A few weeks ago, this pop-up from the "AOL System Msg" started to appear when logging into AOL Instant Messenger using client version 4.8; the last one that didn't require Internet Explorer and worked on Windows 95:

"Hello. The version of AIM you’re using is going away as of November 30th. To continue using AIM, please download the latest version here."

I initially called bluff on this, since AOL had pulled stunts like this a few times before. Today, however, it finally happened: AIM 4.8 will no longer connect to the service.

Now, I'm not going to say that this is of much practical significance. The AIM network is practically a ghost town these days, and I all but ceased using it three years ago simply because none but one of my acquaintances ever use the service anymore. If I'm surprised about anything, it's the fact that AOL still exists at all! Still, I'm a bit miffed: AIM worked so well for so long, it needed a lot less overhead than whatever passes for online chat today (Skype? SMS texting on smartphones? Having a Facebook window open 24/7?), and I'm sad to see one more relic of the Win95 age slip away.

I also suspect that this incompatibility is artificial. If AOL had truly changed its protocol, I would expect AIM 4.8 to time out altogether instead of connecting and throwing me off. As it stands, the client will verify the login, "Starting Services" will appear, and the buddy-list window loads for a split-second...before I'm logged out again and have an AIM message from "AOL System Msg" thrown in my face. I assume that to connect, the server does a "handshake" with data in the client's "proto.ocm" file. Would it be possible to hack this to spoof a more recent version and get 'ole 4.8 working again?

(Incidentally, AIM's ICQ 2002a cousin still works and connects; though I never knew anyone who used ICQ to chat in the first place.)

First off, why is it so hard to find the tiny little "Sign In" thing to Log In here? The design of this website used to be nicer too, but I digress.... actually no I don't digress. Why does everything related to computers seem to be getting worse?

Well, I'm at the Library using god knows what version of Windows crap this is (probably 7), but I"m usingWord 2016, and it's the biggest, ugliest, stupidest pile of worthless crap I've ever seen in my entire life. Windows 3.1 and Word 6 were superior looking and working compared to this dreck. How does Microsoft get away with re-packaging the same absolute crap year after year, when it only gets more stupid and worse looking, and more clunky? I've had it with computers. They suck!!!!!

Windows ME (I know 2000 is similar, but it's not 100% the same as ME) was the zenith of a nice looking user interface and having intuitive and elegantly designed menus and screens. Why does everything on the computer now have the plain, barren, sterile, crappy, broken-looking, half-finished design of a cheap tablet or Iphone? And why is every stupid button so dang small too?

I hate new computers. I'm going to keep using my Windows ME computer forever. Ta Ta.

Hello,
i finally ressurected by ultimate Win98 machine (in multiboot a have WinXp, Win7 and Linux LMDE 2 too), but primary purpose is Win98Se retro gaming.

I had problem with board, old one Asrock Conroe 865 died and used some Asus P5PE-VM - which wasnt optimal - regardless of OS, new one is again Conroe and its stable 865, but forgot old Win 98 dirty tricks, after 2 years.

 I have some problematic devices is Device manager, how to fix it?

I using Core 2 duo cpu, 4 GB of DDR1 - limit by some patch from here to 1024 MB and , SATA Sandisk 240GB SSD+ Sata driver from some guy here.

I have not any IDE device, but IDE ports are still enabled in the Bios, i have 1 Sata disk on Sata1 port and 2 Sata DVD writer on same PCI SATA Controller - Sillicon image something.

Have 2 unknown devices and few ones in problems (exclamation marks).

Look at pictures, sorry Windows is czech, but device names are usually in the english.

Problems are 2 unknow device, exclamation marks on IDE devices and Motherboard resources with exclamation mark - share resources error.

I'm decrypting the wikileaks Vault-7 file released last night, and I'm seeing a bunch of MS .MSU files inside this 500 mb archive.  I'm not sure what this means or why they're there.  These are somehow related to the CIA and their ability to hack various platforms, phones, and OS's.

