Windows 98
Encyclopedia
Windows 98 is a graphical operating system
by Microsoft
. It is the second major release in the Windows 9x
line of operating systems. It was released to manufacturing on 15 May 1998 and to retail on 25 June 1998. Windows 98 is the successor to Windows 95
. Like its predecessor, it is a hybrid 16-bit
/32-bit
monolithic product with an MS-DOS
based boot loader
. Windows 98 was succeeded by Windows 98 Second Edition on 5 May 1999, then by Windows Me
(Millennium Edition) on 14 September 2000. Microsoft support for Windows 98 ended on 11 July 2006.
. Besides Internet Explorer, many other internet companion applications are included such as Outlook Express
, Windows Address Book
, FrontPage Express, Microsoft Chat
, Personal Web Server and a Web Publishing Wizard, NetMeeting and NetShow Player
(in the original release of Windows 98) which was replaced by Windows Media Player
6.2 in Windows 98 Second Edition.
The Windows 98 shell
includes all of the enhancements from Windows Desktop Update
, an Internet Explorer 4 component, such as the Quick Launch toolbar, deskbands, Active Desktop
, Channels
, ability to minimize foreground windows by clicking their button on the taskbar, single click launching, Back and Forward navigation buttons, favorites, and address bar in Windows Explorer
, image thumbnails, folder infotips and web view in folders, and folder customization through HTML
-based templates.
Windows 98 also integrates shell enhancements, themes and other features from Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95
such as DriveSpace 3, Compression Agent, Dial-Up Networking Server, Dial-Up Scripting Tool and Task Scheduler
. 3D Pinball is included on the CD-ROM but not installed by default. Windows 98 had its own separately purchasable Plus! pack called Plus! 98.
Title bars of windows and dialog boxes support two-color gradients
. Windows 98 menus and tooltips support slide animation. Windows Explorer in Windows 98, like Windows 95
, converts all uppercase filenames to Sentence case for readability purposes, however, it also provides an option Allow all uppercase names to display them in their original case. Windows Explorer includes support for compressed CAB
files. The Quick Res and Telephony Location Manager Windows 95 PowerToys are integrated.
(WDM). This fact was not well publicised when Windows 98 was released, and most hardware producers continued to develop drivers for the older VxD
driver standard, which Windows 98 also supported. The WDM standard only achieved widespread adoption years later, mostly through Windows 2000
and Windows XP
, as they are not compatible with the older VxD standard. Windows Driver Model was introduced largely so that developers would write source compatible drivers for all future versions of Windows. Device driver access in WDM is actually implemented through a VxD
device driver, NTKERN.VXD which implements several Windows NT
-specific kernel support functions. NTKERN creates IRPs
and sends them to WDM drivers.
Support for WDM audio enables digital mixing, routing and processing of simultaneous audio streams and kernel streaming with high quality sample rate conversion
on Windows 98. WDM Audio allows for software emulation of legacy hardware to support MS-DOS games, DirectSound
support and MIDI wavetable sythesis
. A Microsoft GS
Wavetable Synthesizer licensed from Roland
shipped with Windows 98 for WDM audio drivers. Windows 98 supports digital playback of audio CD
s, and the Second Edition improves WDM audio support by adding DirectSound hardware mixing
and DirectSound 3D hardware abstraction, DirectMusic
kernel support, KMixer sample-rate conversion (SRC) for capture streams and multichannel audio support. All audio is sampled by the Kernel Mixer to a fixed sampling rate which may result in some audio getting upsampled or downsampled and having a high latency, except when using Kernel Streaming or third party audio paths like ASIO which allow unmixed audio streams and lower latency. Windows 98 also includes a WDM streaming class driver
(Stream.sys) to address real time multimedia data stream processing requirements and a WDM kernel-mode video transport for enhanced video playback and capture.
Windows Driver Model also includes Broadcast Driver Architecture
, the backbone for TV technologies support in Windows. WebTV for Windows utilized BDA to allow viewing television on the computer if a compatible
TV tuner card
is installed. TV listings could updated from the Internet and WaveTop Data Broadcasting allowed extra data about broadcasts to be received via regular television signals using an antenna or cable, by embedding data streams into the vertical blanking interval
(VBI) portion of existing broadcast television signals.
s, USB scanners and imaging class devices. Windows 98 also introduces built-in support for some USB Human Interface Device class
(USB HID) and PID class devices such as USB mice, keyboards, force feedback joysticks etc. including additional keyboard functions through a certain number of Consumer Page HID controls.
USB audio device class support is present from Windows 98 SE onwards. Windows 98 Second Edition also introduced support for WDM for modems (and therefore USB modems and virtual COM ports). Microsoft driver support for both USB printers, and for USB mass-storage device class is not available for Windows 98; support for both was introduced in Windows 2000
; however generic third party free drivers are available today for USB MSC devices.
1.0 support which enabled Standby (ACPI S3) and Hibernate (ACPI S4) states. However, hibernation support was extremely limited, and vendor-specific. Hibernation was only available if compatible (PnP) hardware and BIOS
are present, and the hardware manufacturer or OEM supplied compatible WDM
drivers, non-VxD
drivers. However, there are hibernation issues with the FAT32 file system, making hibernation problematic and unreliable.
(AGP) support (The USB Supplement to Windows 95 OSR2 and later releases of Windows 95 did have AGP support). Windows 98 has built-in DVD
support and UDF 1.02 read support. The Still imaging architecture (STI) with TWAIN
support was introduced for scanners and cameras and Image Color Management 2.0 for devices to perform color space
transformations. Multiple monitor support allows using up to 8 multiple monitors and/or multiple graphics adapters on a single PC. Windows 98 shipped with DirectX
5.2 which notably included DirectShow
. Windows 98 Second Edition shipped with DirectX 6.1.
, SMB
signing, a new IP Helper API, Automatic Private IP Addressing (APIPA) (also known as link-local addressing), IP multicast
ing (including IGMPv2
support and ICMP
Router Discovery
– RFC 1256), and performance enhancements for high-speed high bandwidth networks (TCP large windows
and time stamps – RFC 1323, Selective Acknowledgement (SACK)
– RFC 2018, TCP Fast Retransmit and Fast Recovery). Multihoming
support with TCP/IP is improved and includes RIP
listener support.
The DHCP client has been enhanced to include address assignment conflict detection and longer timeout intervals. NetBT configuration in the WINS
client has been improved to continue persistently querying multiple WINS servers if it failed to establish the initial session until all of the WINS servers specified have been queried or a connection is established.
NDIS
5.0 support means Windows 98 can support a wide range of network media, including Ethernet
, Fiber Distributed Data Interface
(FDDI), token ring, Asynchronous Transfer Mode
(ATM), wide area network
s (WANs), ISDN, X.25
, and Frame Relay
. Additional features include NDIS power management, support for QoS
, WMI
and support for a single INF
file format across all Windows versions.
Windows 98 Dial-Up Networking supports PPTP
tunneling, support for ISDN adapters, multilink support, and connection-time scripting to automate non-standard login connections. Multilink channel aggregation enables users to combine all available dial-up lines to achieve higher transfer speeds. PPP
connection logs can show actual packets being passed and Windows 98 allows PPP logging per connection. The Dial-Up Networking improvements are also available in Windows 95 OSR2 and downloadable for earlier Windows 95 releases.
For networked computers that have user profiles enabled, Windows 98 introduces Microsoft Family Logon which lists all users that have been configured for that computer, enabling users to simply select their names from a list rather than having to type it in. The same feature can be added to Windows 95 if Internet Explorer 4.0 is installed.
Windows 98 supports IrDA
3.0 that specifies both Serial Infrared Devices (SIR) and Fast Infrared (FIR) devices, which are capable of sending and receiving data at 4 Mbit/s. Infrared Recipient, a new application for transferring files through an infrared connection is included. The IrDA stack in Windows 98 supports networking profiles over the IrCOMM kernel-mode driver. Windows 98 also has built-in support for browsing DFS
trees on SMB
shares.
Windows 98 Second Edition added Internet Connection Sharing
(IP forwarding
and NAT
capabilities). Windows Me
later supported NAT traversal by means of UPnP
. UPnP and NAT traversal APIs can also be installed on Windows 98 by installing the Windows XP
Network Setup Wizard. An L2TP/IPsec VPN
client can also be downloaded. By installing Active Directory Client Extensions, Windows 98 can take advantage of several Windows 2000 Active Directory
features .
