I've been having a set of problems with my Win98 system. I've come to
the conclusion that I need some direction from somebody who really knows
windows, and this community came to mind.

I called this page ExtremeWindowing partly because it seemed catchy and partly because the install/try/crash/reboot cycle I'm going through feels like XP, except that I don't have a *CLUE* about what I'm actually changing. My unit test, so far, is whether my system boots successfully and stays up for more than an hour. It would be great to have something a little bit more rigorous.

Can someone point me at some resources (books will be fine - I'm an
O'Reilly fan) where I can learn, fairly rigorously, about the registry, the
way DLL's are located and loaded, drivers, and all that stuff. I've got a
reasonably vanilla-flavored Win98 installation, and something I'm trying to
install (maybe more than one something) is killing the registry or worse.
I've had to reinstall the system several times, I don't know when (if ever)
its safe to import saved registry's, and similar things. When those cute little dialogs come up that say something like "VXD not found, ok?" what does it MEAN and what should I DO?

In short - I need to learn my way around the WinNN system (gasp). I simply don't have enough knowledge of what's actually happening in, for example, an installer, to know what might be breaking. I thus don't know what to avoid, undo, or try and work around when something breaks.

I also wondered if I should move to WinME or Win2000 (I have a laptop that
runs ME and seems ok).

-- TomStambaugh

''No clue on resources, Tom, though the Microsoft support people (with whom I have had some excellent experiences) recommend the Resource Kits. I recently upgraded my laptop to Win2000 Pro and it is very stable. Highly recommended if your system is 2000-capable. I've also "learned" that adding lots of hardware and software to Win 98 makes it less and less stable as time goes on. Unfortunately I don't know a way out of this. I believe that McAfee anti-virus (the new one that updates on line) is a cause of instability. More than this ... even this much ... I don't know. -- RonJeffries''

''Thanks, Ron. Maybe its time for Win2000. I've got the upgrade kit around here somewhere. I think the system will take it - P750, 384M RAM, 73G (40 + 33) hard disk. The base system (a "PowerSpec" ...) may just not be able to hack real life. -- TomStambaugh''

My recent experience: When the system is low on memory (RAM), it becomes less reliable.
My symptom: Couldn't use advanced modes of HP inkjet printing software, like multiple pages on a piece of paper, or postcard printing.
Consider adding RAM.
-- JeffGrigg

''Sigh. I'm at 384M now, the hardware won't take any more. -- TomStambaugh''

I'm not sure there is anything Extreme to it (unless Windows XP counts), but I too have found that Win2K is a lot more stable than the pre-millennium versions.