FULL Win98 SE Support Until 2006?

I am running Windows 98 SE which is badly in need of cleaning and
reinstallation. I have read the Microsoft notice on Windows 98 SE support
through June 2006. Do you think this means that if I format my drive and do
a clean install of 98 SE I can expect to connect with Windows Update and
download ALL the past updates until June 2006?
I am not able to manage the new PC I would like at this time. In
another year, I could.
Thanks for your help.

Chris

"Chris B." emailnameaccount.com.invalid wrote in message
...
I am running Windows 98 SE which is badly in need of cleaning and
reinstallation. I have read the Microsoft notice on Windows 98 SE support
through June 2006. Do you think this means that if I format my drive and
do
a clean install of 98 SE I can expect to connect with Windows Update and
download ALL the past updates until June 2006?
I am not able to manage the new PC I would like at this time. In
another year, I could.
Thanks for your help.

Chris



the updates will be around , thru windows update for quite awhile and
probably elsewhere after that

In ,
Haggis had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

"Chris B." emailnameaccount.com.invalid wrote in message
...
I am running Windows 98 SE which is badly in need of cleaning and
reinstallation. I have read the Microsoft notice on Windows 98 SE
support through June 2006. Do you think this means that if I format
my drive and do
a clean install of 98 SE I can expect to connect with Windows Update
and download ALL the past updates until June 2006?
I am not able to manage the new PC I would like at this time. In
another year, I could.
Thanks for your help.

Chris



the updates will be around , thru windows update for quite awhile and
probably elsewhere after that

I'd really like to see some of the source go to the public domain when the
product life is finally over. For MS to support the OS for 8 years is
actually better than you'd get from most companies. If, for instance, you'd
purchased a copy of Adobe Acrobat 5.0 and you were having issues with it
today they're sure to tell you that you have to upgrade as they no longer
support the program. Or, at least, I suspect that particular company would
as I've known most other companies to do.

It would be interesting, and a great gesture, for Microsoft to open up a
portion of the code so that updates could be made in the private sector as
it's likely that a large number of people (including in the many millions of
boxes in the business spectrum) are going to want to remain with 9x. They
have it now. They don't want to upgrade for price due to price of the OS or
hardware, hassle, and added support calls. While many have and I'm sure more
will the general feelings seem to be that it's quite true that Microsoft
certainly is going above and beyond the call of duty by providing the
additional support durations for the OS though at the same time there's
hopes for an alternative solution at the end of the cycle so that people
aren't forced to upgrade.

Of course, logical thinking would dictate that Microsoft shouldn't do this
from a business perspective. A business must maintain a steady flow of
capital by increasing it's capacity and providing new products or services
in order to remain financially healthy. Not cycling out the older product,
not urging people to upgrade, and supporting products that stopped
generating revenue years ago is a horrid BUSINESS decision. The logical
business choice is to have created a third edition (and no I don't mean ME)
based on the same kernel with lesser hardware requirements and some of the
new features as well as the ability to incorporate newer software such as
the up-coming IEv7 as well as a restore (Only they really need to make that
accessable from OUTSIDE of the operating system but I'm digressing.) which
would have provided the people with older hardware or a love/hate
relationship with the 9x kernel to continue with their current systems and
expectations while giving Microsoft continued revenue from the 9x kernel.
That's just my opinion and nobody ever listens to me.

Galen
--
Signature changed for a moment of silence.
Rest well Alex and we'll see you on the other side.

If is true that there was a certain beauty about windows 98 (You could still
use dos in full mode), Microsoft decision is based on its product lifecycle
(www.microsoft.com/lifecycle) and due to the large number of version, it
nearly impossible to provide consistent support to all these versions. There
are presently numerous open source/public domain groups which are working on
alternate versions of dos and windows. Check www.freedos.org and
www.reactos.com and fusion os http://fos.sourceforge.net/
http://freemenos.sourceforge.net/.
Microsoft has in fact given source code to a certain degree to companies
with more than 1,000 windows licenses so they contribute to the development
of windows.