WinAlign (Walign.exe and Winalign.exe) are tools designed to optimize the performance of executable code (binaries). WinAlign aligns binary sections along 4 KB boundaries, aligning the executable sections with the memory pages. This allows the Windows 98 MapCache feature to map directly to sections in cache Walign.exe is included in Windows 98 for automatically optimizing Microsoft Office programs. Winalign.exe is included in the Windows 98 Resource Kit to optimize other programs.
Disk Defragmenter has been improved to rearrange program files that are frequently used to a hard disk region optimized for program start.
Windows 98 also supports a Fast Shutdown feature that initiates shutdown without uninitializing device drivers. Windows 98 supports write-behind caching for removable disk drives. A FAT32 converter utility for converting FAT16 drives to FAT32 without formatting the partition is also included.
tape
devices in Windows 98. Disk Cleanup
, a new tool, enables users to clear their disks of unnecessary files. Cleanup locations are extensible through Disk Cleanup handlers. Disk Cleanup can be automated for regular silent cleanups.
Scanreg (DOS) and ScanRegW are Registry Checker tools used to back up, restore or optimize the Windows registry
. ScanRegW tests the registry's integrity and saves a backup copy each time Windows successfully boots. The maximum amount of copies could be customized by the user through "scanreg.ini" file. The restoration of a registry that causes Windows to fail to boot can only be done from DOS mode using ScanReg.
System Configuration Utility (also known as Msconfig
) is a new system utility used to disable programs and services that are not required to run the computer. A Maintenance Wizard is included that schedules and automates ScanDisk
, Disk Defragmenter and Disk Cleanup
. Windows Script Host
, with VBScript
and JScript
engines is built-in and upgradeable to version 5.6.
System File Checker
checks installed versions of system files to ensure they were the same version as the one installed with Windows 98 or newer. Corrupt or older versions are replaced by the correct versions. This tool was introduced to resolve the DLL hell
issue and was replaced in Windows Me
by System File Protection
.
The Windows 98 Startup Disk contains generic, real-mode ATAPI and SCSI CD-ROM drivers and has been preconfigured to automatically start MS-DOS mode with CD-ROM support enabled. For computers without an operating system and that do not support booting from optical drives, the Startup disk can be used to boot into MS-DOS and automatically start Windows 98 setup from the CD.
Windows 98 includes an improved version of the Dr. Watson
utility that collects and lists comprehensive information such as running tasks, startup programs with their command line switches, system patches, kernel driver, user drivers, DOS drivers and 16-bit modules. With Dr. Watson loaded in the system tray, whenever a software fault occurs (general protection fault, hang, etc.), Dr. Watson will intercept it and indicate what software crashed and its cause. All of the collected information is logged to the \Windows\DrWatson folder.
Windows Report Tool takes a snapshot of system configuration and lets users submit a manual problem report along with system information to technicians. It has e-mail confirmation for submitted reports. The system could be updated using Windows Update
. A utility to automatically notify of critical updates was later released.
, Accessibility Wizard and Microsoft Active Accessibility
1.1 API upgradeable to MSAA 2.0. A new HTML Help system with 15 Troubleshooting Wizards was introduced to replace WinHelp
.
Users can configure the font
in Notepad. Microsoft Paint supports GIF transparency. HyperTerminal supports a TCP/IP connection method allowing it to be used as a Telnet client. Imaging for Windows
is updated. System Monitor
supports output to a log file.
with Internet Explorer 5.0 and related shell updates. Also included is basic OHCI-compliant FireWire (IEEE 1394a) DV
camcorder support (MSDV class driver) and SBP-2 support for mass storage class devices , Wake-On-LAN
support (if ACPI compatible NDIS
drivers are present) and Internet Connection Sharing
, which allows multiple computers on a LAN
to share a single Internet connection through Network Address Translation
. Other features in the update include DirectX 6.1 which introduced major improvements to DirectSound
and the introduction of DirectMusic
, improvements to Asynchronous Transfer Mode
support (IP
/ATM, PPP
/ATM and WinSock 2/ATM
support), Windows Media Player
6.2 replacing the older Media Player, Microsoft NetMeeting 3.0, MDAC 2.1
and WMI
. A memory overflow issue was resolved which in the older version of Windows 98 would crash most systems if left running for 49.7 days (equal to 2³² milliseconds). Windows 98 SE could be obtained as retail upgrade and full version packages, as well as OEM and a Second Edition Updates Disc for existing Windows 98 users. Windows 98 Second Edition did not ship with the WinG
API or RealPlayer
4.0 unlike the original release of Windows 98, both of these being superseded by DirectX and Windows Media Player.
in April 1998. Microsoft CEO Bill Gates
was highlighting the operating system's ease of use and enhanced support for Plug and Play (PnP). However, when presentation assistant Chris Capossela plugged a scanner in and attempted to install it, the operating system crashed, displaying a Blue Screen of Death
. Gates remarked after applause and cheering from the audience, "That must be why we're not shipping Windows 98 yet." Video footage of this event became a popular Internet phenomenon.
's pageviews were on Windows 98 systems during October–November, 2003), Microsoft decided to maintain support until July 11, 2006. Support for Windows Me
also ended on this date. By that time, Windows 98 market share had diminished to 2.7%. Windows 98 is no longer available from Microsoft in any form due to the terms of Java-related settlements Microsoft made with Sun Microsystems.
Like its predecessor, Windows 95, and its successor, Windows Millennium Edition (Me), users can bypass hardware requirement checks with the undocumented /im setup switch. This allows installation on computers with processors as old as the 80386.
Unlike Windows 95, Windows 98 requires a Floating-point unit (Math Coprocessor). The Intel 80486DX and later Pentium
processors include a floating-point unit as part of the CPU.
in a PC
that Windows 98 supports is 1.5 GB.
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
by Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
. It is the second major release in the Windows 9x
Windows 9x
Windows 9x is a generic term referring to a series of Microsoft Windows computer operating systems produced since 1995, which were based on the original and later modified Windows 95 kernel...
line of operating systems. It was released to manufacturing on 15 May 1998 and to retail on 25 June 1998. Windows 98 is the successor to Windows 95
Windows 95
Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. It was released on August 24, 1995 by Microsoft, and was a significant progression from the company's previous Windows products...
. Like its predecessor, it is a hybrid 16-bit
16-bit application
A 16 bit application is any software written for MS-DOS, OS/2 1.x or early versions of Microsoft Windows which originally ran on the 16-bit Intel 8088 and Intel 80286 microprocessors. Such applications used a 20-bit or 24-bit segment or selector-offset address representation to extend the range of...
/32-bit
32-bit application
On the x86 architecture, a 32-bit application normally means software that typically uses the 32-bit linear address space possible with the 80386 and later chips...
monolithic product with an MS-DOS
MS-DOS
MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...
based boot loader
Booting
In computing, booting is a process that begins when a user turns on a computer system and prepares the computer to perform its normal operations. On modern computers, this typically involves loading and starting an operating system. The boot sequence is the initial set of operations that the...
. Windows 98 was succeeded by Windows 98 Second Edition on 5 May 1999, then by Windows Me
Windows Me
Windows Millennium Edition, or Windows Me , is a graphical operating system released on September 14, 2000 by Microsoft, and was the last operating system released in the Windows 9x series. Support for Windows Me ended on July 11, 2006....
(Millennium Edition) on 14 September 2000. Microsoft support for Windows 98 ended on 11 July 2006.
Web integration and shell enhancements
Windows 98 includes Internet Explorer 4.01Internet Explorer 4
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 is a graphical web browser released in September 1997 by Microsoft, primarily for Microsoft Windows, but also with versions available for Apple Mac OS, Solaris, and HP-UX and marketed as "The Web the Way You Want It".It was one of the main participants of the first...
. Besides Internet Explorer, many other internet companion applications are included such as Outlook Express
Outlook Express
Outlook Express is an email and news client that is included with Internet Explorer versions 4.0 through 6.0. As such, it is also bundled with several versions of Microsoft Windows, from Windows 98 to Windows Server 2003, and is available for Windows 3.x, Windows NT 3.51, Windows 95 and Mac OS 9...
