problem with win-98

[rich_m]

   Whenever I start my system in win98.I get the following message:
[shadow=violet,left]
"Please wait while setup updates your configeration files. This may take a few minutes.

Completed updating your files."
[/shadow]
This message use to usually appear when I installed somthing that required a system restart to activate, But now it keeps coming for no reason and when I try to install software such as Internet Explorer6 I get the following message:
[shadow=violet,left]
"A previous installation has pending work requirin a reboot. You need to restart your computer before installing ........"
[/shadow]
How do i get rid of this Error?(i've tried registry cleaners, but it didnt help).

[AR]

98 is a generally poor operating system, the only cure all for Windows is to reinstall.

[Kon-Tiki]

Doesn't help much, that.

Did you install anything recently?

[Rainer]

can I be so bold as to say keep saving your pennies and upgrade to win xp or 2000 or linux even? Sorry, but win98 is now more than seven years old. Imagine you were still using win 3.1 in the year 2000. please dont hurt me.

[Kon-Tiki]

I'm using Win98SE too and am not at all planning to 'upgrade' to Windows RH (Resource Hog, aka XP). I really don't need my Ram being used to slide the listings of programs to the left when I close something, and I DEFINITELY don't need it to have a sniffing dog when searching my directories. Win98SE suits me fine, and all you people who say those that prefer this one should upgrade to Windows Crappy can get bent.

[AR]

Well that would seem to make it appropriate to cross post:

Win9x is heavily derived from both Win3.1 and DOS underneath it, it is prone to almost random crashes and poor performance because of all the 16bit subsystems. WinNT and its derivatives (2000, XP, 2003, XP64) are proper ("proper" is used very loosely) 32bit/64bit OS' and are therefore more stable and will generally be faster as well.

The simple fact of the matter is that the Win9x series is literally crap from both a technology and security standpoint, whether you would rather use Mac or Linux rather than upgrading Windows or just stay with that crappy OS, the simple fact is that it is crap. (Refer to my signature as well http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/memory/base/virtual_address_space.asp - programs are allowed to write in Kernel space on Win9x, so any program can simply copy a virus into the OS' core software and happily trash everything, or worse, a bug causing random memory accesses blue screens everything instead of just fataling like it would on an NT system)

I don't suppose that you are aware that WinXP's theme engine and every animation can be disabled? (I personally replaced it with WindowBlinds, WindowBlinds uses tiny amounts of memory compared to the builtin engine)

[Kon-Tiki]

Looked into it, my bros looked into it, lots of people've looked into it, but it's far from obvious as to how to do that.

[AR]

To disable all the effects:
Right click "My Computer">"Properties"
Change to the "Advanced" tab
Click "Settings" in the performance category
You will be presented with a list of visual effects, disable/enable the ones you want
"OK" out of both dialogs

To just use the "Classic" theme without disabling the engine:
Right click the desktop>"Properties"
Change to "Appearance"
Choose "Windows Classic" and "OK" out of it

Disabling the theme engine:
Start>Run, type "mmc" and OK.
In the management console go File>"Add/Remove Snap-in".
On the "Standalone" tab click "Add"
Scroll down click "Services" and press "Add"
On the wizard thing that appears just hit "finish"
Press "Close"
Press "OK"
In the tree list highlight "Services (local)", a list of all windows services will appear on the right.
Scroll down to "Themes".
Right click it>"Properties".
Change the startup type droplist to "Disabled".
Press the "Stop" button then "OK"
Close the management console (Press "no" to save the snap-in map)
Warning: I think Microsoft were being very irritating and disabled the MMC in Home Edition (one of the service packs may enable it though), if I'm right then try the other solution

EDIT: I can't remember how to turn the dog off in the search feature, it is possible by editing something in the registry IIRC, you should be able to google for it.

[Kon-Tiki]

EDIT: I can't remember how to turn the dog off in the search feature, it is possible by editing something in the registry IIRC, you should be able to google for it.

Which was exactly what I was saying ::)

[AR]

Took all of 30 seconds:
http://www.biasecurities.com/blogs/jim/archive/2004/07/29/663.aspx

Disable search assist in Windows XP / Internet Explorer

I?ve been annoyed by Windows XP file search ?util? (that annoying dog, etc) ever since I started using it. Finally! I came across a tweak to bring it back to the Windows 2000/2003 way of searching:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ CabinetState \

Create a new STRING value and name it ?Use Search Asst? without the quotes.

Specify the value data equal to ?no? without the quotes.

If you?re interested in doing the same to IE, modify this key in the same way:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Internet Explorer \ Main \

I can confirm it works.

[Kon-Tiki]

Looked into it, my bros looked into it, lots of people've looked into it, but it's far from obvious as to how to do that.

Now what decent OS'd have the user have to hack it in order to remove redundant stuff like the searching dog?

[AR]

No Windows version is "decent", unfortunately I'm yet to find a competitor that is either.

[srg_13]

I can't remember how to turn the dog off in the search feature, it is possible by editing something in the registry IIRC, you should be able to google for it.

Actually, there is an option to turn off the dog in the search prefrences. Just click "Change Preferences" in the character's speach bubble, then "Without the animated screen character" button in the menu that appears. and Volia! It now looks like this:


-Stephen

[AR]

The method I showed puts a cleaner search interface on but it is good that you can turn it off using the options for it.

[Eero Ränik]

Try searching from http://support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1. For most of the Windows (or IE) related problems, there's a solution there.