"Galen" wrote:

In ,
Haggis had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

"Chris B." emailnameaccount.com.invalid wrote in message
...
I am running Windows 98 SE which is badly in need of cleaning and
reinstallation. I have read the Microsoft notice on Windows 98 SE
support through June 2006. Do you think this means that if I format
my drive and do
a clean install of 98 SE I can expect to connect with Windows Update
and download ALL the past updates until June 2006?
I am not able to manage the new PC I would like at this time. In
another year, I could.
Thanks for your help.

Chris



the updates will be around , thru windows update for quite awhile and
probably elsewhere after that

I'd really like to see some of the source go to the public domain when the
product life is finally over. For MS to support the OS for 8 years is
actually better than you'd get from most companies. If, for instance, you'd
purchased a copy of Adobe Acrobat 5.0 and you were having issues with it
today they're sure to tell you that you have to upgrade as they no longer
support the program. Or, at least, I suspect that particular company would
as I've known most other companies to do.

It would be interesting, and a great gesture, for Microsoft to open up a
portion of the code so that updates could be made in the private sector as
it's likely that a large number of people (including in the many millions of
boxes in the business spectrum) are going to want to remain with 9x. They
have it now. They don't want to upgrade for price due to price of the OS or
hardware, hassle, and added support calls. While many have and I'm sure more
will the general feelings seem to be that it's quite true that Microsoft
certainly is going above and beyond the call of duty by providing the
additional support durations for the OS though at the same time there's
hopes for an alternative solution at the end of the cycle so that people
aren't forced to upgrade.

Of course, logical thinking would dictate that Microsoft shouldn't do this
from a business perspective. A business must maintain a steady flow of
capital by increasing it's capacity and providing new products or services
in order to remain financially healthy. Not cycling out the older product,
not urging people to upgrade, and supporting products that stopped
generating revenue years ago is a horrid BUSINESS decision. The logical
business choice is to have created a third edition (and no I don't mean ME)
based on the same kernel with lesser hardware requirements and some of the
new features as well as the ability to incorporate newer software such as
the up-coming IEv7 as well as a restore (Only they really need to make that
accessable from OUTSIDE of the operating system but I'm digressing.) which
would have provided the people with older hardware or a love/hate
relationship with the 9x kernel to continue with their current systems and
expectations while giving Microsoft continued revenue from the 9x kernel.
That's just my opinion and nobody ever listens to me.

Galen
--
Signature changed for a moment of silence.
Rest well Alex and we'll see you on the other side.

Yes, MS will continue to provide limited support for Windows 98 through
June '06. However, you should know that it is getting harder and harder
for them to patch certain vulnerabilities successfully, and there is a
*large* segment of the IT world that is intent on making Windows 9x and
NT disappear as soon as possible, due to the fact of their being
increasingly difficult to protect. The reason for this effort is to
protect their *own* modern networks from attacks perpetrated from
unpatched or unpatchable systems.

I suggest you continue to maintain your own system to the best of your
ability, and move to Windows XP as soon as it is practicable for you,
preferably by the end of this year. These efforts to get rid of "Legacy"
systems promise to increase substantially over the course of this year.
(And, to you MS haters, this is *not* MS wanting to do this for
financial gain. People who are responsible for large portions of the
world's computer infrastructure are demanding it.)

Oh, and waiting for Longhorn to come out before dumping 9x or NT is
*not* a viable solution.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS MVP Shell/User
http://www.grystmill.com/articles/cleanboot.htm
http://www.grystmill.com/articles/security.htm

"Chris B." emailnameaccount.com.invalid wrote in message
...
I am running Windows 98 SE which is badly in need of cleaning and
reinstallation. I have read the Microsoft notice on Windows 98 SE
support
through June 2006. Do you think this means that if I format my drive
and do
a clean install of 98 SE I can expect to connect with Windows Update
and
download ALL the past updates until June 2006?
I am not able to manage the new PC I would like at this time. In
another year, I could.
Thanks for your help.

Chris

The critical updates will be there at Windows Update for a while.
However, there have been a few at this NG who have done a fresh install,
only to report Windows Update would not work afterwards. Even worse,
others could not get the fresh install itself to complete. So, if your
current system is actually still usable, probably it is a good idea to
do a full system backup first. In any event...

