Tweakin out a Win98se box

22 posts
Send send send your Win98 tweaks here!!!

Really want to try and tweak out my box but not sure how to do it!

if you can help plz do!

heh, how about this. format the drive, put the win2k beta on. just a thought. Don't mean to be a smart-ass.


How about this - format the drive, and put Linux on it!

You'll get more performance, better applications, more stability, more security, and it won't cost you a dime!

(Dons abestos pajamas)


Ha ha ha never would of thought of thoes. Yes i am going to install linux later but seriously.

some win98 tweaks plz

Here are a few quick, simple starters:

Under system properties, check your device manager and make sure your drives have DMA enabled.

Also, click on the Performance tab, select File System, and tell Windows your computer is a "Network Server." Then, click on the Floppy Disk tab, and uncheck the box that makes windows look for a new floppy drive on boot.

Then download Winboost 2000, and tweak like a villain.

[Edit- Arg. I'm not talking about genetics. ]

[This message has been edited by underthumb (edited December 16, 1999).]

DNA? Does that give it a more "organic" feel?

Go grab this, my all time favorite tweaker. It's amazing. Decreased my SETI work unit time from 28 hrs. to 16 hrs! (YMMV)

[This message has been edited by HipsterDoofus (edited December 16, 1999).]

How about Tweak 3d?

They have more tweaks than you can shake a floppy at!

[This message has been edited by tkbrewer (edited December 16, 1999).]

Go to the run command and run msconfig, clean out all the crap that normally starts up automaticlly.
This is the ultimate site for ALL kinds of tweaks. Maybe too many.

Good luck.


Check out this site- tons of tweaks, you'll be there for days:
Ohhh, yeah. I've got that site bookmarked (err... "Favorited". Gave up Netscape a while ago. ).

How bizzare that it's an AOLer's site, I've always thought.

Enough apps,

Lets get down and dirty with REGEDIT tweaks (aka Dangerous!)
I'm always up for some danger with proformance tweakin!!


(keep in mind that i am not THAT familiar with the Reg)

Edit: Hey HippsterDoofus, that file PowerTweak is not correct, the zipped file is screwed up some how, could not lauch it after install. Bad file??

[This message has been edited by Enigma990 (edited December 17, 1999).]


Exactly what happened when you tried to launch it?

Same thing happened to me when I tried to launch powertweak. Sometimes it just hangs, but sometimes gives the error:

Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library
Program: G\powertweak\powert.exe
abnormal program termination

As you can see, I did not install to the default location. Maybe I'll try that next. Something might be hardcoded as a subdirectory instead of the full path. Maybe I need a newer vbrun.dll?


I just found this swapfile optimization guide: apfile_Optimization_01.htm
Good stuff! I had the second HD thing right, but never figured out how to move it to the 0 cylinder.
I've tried to install Powertweak on a few different machines, and it never works. In fact, on each machine I've had to boot to DOS and manually delete it from the startup folder to get Windows to come up.

I would stay away from it. Not worth the trouble.

Dammit! You guys jinxed me!
I d/l'ed and installed PowerTweak 2.0, but I didn't work (still a beta), so I uninstalled it and reinstalled 1.05b, and now I'm getting the same damn runtime error!


I love that program, and I very badly want to get it working again. The guy who wrote it no longer supports older versions. Sonovabeech!!! What a prick! (Sorry, but I REALLY love that program!)

Anyway, how do you troubleshoot this kind of thing? I know it has to do with versions of .dll's in the /windows/system folder, but that's about all I know.

Arrrgh!!! Please help!

Edit: P.S.- I love that tweaker so damn much, I might be willing to reinstall Win98 if I have to, to get it running.

[This message has been edited by HipsterDoofus (edited December 21, 1999).]

Lets kick it up a notch...shall we ?

Go into Device every device ..and I do mean every one.

Look in the driver file details for each and write down any driver file names you find that are in parenthesis like [vmm.vxd].

This part requires winzip 7.0 or higher.

Open the .cab files on your win98se cd...find those filenames and extract to C:\windows\system

Reboot and enjoy

P.S. the files in parenthesis are files that are needed but not found by windows...putting them manually into C:\windows\system will allow them to be used correctly by the device....this can be verified by the files no longer being in parenthesis after they are added to \system

[edit: added post script]

[This message has been edited by Thorax (edited December 20, 1999).]

Thorax, thanks for the tip but here is a quicker cleaner way to get the files restored. start/run type msinfo32, go to the "tools" menu and select "system file checker" specify the filenames that you have found in parenthesis and point file checker at your win98 cd. It will extract the needed files and place them where they are supposed to be.
Wow Thorax! I had the following files missing:
from modem, mouse vga card and even from system devices such as DMA controller and system board.
How does this happen? Windows just forget to put some stuff in the suitcases when it moves to its new home (your HD)and then it just learns to live without it? IS after all a microsoft product...right right?


They are NOT "missing". They are parts of the file "VMM32.VXD" which Windows "builds" out of the individual *.vxd components. Since each computer is different, each computer's VMM32.VXD is different. Whether this "composite" VXD file is a good thing or not is a hotly debated topic. Many people claim to have increased their system stability after manually extracting each component of their VMM32.VXD, many more say there's no difference, and many more still say it decreased stability. I did it once, with no perceptible difference, but at the time I did not know what I was doing in general, so my machine was crashing all the time, regardless. Now, I do know what I am doing, and Windows never crashes, (certain apps do, once in a great while, but not Windows), and I have not done the "VXD trick", on my current installation.
22 posts