putting it on the QuickLaunch Taskbar toolbar. (010299)

JEM of a Tip: Save WWW pages with graphics using Outlook Express. From MSIE, use File-Send-PageBy Email to open Outlook Express. From here, check Tools-SendPicturesWithMessage and sent the message to yourself. Then, when the e-mail arrives, you'll have the message with the entire page and graphics as a single .eml file which can be saved for later reference via Outlook. From outlook, you can also extract the graphics if desired.  (010299)

Return to Top

Fax, Modem, & General Communications Tips

JEM of a Tip: When trying to use a DUN connection that used to work, I suddenly got "Error 630 - Modem in use by another program" This happened after I messed around with some DUN settings. (I really think it was my fault and not W98's.) I could NOT get rid of it and thus could not dial out with anything (Dialer, fax, ...). I suggest the following to get around the problem. (010299)

  • turn-off the PC and re-start it - if you're lucky, this will fix the problem (this is the Microsoft Knowledgebase suggestion)
  • if you have an old external (serial port) modem, try adding it and see if it works; then try your problematic modem - if you're lucky, this will fix the problem
  • turn off the PC, remove the modem, re-start the PC, turn off the PC, put the modem back in, turn on the PC, the PC should detect new hardware and add it (it should find the drivers since they are already there) - this worked for me!

Return to Top

DOS Tips

Return to Top

Hardware Tips

JEM of a Tip: The new drivers seemd to have helped. (010299)

Return to Top

Year 2000 - Y2K

JEM of a Tip: Get the W98 Y2K patch from the Microsoft WWW site. (010299)

Return to Top

CD Burning and Music Recording

JEM of a Tip: Adaptec's DirectCD does not appear to work with W98 without a lot of tweaking. This can hang your PC really bad. Make sure you have registry backups. More on this later. (010299)

JEM of a Tip: For burning CDs on Win98, I recommend first getting all drivers and firmware up-to-date and then using the following software. Goldenhawks CDRWin for music and EZ-CD-Creator for data.

Return to Top

JEM's General Impressions

After 2 1/2 months of using W98, my impressions are:

  • I hate the lack of being able to arrange and set Windows Explorer and Desktop.
  • I am using up-to-date drivers for my devices.
  • It seems more robust and stable.
  • The modem seems a little more problematic.
  • Dial-Up networking is up-to-date.
  • Installation went relatively smoothly.
  • MSIE4 is faster but Windows Explorer is slower than in W95.

Overall, its marginally worth the trouble unless there's something you specifically want.

Return to Top

Return to Utility JEM Page

John Myers jemyers@aol.com Copyright 1998 http://users.aol.com/jemyers/jemtip98.htm