Windows 98 service pack 2

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.

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 I do prefer official updates, as long as they have been found to work.

For example, the update from Microsoft even the updated one they provide is still buggy. 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. 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.

HighPingDrifter ,. 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. 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! 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. 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!

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. 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?

It updated Version 9. But all of the rest of the 9x world consisted of re-releases, the kind you have to pay for, not Service Packs! In the case of 98SE, WU basically is a cruel joke. 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.

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!

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 Some updates were mis-released on WU; misreleased? Yes, this means that you cannot apply the updates to 98SE yet they are there. 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.

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.

If you make the update "naked" and run it manually, the zealot-manager-imposed restriction lifts; reading the. 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.

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! 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 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. 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 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. Thus, in 9x we have choices that MS has decided for you to make you not have a choice. CRD-handling program of Win 3. 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. 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. System Tools. Smart Defrag. K-Lite Mega Codec Pack. K-Lite Codec Pack Update.

Mozilla Firefox. Windows Cannot Find Gpedit. Booo 2. Not Geeky 3. Average 4. Good 5. Major Geeks Special Offer:. While Unofficial Windows 98 Second Edition Service Pack has been downloaded many times and used with great success, please note that you use this at your own risk. You should at least back up your registry. Beyond that, you should have both your original Windows 98se DVD or files.