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93-591: WIA is a very significant superset of the support for digital still imaging drivers that was provided by the Still Image Architecture (STI) in Windows 98 . Whereas STI only provided a low-level interface for doing basic transfers of data to and from the device (as well as the invocation of an image scan process on the Windows machine through the external device), WIA provides a framework through which

186-568: A Blue Screen of Death . Bill Gates remarked after derisive applause and cheering from the audience, "That must be why we're not shipping Windows 98 yet." Video footage of this event became a popular Internet phenomenon . Build 1998 was compiled as Windows 98 on May 11, 1998, before being fully released to manufacturing on May 15. The company was facing pending legal action for allowing free downloads of, and planning to ship Windows licenses with, Internet Explorer 4.0 in an alleged effort to expand its software monopoly. Microsoft's critics believed

279-575: A debugging program that works with protected mode applications. Windows 3.0 originated in 1988 as an independent project by Weise and Sargent, using Sargent's debugger to improve the memory manager and run Windows applications in separate protected memory segments. In a few months, Weise and Sargent cobbled together a rough prototype to run Windows versions of Word , Excel , and PowerPoint , then presented it to company executives, who were impressed enough to approve it as an official project. When IBM learned of Microsoft's upcoming project, their relationship

372-595: A WDM kernel-mode video transport for enhanced video playback and capture. Windows Driver Model also includes Broadcast Driver Architecture , the backbone for TV technologies support in Windows. WebTV for Windows utilized BDA to allow viewing television on the computer if a compatible TV tuner card is installed. TV listings could be updated from the Internet and WaveTop Data Broadcasting allowed extra data about broadcasts to be received via regular television signals using an antenna or cable, by embedding data streams into

465-690: A Web Publishing Wizard, and NetShow . NetMeeting allows multiple users to hold conference calls and work with each other on a document. The Windows 98 shell is web-integrated; it contains deskbands, Active Desktop , Channels , ability to minimize foreground windows by clicking their button on the taskbar, single-click launching, Back and Forward navigation buttons, favorites, and address bar in Windows Explorer , image thumbnails, folder infotips and Web view in folders, and folder customization through HTML -based templates. The taskbar supports customizable toolbars designed to speed up access to

558-549: A bug that was also present on its predecessor, Windows 95. Windows 98 SE could be obtained as retail upgrade and full version packages, as well as OEM and a Second Edition Updates Disc for existing Windows 98 users. USB audio device class support is present from Windows 98 SE onwards. Windows 98 Second Edition improved WDM support in general for all devices, and it introduced support for WDM for modems (and therefore USB modems and virtual COM ports). However, Microsoft driver support for both USB printers and USB mass-storage device class

651-464: A certain number of Consumer Page HID controls. Windows 98 also supports UDMA , 3DNow! and SSE . Windows 98 introduced ACPI 1.0 support which enabled Standby and Hibernate states. However, hibernation support was extremely limited and vendor-specific. Hibernation was only available if compatible (PnP) hardware and BIOS are present, and the hardware manufacturer or OEM supplied ACPI-compatible drivers. However, there are hibernation issues with

744-408: A copy of 16-bit Standard mode, and multiple copies of MS-DOS in virtual 8086 mode . 386 enhanced mode uses virtual 8086 mode to allow multiple DOS programs to run (each DOS session takes 1MB of memory) along with being windowed and allowing multitasking to continue. Virtual memory support allows the user to employ the hard disk as a temporary storage space if applications use more memory than exists in

837-452: A device can present its unique capabilities to the operating system, and applications can invoke those features. According to Microsoft, WIA drivers are made up of a user interface (UI) component and a driver core component, loaded into two different process spaces: UI in the application space and the driver core in the WIA service space. Certain scanners support WIA. In 2002, Microsoft released

930-502: A feature ported from and refined from Microsoft Office 95 . Windows menus and tooltips support slide animation. Windows Explorer in Windows 98, as in Windows 95, converts all-uppercase filenames to sentence case for readability purposes; however, it also provides an option Allow all uppercase names to display them in their original case. Windows Explorer includes support for compressed CAB files. The Quick Res and Telephony Location Manager Windows 95 PowerToys are integrated into

1023-405: A full release of Windows 98 for the first quarter of 1998, along with a Windows 98 upgrade pack for Windows 95, but it also had a similar upgrade for Windows 3.x operating systems planned for the second quarter. Stacey Breyfogle, a product manager for Microsoft, explained that the later release of the upgrade for Windows 3 was because the upgrade required more testing than that for Windows 95 due to

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1116-554: A list format. Its purpose as an alternative to using DOS commands is to facilitate moving files and directories. Task List displays all running applications and may also be used to terminate them, select a different program, cascade or tile the windows, and arrange minimized desktop icons. The Control Panel, where users can change settings to customize Windows and hardware, was also redesigned as an icon-based window. The drivers bundled with Windows 3.0 support up to 16 simultaneous colors from EGA , MCGA or VGA palettes, as opposed to

