"Upgrade Pack 98" and the "1 minute freeze".

I'm not 100% convinced it was just a Registry entry that cured his
sleepy mouse. Anyhow, there must be trillions of Registry keys &
combinations of keys in there! Similar symptoms for me seem always to be
cured by turning off McAfee's auto-System scan. But it used to be worse
than it is now. So, usually I let that stay on. The other 3 McAfee
auto-scans I let be— Download, Internet Filter, & E-Mail. However, I'm
fairly sure E-Mail scan isn't working.


--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
should things get worse after this,
PCR

"PA Bear" wrote in message
...
| Forwarded to Win98 General via crosspost.
| --
| ~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
| MS MVP-Windows (IE, OE, Security, Shell/User)
|
| Sol wrote:
| Hi there.
|
| Way back on the 20th of June I made a post to this NG...
|
|

|
| ...detailing a rather bizarre problem I was experiencing with IE6
| freezing my Win98SE box for about 1 minute every time I closed a
| browser window. Shortly after I made my last post in that thread, I
| formatted my hard drive, reinstalled Win98SE, and haven't
experienced
| the problem since. However, I recently was sent for by friends to
help
| them with some trouble they were having with their old Win98SE
PC...and
| lo and behold, the same stupid IE6 freezing problem that I had been
| experiencing was their trouble! Now, to cut a long story short,
their
| OS disk had been physically destroyed, making an OS reinstall
| impossible, so I looked around in desperation to see if anything had
| turned up since I last checked. As it turns out, over on
| microsoft.public.win98.performance (where I had cross-posted my OP
from
| this NG), I found this:
|
|
http://groups.google.com/group/micro...755958bac9d19c
|
| In disbelief, I went to
|
| http://www.w98upg.net.tf
|
| and downloaded the English version of the so-called "Upgrade Pack
98"
| and ran the full installation of it on my friends' PC (after taking
a
| disk clone/drive image, of course!). Now, I'll be honest: Upgrade
| Pack 98 messed my friends' PC up in a big way. It broke the whole
UI
| and introduced a level of instability into their system that I have
| neither heretofore or since seen in any but the most malware-ridden
| PCs. So, I uninstalled Upgrade Pack 98... But, to my shock, the
IE6
| freezing problem had gone away! I can verify, after repeated tests,
| that the freezing problem was gone for good. I jumped for joy and
left
| my friends' PC to them, considering the matter closed. Later
however,
| they told me that unfortunately several things had broken since I
had
| worked on the PC (that's something you never want to hear...) and I
was
| called back to look at it. Apparently, Upgrade Pack 98 had trashed
MS
| Outlook's (not Outlook Express) ability to open IE6 when HTML web
links
| were clicked in emails. In fact, when they clicked links in their
| emails, nothing at all happened--no errors, no hourglass mouse
icons,
| just nothing. So, disheartened, I restored their hard drive from
the
| clone I had taken (always backup!) and went back to the drawing
board.
|
| Now, if you're still with me at this point and not bored from my
| lengthy prose, I can assure you that here's where my story gets
| interesting.
|
| Upgrade Pack 98 is a single file--a self-extracting exe--that was
| created with WinRAR (I believe). The first time I installed it I
| merely ran the exe which throws up a command prompt giving you the
| installation options. However, on second examination, I found I
could
| extract the contents of the exe (I know, I know; it just didn't
occur
| to me before) and found, after some testing, that a registry patch
file
| called "installa.reg" stored in the exe was what was solely
responsible
| for curing the problem with IE6 freezing. Running this sole
registry
| patch doesn't appear to introduce any of the instability I mentioned
| above into a Win98SE system; but it does add quite a few registry
keys
| and values, many of which don't appear to be responsible for fixing
the
| IE6 problem. While I'm extremely happy to have a fix for this
annoying
| problem, I'm not exactly thrilled that the fix involves introducing
| more changes into the system than seem to be necessary.
|
| So, to come to the ultimate point of this message, can anyone tell
me
| which of the changes made by "installa.reg" fixed this problem?
| I spent as much time as I could adding/changing the registry keys
and
| values on my friends' system exactly as listed in "installa.reg" one
by
| one to see which one would fix the IE6 problem. Unfortunately, I
had
| to quit before I could discover which specific key or value fixed
IE6,
| but I did make a list of all the items I found that did NOT fix the
| problem. However, I don't know if the keys and values needed to be
| changed simultaneous for the problem to be fixed, as, when I was
| testing, I changed the keys and values one by one and not
| simultaneously... And frankly, I looked at each and every line of
the
| blasted file, even printing out a copy on paper, and NONE of the
lines
| looked like they were relevant enough... Yet, one or more of them
DID
| ultimately fix the problem without any question (I tested that
twice)!
| In any event, below I've listed the original contents of
"installa.reg"
| as they are in the file I downloaded, and below that I have listed
the
| lines from "installa.reg" which in my testing did not fix the IE6
| problem. If anyone is interested or could shed some light on this
| business, I'd be more than glad. I'll thank all you intrepid
readers
| who've made it this far now and beg everyone's pardon if I've gone
on
| and on a bit much and/or said anything really bizarre. I'm pretty
| tired and weary right now as I post this, so I believe I'm entitled
to
| sounding a little weird. =) Thanks a million anyway, and cheers to
| everybody.
|
| ***********The original contents of "installa.reg" from Upgrade Pack
| 98:*********************
....snip