, Windows Address Book
Windows Address Book
Windows Address Book is a component of Microsoft Windows that lets users keep a single list of contacts that can be shared by multiple programs. It is most commonly used by Outlook Express. It was introduced with Internet Explorer 3 in 1996 and improved in subsequent versions. The Windows Address...
, FrontPage Express, Microsoft Chat
Microsoft Chat
Windows Chat is a simple LAN-based text chatting program included in the Windows NT-line of operating systems, including Windows NT 3.x, 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. It utilizes the NetBIOS session service and NetDDE. Users can chat with each other over a LAN or the...
, Personal Web Server and a Web Publishing Wizard, NetMeeting and NetShow Player
NetShow
NetShow was Microsoft's framework for network broadcasting, intended to compete with RealNetworks RealMedia. It is now renamed and marketed under the Windows Media umbrella....
(in the original release of Windows 98) which was replaced by Windows Media Player
Windows Media Player
Windows Media Player is a media player and media library application developed by Microsoft that is used for playing audio, video and viewing images on personal computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system, as well as on Pocket PC and Windows Mobile-based devices...
6.2 in Windows 98 Second Edition.
The Windows 98 shell
Windows Shell
The Windows shell is the main graphical user interface in Microsoft Windows, and since Windows 95 hosted by Windows Explorer. The Windows shell includes well-known Windows components such as the Taskbar and the Start menu...
includes all of the enhancements from Windows Desktop Update
Windows Desktop Update
Microsoft's Windows Desktop Update was an optional feature included with Internet Explorer 4 , which introduced several updated shell features to the Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0 operating systems...
, an Internet Explorer 4 component, such as the Quick Launch toolbar, deskbands, Active Desktop
Active Desktop
Active Desktop was a feature of Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0's optional Windows Desktop Update that allows the user to add HTML content to the desktop, along with some other features. This function was intended to be installed on the then-current Windows 95 operating system...
, Channels
Active Channel
Active Channel is a website type which was introduced by Internet Explorer 4.0 in 1997. It allows synchronizing website content and viewing it offline...
, ability to minimize foreground windows by clicking their button on the taskbar, single click launching, Back and Forward navigation buttons, favorites, and address bar in Windows Explorer
Windows Explorer
This article is about the Windows file system browser. For the similarly named web browser, see Internet ExplorerWindows Explorer is a file manager application that is included with releases of the Microsoft Windows operating system from Windows 95 onwards. It provides a graphical user interface...
, image thumbnails, folder infotips and web view in folders, and folder customization through HTML
HTML
HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....
-based templates.
Windows 98 also integrates shell enhancements, themes and other features from Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95
Microsoft Plus!
Microsoft Plus! was a commercial operating system enhancement product by Microsoft. The last edition is the Plus! SuperPack, which includes an assortment of screensavers, themes, and games, as well as multimedia applications...
such as DriveSpace 3, Compression Agent, Dial-Up Networking Server, Dial-Up Scripting Tool and Task Scheduler
Task Scheduler
Task Scheduler is a component of Microsoft Windows that provides the ability to schedule the launch of programs or scripts at pre-defined times or after specified time intervals. It was first introduced in the Windows 95 Plus! pack as System Agent but was renamed to Task Scheduler in Windows 98...
. 3D Pinball is included on the CD-ROM but not installed by default. Windows 98 had its own separately purchasable Plus! pack called Plus! 98.
Title bars of windows and dialog boxes support two-color gradients
Color gradient
In computer graphics, a color gradient specifies a range of position-dependent colors, usually used to fill a region. For example, many window managers allow the screen background to be specified as a gradient...
. Windows 98 menus and tooltips support slide animation. Windows Explorer in Windows 98, like Windows 95
Windows 95
Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. It was released on August 24, 1995 by Microsoft, and was a significant progression from the company's previous Windows products...
, converts all uppercase filenames to Sentence case for readability purposes, however, it also provides an option Allow all uppercase names to display them in their original case. Windows Explorer includes support for compressed CAB
Cabinet (file format)
In computing, CAB is the Microsoft Windows native compressed archive format. It supports compression and digital signing, and is used in a variety of Microsoft installation engines: Setup API, Device Installer, AdvPack and Windows Installer.Though Cabinet was originally called Diamond, its .CAB...
files. The Quick Res and Telephony Location Manager Windows 95 PowerToys are integrated.
Windows Driver Model
Windows 98 was the first operating system to use the Windows Driver ModelWindows Driver Model
In computing, the Windows Driver Model — also known at one point as the Win32 Driver Model — is a framework for device drivers that was introduced with Windows 98 and Windows 2000 to replace VxD, which was used on older versions of Windows such as Windows 95 and Windows 3.1, as well...
(WDM). This fact was not well publicised when Windows 98 was released, and most hardware producers continued to develop drivers for the older VxD
VxD
VxD is the device driver model used in Microsoft Windows/386, the 386 enhanced mode of Windows 3.x, Windows 9x, and to some extend also by the Novell DOS 7, OpenDOS 7.01, and DR-DOS 7.02 multitasker...
driver standard, which Windows 98 also supported. The WDM standard only achieved widespread adoption years later, mostly through Windows 2000
Windows 2000
Windows 2000 is a line of operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, business desktops, laptops, and servers. Windows 2000 was released to manufacturing on 15 December 1999 and launched to retail on 17 February 2000. It is the successor to Windows NT 4.0, and is the...
and Windows XP
Windows XP
Windows XP is an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops and media centers. First released to computer manufacturers on August 24, 2001, it is the second most popular version of Windows, based on installed user base...
, as they are not compatible with the older VxD standard. Windows Driver Model was introduced largely so that developers would write source compatible drivers for all future versions of Windows. Device driver access in WDM is actually implemented through a VxD
VxD
VxD is the device driver model used in Microsoft Windows/386, the 386 enhanced mode of Windows 3.x, Windows 9x, and to some extend also by the Novell DOS 7, OpenDOS 7.01, and DR-DOS 7.02 multitasker...
device driver, NTKERN.VXD which implements several Windows NT
Windows NT
Windows NT is a family of operating systems produced by Microsoft, the first version of which was released in July 1993. It was a powerful high-level-language-based, processor-independent, multiprocessing, multiuser operating system with features comparable to Unix. It was intended to complement...
-specific kernel support functions. NTKERN creates IRPs
I/O request packet
I/O request packets are kernel mode structures that are used by Windows Driver Model and Windows NT device drivers to communicate with each other and with the operating system. They are data structures that describe I/O requests, and can be equally well thought of as "I/O request descriptors" or...
and sends them to WDM drivers.
Support for WDM audio enables digital mixing, routing and processing of simultaneous audio streams and kernel streaming with high quality sample rate conversion
Sample rate conversion
Sample rate conversion is the process of converting a signal from one sampling rate to another, while changing the information carried by the signal as little as possible...
on Windows 98. WDM Audio allows for software emulation of legacy hardware to support MS-DOS games, DirectSound
DirectSound
DirectSound is a software component of the Microsoft DirectX library for the Windows operating system. DirectSound provides a low-latency interface to the sound card driver and can handle the mixing and recording of multiple audio streams....
support and MIDI wavetable sythesis
Sample-based synthesis
Sample-based synthesis is a form of audio synthesis that can be contrasted to either subtractive synthesis or additive synthesis. The principal difference with sample-based synthesis is that the seed waveforms are sampled sounds or instruments instead of fundamental waveforms such as the saw waves...
. A Microsoft GS
Roland GS
Roland GS, or just GS, sometimes expanded as General Standard or General Sound, is an extension of General MIDI specification. It requires that all GS-compatible equipment must meet a certain set of features and it documents interpretations of some MIDI commands and bytes sequences, thus defining...