I just got an NEC Versa SX laptop. I did not come with the optical or floppy drive. It came with a Windows 2000 install. The hard drive doesn't sound very healthy, it clicks a lot. So I want to replace it with a Compact flash card via a Compact Flash to IDE adapter and install Windows 98SE. I copied the Windows 98SE setup files to the compact flash card via my modern PC and a USB card reader. Now I need to run the Windows 98 setup program to install Windows 98 onto the disk. But without a floppy drive or optical drive, I have no way of doing this. I need to make the compact flash card bootable, but I haven't been successful in doing this. The compact flash card is a 133x Transcend 8GB card. I connected the compact flash to IDE adapter internally to a desktop via my adapter. I booted the desktop off a Windows 98 boot and ran SYS C:. I then removed the floppy and restarted the desktop, but the desktop was not able to boot from the compact flash to IDE adapter, so I assume the NEC won't either. I tried running SYS C: twice. Both times it said "System Transferred". Bottom line, I need to make the compact flash card bootable so I can run the Windows 98 setup. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

See:

http://www.dosforum.de/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=11599

(in german)

It basically shows a sceenshot after D2 crashed, showing a dependency to a w2000-DLL.

I have the same phenomenon, and will start a research. Hopefully just a small problem. Any ideas welcome...

This might be of interest to some here:

===========
A ‘smart’ clock with Windows 98 (and Raspberry Pi)
March 7, 2017
http://fixmibug.com/a-smart-clock-with-windows-98-and-raspberry-pi.html
============
 

I think they mean "A Smart Watch with Windows 98 and Raspberry Pi".
One thing that maybe someone here can explain:

============
The truth is more complicated is to get to the software itself, because of copyright and distribution details. The case of Windows 98 is very particular. After the agreement between Microsoft and Sun Microsystems, Windows 98 is not available through MSDN, therefore, there is a legal way to get the operating system beyond buying a physical copy on eBay or another similar site.
============

What is this agreement between MS and Sun, and how exactly does it affect Win-98 distribution/availability (or ownership?) ?


 

Hello,
i just wonder if someone tried Unraid - QEMU virtual machine with GPU Passthrought, is working well for WinXP 32bit gaming with old Geforce 8400GS with Z68 board and Core i5 2500S - it would work with everything with IOMMU support (Intel VT-d).

  Unraid is primary for big custom Raids, but has Virtual machines plugin which is based on KVM, so PCI-E and PCIE and USB devices passthrough is possible and few VMs can runs in parallel.

I was wondering if a motherboard with an embded processor would work good with Windows 98 or 9.x in general. I am refering to boards with a processor such as the  celeron j800/900, n3050/n3150, amd a4-500, 16-5200 ,e-350, etc. These boards are cheap, low power, and minimal, making them seem pretty good for windows 9.x. I know they are probably too modern but it seems like a good idea. Just a thought here. 

I'm looking for a PCI card that can handle 300Mbps and has Win98SE drivers. The oldest card I could find has ME drivers but not 98. I thought it would still work with 98 but no. Is there any PCI wireless N card that has drivers for Win98 SE? If so please let me know the model number and maybe a link to the driver. I looked at the Airlink101 products which someone mentioned as working with 98SE but the only drivers I could find were for XP and above. I know I can use an external Access Point in client mode but I'd rather have an internal solution.

TIA

Tom L

Hoe to get windows 9x run with 8GB of physical ram without limiting it?

I have a Pentium MMX 233MHz motherboard with 128MB RAM and a 120GB hard drive partitioned into an 8GB and a 112GB partition. The video card is an ATI RageXL PCI card with 8MB RAM. I'm trying to do a fresh install of 98SE into the 8GB partition after using FDISK and FORMAT so I know the disk is clean. After installation, Windows reboots and I get

While initializing device IOS
Windows protection error. You must restart your computer

every time I start up. I just installed ME on this machine and it works fine but I'd really like to use 98SE if possible. I like being able to reboot into DOS mode.

Any advice for me? TIA

Tom L

Hello all. 

I am a proud owner of a D600 I managed to get running with the help of people from here and Vogons. 

I was looking through what other laptops I could pick up cheaply and get 98 SE running on it. 

I see alot of posts about D610's and D810's. Though very few on the Precision M70, has anyone tried to get 98 running on it?

http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/precn/en/spec_precn_m70_en.pdf

In theory it is possible. 915PM Chipset, IDE Drive, Sigmatel STAC 975X AC97. However I am not sure about the Nvidia Go1400 Graphics card. (Based on a Go6800). I can find drivers for 98 with the desktop 6800, but not anything specifically for the mobile versions. The alternative is to softmod the 1400 to a 6800, I think there are drivers for 6800? Also it is an MXM 3 based connection which is PCIE Will this be a problem?