PCR wrote:
I'm not 100% convinced it was just a Registry entry that cured his
sleepy mouse.

Believe me, it was "installa.reg" and nothing else that fixed it. This
freezing problem was really weird and specific; I've got no solid
explanation for why it was happening or why this fixed it, but it
definetly did fix it--without a reboot or anything else, the problem
was just solved immediately after applying the patch. I verified that
the patch fixed the problem several times by restoring the hard drive
from the disk image/clone I had taken as a backup before first running
Upgrade Pack 98.

Anyhow, there must be trillions of Registry keys &
combinations of keys in there!

True enough. I did look up many of the items using MS's knowledge base
and googling in general, but I couldn't find any single line that
looked like it conclusively could fix ANYTHING let alone my specific
issue. I was pretty tired the other night, but I now realize I'm
probably asking the impossible. Sigh. Oh well.

Similar symptoms for me seem always to be
cured by turning off McAfee's auto-System scan.

I can assure you the problem wasn't caused by any antimalware/antivirus
apps running in the background, or any other apps for that matter. The
problem just started happening one day without any warning or
indication of trouble and remained until I ran the registry patch,
"installa.reg". At the very least if anyone else reading this is
experiencing the problem I expounded upon in my OP from June 20 of this
year, then maybe this will help them too.

Cheers everybody!

"Sol" wrote in message
ups.com...
|
| PCR wrote:
| I'm not 100% convinced it was just a Registry entry that cured his
| sleepy mouse.
|
| Believe me, it was "installa.reg" and nothing else that fixed it.
This
| freezing problem was really weird and specific; I've got no solid
| explanation for why it was happening or why this fixed it, but it
| definetly did fix it--without a reboot or anything else, the problem
| was just solved immediately after applying the patch. I verified that
| the patch fixed the problem several times by restoring the hard drive
| from the disk image/clone I had taken as a backup before first running
| Upgrade Pack 98.

Well, now you say the whole patch again. I thought you isolated it to
just that incredibly massive "installa.reg"? Of course, running just the
..reg without updating files might lead to problems, if there's a new
file or location in the full patch. Anyhow, I'm convinced enough now.
Sorry to have doubted you, Sol. Sounds like you are onto something, BUT
it may take a lifetime to isolate just what. And PA Bear is too close to
a hibernation!

| Anyhow, there must be trillions of Registry keys &
| combinations of keys in there!
|
| True enough. I did look up many of the items using MS's knowledge
base
| and googling in general, but I couldn't find any single line that
| looked like it conclusively could fix ANYTHING let alone my specific
| issue. I was pretty tired the other night, but I now realize I'm
| probably asking the impossible. Sigh. Oh well.

I'm afraid I must agree. All I can think is... If you can find PA's
Antarctic cave, perhaps play a 3-month long subliminal message to the
contrary!

| Similar symptoms for me seem always to be
| cured by turning off McAfee's auto-System scan.
|
| I can assure you the problem wasn't caused by any
antimalware/antivirus
| apps running in the background, or any other apps for that matter.
The
| problem just started happening one day without any warning or
| indication of trouble and remained until I ran the registry patch,
| "installa.reg". At the very least if anyone else reading this is
| experiencing the problem I expounded upon in my OP from June 20 of
this
| year, then maybe this will help them too.

You'd have to keep a very close watch on the system & see exactly what
changes on the day it begins.

| Cheers everybody!
|