|
 THE
RELEASE of Windows 98 has been downplayed by Microsoft and many
others, but I was still interested enough to buy it on June 25,
when it was first released. I knew it wasn't going to be revolutionary
like the change from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95, but for me Windows
95 was getting long in the tooth and I was ready for an upgrade.
Installing the OS
The installation for me was relatively
smooth and painless. I had decided to take a conservative approach
by installing Windows
98 in a separate directory on another logical drive. Aiding
me in this effort was System Commander, a multiboot utility.
(See my separate article on this product.) When I completed the
installation in about an hour's time on my Pentium II, I could
go back and forth between 95 and 98 as needed.
The only installation problem I
encountered was Windows 98's failure to recognize my network
card. It recognized that I had an Ethernet card but not the specific
brand or model. Everything else it recognized flawlessly, including
the make and model number of my plug-and-play monitor! I remedied
the network card problem by installing the Windows 95 driver
I had, and manually adding the NETBEUI protocol, which allowed
my Network Neighborhood to work. For some reason Windows 98 had
only included the TCP/IP protocol bound to my network card.
Dual interface options
With everything up and running the
user interface was pretty much as I expected. If you've installed
Internet
Explorer 4.0 with the Active Desktop, you've seen most of
the changes already. By default, the classic Windows 95 interface
is preserved—you still double-click on an icon to start
a program or open a file or folder—but you also have the
option of turning on the Web-style interface n which icons are
underlined like links on a Web page and you just single-click
to start them. I had already gotten used to this with IE 4.0,
so I turned that on right away in Settings / Folder Options.
If you use Web style you do have
get used to a twist in multiple selection. Instead of Ctrl-Click
to select multiple items, you have to use Ctrl-hover (i.e., press
and hold the Ctrl key and then hover briefly with the mouse pointer
over each item you wish to select). If that's too weird for you,
you can always go back to the classic-style interface.
Internet Explorer integration
You've probably heard about the
integration of the Internet Explorer browser into Windows 98.
Now, for instance, there is an address bar in every folder window
on which you can type a file path or a Web address. There is
also a Favorites menu item, which can contain shortcuts to files,
programs, or the traditional Web shortcuts from Internet Explorer.
These Favorites are also available right from the Start menu.
What about Netscape?
So what happens if you're a Netscape
user and would like to use that browser instead? Netscape actually
runs very nicely under Windows 98. Just install it, and on the
Netscape startup when it asks you if you want to make it your
default browser, say yes. Then when you click on a Web shortcut
in the Favorites folder or elsewhere, Netscape will start up
automatically instead of Internet Explorer. You will also get
Netscape if you enter a Web address in the Run box on the Start
menu or from the optional address toolbar on the Windows 98 taskbar.
However, if you've got a folder window open and type in a Web
address in the address bar, you'll get Internet Explorer rendering
the page inside the folder window, with Netscape nowhere to be
seen.
Running other programs
How well does Windows 98 run other
programs? To check this out, I uninstalled an application under
Windows 95 and installed it under 98 as I needed it. As expected
everything worked fine, but I did run into a problem: Any program
that tried to access the floppy disk drive would hang. I found
the solution in the Microsoft Knowledge Base at http://support.microsoft.com. I had an older
version of Dr.
Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit that conflicted with Windows
98. I've since obtained a newer version that solves the problem.
My Documents
One new and sensible change to the
user interface is that the My Documents folder is now a system
folder right on the desktop. You may be familiar with this folder
in Microsoft Office applications, but now it's built right into
the operating system, so it is easy for a novice to find his
or her document files and have a handy place to put them.
 MS
Plus features
If you're familiar with Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95, essentially
all its features have been included in Windows 98, except for
the Pinball game. This includes the popular Desktop Themes, which
has two brand new themes: Baseball and Jungle. The screen appearance
improvement options such as "Use large icons" and "Show
icons using all possible colors" now appear on the Display
properties page entitled Effects. And the System Agent has been
replaced by the nearly identical Task Scheduler.
Built-in utilities
Another area of improvement is in
the built-in utilities. The Backup program now supports most
tape drives, including the previously unsupported category of
SCSI tape drives, as well as backup to a hard drive or diskette.