Is there anything else I should watch out for before taking the plunge? Is the 915PM Chipset drivers or workaround stable?

Cheers!

i cant find a better way to state teh title w/o making it too long :/

but some thinsg that arent being installed from sp3.cab just hang infex, i cant tell if its because the system has 1GB of Ram? or if its because buggy SiS board being buggy.  i left it idle for 2 hours and doesnt Look like its doing anything and in WinTop when this happens No CPU% being used and only has 0:01 Processor Time the system is somewhat unresponsive when thsi happens and if i bring up the task manager via ctrl+alt+del it shows the process has hung "Infex (Not Responding)"

any way to debug whats going on?

I have come like many others on this site looking for informations about today computer hardware which is working with Windows 98.

To make future searches of many others easier to find solution I will here write names of "modern" MBO which support Windows 98.

Conditions to enter this list are:

1) It is now in shops near you (not internet but in real shops)

2) MBO are supporting 2007 tehnology, Windows 98 SE and we can still find official drivers

UPDATE SUMMER 2011:

For this update it have been used information from Amazon because it is possible from this site to buy MBO in ulmost every state.

Biostar DDR2 Micro ATX Motherboard, with C7-D 1.6 GHz Processor, VIA CN896+8237S chipset (it is possible to download Win 98 SE official drivers for integrated graphics + IDE, SATA II from VIA web site). In theory processor C7-D 1.6 GHz is possible to change with Nano x2 because they are pin-to-pin compatible.

JetWay J7F4K1G5S-LF VIA C7 VIA NanoBGA2 VIA CN700 Mini ITX (SATA II, Max memory 1 GB)

Intel LAD865GVIPL Intel Celeron M @ 1.3GHz Socket 478 Intel 865GV (SATA I, Max memory 2 GB)

BIOSTAR P4M890M7SE LGA 775 VIA P4M890 (SATA I, max memory 4 GB)

AS ROCK AM2NF3-VSTA (support CPU until Phenom II X4 3.5 GHz, max 16 GB)

Earlier writen updates about MBO (2007-2010):

INTEL socket 775:

MBO ABIT, SG 80DC, SIS 661FX, BUS 800 MHz, VGA, SATA I (end of production december 2008)

*MBO ABIT, IP-95, VIA P4M890, DDR II, BUS 1066 MHz, SATA I (end of production december 2008)

MBO ASRock 775i65G R2.0, intel865, DDR I, SATA I

MBO ASROCK, 4COREDUAL-SATA2 R2.0, VIA PT880 Ultra, BUS 1066 MHz, DDR II, SATA 2

*MBO ASROCK, 4CoreDX90-VSTA R2.0, VIA® P4M900, VGA max 256 MB directX 9.0,

MBO ASUS P5SD2-VM mATX/SiS672/1066/DDR2/VGA 256 MB/PCI-ex Vista premium ready

MBO ECS P4M800Pro-M2, VIA P4M800Pro, VGA (rev 2.0) , DDR II,

*MBO ECS 662/1066T-M2, SIS 662, VGA 128 MB, DDR II, mATX

MBO Gigabyte GA-8I865GME-775-RH (rev. 2.0).

*MBO MSI P4M900M3-L, VIA P4M900, BUS 1066, SATA II (end of production in fall 2008)

Socket 479

*MBO INTEL SiS662, Celeron 220 + MBO BLKD201GLY2 DDR II - 667, VGA SiS662 (production started in winter 2008/2009)

Socket 478

MBO ASROCK P4i65GV, i865GV, DDR, zvuk, VGA, S-ATA, LAN, AGP, mATX, s. 478

AMD

Today in shops near you it is ulmost impossible to find AM2 socket MBO which are supporting Windows 98.

After looking very hard I have make this finding:

socket AM2/AM2+:

MBO ASROCK, s. AM2, AM2NF3-VSTA, NVIDIA nFORCE 3 250, BUS 2000 MHz, AGP, serial ATA (it is still in shops (2011))

MBO AsRock ALiveDual-eSATA2. This is hybrid chipset. Both original chipset are having Win 98 drivers, but together ?