Wavetable Synthesizer licensed from Roland
Roland Corporation
is a Japanese manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, electronic equipment and software. It was founded by Ikutaro Kakehashi in Osaka on April 18, 1972, with ¥33 million in capital. In 2005 Roland's headquarters relocated to Hamamatsu in Shizuoka Prefecture. Today it has factories in Japan,...
shipped with Windows 98 for WDM audio drivers. Windows 98 supports digital playback of audio CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
s, and the Second Edition improves WDM audio support by adding DirectSound hardware mixing
Hardware mixing
Hardware mixing is a performance feature of computer audio hardware which enables sound cards to receive multiple audio streams and play them all at the same time. Hardware mixing improves performance by offloading audio mixing operations from the CPU and performing them at hardware speeds...
and DirectSound 3D hardware abstraction, DirectMusic
DirectMusic
DirectMusic is a deprecated component of the Microsoft DirectX API that allows music and sound effects to be composed and played and provides flexible interactive control over the way they are played. Architecturally, DirectMusic is a high-level set of objects, built on top of DirectSound, that...
kernel support, KMixer sample-rate conversion (SRC) for capture streams and multichannel audio support. All audio is sampled by the Kernel Mixer to a fixed sampling rate which may result in some audio getting upsampled or downsampled and having a high latency, except when using Kernel Streaming or third party audio paths like ASIO which allow unmixed audio streams and lower latency. Windows 98 also includes a WDM streaming class driver
Class driver
In computing, a class driver is a type of hardware device driver that can operate a large number of different devices of a broadly similar type....
(Stream.sys) to address real time multimedia data stream processing requirements and a WDM kernel-mode video transport for enhanced video playback and capture.
Windows Driver Model also includes Broadcast Driver Architecture
Broadcast Driver Architecture
The Broadcast Driver Architecture is a Microsoft standard for digital video capture on Microsoft Windows operating systems. It encompasses the ATSC and DVB standards and gives developers a standardized method of accessing TV tuner devices...
, the backbone for TV technologies support in Windows. WebTV for Windows utilized BDA to allow viewing television on the computer if a compatible
Broadcast Driver Architecture
The Broadcast Driver Architecture is a Microsoft standard for digital video capture on Microsoft Windows operating systems. It encompasses the ATSC and DVB standards and gives developers a standardized method of accessing TV tuner devices...
TV tuner card
TV tuner card
A TV tuner card is a kind of television tuner that allows television signals to be received by a computer. Most TV tuners also function as video capture cards, allowing them to record television programs onto a hard disk much like the Tivo digital video recorder does.-Variants: The interfaces for...
is installed. TV listings could updated from the Internet and WaveTop Data Broadcasting allowed extra data about broadcasts to be received via regular television signals using an antenna or cable, by embedding data streams into the vertical blanking interval
Vertical blanking interval
The vertical blanking interval , also known as the vertical interval or VBLANK, is the time difference between the last line of one frame or field of a raster display, and the beginning of the first line of the next frame. It is present in analog television, VGA, DVI and other signals. During the...
(VBI) portion of existing broadcast television signals.
USB
Windows 98 had more robust USB support (e.g. support for USB composite devices) than Windows 95 which only had support in OEM versions (OSR2.1 or later). Windows 98 supports USB hubUSB hub
A USB hub is a device that expands a single USB port into several so that there are more ports available to connect devices to a host system.USB hubs are often built into equipment such as computers, keyboards, monitors, or printers...
s, USB scanners and imaging class devices. Windows 98 also introduces built-in support for some USB Human Interface Device class
USB human interface device class
In computing, the USB human interface device class is a part of the USB specification for computer peripherals: it specifies a device class for human interface devices such as keyboards, mice, game controllers and alphanumeric display devices.The USB HID class is defined in a number of documents...
(USB HID) and PID class devices such as USB mice, keyboards, force feedback joysticks etc. including additional keyboard functions through a certain number of Consumer Page HID controls.
USB audio device class support is present from Windows 98 SE onwards. Windows 98 Second Edition also introduced support for WDM for modems (and therefore USB modems and virtual COM ports). Microsoft driver support for both USB printers, and for USB mass-storage device class is not available for Windows 98; support for both was introduced in Windows 2000
Windows 2000
Windows 2000 is a line of operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, business desktops, laptops, and servers. Windows 2000 was released to manufacturing on 15 December 1999 and launched to retail on 17 February 2000. It is the successor to Windows NT 4.0, and is the...
; however generic third party free drivers are available today for USB MSC devices.
ACPI
Windows 98 introduced ACPIAdvanced Configuration and Power Interface
In computing, the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface specification provides an open standard for device configuration and power management by the operating system....
1.0 support which enabled Standby (ACPI S3) and Hibernate (ACPI S4) states. However, hibernation support was extremely limited, and vendor-specific. Hibernation was only available if compatible (PnP) hardware and BIOS
BIOS
In IBM PC compatible computers, the basic input/output system , also known as the System BIOS or ROM BIOS , is a de facto standard defining a firmware interface....
are present, and the hardware manufacturer or OEM supplied compatible WDM
Windows Driver Model
In computing, the Windows Driver Model — also known at one point as the Win32 Driver Model — is a framework for device drivers that was introduced with Windows 98 and Windows 2000 to replace VxD, which was used on older versions of Windows such as Windows 95 and Windows 3.1, as well...
drivers, non-VxD
VxD
VxD is the device driver model used in Microsoft Windows/386, the 386 enhanced mode of Windows 3.x, Windows 9x, and to some extend also by the Novell DOS 7, OpenDOS 7.01, and DR-DOS 7.02 multitasker...
drivers. However, there are hibernation issues with the FAT32 file system, making hibernation problematic and unreliable.
Other device support improvements
Windows 98, in general, provides improved—and a broader range of—support for IDE and SCSI drives and drive controllers, floppy drive controllers and all other classes of hardware than Windows 95. There is integrated Accelerated Graphics PortAccelerated Graphics Port
The Accelerated Graphics Port is a high-speed point-to-point channel for attaching a video card to a computer's motherboard, primarily to assist in the acceleration of 3D computer graphics. Since 2004 AGP has been progressively phased out in favor of PCI Express...
(AGP) support (The USB Supplement to Windows 95 OSR2 and later releases of Windows 95 did have AGP support). Windows 98 has built-in DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
support and UDF 1.02 read support. The Still imaging architecture (STI) with TWAIN
TWAIN
TWAIN is a standard software protocol and applications programming interface that regulates communication between software applications and imaging devices such as scanners and digital cameras....
support was introduced for scanners and cameras and Image Color Management 2.0 for devices to perform color space
Color space
A color model is an abstract mathematical model describing the way colors can be represented as tuples of numbers, typically as three or four values or color components...
transformations. Multiple monitor support allows using up to 8 multiple monitors and/or multiple graphics adapters on a single PC. Windows 98 shipped with DirectX
DirectX
Microsoft DirectX is a collection of application programming interfaces for handling tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video, on Microsoft platforms. Originally, the names of these APIs all began with Direct, such as Direct3D, DirectDraw, DirectMusic, DirectPlay,...
5.2 which notably included DirectShow
DirectShow
DirectShow , codename Quartz, is a multimedia framework and API produced by Microsoft for software developers to perform various operations with media files or streams. It is the replacement for Microsoft's earlier Video for Windows technology...
. Windows 98 Second Edition shipped with DirectX 6.1.
Networking enhancements
Windows 98 networking enhancements to TCP/IP include built-in support for Winsock 2Winsock
In computing, the Windows Sockets API , which was later shortened to Winsock, is a technical specification that defines how Windows network software should access network services, especially TCP/IP. It defines a standard interface between a Windows TCP/IP client application and the underlying...
, SMB
Server Message Block
In computer networking, Server Message Block , also known as Common Internet File System operates as an application-layer network protocol mainly used to provide shared access to files, printers, serial ports, and miscellaneous communications between nodes on a network. It also provides an...
signing, a new IP Helper API, Automatic Private IP Addressing (APIPA) (also known as link-local addressing), IP multicast
IP Multicast
IP multicast is a method of sending Internet Protocol datagrams to a group of interested receivers in a single transmission. It is often employed for streaming media applications on the Internet and private networks. The method is the IP-specific version of the general concept of multicast...
ing (including IGMPv2
Internet Group Management Protocol
The Internet Group Management Protocol is a communications protocol used by hosts and adjacent routers on IP networks to establish multicast group memberships....
support and ICMP
Internet Control Message Protocol
The Internet Control Message Protocol is one of the core protocols of the Internet Protocol Suite. It is chiefly used by the operating systems of networked computers to send error messages indicating, for example, that a requested service is not available or that a host or router could not be...
