Windows 98

Windows 98 is the hybrid 16/32-bit graphic operating system released by Microsoft corporation on June 25, 1998.

History

In June, 1997 there was the first public version of a product which accumulated in itself(himself) everything that was acquired in two years of development of Windows 95, and "Microsoft Memphis" was called. Soon the Memphis project received the official name Windows 98.

The American version of Windows 98 officially appeared on June 25, 1998 after almost annual period of beta testing and exactly in two years and ten months after appearance of the predecessor.

Specific Features

Windows 98 contains all updates of the previous intermediate releases of Windows 95 (Service Pack 1 and OSR 2) in combination with support of the bus Universal Serial Bus (USB), the Internet Explorer 4 browser and a number of new features. New properties and new applications are added to a system, the system interface is improved, the errors found in three years are whenever possible corrected.

In comparison with Windows 95 the operating Windows 98 system includes more perfect management subsystem power supply, works with several monitors, works with memory more effectively and also supports new types of the equipment and a set of new models of devices.

Windows 98 continued development of Plug and Play technology, adds support of infrared ports IrDA and also the bus AGP and the FireWire interface (IEEE 1394).

There was a support of the new standard - ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) thanks to which, the devices compatible to this standard can join and be switched off separately, on a signal of the operating system.

Especially for support of hard drives with a capacity more than 2 Gb in Windows 98 FAT32 file system which for the first time appeared in release of Windows 95 OSR2 is implemented. FAT32 develops a former system on the basis of the 16-bit file allocation table FAT. FAT32 works with hard drives up to 2 Tb. Besides, Windows 98 includes support of new model of the WDM drivers (Win32 Driver Model).

Windows 98 supports safe remote network connections by means of virtual private networks (virtual private networking, VPN). For this purpose are included the driver of the adapter of remote access with support of VPN in Windows 98 and the network interface protocol of WAN networks (network driver interface specification wide area network, NDISWAN).

Support of multimedia continues to be improved - the sixth version of DirectX is built in Windows 98. In addition, in the operating system the opportunity for work with TWAIN - compatible devices of graphic input, such as scanners and digital cameras is implemented.

System Requirements

The Windows 98 installation requires the following:

• The computer with the processor 486DX 66 MHz or faster (it is recommended to use the Pentium processor).
• 16 MB of RAM (24 MB are recommended).
• Normal updating of the Windows 95 operating system requires about 195 MB of free disk space, but this volume can change from 120 MB to 295 MB depending on the used configuration and the selected components.
• The complete Windows 98 installation on the hard drive with FAT16 file system requires about 225 MB of free disk space, but this volume can change from 165 MB to 355 MB depending on the used configuration and the selected components.
• The complete Windows 98 installation on the hard drive with FAT32 file system requires about 175 MB of free disk space, but this volume can change from 140 MB to 255 MB depending on the used configuration and the selected components.
• The disk drive for reading floppy disks of high density with a diameter of 3.5 inches.
• The monitor with permission of VGA or above (SVGA with support of 16-bit or 24-bit color is recommended).

Windows 98 SE

Windows 98 of Second Edition (Windows 98 SE) was released on May 5, 1999. Updating implemented DVD playback capability, added the new version of the browser - Internet Explorer 5, the Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) function, the program for communication on the Internet - Windows NetMeeting 3. In addition, with a release of Windows 98 SE there was significantly an augmented list of the supported devices, errors are corrected, stability of a system is improved.

See Also

• Microsoft Windows
• Microsoft corporation

Links

• Windows 98: a new window to the world
• Requirements to the hardware for the Windows 98 installation
• Windows 98 operating system