Interesting is that in CPU support list AsRock has added socket AM3 Phenom II, but officialy socket AM3 is not supported ?

Socket 754.

MBO ABIT, s. 754, KV85, VIA K8M800, BUS 1600 MHz, VGA, serial ATA (end of production december 2008)

MBO MSI K8MM3-V. Only 1 IDE. (end of production in 2008)

Abit has gone out of business ( http://alienbabeltech.com/main/?p=3675 )

To MBO with sign * are having integrated GPU and it is not possible to add graphic card supported with official drivers because Windows 98 has not recieved PCIE support.

Summer 2010 situation:

INTEL socket 775:

ASRock 4CoreDual-SATA2 R2.0 support processors until Core 2 Quad Q6700(G0), Core 2 Duo E7500(R0), Pentium Dual Core E6300(R0), Celeron E3300. It is possible to download Win98SE drivers (IDE, RAID, SATA and USB) from Via site. MBO is still in shops (Amazon and others)

Small number of laptops like Asus K50C are using SiS672+968 chipset for which is possible to download graphic card drivers

INTEL socket 478:

MB Asrock P4I65GV Zvuk+VGA+SATA+LAN

3rd section update (summer 2010). First has been in 2007

Hi all. i just bought a used PC.

System specifications:

Processor: AMD Sempron 2500+
Motherboard: Gigabyte K8T800-8237
Graphics Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce 6200 128 MB
RAM: 1024 MB now (can be upgraded up to 3072 MB - 3x 1024 MB sticks)
Hard Drive: Maxtor IDE 40 GB 
CD/DVD:SONY CD-DVD ROM DVD-RW
Operating System: Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 (i bought the hardware to build a Windows 98 Second Edition with unofficial upgrades to year 2016).

I'm looking for proper drivers for NVIDIA GeForce 6200 for both Windows 98 SE and for Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2. 

I'm also looking for motherboard drivers for Windows 98 SE.

Thanks in advance.

i understand Network speeds will be abysmal in 98SE, but seriously only 80Kb/s? i have a 30Mbit Down Connection, i know the Ethernet adapter is atbest never going to go blazingly fast but a 10/100 in full duplex should at least achieve alot faster No? anything to fix this?

ok so i managed to get Java 6u23 installed (the installer works if you grab from filehippo),  since the offical OSRS Client uses an incompatable MSI version, i decided to try OSBuddy after having to find Where 98 was thinking System Root is (C:\Windows\ instead of how it is w/ vista and up in c:\Users\name\) and copying a OSBuddy Folder thats normally in the User profile root to C:\Windows i can get the loader to show it tries to do first time download of OSRS but it just stalls there. No Disk Activity to indicate its downloading S L O W L Y (see my previous thread in thsi section best i get swapping cables and Port in my AIO Modem is 250kb/s)

Has anyone had luck? or will it work in latest usable SeaMonkey? (Browser version) (2.6.1)

*** Windows 98SE version of this forum thread ***

LIST OF SOFTWARE THAT SUPPORTS WINDOWS 95

In this forum thread, you will find a list of software that supports Windows 95.

A link to a download source will be provided for freeware, shareware and open source software. For commercial software, you will need to search for sites such as Amazon or eBay for older versions of software that supports Windows 95.

NOTE: Please DO NOT post links to illegal download sources for commercial software as MSFN will not tolerate software piracy.

*** K E Y  L E G E N D ***

LAST - Last version of software to support Windows 95
ONGD - Ongoing development
FREE - Freeware/Open Source
SHAR - Shareware (free trial of software); while certain free trials of software will expire, otherwise will either not expire or have reduce functionality
$$$$ - Commercial software that must be purchased
² - Requires Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2.x; will not run on the original release of Windows 95 or Windows 95 OEM Service Release 1
???? - Unknown

If you can find any, please post any details of current or the last version of software and utilities that work under Windows 95.

1. If it is the LAST or ONGD.
2. If the software is FREE, SHAR, or $$$$. If $$$$, no link will be provided.
3. A URL link for where the FREE or SHAR version of the software can be downloaded or purchased ($$$$). If you're trying to find the FREE or SHAR version of the software, but you're unable to find the link, let me know to see how this can be resolved.
4. If the software requires ², place it after the name of the software.
5. If necessary, the date of when the software was released in yyyy-mm-dd format.