Router Discovery
ICMP Router Discovery Protocol
ICMP Internet Router Discovery Protocol uses Internet Control Message Protocol router advertisements and router solicitation messages to allow a host to discover the addresses of operational routers on the subnet....
– RFC 1256), and performance enhancements for high-speed high bandwidth networks (TCP large windows
TCP window scale option
The TCP window scale option is an option to increase the TCP receive window size above its maximum value of 65,535 bytes.This TCP option, along with several others, is defined in IETF RFC 1323 which deals with Long-Fat Networks, or LFN....
and time stamps – RFC 1323, Selective Acknowledgement (SACK)
Retransmission (data networks)
Retransmission, essentially identical with Automatic repeat request , is the resending of packets which have been either damaged or lost. It is a term that refers to one of the basic mechanisms used by protocols operating over a packet switched computer network to provide reliable communication...
– RFC 2018, TCP Fast Retransmit and Fast Recovery). Multihoming
Multihoming
Multihoming is a technique used to increase the reliability of the Internet connection for an IP network. As an adjective, it is typically used to describe a customer, rather than an Internet service provider network...
support with TCP/IP is improved and includes RIP
Routing Information Protocol
The Routing Information Protocol is a distance-vector routing protocol, which employs the hop count as a routing metric. RIP prevents routing loops by implementing a limit on the number of hops allowed in a path from the source to a destination. The maximum number of hops allowed for RIP is 15....
listener support.
The DHCP client has been enhanced to include address assignment conflict detection and longer timeout intervals. NetBT configuration in the WINS
Windows Internet Naming Service
Windows Internet Name Service is Microsoft's implementation of NetBIOS Name Service , a name server and service for NetBIOS computer names. Effectively WINS is to NetBIOS names what DNS is to domain names — a central mapping of host names to network addresses...
client has been improved to continue persistently querying multiple WINS servers if it failed to establish the initial session until all of the WINS servers specified have been queried or a connection is established.
NDIS
Network Driver Interface Specification
The Network Driver Interface Specification is an application programming interface for network interface cards . It was jointly developed by Microsoft and 3Com Corporation, and is mostly used in Microsoft Windows, but the open-source NDISwrapper and Project Evil driver wrapper projects allow...
5.0 support means Windows 98 can support a wide range of network media, including Ethernet
Ethernet
Ethernet is a family of computer networking technologies for local area networks commercially introduced in 1980. Standardized in IEEE 802.3, Ethernet has largely replaced competing wired LAN technologies....
, Fiber Distributed Data Interface
Fiber Distributed Data Interface
Fiber Distributed Data Interface provides a 100 Mbit/s optical standard for data transmission in a local area network that can extend in range up to . Although FDDI logical topology is a ring-based token network, it does not use the IEEE 802.5 token ring protocol as its basis; instead, its...
(FDDI), token ring, Asynchronous Transfer Mode
Asynchronous Transfer Mode
Asynchronous Transfer Mode is a standard switching technique designed to unify telecommunication and computer networks. It uses asynchronous time-division multiplexing, and it encodes data into small, fixed-sized cells. This differs from approaches such as the Internet Protocol or Ethernet that...
(ATM), wide area network
Wide area network
A wide area network is a telecommunication network that covers a broad area . Business and government entities utilize WANs to relay data among employees, clients, buyers, and suppliers from various geographical locations...
s (WANs), ISDN, X.25
X.25
X.25 is an ITU-T standard protocol suite for packet switched wide area network communication. An X.25 WAN consists of packet-switching exchange nodes as the networking hardware, and leased lines, Plain old telephone service connections or ISDN connections as physical links...
, and Frame Relay
Frame relay
Frame Relay is a standardized wide area network technology that specifies the physical and logical link layers of digital telecommunications channels using a packet switching methodology...
. Additional features include NDIS power management, support for QoS
Quality of service
The quality of service refers to several related aspects of telephony and computer networks that allow the transport of traffic with special requirements...
, WMI
Windows Management Instrumentation
Windows Management Instrumentation is a set of extensions to the Windows Driver Model that provides an operating system interface through which instrumented components provide information and notification...
and support for a single INF
INF file
An INF file or Setup Information file, is a plain text file used by Microsoft Windows for installation of software and drivers. INF files are most commonly used for installing device drivers for hardware components. Windows includes IExpress.exe for the creation of INF-based installations...
file format across all Windows versions.
Windows 98 Dial-Up Networking supports PPTP
Point-to-point tunneling protocol
The Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol is a method for implementing virtual private networks. PPTP uses a control channel over TCP and a GRE tunnel operating to encapsulate PPP packets....
tunneling, support for ISDN adapters, multilink support, and connection-time scripting to automate non-standard login connections. Multilink channel aggregation enables users to combine all available dial-up lines to achieve higher transfer speeds. PPP
Point-to-Point Protocol
In networking, the Point-to-Point Protocol is a data link protocol commonly used in establishing a direct connection between two networking nodes...
connection logs can show actual packets being passed and Windows 98 allows PPP logging per connection. The Dial-Up Networking improvements are also available in Windows 95 OSR2 and downloadable for earlier Windows 95 releases.
For networked computers that have user profiles enabled, Windows 98 introduces Microsoft Family Logon which lists all users that have been configured for that computer, enabling users to simply select their names from a list rather than having to type it in. The same feature can be added to Windows 95 if Internet Explorer 4.0 is installed.
Windows 98 supports IrDA
IRDA
IRDA may refer to:* Infrared Data Association, in information and communications technology , a standard for communication between devices over short distances using infrared signals...
3.0 that specifies both Serial Infrared Devices (SIR) and Fast Infrared (FIR) devices, which are capable of sending and receiving data at 4 Mbit/s. Infrared Recipient, a new application for transferring files through an infrared connection is included. The IrDA stack in Windows 98 supports networking profiles over the IrCOMM kernel-mode driver. Windows 98 also has built-in support for browsing DFS
Distributed File System (Microsoft)
Distributed File System is a set of client and server services that allow an organization using Microsoft Windows servers to organize many distributed SMB file shares into a distributed file system...
trees on SMB
Server Message Block
In computer networking, Server Message Block , also known as Common Internet File System operates as an application-layer network protocol mainly used to provide shared access to files, printers, serial ports, and miscellaneous communications between nodes on a network. It also provides an...
shares.
Windows 98 Second Edition added Internet Connection Sharing
Internet Connection Sharing
Internet Connection Sharing is the use of a device with Internet access such as 3G cellular service, broadband via Ethernet, or other Internet gateway as an access point for other devices...
(IP forwarding
IP forwarding
IP forwarding also known as Internet routing is a process used to determine which path a packet or datagram can be sent. The process uses routing information to make decisions and is designed to send a packet over multiple networks....
and NAT
Network address translation
In computer networking, network address translation is the process of modifying IP address information in IP packet headers while in transit across a traffic routing device....
capabilities). Windows Me
Windows Me
Windows Millennium Edition, or Windows Me , is a graphical operating system released on September 14, 2000 by Microsoft, and was the last operating system released in the Windows 9x series. Support for Windows Me ended on July 11, 2006....
later supported NAT traversal by means of UPnP
Universal Plug and Play
Universal Plug and Play is a set of networking protocols for primarily residential networks without enterprise class devices that permits networked devices, such as personal computers, printers, Internet gateways, Wi-Fi access points and mobile devices to seamlessly discover each other's presence...
. UPnP and NAT traversal APIs can also be installed on Windows 98 by installing the Windows XP
Windows XP
Windows XP is an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops and media centers. First released to computer manufacturers on August 24, 2001, it is the second most popular version of Windows, based on installed user base...
Network Setup Wizard. An L2TP/IPsec VPN
Virtual private network
A virtual private network is a network that uses primarily public telecommunication infrastructure, such as the Internet, to provide remote offices or traveling users access to a central organizational network....
client can also be downloaded. By installing Active Directory Client Extensions, Windows 98 can take advantage of several Windows 2000 Active Directory
Active Directory
Active Directory is a directory service created by Microsoft for Windows domain networks. It is included in most Windows Server operating systems. Server computers on which Active Directory is running are called domain controllers....
features .
