Windows 98: The Second Time Around
Bruce Von Stiers
Is there anybody out there in computerland who doesn't know what Windows is? Okay, maybe some Mac fanatic who refuses to have anything PC spoken in his presence. But most of us know something about the Microsoft's Graphical User Interface (GUI) operating system that is called Windows. This operating system has gone through a lot of changes over the years. Microsoft even released a new version of it last year called Windows 98. There were some folks that said that the new version wasn't enough, so Microsoft went back, added a few things to it and re-released the program as Windows 98: Second Edition.
One of the best things that I liked right away about Windows 98 is a little information box that keeps popping up on my screen. It lets me know that the disk space on my hard drive is about to run out. It gives me an option of clearing out some files to open up some free space on the drive. That's a major plus for me because I throw so much junk on my system that sometimes the drive gets full during an product installation. Let me tell you; it's pretty aggravating to be installing a program and have it die during setup due to lack of hard drive space.
There are a lot of new features in Windows 98. When you have the Web integration turned on, opening files can be done with a single mouse click. You can also have your cursor hover over a icon or filename. After a short delay Windows will open the file or start the program that the icon represents. The Windows Desktop is now called the Active Desktop. The desktop can now utilize Java applets and be changed into a Web page.
Another new feature of Windows 98 is the ability to have multiple monitors. This feature allows for expanding the desktop across two or more monitors. There is also better support for the Universal Serial Bus (USB). DVD-ROM is another thing that Windows 98 embraces. Although this type of medium hasn't really caught on, the support for it is in Windows 98.
Windows Media Player is a great new feature. Use it to play MPEG, AVI and Quicktime movies. You can also use it to listen to music files like MIDI's or Waves. It replaces the ActiveMovie player that was in Windows before.
One of the things that I liked best about the Windows 98 desktop is the Programs Menu. No longer does the program selection sprawl out all over the screen. Click on the Programs selection and you are treated to a single column list. Use the arrows to scroll up and down the list. Open a program with a single click on it's icon. This is way better than having the screen taken up by your menu selection.
If you have an older machine or a very tired one, Windows 98 might not be overly friendly. On my "older than dirt" Pentium 200 (without MMX), Windows 98 seems to be a little mean. After being on for a few hours, my screen will go blank and I have to reboot. Luckily, the last time it happened, Word was able to recover a document that I left on the screen. But it still bothers me a little bit. Not enough to remove Windows 98 from my machine, but it"s still irritating.
That brings me to another point. During installation, Windows 98 asked if I wanted to back up my old Windows files. This would make for a clean removal of Windows 98 and reinstallation of the old operating system. I said, sure that's a good idea. But then the installation stopped because I didn't have enough free hard drive space for the backed up files. I was going to need at least an additional 100 MB of free hard drive space for the old Windows files. Off I went to clean up the hard drive. Then I start a fresh install of Windows 98: Second Edition.
These are the only problems that I found with Windows 98: Second Edition. I think that it is still the best operating system for the PC.
You can get Windows 98: Second Edition in a couple of flavors. You can get the upgrade from the earlier version of Windows 98. There is also the upgrade from Windows 95 and 3.x. And of course, there is the complete version for a computer that doesn't have Windows on it all.
You can pick up Windows 98: Second Edition form your local software retailer for under $ 90 for the upgrade. The pricing may vary so shop carefully.
For the latest information about Windows 98: Second Edition visit the Microsoft web site. You'll find the web site at www.microsoft.com