I recently ditched WinXP on my craptasticful Dell Latitude PIII 500 for a fresh Win98 install. The system's 4:3 monitor is the only non-widescreen monitor in my apartment, which means it's the only machine old games don't look stretched on.It has been a LONG time since I've run win98 on anything...and considering my memories of preferring it to XP, I've found both the OS and the hardware it's on to be quite a hassle these days. USB support is hit-and-miss software-wise and slow (1.1) hardware-wise. I am limited to a CDROM drive. The Dell has NO built-in networking. Not even a gigabit ethernet port. No wired, no wireless. And the old PCMCIA wireless-a dongle I have from Blitzz is useless as Blitzz appears to have died and taken all their driver downloads with them. I have two different USB network adapters but USB1.1 is too slow and drivers for the two don't support Win98.

If I could just get network support on the machine I'd be doing a lot better. The new Battle.net allows you to enter your CD keys from your games and thenceforth download CD-free versions at any time...so I've got multiple licenses for Starcraft, DII, LoD all waiting to be downloaded. I also have the entire Half Life Platinum collection on Steam ready to be played CD-free, but I can't use Steam. Argh.

And just about everyone has stopped even unofficial support for Win98 in their software. Adobe reader, openoffice (I know I have an OEM Office97 disc somewhere I can use instead), itunes/winamp (holy smeg I HATE WMP9!).

So here are my questions for my fellow NICOnerds:1: Does anyone know of a good resource/listing/repository/whatever of old-version Win98 software? I'd really like to get a media player and PDF reader for this machine.

2: Does anyone happen to have an old PCMCIA wireless adapter laying around that they're not using? Even if it's just 802.11a, that's better than nothing. Or, Hell, even a wired PCMCIA ethernet adapter would be nice. Just something to get me online just long enough to grab some steam/b.net downloads and the odd driver (rather than having to DL them on another machine and swap them over via USB drive).

I think Foxit Reader is compatible with Win98

VLC has Win98 compatible media players- http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.html

Hope this helps.

Don't have a PCMCIA wireless adapter though

Unfortunately, Foxit Reader only covers Win2k and up.

VLC was a great suggestion, though...I can't believe I didn't think of them before.

I think I might have one but not sure, Try Ebay while I look though.

I have a bunch of old PCMCIA adapters my dad used over the years and never threw out.I'll look next time I go over there.

Why don't you just go with an nlite version of Windows XP for that computer? It'll run faster than 98, and support all the stuff you've lost support for.... The only thing you'll need is at least 512MB of RAM if you want decent performance, and chances are it will probably support up to a GB (768MB if it has an integrated 256MB plus support for one add on SODIMM of 512MB). Trust me on this, you'll be glad you went this route.

chemao wrote:Why don't you just go with an nlite version of Windows XP for that computer? It'll run faster than 98, and support all the stuff you've lost support for.... The only thing you'll need is at least 512MB of RAM if you want decent performance, and chances are it will probably support up to a GB (768MB if it has an integrated 256MB plus support for one add on SODIMM of 512MB). Trust me on this, you'll be glad you went this route.

Because I don't want to spend any money on the machine. I already had a copy of Win98se lying around. Buying RAM for that machine just to support a bloated OS is not my idea of a "solution."

NLited XP is about the same size as Windows 98, and in some cases, smaller. it's also MUCH faster, and supports all the stuff. You can get a memory stick for like 5 bucks. You gotta think your time is worth something right? Besides, you're talking about getting add-on peripherals that are compatible with W98. Do you think you'll get them for free? I'm sure you can scrounge $20 bucks if you really wanted to.