Windows 98: Second Edition

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Product description Disc is in excellent condition. Product key is included. .com The possibilities of your PC expand with Windows 98 Second Edition. Performance increases with improved system diagnostics, the latest graphics, high-quality sound, and multi-media technology. The Second Edition updates Internet networking, hardware, and entertainment. P.when('A').execute(function(A) { A.on('a:expander:toggle_description:toggle:collapse', function(data) { window.scroll(0, data.expander.$expander[0].offsetTop-100); }); }); From Maximum PC -- Subscribe now! With no earth-shattering new features, the latest revision of Windows, Windows 98, sells itself merely as a spit-shined version of Windows 95. Beyond minor performance tweaks and better system utilities, little has been done in Win98 to change the way Win95 does things. In fact, without the much-hyped web integration, Windows 98 would otherwise be a minor service release that cleans up the code a little and adds a few new features. The underlying system architecture is the same hodge-podge of 16- and 32-bit kernel thunks found in Win95, although performance tweaks to memory management, boot-up and shutdown sequences, and program launching address many of the OS's shortcomings. In Win98 some intelligence is finally applied to memory management, with the OS attempting to anticipate when memory needs to be swapped to your hard drive instead of letting it page willy-nilly, causing the notorious shuddering effect seen in performance-intensive games and apps. Win98 also brings a notable decrease to its boot-up time by initializing devices as needed instead of all at once as the OS is loading, and speeds the shutdown process by powering down without unloading device drivers. Windows 98 uses two methods to reduce application load times. One pre-aligns executables so that they can be mapped directly from the disk cache into memory, bypassing the need to copy them into a separate aligned memory space. The second monitors how an application launches, recording both the order in which all the app's support files are loaded and their physical locations. It passes this information to Disk Defragmenter, which uses it to place the files in sequential order on your hard drive according to how the application loads them. While all these seem to add up to some pretty hefty OS modifications, you'll notice only modest speed improvements, as shown in Figure 1. Without restructuring key kernel processes, speeding up Windows is similar to lighting a fire under an elephant's butt. The real reason most of us will upgrade to Windows 98 is integrated support for all the advanced hardware that was merely a gleam in some engineer's eye when Windows 95 was first launched. All the acronyms that populate the hardware lists of new PCs (such as AGP, USB, DVD, and FireWire) will find a happy home in Win98's expanded driver library. Making its debut in Win98 is Microsoft's new Win32 Driver Model, which allows drivers (video drivers are the notable exception) written for NT to work in Win98. Multiple-monitor support finally makes it to the Windows platform, in addition to advanced power management features so new that we don't have a system to test them on. If you have a TV-tuner card, you can run Microsoft's WebTV, although it may be a while before your cable company pipes the correct data for WebTV's more advanced features. And if you haven't experienced the wonders of the new FAT32 file system, a new wizard makes it easy to upgrade. Microsoft has been offering Internet Explorer for free the past few years, and it's come time to start paying for it, with Win98 serving as the vehicle that delivers the Internet the Microsoft way. While web integration is Win98's most talked about feature, it definitely falls on the short list for those of us who want to maximize our PC's performance. Yes, there is a general system slowdown brought on through the integration of Internet Explorer, and no you can't separate it from the OS. Win98 opens new windows as web pages by default and slaps the Channel Bar in the middle of your desktop when it first opens, but they're easy to turn off when you want to go back to Windows as usual. By far the most useful application of Win98's web integration is the browsable help system. Apps still crash under Win98, and system lockups and the blue screen of death still threaten the Windows user, but an impressive set of utilities have been added to help keep everything in line. A new Registry Checker scans and backs up the Registry on boot up. If it detects a corruption, it restores the Registry from the most recent of five compressed backup copies. System File Checker performs the same operation for system files, keeping a log of changes and offering to restore originals when it detects a corruption or different version. As new software is installed, the Version Conflict Manager backs up old system files that are overwritten by new ones. A beefed up Dr. Watson returns in Win98 to record and diagnose program crashes, and the new System Configuration utility all but replaces Sysedit as a convenient place to modify and backup your configuration files. These new system tools launch from the newly remodeled System Information utility, which is itself an excellent storehouse of all the nasty little details about your PC that lie buried in the Registry, such as hardware resources and conflicts, device driver particulars, and currently loaded system modules. With few innovations, Win98's saving grace is support for more hardware than any other OS on the planet and a strong ability to repair itself. Windows 98 isn't the OS for the next millennium, but it will certainly get you by for a couple more years. - Sean Downey The Win98 Program Guide (a component of WebTV) takes watching TV on your PC to a new level, especially when combined with program broadcasts with interactive content MaximumPC Verdict: 6/10 ©1999 Maximum PC See more