Introduction

Those of you reading this may remember the olden years of trying to squeeze the last bit of memory out of your 640K segment to allow falcon3.0 to run for 20 minutes without locking up your computer and requiring a 3 finger salute. Microsoft promised to fix all of that with Windows95 - allowing software developers the luxury of a standard set of API's to interface new and evolving hardware. It would be "plug and play" for both the hardware and software for the end user. I am sure that Bill Gates really believed in one of his delusional states that "autoplay" would allow one to drop in a game and instantly install the software and run the program finding the necessary hardware and APIs.

Unfortunately, as those who have never even seen DOS can attest, this is simply not the case. Getting the DirectX nightmare to work with your soundcard, 3D accelerator, not to mention CDROM drive requires a complex form of magic - one that is not easily acquired from a phone call to Dell, GW2000, or PackardHell.. Each new piece of software you purchase wants to install its own system files, DirectX files, and other garbage all over your system. Even installation of Microsoft's own IE4 caused havoc with many systems.

As if that weren't enough, the picture was further complicated by 4 versions of Windows95 shipping to the public with radically difference kernels and supported hardware. As an example, the version of Windows95 on store shelves today will not even install on a modern PII system. What this does eventually, is lead to the situation where you have some new and some old system files - just waiting to trigger that blue screen of death while your wingman are LawnDarting™ while fighting the evil hordes.

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This, in essence, is what is most appealing to me about Windows98. If I could rename the product (and believe me I have tried in vane) I would dub it "Windows 95 II Gold 5.0" in honor of our favorite Janes/DiD/Empire/I-Magic releases. This is Windows95 with a total overhaul, new drivers, new hardware support, a new sleek and wonderful System file checker to fix your busted system, and automatic updates from Microsoft's WWW site courtesy of the integrated IE4, and DirectX 5.2. Windows98 is what was promised with Window95 - a stable (relatively) system which one can run to play QuakeII, write their manuscripts, create and host WWW pages, and of course, run the latest and greatest Flight sims. There is no magic in its release and no one part of it is worth more then $10. However, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

In the following article I will detail some of the new features of Windows98 and how those relate to flight sims, 3D hardware, and stability. You have read the hype and the ridiculous benchmarks elsewhere - this will have none of that. Our hope here at COMBATSIM.COM is that you will understand the complexity of Windows98 and appreciate it for its sheer beauty, while also understanding its limitations - especially in relation to upcoming hardware and CPU support. WIN98 is an incarnation of Windows95 that actually works as advertised!

Top Features for Simmers/Die hard hardware tweakers.

While many print mags and television "previews" have panned Win98 as simply "Win95 + IE4" the following features demonstrates what Win98 gives you BEYOND this combination.

1. Internet Explorer 4 Service Pack 1 is fully integrated into Windows 98.

2. Eight monitors can be driven at one time. Imagine the possibilities of sims which take advantage of this feature. This would mean simple Plug&Play multiple view support

3. Full USB support. As new devices - especially a new generation of flight controllers - are released Win98 will handle them. The seamless ability to attach scanners, tape drives, and Flight controllers to a single high speed port will be boon to gamers.

4. Multi-Link which allows you to bond 2 analog modems and double your Internet speed. ISPs will be begin to support this feature soon.

5. Support for the Fat32 file system with conversion software. Now you can take your 11 gig HD and partition it into one continuous C: drive. The included software will convert all FAT16 HD to the new format.

6. Brand new Backup utility. This is a stripped down version of Seagate Backup 2.0. It does NOT include the ability to SCHEDULE backups., I have no idea what MS was thinking with this one. You cannot schedule it and you cannot SAVE a catalog file. Thus you must scan your entire tape each time. Solution - you still must purchase 3rd party backup software if you are serious about your backups.

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7. Makes multiple backups of your registry, and automatically restores it if a problem has been detected. This is great boon to anyone who has had Win95 crash unexpectedly after a rogue program installs an outdated driver or changes and corrupts your registry, One can boot to DOS and (yes DOS) or a boot disk and run the SCANREG program You can choose any date you want for the backup set and install that version for the registry.

8. A new Disk Cleanup utility that scans your hard drive for wasted space/files and removes them.

9. A new System File checker that scans your system and replaces any damaged, or missing, system files. This is the best reason to buy windows98 - the new utilities. Between this and the Registry Checker and updated drivers it pays for itself in times of aggravation.

You run the Registry Checked to determine if a rogue program has written over a crucial system file. If it has you can restore the file off the HD. You would be shocked how many sims do this. For example, a number of sims will install DirectX5 OVER DirectX5.2 built into the win98 OS. This will make your system nearly unusable. (The software asks "do you want to install directX5. Be SURE to answer NO to that question).

10. Similar to the feature above, a web-based Windows Update (Active X control). This incredible new feature allows you to access Microsoft's database and automatically updates drivers, system files, and software that is installed on your PC. Thus searching for the new SB driver may be a thing of the past.

11. Disk Defragmenter now orders programs on your hard drive, speeding up large simulation loading. For example, F22:ADF now loads missions 40% faster under Win98 after hard drive optimization.

12. A new WDM (device manager) that allows you to use the same drivers with Windows NT5. This is of little use, IMHO, as the WDM drivers are few and far between and when they do have hardware supported (for example, a SB32 soundcard) they work poorly compared to the Win95 drivers (VXD). It is the poor performance and scarcity of these drivers which worries me about hardware support for NT5.

13. AGP Support is now integrated into the OS. The new cards coming out like the PSVGR and RivaTNT will use the sideband features of AGP to accelerate our simulations under Win98.

14. Over 1,200 new drivers

15. A new WinAlign utility that increases your system performance by padding the files blocks to 4k segments. Unfortunately this creates absolute havok. For example, after installing Office97 one must reboot. After you reboot WinAlign runs which alters the files. It is now IMPOSSIBLE to update the MS files with their SR-1 service pack!! I am still in awe that more people have not complained about this. Fortunately, WinAlign failed to detect my sims so I can still patch them.

16. Windows Explorer is now threaded on multiple levels. For example, one can delete programs and copy at the same time.

To summarize the features, in WIN98 we have tools which will help us keep our systems running , as well as painless upgrade options. Given the fact that most of us simmers push our hardware to the edge, these are the features we need. Now, on to the hardware support and stability issues.

Note: Windows98 does NOT include multiprocessor support - only NT4/5 will have this feature. New simulations are being written to take advantage of this such as Falcon4 and Fighter DuelI 2.0. Unfortunately, we all must wait until MS decides a direction and release date for NT5 witih DirectX6 support in the kernel.

Go to Part II