Once you have a functioning system, especially one close to a clean
install, do a full system backup. If you have multiple partitions, I
guess a backup is a bit more complex. It depends upon the ties between
the Registry & the other partitions, as to whether they must be backed
up concurrently. Also, if you've changed the hardware since the backup,
you may need to change it back before a restore.

http://home.satx.rr.com/badour/index.html Backup & partitioning strategy
http://home.wanadoo.nl/geurt/home.html Extended Operating System Loader
http://www.acronis.com/products/trueimage/ TrueImage
http://www.arjsoftware.com ARJ Archiver
http://www.betterbackup.com/ Retrospect CD Backup
http://www.bootitng.com/ 's BootIt NG, has a variety of backup
capabilities: Copy to HDD, or Image to HDD or to CD. (TBIView, freely
downloadable, can retrieve individual files from an Image.)
Shrink/expand your partitions without data loss. Multi-boot, if you
dare. Free, run from floppy, but pay up as I did if satisfied. To
install & use beyond 30 days, $34.95.
http://www.cdrfaq.org/ CD R/W Backup
http://www.cyberiapc.com/backup.htm MyOwnBackup (MOB) (Free)
http://www.han-soft.com/habt.php Auto Backup (30-day free trial)
http://www.hp.com/cgi-bin/cposupport...&p=hpcdwriter2
Simple Backup
http://www.karenware.com/ PtReplicator (Free)
http://www.lifesaverbackup.com/
http://www.mvps.org/links.html Should have good info
http://www.pcmag.com/ Lots & lots of sturdy downloads. There is a $20
yearly charge now.
http://www.powerquest.com/partitionmagic Partition Magic
http://www.ranish.com/part/ Ranish Partition Manager
http://www.rescue-me.net/gold.html
http://www.simtel.net/pub/dl/58307.shtml Backups
http://www.stompinc.com/bump/bump_details.phtml?stp Backup MyPC
http://www.thirdstar.net/thirdstar_datarecovery.htm Data recovery
http://www.tomsterdam.com/ BU process, performance, etc.
http://www.v-com.com/product/pc_ind.html Partition Commander
http://www.veritas.com Backup apps
http://www.xxcopy.com/ Detailed Procedure Copy (Free)
http://www.zeleps.com/ Partition re-sizer (Free)

All gathered at this site. Whichever you choose, approach it carefully
and verify all is well. After making a copy, run Scandisk/Defrag on it.
If it's an Image, use it's verify option; perhaps, restore it and do a
Scandisk/Defrag.

http://www.pchelpandconsulting.com/links/windows.html WinDrvExpert
http://www.jermar.com/wdrvbck.htm WinDrvBckup free version

Those last two supposedly back up all currently installed drivers, such
that they can be reinstalled. I never tried it but have seen a favorable
report/two & one that was so-so.


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

"Chris B." emailnameaccount.com.invalid wrote in message
...
| I am running Windows 98 SE which is badly in need of cleaning and
| reinstallation. I have read the Microsoft notice on Windows 98 SE
support
| through June 2006. Do you think this means that if I format my drive
and do
| a clean install of 98 SE I can expect to connect with Windows Update
and
| download ALL the past updates until June 2006?
| I am not able to manage the new PC I would like at this time. In
| another year, I could.
| Thanks for your help.
|
| Chris
|
|

If errors are caused by hardware, then a reinstall of Windows is not the
cure. However...

Setup.exe, run from your Installation CD or from your .cabs folder,
accomplishes either an Over-Install or a Fresh Install. The procedural
difference is you first wipe the prior Windows installation for a Fresh
Install, or install it to different folders. Two folders are involved:
"C:\Windows" & "C:\Program Files", and these files: MSDOS.sys,
Config.sys, Autoexec.bat & System.1st.

For an Over-install, you must direct it to install to C:\Windows,
instead of C:\Windows.000 (where it normally would want to go, when it
sees a "C:\Windows" already exists).