1209-686: A list rather than having to type them in. Windows 98 supports IrDA 3.0 which specifies both Serial Infrared Devices and Fast Infrared devices, which are capable of sending and receiving data at 4 Mbit/s. Infrared Recipient, a new application for transferring files through an infrared connection is included. The IrDA stack in Windows 98 supports networking profiles over the IrCOMM kernel-mode driver. Windows 98 also has built-in support for browsing Distributed File System trees on Server Message Block shares such as Windows NT servers. UPnP and NAT traversal APIs can be installed on Windows 98 by installing

1302-458: A new graphical user interface (GUI) that represents applications as clickable icons , instead of the list of file names in its predecessors. Later updates expand capabilities, such as multimedia support for sound recording and playback, and support for CD-ROMs . Windows 3.0 is the first version of Windows to perform well both critically and commercially, and was considered a major improvement over its previous Windows 2.0 offering. Its GUI

1395-406: A new IP Helper API, Automatic Private IP Addressing (also known as link-local addressing), IP multicasting , and performance enhancements for high-speed high bandwidth networks. Multihoming support with TCP/IP is improved and includes RIP listener support. The DHCP client has been enhanced to include address assignment conflict detection and longer timeout intervals. NetBT configuration in

1488-463: A new tool, enables users to clear their disks of unnecessary files. Cleanup locations are extensible through Disk Cleanup handlers. Disk Cleanup can be automated for regular silent cleanups. Scanreg (DOS) and ScanRegW are Registry Checker tools used to back up, restore or optimize the Windows registry . ScanRegW tests the registry's integrity and saves a backup copy each time Windows successfully boots. The maximum number of copies could be customized by

1581-543: A performance feature called MapCache that can run applications from the disk cache itself if the code pages of executable files are aligned/mapped on 4K boundaries, instead of copying them to virtual memory. This results in more memory being available to run applications, and lesser usage of the swap file. Windows 98 registry handling is more robust than Windows 95 to avoid corruption and there are several enhancements to eliminate limitations and improve registry performance. The Windows 95 registry key size limitation of 64 KB

1674-573: A shared virtual DOS machine . As the rest of the Microsoft team moved on to the OS/2 2.0 project, David Weise, a member of the Windows development team and a critic of IBM, believed that he could restart the Windows project. Microsoft needed programming tools to run in protected mode, so it hired Murray Sargent, a physics professor from the University of Arizona who had developed a DOS extender and

1767-811: A single INF file format across all Windows versions. Windows 98 Dial-Up Networking supports PPTP tunneling, support for ISDN adapters, multilink support, and connection-time scripting to automate non-standard login connections. Multilink channel aggregation enables users to combine all available dial-up lines to achieve higher transfer speeds. PPP connection logs can show actual packets being passed and Windows 98 allows PPP logging per connection. The Dial-Up Networking improvements are also available in Windows 95 OSR2 and are downloadable for earlier Windows 95 releases. For networked computers that have user profiles enabled, Windows 98 introduces Microsoft Family Logon which lists all users that have been configured for that computer, enabling users to simply select their names from

1860-425: A tool for large enterprises, due to high system requirements. Major game publishers did not see it as a potential game platform, instead sticking to MS-DOS. Microsoft's product manager Bruce Ryan compiled games that the Windows team had designed in its spare time to create Microsoft Entertainment Pack , which includes Tetris and Minesweeper . There was little budget, none spent on quality testing. Nevertheless,

1953-550: A version that could run in " protected mode ", to allow multiple programs at once, among other benefits. MS-DOS was originally designed to run in real mode and run only one program at a time, due to the limitations of the Intel 8088 microprocessor. Intel had later released the Intel 80286 , supporting such multitasking efficiently (with several different hardware features, including memory protection, hardware task switching, program privilege separation, and virtual memory, all absent on

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2046-490: Is Windows 3.0a, released in December 1990. It modified Windows' DOS extender—a program that enables DOS applications to access extended memory—to prevent errors caused by software calling into real-mode code when Windows is loaded in standard mode. It also simplified the installation process and alleviated crashes associated with networking, printing, and low-memory conditions. Windows 3.0 with Multimedia Extensions 1.0 (MME)

2139-488: Is a hybrid 16-bit and 32-bit monolithic product with the boot stage based on MS-DOS . Windows 98 is web-integrated and bears numerous similarities to its predecessor. Most of its improvements were cosmetic or designed to improve the user experience, but there were also a handful of features introduced to enhance system functionality and capabilities, including improved USB support and accessibility, and support for hardware advancements such as DVD players. Windows 98

2232-541: Is a new program that records macros, or sequences of keystrokes and mouse movements, which are then assigned to keys as shortcuts to perform complex functions quickly. Also, the earlier Reversi game was complemented with the card game Microsoft Solitaire , which would eventually be inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame in 2019. Another notable program is Help . Unlike DOS applications, which may have help functions as part of them, Windows Help

2325-528: Is a separate and readily accessible application that accompanies all Windows programs that support it. Windows 3.0 was the only version of Windows that could be run in three different memory modes: Real mode primarily existed as a way to run Windows 2.x applications. It was removed in Windows 3.1 . Almost all applications designed for Windows 3.0 had to be run in standard or 386 enhanced modes. (Microsoft Word 1.x and Excel 2.x would work in real mode as they were actually designed for Windows 2.x). However, it