Performance improvements
Windows 95 introduced the 32-bit, protected-mode cache driver, VCACHE replacing SMARTDrv to cache the most recently accessed information from the hard drive in memory, divided into chunks. However, the cache parameters needed manual tuning as it degraded performance by consuming too much memory and not releasing it quickly enough, forcing paging to occur far too early. The Windows 98 VCACHE cache size management for disk and network access, CD-ROM access and paging is more dynamic compared to Windows 95 resulting in no tuning required for cache parameters. On the FAT32 file system, Windows 98 has a MapCache performance feature that can run applications from the disk cache itself if the code pages of executable files are aligned/mapped on 4K boundaries, instead of copying them to virtual memory. This results in more memory being available to run applications, and lesser usage of the swap file.WinAlign (Walign.exe and Winalign.exe) are tools designed to optimize the performance of executable code (binaries). WinAlign aligns binary sections along 4 KB boundaries, aligning the executable sections with the memory pages. This allows the Windows 98 MapCache feature to map directly to sections in cache Walign.exe is included in Windows 98 for automatically optimizing Microsoft Office programs. Winalign.exe is included in the Windows 98 Resource Kit to optimize other programs.
Disk Defragmenter has been improved to rearrange program files that are frequently used to a hard disk region optimized for program start.
Windows 98 also supports a Fast Shutdown feature that initiates shutdown without uninitializing device drivers. Windows 98 supports write-behind caching for removable disk drives. A FAT32 converter utility for converting FAT16 drives to FAT32 without formatting the partition is also included.
Other system tools
A number of improvements are made to various other system tools and accessories in Windows 98. Microsoft Backup supports differential backup and SCSISCSI
Small Computer System Interface is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices. The SCSI standards define commands, protocols, and electrical and optical interfaces. SCSI is most commonly used for hard disks and tape drives, but it...
tape
Tape drive
A tape drive is a data storage device that reads and performs digital recording, writes data on a magnetic tape. Magnetic tape data storage is typically used for offline, archival data storage. Tape media generally has a favorable unit cost and long archival stability.A tape drive provides...
devices in Windows 98. Disk Cleanup
Disk Cleanup
Disk Cleanup is a computer maintenance utility included in Microsoft Windows designed to free up disk space on a computer's hard drive. The utility first searches and analyzes the hard drive for files that are no longer of any use, and then removes the unnecessary files...
, a new tool, enables users to clear their disks of unnecessary files. Cleanup locations are extensible through Disk Cleanup handlers. Disk Cleanup can be automated for regular silent cleanups.
Scanreg (DOS) and ScanRegW are Registry Checker tools used to back up, restore or optimize the Windows registry
Windows registry
The Windows Registry is a hierarchical database that stores configuration settings and options on Microsoft Windows operating systems. It contains settings for low-level operating system components as well as the applications running on the platform: the kernel, device drivers, services, SAM, user...
. ScanRegW tests the registry's integrity and saves a backup copy each time Windows successfully boots. The maximum amount of copies could be customized by the user through "scanreg.ini" file. The restoration of a registry that causes Windows to fail to boot can only be done from DOS mode using ScanReg.
System Configuration Utility (also known as Msconfig
MSConfig
MSConfig is a system utility to troubleshoot the Microsoft Windows startup process...
) is a new system utility used to disable programs and services that are not required to run the computer. A Maintenance Wizard is included that schedules and automates ScanDisk
SCANDISK
SCANDISK or ScanDisk is a utility in MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows systems which checks and repairs file systems and bad clusters on the hard drive. It was introduced in MS-DOS version 6.2...
, Disk Defragmenter and Disk Cleanup
Disk Cleanup
Disk Cleanup is a computer maintenance utility included in Microsoft Windows designed to free up disk space on a computer's hard drive. The utility first searches and analyzes the hard drive for files that are no longer of any use, and then removes the unnecessary files...
. Windows Script Host
Windows Script Host
The Microsoft Windows Script Host is an automation technology for Microsoft Windows operating systems that provides scripting capabilities comparable to batch files, but with a greater range of supported features...
, with VBScript
VBScript
VBScript is an Active Scripting language developed by Microsoft that is modeled on Visual Basic. It is designed as a “lightweight” language with a fast interpreter for use in a wide variety of Microsoft environments...
and JScript
JScript
JScript is a scripting language based on the ECMAScript standard that is used in Microsoft's Internet Explorer.JScript is implemented as a Windows Script engine. This means that it can be "plugged in" to any application that supports Windows Script, such as Internet Explorer, Active Server Pages,...
engines is built-in and upgradeable to version 5.6.
System File Checker
System File Checker
System File Checker is a utility in Microsoft Windows that allows users to scan for and restore corruptions in Windows system files. This utility is available on Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003...
checks installed versions of system files to ensure they were the same version as the one installed with Windows 98 or newer. Corrupt or older versions are replaced by the correct versions. This tool was introduced to resolve the DLL hell
DLL hell
In computing, DLL Hell is a term for the complications that arise when working with dynamic link libraries used with Microsoft Windows operating systems, particularly legacy 16-bit editions which all run in a single memory space....
issue and was replaced in Windows Me
Windows Me
Windows Millennium Edition, or Windows Me , is a graphical operating system released on September 14, 2000 by Microsoft, and was the last operating system released in the Windows 9x series. Support for Windows Me ended on July 11, 2006....
by System File Protection
Windows File Protection
Windows File Protection , a sub-system included in Microsoft Windows operating systems of the Windows 2000 and Windows XP era, aims to prevent programs from replacing critical Windows system files. Protecting core system files mitigates problems such as DLL hell with programs and the operating system...
.
The Windows 98 Startup Disk contains generic, real-mode ATAPI and SCSI CD-ROM drivers and has been preconfigured to automatically start MS-DOS mode with CD-ROM support enabled. For computers without an operating system and that do not support booting from optical drives, the Startup disk can be used to boot into MS-DOS and automatically start Windows 98 setup from the CD.
Windows 98 includes an improved version of the Dr. Watson
Dr. Watson (debugger)
Dr. Watson is an application debugger included with the Microsoft Windows operating system. It may be named drwatson.exe, drwtsn32.exe or dwwin.exe, depending on the version of Windows. It is named after Doctor Watson of Sherlock Holmes fame, the idea being that it would collect error information ...
utility that collects and lists comprehensive information such as running tasks, startup programs with their command line switches, system patches, kernel driver, user drivers, DOS drivers and 16-bit modules. With Dr. Watson loaded in the system tray, whenever a software fault occurs (general protection fault, hang, etc.), Dr. Watson will intercept it and indicate what software crashed and its cause. All of the collected information is logged to the \Windows\DrWatson folder.
Windows Report Tool takes a snapshot of system configuration and lets users submit a manual problem report along with system information to technicians. It has e-mail confirmation for submitted reports. The system could be updated using Windows Update
Windows Update
Windows Update is a service provided by Microsoft that provides updates for the Microsoft Windows operating system and its installed components, including Internet Explorer...
. A utility to automatically notify of critical updates was later released.
Accessories
Windows 98 includes Microsoft MagnifierMagnifier (Windows)
Magnifier is a screen magnifier program for the visually impaired to use Microsoft Windows. When it is run, it creates a bar at the top of the screen that greatly magnifies where the mouse is. Magnifier was first included as a sample in the Active Accessibility SDK/RDK for Windows 95 and later made...
, Accessibility Wizard and Microsoft Active Accessibility
Microsoft Active Accessibility
Microsoft Active Accessibility is an Application Programming Interface for user interface accessibility. MSAA was introduced as a platform add-on to Microsoft Windows 95 in 1997...
1.1 API upgradeable to MSAA 2.0. A new HTML Help system with 15 Troubleshooting Wizards was introduced to replace WinHelp
WinHelp
Microsoft WinHelp is a proprietary format for online help files that can be displayed by the Microsoft Help browser winhelp.exe or winhlp32.exe. The file format is based on Rich Text Format . It remained a popular Help platform from Windows 3.0 platform through Windows XP...
.