An over-install supposedly leaves all else intact, but there are some
who say it will over-write .vxds (drivers) and otherwise musses
settings. Therefore, it becomes a lot of work to do it, as you must
un/re-install large applications, before/after the over-install. Also,
you must go to Windows Update afterwards, to see whether it detects it
needs to reinstall it's criticals. There is Version Conflict Manager to
do. Finally, they say, it is wise to back up critical data even before
an over-install.

Others swear an over-install is effortless (under an hour) and
effective. Just select to install to the existing directory, when it
makes the offer to go elsewhere. If it fails, then you may need to do a
tweak, such as renaming Win.com before starting. (Personally, I have
never Fresh or Over-Installed Windows. I did actually click Setup.exe
once, and was presented with an alluring screenful-- but I cancelled.)
Well, anyway, take a look at the URLs below, which really apply to both.

You want to do a FRESH Install? Are you pure Windows or OEM, such as
Compaq? If you are OEM, then you can get back to factory condition by
using their recovery CD, such as QuickRestore, which may contain
proprietary drivers and add-ons. Otherwise...

http://www.hexff.com/index.html How to Clean Install
This first has it all, but..
(a) Perhaps don't do the 2.5 swap file thing, &
(b) You may rather have multiple partitions, &
(c) Attend it's warning: Have any non-Windows peripheral drivers
available to install afterwards. Here...
http://www.pchelpandconsulting.com/links/windows.html WinDrvExpert
http://www.jermar.com/wdrvbck.htm WinDrvBckup free version
Those two supposedly back up all currently installed drivers, such that
they can be reinstalled. I never tried it but have seen a favorable
report/three, & at least one report that was "iffy".

http://home.satx.rr.com/badour/html/w98_restore.html Badour has one
http://aumha.org/win4/a/clean.htm Aumha has one
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=250928 How to Reinstall Windows
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=193902
How to Reinstall Windows into a new folder

"Setup.txt", located in the same folder as "Setup.exe", either on CD or
hard drive. This instructs how to run it from a folder on the hard
drive, but "hexff" says it better.
http://support.microsoft.com/default...71&Product=w98
"SU" Error Message List for Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows Me Setup

Get a Startup Diskette from
http://www.bootdisk.com/ , if you don't already have one from "Control
Panel, Add/Remove Programs, Startup Disk tab". Test the Startup
Diskette. Boot it, put in a CD and "DIR" the CD. It will say which
letter is the CD. (Otherwise, it is likely one letter higher than
normal.)

Here is what I know of those Installation CD's. The full list of
capabilities of each type of CD is as follows, says Harper. Each
requires a valid Product key. "Proof" means it must see you had a prior
version. So, if it isn't sitting there, expect to insert a floppy or
earlier CD.

FULL VERSION: Will perform either clean install or upgrade of existing
OS. Does not ask for proof of ownership of an earlier version.

UPGRADE VERSION: Will perform either clean install or upgrade of
existing OS. Will ask for proof of ownership of an earlier version if
one is not installed.

WIN98 SE UPDATES: Will only install if Windows 98 is present on the hard
drive. Cannot be used for a clean install at all.

OEM VERSION: Only installs on a clean, fresh-formatted hard drive. May
be customized to include or omit components that would be found/not
found on a retail CD.

Be sure of your ProductKey...
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion
ProductKey "12345-12345-12345-12345-12345"

(1) "START, Run, RegEdit"
(2) Click plus signs beginning at "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE", & ending with
"Windows".
(3) Click "CurrentVersion" in the left pane under "Windows".
(4) Look in right pane for ProductKey.

That is the one that was used to install your current Windows. Jot it
down, as it may work if different from the one on your Windows 98 Manual
or CD case.


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

"Chris B." emailnameaccount.com.invalid wrote in message
...
| I am running Windows 98 SE which is badly in need of cleaning and
| reinstallation. I have read the Microsoft notice on Windows 98 SE
support
| through June 2006. Do you think this means that if I format my drive
and do
| a clean install of 98 SE I can expect to connect with Windows Update
and
| download ALL the past updates until June 2006?
| I am not able to manage the new PC I would like at this time. In
| another year, I could.
| Thanks for your help.
|
| Chris
|
|