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Overview
New Features
Windows 98

OVERVIEW

Below is a listing of the new features found in Windows 98.

NEW FEATURES

New Paint Brush - The new paint brush allows you now to open *.bmp, *.pcx, *.jpg, and *.gif files, allowing you now to get images from the web and modify or create your own images for the web.

Internet Explorer 4.0 - Includes Internet Explorer as the Internet browser that gives you a lot more new features such as channels, search window in the same window as your web page window, easier interface, and faster access.

New Background Properties - You can now set *.bmp, *.pcx, *.jpg, *.gif, and *.htm files as your background.

Plus - Windows 98 has Microsoft Plus! built into the operating system, which allows you to do all the features that the Microsoft plus add-on would do, such as stretch your wall paper so it's full screen in all resolutions, add your own desktop themes, have dialup server, and more.

Front Page Express - The "light" version of Microsoft's FrontPage 97. It comes with IE4 and Windows 98, and it is great for WYSIWYG or source editing HTML documents.

Personal Web Server - PWS supports Common Gateway Interface (CGI) and Internet Server application programming interface (ISAPI) applications. That means you can use it as a staging server to test Web apps before promoting them to your live server.

Faster Shutdown - The time it takes to shutdown the system has been dramatically reduced in Windows 98.

Windows 98 Help Desk - HelpDesk builds technical support right into the operating system, a technique that began with the extensive help files and wizards in Win95. We found HelpDesk tucked discreetly into the Start menu. The HelpDesk links to an HTML file offering three levels of support: Local Help, Web Resources and Contact a Support Engineer.

Multiple Display Support - Multiple Display Support allows you to use 8 multiple monitors and/or multiple graphics adapters on a single PC. The ability to have your work environment displayed on multiple monitors can be extremely beneficial in many areas including: desktop publishing, Web development, video editing, and gaming environments.

Ability to list fonts by similarity - You can now exclude fonts by similarity, meaning you can exclude fonts with the same name but with different type face, such as Arial, Arial Italic, Arial Bold...

HSFLOP.PDR - Win98 includes a new HSFLOP.PDR floppy disk driver, which will significantly improve access speed to many diskette drives.

Ability to display Cabinet files - In Windows 98 you will have the capability of opening cabinet files and simply copy files within them without having to use the extract command.

Disk Defragmenter Optimization Wizard - The new Disk Defragmenter Optimization Wizard uses the process of disk defragmentation to increase the speed of programs you frequently use. To accomplish this, the wizard creates a log file that identifies your most commonly used programs. Once this log file has been created, it can be used by the disk Defragmenter to store the files associated with your most commonly run programs (the files will be stored contiguously on the hard disk). Placing all of the files associated with a given application in the same location on your hard disk will increase the overall system performance.

System File Checker Utility - System File Checker is a new utility which provides an easy way to verify that the Windows 98 System Files (*.dll, *.com, *.vxd, *.drv, *.ocx, *.inf, *.hlp, etc.) have not been modified or corrupted. The utility also provides an easy mechanism for restoring the original versions of system files which have changed. System File Checker will be extremely valuable in helping users and support personnel track changes (file corruption, application installation, application removal, accidental deleting of files, etc.) made to Windows 98 systems and restore original files in the event a change causes a conflict.

Windows Tune-Up Wizard - The Windows Tune-Up Wizard was designed to make the PC more self-maintainable. The Wizard schedules tune-up jobs to be run automatically on a regular basis. You can launch the Wizard from the Start menu, or off of the Programs, Accessories, and System Tools.

Microsoft System Information Utility - Windows 98 now contains a centralized system information utility that gathers system configuration information for technical support. This tool is comprised of a collection of ActiveX controls, each responsible for collecting and displaying a certain category of system information in the right frame of MSInfo. A Support Engineer can guide the user experiencing an issue to MSInfo to facilitate the information gathering process.

New Dr. Watson Utility - Windows 98 Includes an enhanced version of the Dr. Watson utility. With Dr. Watson enabled, when a software fault occurs (general protection fault, hang, etc.), Dr. Watson will intercept it and indicate what software faulted and why. In addition, Dr. Watson collects detailed information about the state of your system at the time the fault occurred. It logs this information to disk, and can display it on screen to assist administrative and product support personnel in determining the cause of the fault. Additional information about Dr. Watson can be found on our Dr. Watson page.

New Backup Utility- This new backup applet supports SCSI tape devices and makes backing up your data easier and faster.

New Accessibility Tools - Windows 98 includes two new accessibility tools including - the Accessibility Configuration Wizard which helps people adapt Windows' options to their needs and preferences, and a low-end screen magnifier which helps people with moderate vision impairments and those working on unfamiliar machines.

Support for New Generation of Hardware - One of the major goals is to provide complete support for users to take advantage of the array of innovations which have occurred in computer hardware over the last few years. Some of the major hardware standards supported by Windows 98 includes: Universal Serial Bus (USB), IEEE 1394, Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP), Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI), and Digital Video Disc (DVD)

Display Setting Enhancements - Display Setting Enhancements provide support for dynamically changing screen resolution and color depth. Adapter refresh rate can also be set with most newer display driver chipsets. Also includes the display enhancements previously available in Microsoft Plus!. (Microsoft Plus! is an add-on pack for Windows 95 which provided several minor operating system enhancements.) The enhancements with include: full window drag, font smoothing, wallpaper stretching, large icons, and hi-color icons.

FAT32 Conversion Utility - For added flexibility, Windows 98 includes a graphical FAT32 conversion utility, which can quickly and safely convert a hard drive from the original version of FAT to FAT32. Refer to our Fat 32 Page for more info.