Users can configure the font
Font
In typography, a font is traditionally defined as a quantity of sorts composing a complete character set of a single size and style of a particular typeface...
in Notepad. Microsoft Paint supports GIF transparency. HyperTerminal supports a TCP/IP connection method allowing it to be used as a Telnet client. Imaging for Windows
Imaging for Windows
Imaging for Windows from Global 360 is document imaging software. Earlier versions of Imaging for Windows were included in Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000. Global360 Imaging for Windows is the upgrade to this Imaging software, which was discontinued as of Windows XP...
is updated. System Monitor
System Monitor
System Monitor is a program in Windows 95, 98 and Me that is used to monitor various activities on a computer such as CPU usage or memory usage...
supports output to a log file.
Miscellaneous improvements
- Telephony APITelephony Application Programming InterfaceThe Telephony Application Programming Interface is a Microsoft Windows API, which provides computer telephony integration and enables PCs running Microsoft Windows to use telephone services. Different versions of TAPI are available on different versions of Windows...
(TAPI) 2.1 - DCOMDistributed component object modelDistributed Component Object Model is a proprietary Microsoft technology for communication among software components distributed across networked computers. DCOM, which originally was called "Network OLE", extends Microsoft's COM, and provides the communication substrate under Microsoft's COM+...
version 1.2 - Ability to list fonts by similarity determined using PANOSEPANOSEThe PANOSE System is a method for classifying typefaces solely on their visual characteristics, developed by Benjamin Bauermeister. It can be used to identify an unknown font from a sample image or to match a known font to its closest visual neighbor from a font pool...
information. - Tools to automate setup such as Batch 98 and INFInst.exe support error-checking, gathering information automatically to create an INF fileINF fileAn INF file or Setup Information file, is a plain text file used by Microsoft Windows for installation of software and drivers. INF files are most commonly used for installing device drivers for hardware components. Windows includes IExpress.exe for the creation of INF-based installations...
directly from the registry of the machine, customizing IE4, shell and desktop settings and adding custom drivers. - Several other Resource KitResource KitResource Kit is a term used by Microsoft for a set of software resources and documentation released for their software products, but which is not part of that product...
tools are included on the Windows 98 CD. - Windows 98 has new system event sounds for low battery alarm and critical battery alarm. The Windows 98 startup sound was composed by Ken Kato.
- Windows 98 shipped with Flash Player and Shockwave Player preinstalled.
Windows 98 Second Edition
Windows 98 Second Edition (often shortened to SE) is an updated release of Windows 98, released on 5 May 1999. It includes fixes for many minor issues, improved WDM audio and modem support, improved USB support, the replacement of Internet Explorer 4.0Internet Explorer 4
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 is a graphical web browser released in September 1997 by Microsoft, primarily for Microsoft Windows, but also with versions available for Apple Mac OS, Solaris, and HP-UX and marketed as "The Web the Way You Want It".It was one of the main participants of the first...
with Internet Explorer 5.0 and related shell updates. Also included is basic OHCI-compliant FireWire (IEEE 1394a) DV
DV
DV is a format for the digital recording and playing back of digital video. The DV codec was launched in 1995 with joint efforts of leading producers of video camcorders....
camcorder support (MSDV class driver) and SBP-2 support for mass storage class devices , Wake-On-LAN
Wake-on-LAN
Wake-on-LAN is an Ethernet computer networking standard that allows a computer to be turned on or woken up by a network message....
support (if ACPI compatible NDIS
Network Driver Interface Specification
The Network Driver Interface Specification is an application programming interface for network interface cards . It was jointly developed by Microsoft and 3Com Corporation, and is mostly used in Microsoft Windows, but the open-source NDISwrapper and Project Evil driver wrapper projects allow...
drivers are present) and Internet Connection Sharing
Internet Connection Sharing
Internet Connection Sharing is the use of a device with Internet access such as 3G cellular service, broadband via Ethernet, or other Internet gateway as an access point for other devices...
, which allows multiple computers on a LAN
Local area network
A local area network is a computer network that interconnects computers in a limited area such as a home, school, computer laboratory, or office building...
to share a single Internet connection through Network Address Translation
Network address translation
In computer networking, network address translation is the process of modifying IP address information in IP packet headers while in transit across a traffic routing device....
. Other features in the update include DirectX 6.1 which introduced major improvements to DirectSound
DirectSound
DirectSound is a software component of the Microsoft DirectX library for the Windows operating system. DirectSound provides a low-latency interface to the sound card driver and can handle the mixing and recording of multiple audio streams....
and the introduction of DirectMusic
DirectMusic
DirectMusic is a deprecated component of the Microsoft DirectX API that allows music and sound effects to be composed and played and provides flexible interactive control over the way they are played. Architecturally, DirectMusic is a high-level set of objects, built on top of DirectSound, that...
, improvements to Asynchronous Transfer Mode
Asynchronous Transfer Mode
Asynchronous Transfer Mode is a standard switching technique designed to unify telecommunication and computer networks. It uses asynchronous time-division multiplexing, and it encodes data into small, fixed-sized cells. This differs from approaches such as the Internet Protocol or Ethernet that...
support (IP
Internet Protocol
The Internet Protocol is the principal communications protocol used for relaying datagrams across an internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite...
/ATM, PPP
Point-to-Point Protocol
In networking, the Point-to-Point Protocol is a data link protocol commonly used in establishing a direct connection between two networking nodes...
/ATM and WinSock 2/ATM
Winsock
In computing, the Windows Sockets API , which was later shortened to Winsock, is a technical specification that defines how Windows network software should access network services, especially TCP/IP. It defines a standard interface between a Windows TCP/IP client application and the underlying...
support), Windows Media Player
Windows Media Player
Windows Media Player is a media player and media library application developed by Microsoft that is used for playing audio, video and viewing images on personal computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system, as well as on Pocket PC and Windows Mobile-based devices...
6.2 replacing the older Media Player, Microsoft NetMeeting 3.0, MDAC 2.1
Microsoft Data Access Components
Microsoft Data Access Components is a framework of interrelated Microsoft technologies that allows programmers a uniform and comprehensive way of developing applications that can access almost any data store. Its components include: ActiveX Data Objects , OLE DB, and Open Database Connectivity...
and WMI
Windows Management Instrumentation
Windows Management Instrumentation is a set of extensions to the Windows Driver Model that provides an operating system interface through which instrumented components provide information and notification...
. A memory overflow issue was resolved which in the older version of Windows 98 would crash most systems if left running for 49.7 days (equal to 2³² milliseconds). Windows 98 SE could be obtained as retail upgrade and full version packages, as well as OEM and a Second Edition Updates Disc for existing Windows 98 users. Windows 98 Second Edition did not ship with the WinG
WinG
In computing, WinG is an application programming interface that provides faster graphics performance on Windows 3.x operating environments, and was positioned as a way to help game developers more easily port their DOS games to Microsoft Windows...
API or RealPlayer
RealPlayer
RealPlayer is a cross-platform media player by RealNetworks that plays a number of multimedia formats including MP3, MPEG-4, QuickTime, Windows Media, and multiple versions of proprietary RealAudio and RealVideo formats.-History:...
4.0 unlike the original release of Windows 98, both of these being superseded by DirectX and Windows Media Player.
Upgradeability
Several components of the Windows 98 original release and Windows 98 Second Edition, can be updated to newer versions. They include:- Internet Explorer 6 SP1Internet Explorer 6Internet Explorer 6 is the sixth major revision of Internet Explorer, a web browser developed by Microsoft for Windows operating systems...
and Outlook ExpressOutlook ExpressOutlook Express is an email and news client that is included with Internet Explorer versions 4.0 through 6.0. As such, it is also bundled with several versions of Microsoft Windows, from Windows 98 to Windows Server 2003, and is available for Windows 3.x, Windows NT 3.51, Windows 95 and Mac OS 9...
6 SP1 - Windows Media Format Runtime and Windows Media Player 9 SeriesWindows Media PlayerWindows Media Player is a media player and media library application developed by Microsoft that is used for playing audio, video and viewing images on personal computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system, as well as on Pocket PC and Windows Mobile-based devices...
on Windows 98 SE and Windows Media Player 7.1 on Windows 98. - Windows Media EncoderWindows Media EncoderWindows Media Encoder is a freely downloadable trial version media encoder developed by Microsoft which enables content developers to convert or capture both live and prerecorded audio, video, and computer screen images to Windows Media formats for live and on-demand delivery. It is the successor...