Here are the list of notable software that I have installed on my 32 GB CF drive running Windows 95 OSR 2 in VMware Workstation Player in alphabetical order:

LAST - FREE - 7-zip 9.20 (2010-11-18) --- http://www.7-zip.org/a/7z920.exe
LAST - FREE - Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.1 (2001-12-25) --- http://www.oldversion.com/windows/acrobat-reader-5-1
LAST - FREE - Attribute Changer 5.30 (2007-05-30) --- ac530.exe
???? - FREE - DOSBox 0.7.4 (2010-05-14) --- http://www.dosbox.com/download.php?main=1
LAST - FREE - FileZilla 2.2.18 (2005-12-29) --- http://www.oldapps.com/filezilla.php?old_filezilla=46
LAST - FREE - Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.12 (2007-05-30) --- https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/1.5.0.12/win32/en-US/
LAST - FREE - GeneRally 1.05 (2003-12-22) --- http://www.planet-generally.de/download.php?view.71
???? - FREE - GrafX2 2.2.4² --- http://pulkomandy.tk/projects/GrafX2/downloads
LAST - FREE - Internet Explorer 5.5 SP2 (2000-07-08) --- http://www.oldversion.com/windows/internet-explorer-5-5-sp2
LAST - FREE - Java Runtime Environment 1.5.0 Update 5 (2005-09-18) --- http://www.oldapps.com/java.php?old_java=20
LAST - $$$$ - Norton SystemWorks 2001²
???? - FREE - PhotoFiltre 7.2.1 --- http://static.infomaniak.ch/photofiltre/utils/pf7/pf7-en-7.2.1.zip
LAST - FREE - PowerDesk 5.0.1.6 --- https://web-beta.archive.org/web/20070319093210/http://www.v-com.com/download/pd/pd5free.exe
LAST - FREE - Apple QuickTime 5.0.5 (2002-07-15) --- http://www.oldversion.com/windows/quicktime-5-0-5
LAST - FREE - SeaMonkey 1.1.19 (2010-03-16) --- https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/seamonkey/releases/1.1.19/
LAST - FREE - Stella 2.8.4 (2009-07-04) --- https://github.com/stella-emu/stella/releases/tag/release-2.8.4
LAST - FREE - Winamp 2.95 (2003-06-26) --- http://www.oldversion.com/windows/winamp-2-95
LAST - SHAR - WinZip 8.1 SR1 (2002-10-24) --- http://www.oldversion.com/windows/winzip-8-1-sr1

Unfortunately, most of the older versions of software such as Attribute Changer can no longer be found on its original website.

If you have found more software that supports Windows 95, please post them here.

SOFTWARE THAT SUPPORTS WINDOWS 98 SECOND EDITION

Here you will find a list of software that supports Windows 98 Second Edition (Win98SE).

For Freeware / Shareware / Open Source programs a link to a download source will be provided.

Note: Do NOT post links to illegal download sources for Commercial Software / Cracks / KeyGens / Warez etc!!!

To find older versions of commercial software,, try searching places like http://www.amazon.com and others, will show second hand and old stock software. Auction sites are also useful but are often plagued with sophisticated piracy!

KEY:

LAST = Last version of software to support Win98SE

ONGD = On Going Development. This software is still being developed and still supports Win98SE

FREE = Freeware (Completely Free)

SHAR = Shareware (Free trial)

$$$$ = Commercial Software. Must be purchased

???? = Unknown at the present time.

Please post any details of current or the last version of software and utilities that work on Win98SE.

Please for the software:

- if it is the LAST or ONGD

- if it is FREE, SHAR or $$$$

- a URL for where it can be downloaded (FREE and SHAR) or purchased ($$$$)

Online Virus Scanners

With less and less updated Virus Scanners for Windows 98 available, users may find online Virus Scanners their best form of protection. Here is a list of those that still support Windows 98. Note: Some require Internet Explorer 6 to operate.

Symantec Security Check (Virus Detection and Security Scan) - http://security.symantec.com/sscv6/WelcomePage.asp

Eset Online Scanner - http://www.eset.com/onlinescan

McAfee Free Scan - http://home.mcafee.com/Downloads/FreeScanDownload.aspx

Trend Micro Housecall 6.5 - http://housecall.trendmicro.com/uk