Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition Upgrade

by Microsoft

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• ASIN: B00002JV50
• Item model number: 730-00848
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 24, 1999
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (69 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,140 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
  • #2 in Software > Operating Systems > Microsoft Windows > Windows 98
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

The Microsoft Windows 98 operating system is the upgrade to Windows that makes your computer work better and play better. It works better by making it simple to access the Internet and by providing better system performance along with easier system diagnostics and maintenance. With Windows 98, your system plays better as well, with support for the latest graphics, sound, and multimedia technologies; offers the ability to easily add and remove peripheral devices with support for universal serial bus (USB); and enables you to watch TV on your PC.

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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

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A flawed product, difficult to install., November 13, 2000

By 

John "John" (PHOENIX, AZ USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition Upgrade (CD-ROM)

I recently upgraded two of my computers from W95 to W98. For the most part my laptop upgrade went fine, although I did have to do some tinkering with it. Upgrading my desktop (a major name brand) was a major undertaking. I spent an entire day getting the upgrade to install properly. The machine would lock up or reboot itself in the middle of the install (not when it was supposed to reboot). Then I started to get "Windows protection errors." I went to the Microsoft website to find out more about these but their advice was not very helpful. The emergency startup disk that is created as part of the install is a joke. After loading from the diskette, there was not enough conventional memory to run my CD-ROM drive. It recommended that I add a line to the config.sys so that it loads EMM386. The problem: The EMM386 file is not on the startup diskette. For a while I was in a "catch 22." If I boot from the diskette I can't access the W98 install CD. But I need the CD to debug and complete the install.

After many re-attempts and much debugging, I finally got it to install, but it wouldn't recognize that I had a modem (a name brand modem). It took me another hour to solve this problem. It seems to be working OK now - although I've got my fingers crossed.

I've been in the computer business, working with PCs, for 15 years now and consider myself fairly competent technically. If I had been an average home user I would have been lost trying to install this. For the most part, the manual, help screens, and MS website all assume that you a computer geek - and provide their advice accordingly.

My advice. If you're still running Windows 95 and are not having any problems, stay with it. Windows 98 itself does not have enough new features to make the upgrade, and the cost of the upgrade, worthwhile (especially if you have the problems that I did). If you're a home user, wait until the second release of Windows ME is available and go with that. If you are a business user and have tech support people available, consider Windows 2000.

89 of 96 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good for a couple things...., February 7, 2000

By 

Dave (Michigan, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition Upgrade (CD-ROM)

Ah . . . Windows 98 SE - the latest product Microsoft is shoving down our throats. When I first installed Win98SE, I didn't expect much. A couple cosmetic changes here and there, a newer version of Internet Explorer bundled, and improved hardware compatibility. And that's _exactly_ what I got. Nothing more, nothing less. God forbid that Microsoft make their latest creation faster, more efficient, and more stable. A lower price wouldn't hurt, either ($89 for an upgrade and $179 for a full install is unacceptable, IMO). But we get none of those things, and instead get a shoddy upgrade that changes a few little things that a normal Windows user wouldn't care to notice.

My advice: pick this up _only_ if you're _still_ on Windows 95A or older. If you're on Windows 95B or Windows 98, stay away. Keep your money. Invest in Windows 2000 instead.

In fact, personally, my Windows partition sits dormant on my hard drive. It serves no other purpose but to play some old DOS games, or to test an application that I absolutely need to use (which isn't often). If you're anything like me, get BeOS instead (only if you already have Win95/98, of course). Not only is it cheaper ($49 at this site), but it's faster, more efficient, offers better stability, etc etc.

59 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It's an improvement, February 24, 2000

By 

A user who thinks Win98 is a good thing... (Sebago, Maine) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition Upgrade (CD-ROM)

After spending time reading almost all of the reviews that have been left here, I have a few things I would like to say. First, to remain credible, I do not work for Microsoft. Second, I am disappointed with some of the people's comments; no one wants to listen to someone complain about a company that you may not like. Either be constructive or don't bother to post your opinions. I do, however, believe that Microsoft did a good job with Windows 98.

Does Win98 crash on me? Yes. I make no illusions about that. Is it the perfect operating system? No; but is it the best choice for most of the users in the computer market today? Well, I think so, but it depends who you talk to. For the basic user (the people that this operating system was truly designed for), Win98 is a good product that is relatively hassle-free. No matter what anyone tells you, keep this in mind: Win98 is not for people who wanted to do high-power anything (graphics, rendering, calculations), *truly*. Those people can go use the more operation-specific operating systems, ones that are designed to handle certain tasks well (like BeOS).

As far as plug and play, Win98 has worked flawlessly on my machine and I am quite happy with it -- much less hassle than Win95. The Internet is easier to setup, there are a bunch of neat gadgets and features, and that is all great.

For those of you concerned about the cost, Win98 is not essential. *It is not essential*. You can make by with Win95. However, if you want to update your computer and if you want to do many of the newest things with it (such as newest versions of software, games, etc), you should get Win98 for the $90 upgrade price.

Also, Win98 (and Win95, to a lesser extent) has a plethora of software products on the market, with companies actively coding more and more each day. Compared to many operating systems, Windows has one of the largest supported software databases of them all. This is great for every user of Window.

In the end, Win98 is good. I do not understand why so many people hate Microsoft and its products. Why, may I ask, if you hate Microsoft so much, do you continue to use Windows? Or Microsoft Office (the most used, most popular, and best office productivity suite out on the market)? Or anything else Microsoft makes? Because their products are good. Sure, they have problems -- but what software doesn't? With Windows, which is probably one of Microsoft's most criticized products, Microsoft has had to not only keep up the backward compatibility (being able to run Win95 and DOS programs on Win98), but also manage drivers and support for the enormous world of hardware and software that is available on PCs. In reality, there are a lot of things that COULD go wrong, things that you might EXPECT to go wrong, but don't.

If you don't like Microsoft, do what other people say and get a Macintosh, or install BeOS or Linux. But don't just sit around complaining, but continuing to use Microsoft software -- it's hypocritical and no one wants to listen to it.

Four stars because it's not perfect, but it's pretty darn close.