A powerful System Information tool is also included. Categories
of information are Hardware Resources, Components, and Software
Environment. For example, under Components/Problem Devices, the
SI tool informed me that the secondary IDE controller had been
disabled. This was something I had done on purpose to save an
IRQ, but it's nice to know that System Information might also
catch unintentional problems. From the Tools menu you can invoke
other new tools such as the System File Checker and Registry
Checker.
FAT32
Windows 98 now makes available to
everyone the more space-efficient FAT32 file system. Previously
this was available in the OEM Service Release of Windows 95 bundled
with new computers but not in the retail version of Windows 95.
Windows 98 includes a conversion utility, which I tried on my
Windows 98 partition. FAT32 uses smaller cluster sizes and overcomes
the 2 GB limit imposed by the FAT16 file system we've used for
years. When I converted my 690 MB partition, I gained 60 MB of
free space!
Be aware that other operating systems
such as DOS and Windows NT don't support FAT32 (although support
is planned for the next version of NT due sometime next year).
And you may need to update low-level file system utilities such
as Norton
Utilities or Partition
Magic, if you haven't already done so.
Defrag
A more sophisticated defragmentation
tool uses information collected over time on the loading patterns
of your programs, which don't necessarily load as a sequential
file as assumed by traditional defragmentation programs. The
trade-off for faster program loads is slower defragmentation
times.
System update tool
Since we know operating systems
are bound to require updates over time, Windows 98 has conveniently
included a Windows Update tool, which connects to the Internet
to look for updates available for your system. To get you familiar
with this process, the Windows Update Web page will show you
a nice "Route 98" desktop theme that you can download,
and once you've done so, it won't show up any longer under available
updates.
Hardware support
Improved hardware support is included
with Windows 98. It takes advantage of the MMX instructions in
newer Pentium and all Pentium II processors. Support has been
added for DVD-ROM drives and USB (universal serial bus) ports.
If you've bought a computer in the last year or so, then you
probably already have USB ports. These were designed from the
beginning to chain multiple peripherals such as scanners, mice,
and digital video cameras, and automatically have them recognized
by the operating system without a reboot. Hopefully, manufacturers
will quickly start releasing USB versions of their peripherals
now that Windows 98 is released.
An under-the-covers improvement
is in the TCP/IP protocol stack used for Internet connections.
It is supposed to improve throughput due to faster error recovery
on the connection.
Stability & bugs
One promise of Windows 98 is improved
reliability compared to Windows 95. Perhaps this is true, but
it is still possible to hang an application. It is supposed to
be a better platform for running Internet Explorer 4.0, but I
found it has some of the same bugs as running IE 4.0 on Windows
95. For instance, I like the new Thumbnails view for viewing
graphics files, but there is a bug that will crash the folder
window if you try to rename a file in Thumbnails view. Another
bug introduced with Service Pack 1 for IE 4.01 (the latest level
included with Windows 98) is that the thumbnails appear in a
single vertical column. You're supposed to be able to click Refresh
to get around this, but I find this can also crash the folder
window.
Web TV
One geeky new feature that is still
on the bleeding edge is the convergence of PC and TV in the new
Web TV for Windows program. If you don't have a TV tuner card
in your system but have an Internet connection, you can at least
download daily program schedule updates for your local cable
system, so you can find out if you're missing anything on TV
while you're sitting at your computer. Of course, if you do have
a TV tuner card, you're supposed to be able to tune to the channel
you select from the program guide. I've been following the Internet
newsgroup microsoft.public.win98.webtv
on this subject, and it sounds like there are kinks to be worked
out before everything function smoothly, even if you get the
ATI All-In-Wonder Pro video/TV tuner card that was Windows 98's
target hardware for this feature.
****
So is Windows 98 an essential upgrade?
No, not for everyone. But it is a nice-to-have upgrade for anyone
who uses the Internet or has a recent machine. If you've still
got a 486 (the minimum stated requirement is a 486DX/66 with
16 MB of RAM) or old Pentium 60, 66, or 75 that hasn't been upgraded,
you're better off saving your money toward a new computer. For
further information check out http://www.microsoft.com/windows98. |