7.1 and Windows Media 8 Encoding Utility - DirectX 9.0cDirectXMicrosoft DirectX is a collection of application programming interfaces for handling tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video, on Microsoft platforms. Originally, the names of these APIs all began with Direct, such as Direct3D, DirectDraw, DirectMusic, DirectPlay,...
- MSN Messenger 7.0Windows Live MessengerWindows Live Messenger is an instant messaging client created by Microsoft that is currently designed to work with Windows XP , Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Mobile, Windows CE, Xbox 360, Blackberry OS, iOS, Java ME, S60 on Symbian OS 9.x and Zune HD...
- Significant features from newer Microsoft operating systems can be installed on Windows 98. Chief among them are NET Framework versions 1.0, 1.1 and 2.0, Visual C++Visual C++Microsoft Visual C++ is a commercial , integrated development environment product from Microsoft for the C, C++, and C++/CLI programming languages...
2005 runtime, Windows InstallerWindows InstallerThe Windows Installer is a software component used for the installation, maintenance, and removal of software on modern Microsoft Windows systems...
2.0, GDI+ redistributable library, Remote Desktop Connection client 5.1 and the Text Services FrameworkText Services FrameworkThe Text Services Framework , is a COM framework and API in Windows XP and later Windows operating systems that supports advanced text input and text processing. The Text Services Framework is designed to offer advanced language and word processing features to applications...
. - Several other components such as MSXMLMSXMLMicrosoft XML Core Services is a set of services that allow applications written in JScript, VBScript, and Microsoft development tools to build Windows-native XML-based applications...
3.0 SP7, Microsoft AgentMicrosoft AgentMicrosoft Agent is a technology developed by Microsoft which employs animated characters, text-to-speech engines, and speech recognition software to enhance interaction with computer users. Thus it is an example of an embodied agent. It comes preinstalled as part of Microsoft Windows 2000 through...
2.0, NetMeeting 3.01, MSAA 2.0Microsoft Active AccessibilityMicrosoft Active Accessibility is an Application Programming Interface for user interface accessibility. MSAA was introduced as a platform add-on to Microsoft Windows 95 in 1997...
, ActiveSyncActiveSyncActiveSync is a mobile data synchronization technology and protocol developed by Microsoft, originally released in 1996. There are two implementations of the technology: one which synchronizes data and information with handheld devices with a specific desktop computer , and another technology,...
3.8, WSHWindows Script HostThe Microsoft Windows Script Host is an automation technology for Microsoft Windows operating systems that provides scripting capabilities comparable to batch files, but with a greater range of supported features...
5.6, Microsoft Data Access ComponentsMicrosoft Data Access ComponentsMicrosoft Data Access Components is a framework of interrelated Microsoft technologies that allows programmers a uniform and comprehensive way of developing applications that can access almost any data store. Its components include: ActiveX Data Objects , OLE DB, and Open Database Connectivity...
2.81 SP1, WMIWindows Management InstrumentationWindows Management Instrumentation is a set of extensions to the Windows Driver Model that provides an operating system interface through which instrumented components provide information and notification...
1.5 and Speech API 4.0. - Office XP is the last version of Microsoft OfficeMicrosoft OfficeMicrosoft Office is a non-free commercial office suite of inter-related desktop applications, servers and services for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, introduced by Microsoft in August 1, 1989. Initially a marketing term for a bundled set of applications, the first version of...
to be compatible with Windows 98. - Although Windows 98 does not fully support UnicodeUnicodeUnicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...
, certain Unicode applications can run by installing the Microsoft Layer for UnicodeMicrosoft Layer for UnicodeMicrosoft Layer for Unicode is a software library for Windows software developers to simplify creating Unicode-aware applications for Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows Me...
. - With "KernelEx" several newer applications like Firefox 3.0 or Opera 11 can run
Press demonstration
The release of Windows 98 was preceded by a notable press demonstration at ComdexCOMDEX
COMDEX was a computer expo held in Las Vegas, Nevada, each November from 1979 to 2003. It was one of the largest computer trade shows in the world, usually second only to the German CeBIT, and by many accounts one of the largest trade shows in any industry sector...
in April 1998. Microsoft CEO Bill Gates
Bill Gates
William Henry "Bill" Gates III is an American business magnate, investor, philanthropist, and author. Gates is the former CEO and current chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen...
was highlighting the operating system's ease of use and enhanced support for Plug and Play (PnP). However, when presentation assistant Chris Capossela plugged a scanner in and attempted to install it, the operating system crashed, displaying a Blue Screen of Death
Blue Screen of Death
To forse a BSOD Open regedit.exe,Then search: HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\i8042prt\ParametersThen make a new DWORD called "CrashOnCtrlScroll" And set the value to 1....
. Gates remarked after applause and cheering from the audience, "That must be why we're not shipping Windows 98 yet." Video footage of this event became a popular Internet phenomenon.
Product life cycle
Microsoft planned to discontinue its support for Windows 98 versions on January 16, 2004. However, due to the continued popularity of the operating system (27% of GoogleGoogle
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
's pageviews were on Windows 98 systems during October–November, 2003), Microsoft decided to maintain support until July 11, 2006. Support for Windows Me
Windows Me
Windows Millennium Edition, or Windows Me , is a graphical operating system released on September 14, 2000 by Microsoft, and was the last operating system released in the Windows 9x series. Support for Windows Me ended on July 11, 2006....
also ended on this date. By that time, Windows 98 market share had diminished to 2.7%. Windows 98 is no longer available from Microsoft in any form due to the terms of Java-related settlements Microsoft made with Sun Microsystems.
Real mode MS-DOS
Windows 98 Second Edition is the last operating system in the Windows 9x series that includes real mode MS-DOS.System requirements
- 486DX2/66 MHz or higher processor (Pentium processor recommended)
- 16 MB of RAM (24 MB recommended, it's possible to run on 8 MB machines with /nm option used during the installation process)
- At least 500 MB of space available on HDD. The amount of space required depends on the installation method and the components selected, but virtual memory and system utilities as well as drivers should be taken into consideration.
- Upgrading from Windows 95 (FAT16) or 3.1 (FAT): 140-400 MB (typically 205 MB).
- New installation (FAT32): 190-305 MB (typically 210 MB).
- Note 1: Both Windows 98 and Windows 98 SE can have significant problems associated with hard drives that are over 32 Gigabytes (GB) in size. This issue only occurs with certain Phoenix BIOSBIOSIn IBM PC compatible computers, the basic input/output system , also known as the System BIOS or ROM BIOS , is a de facto standard defining a firmware interface....
settings. A software update has been made available to fix this shortcoming. - Note 2: Also, both Windows 98 and Windows 98 SE are unable to handle hard drives that are over 137 GB in size with the default drivers, because of missing 48-bit LBA support – whole disc data corruption is likely. Third party patches are available to fix this shortcoming.
- Note 3: It is also possible to compress a Windows 98 installation using DriveSpace 3 to less than 120 MB, using maximum compression, without deleting many files. Installing Windows 98 on a HDD that small is usually useless, because it doesn't leave much room for programs, but can be accomplished by moving the DriveSpace 3 container file there.
- VGA or higher resolution monitor (640x480)
- CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive (floppy install is possible but slow)
- Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device (optional).
Like its predecessor, Windows 95, and its successor, Windows Millennium Edition (Me), users can bypass hardware requirement checks with the undocumented /im setup switch. This allows installation on computers with processors as old as the 80386.
Unlike Windows 95, Windows 98 requires a Floating-point unit (Math Coprocessor). The Intel 80486DX and later Pentium
Pentium
The original Pentium microprocessor was introduced on March 22, 1993. Its microarchitecture, deemed P5, was Intel's fifth-generation and first superscalar x86 microarchitecture. As a direct extension of the 80486 architecture, it included dual integer pipelines, a faster FPU, wider data bus,...
processors include a floating-point unit as part of the CPU.
Physical RAM limit
The maximum amount of physical RAMRam
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in a PC
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
that Windows 98 supports is 1.5 GB.
External links
- "Windows 98." – Microsoft (Archive)
- GUIdebook: Windows 98 Gallery – A website dedicated to preserving and showcasing Graphical User Interfaces