Stable Win98FE

[Colonel Sanders]

OK, you can stop laughing now, sure Win98FE is anything but stable, but I want to get my fresh-install running 24/7. I know Win2K is rock-solid, have had Win2K boxes running forever, nothing compared to Linux but about as good as Micro$oft gets.

What tricks/programs should I try to be able to have games, and music, and a constant on PC? I'm thinking about download free-mem-pro from music-match, had the program a long time ago and loved it! Worked excellent, rarely shut down PC, but that is a $19.99 download :(, maybe there are some free-ware programs that do similar?

Also, stupid Q, with a decent system like mine, is it OK to run programs like net, solitare(acutally I'm addicted to minesweeper) while defraggin my HDD?

TIA, Logan

[HAL9000]

Well, what I've always done is setup a complete maintenance schedule of defrag, scandisk, spyware removal, etc to finally finish up with an automated reboot when it's done. Everything else is a given such as update your windows and all of your drivers.

Most importantly, and I find it to help stability with Win98 and ME, disable the active desktop. If you have a JPG that you absolutely need as a wallpaper, open it in paint and save as a BMP.

-Turn off all the effects like animated menus
-Kill all forms of power management
-Reduce startup items to a bare minimum
-Don't run anything in the background that you don't need
-Add to your SYSTEM.INI file under the 386enh section the line

ConservativeSwapfileUseage=1

With the 512Mb RAM you have, it will try to use RAM more than the swap file.

Go to your system properties and set your machine to a Network Server instead of Desktop Computer.

Don't run a memory manager, it will most likely cause even more problems as you are loading a program into memory to manage memory.

If I think of anything else that I normally do, I will post later. I never had any stability problems with 98 or ME.

[Colonel Sanders]

OK, have changed to network server, schedueld scandkisk for 9:00am mon-fri, defrag 9:30am fri(not sure how to set reboot).

Have changed powermanagement to always on, monitor shut-off and monitor shut-off after 20min.

Only have MBM5, task-schedualr, and audio controls running in background(will probbably disalbe audio controls).

Want to double check what you mean, under "[386Enh]", add an additional line below all the other lines containing "ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1"? (I'm not a risky person when it comes to, er, when it comes to my PC :D)

Thanks HAL! So, should I avoid mine-sweeper and defragging at the same time?

Logan

[HAL9000]

LOL... nah.. I'm a minesweeper junkie, best time 86 seconds :D

Here is an example of the System.ini. Just open it in Notepad or Wordpad to edit it in.

[386Enh]
ebios=*ebios
woafont=app850.fon
mouse=*vmouse
device=*dynapage
device=*vcd
device=*vpd
device=*int13
WPSLPT1=0
COM1FIFO=1
COM3FIFO=1
display=*vdd,*vflatd
MinSPs=8
irq9=4096
keyboard=*vkd
WPSLPT2=0
Paging=on
COM2FIFO=1
ConservativeSwapfileUseage=1

To do the automated reboot, use task scheduler and use this as your command line:

C:\WINDOWS\RUNDLL32.EXE shell32.dll,SHExitWindowsEx 0x2

Then schedule it after the night maintenance. Remember to turn your speakers down as the wonderful windows startup and shutdown sounds can be a rude awakening in the middle of the night.