2418-407: Is an updated version of Windows 98 released on June 10, 1999, eight months before the release of Windows 2000 . It includes many bug fixes, improved WDM audio and modem support, improved USB support, added SSE2 support, the replacement of Internet Explorer 4.0 with Internet Explorer 5.0 , Web Folders ( WebDAV namespace extension for Windows Explorer), and related shell updates. Also included

2511-451: Is basic OHCI -compliant FireWire DV camcorder support (MSDV class driver) and SBP-2 support for mass storage class devices. Wake-On-LAN reenables suspended networked computers due to network activity, and Internet Connection Sharing allows multiple networked client computers to share an Internet connection via a single host computer. Other features in the update include DirectX 6.1 which introduced major improvements to DirectSound and

2604-533: Is built-in and upgradeable to version 5.6. System File Checker checks installed versions of system files to ensure they were the same version as the one installed with Windows 98 or newer. Corrupt or older versions are replaced by the correct versions. This tool was introduced to resolve the DLL hell issue and was replaced in Windows Me by System File Protection . Windows 98 Setup simplifies installation, reducing

2697-497: Is eliminated. A Microsoft GS Wavetable Synthesizer licensed from Roland shipped with Windows 98 for WDM audio drivers. Windows 98 supports digital playback of audio CDs , and the Second Edition improves WDM audio support by adding DirectSound hardware mixing and DirectSound 3D hardware abstraction, DirectMusic kernel support, KMixer sample-rate conversion for capture streams, and multichannel audio support. All audio

2790-490: Is gone. The registry uses less memory and has better caching. Disk Defragmenter has been improved to rearrange program files that are frequently used to a hard disk region optimized for program start. Despite this, however, the message "Drive contents changed....restarting." still exists in this version (i.e. if the contents of the hard drive changed, then the entire drive is then rescanned and then progress resumed where it had left off), as with Windows 95. If it gets stuck on

2883-814: Is not available for Windows 98. The Active Channels Channel bar from the original release of Windows 98 was removed in Windows 98 Second Edition and is not installed upon first boot, but is retained if upgrading from the original release of Windows 98 to Windows 98 Second Edition. Windows 98 Second Edition did not ship with the WinG API or RealPlayer 4.0, unlike the original release of Windows 98, due to both of these having been superseded by DirectX and Windows Media Player, respectively. Several components of Windows 98 can be updated to newer versions. These include: The majority of copies of Windows 98 were distributed in CD-ROM . A 3 + 1 ⁄ 2 -inch floppy disk version

Windows Image Acquisition - Misplaced Pages Continue

2976-426: Is not possible. Standard mode requires at least an 80286 processor, and although the memory required is unchanged, the mode does allow the processor to use extended memory for running applications. 386 enhanced mode requires at least an 80386 processor and two megabytes of memory. While the other modes can run DOS applications in full-screen only and must suspend DOS applications to run Windows programs and vice versa ,

3069-424: Is removed from WIA for Windows Vista. Windows 98 Windows 98 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of Microsoft Windows operating systems. It is the second operating system in the 9x line, as the successor to Windows 95 . It was released to manufacturing on May 15, 1998, and generally to retail on June 25, 1998. Like its predecessor, it

3162-478: Is sampled by the Kernel Mixer to a fixed sampling rate, which may result in some audio getting upsampled or downsampled and having a high latency, except when using Kernel Streaming or third-party audio paths like ASIO which allow unmixed audio streams and lower latency. Windows 98 also includes a WDM streaming class driver ( Stream.sys ) to address real time multimedia data stream processing requirements and

3255-510: Is substituted for memory by the processor in the event that its own memory is exhausted. Like its predecessors, Windows 3.0 is not an operating system per se , but rather an operating environment that is designed for DOS and controls its functions. The MS-DOS Executive file manager was replaced with Program Manager , the list-based File Manager , and Task List. Program Manager is a graphical shell composed of icons, each with an underlying title. They can be moved and arranged in any order, and

3348-478: The Entertainment Pack was sold as a separate product, and it became so popular that it was followed by three other Entertainment Packs . On December 31, 2001, Microsoft dropped support for Windows 3.0, along with previous versions of Windows and Windows 95, Windows for Workgroups , and MS-DOS versions up to 6.22. Windows 3.0 features a significantly revamped graphical user interface (GUI), which

3441-738: The FAT32 file system, making hibernation problematic and unreliable. Windows 98, in general, provides improved — and a broader range of — support for IDE and SCSI drives and drive controllers, floppy drive controllers and all other classes of hardware as compared to Windows 95. There is integrated Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) support (although the USB Supplement to Windows 95 OSR2 and later releases of Windows 95 did have AGP support). Windows 98 has built-in DVD support and UDF 1.02 read support. The Still imaging architecture (STI) with TWAIN support

3534-757: The WINS client has been improved to continue persistently querying multiple WINS servers if it failed to establish the initial session until all of the WINS servers specified have been queried or a connection is established. Network Driver Interface Specification 5 support means Windows 98 can support a wide range of network media, including Ethernet , Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI), Token Ring , Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), ISDN , wide area networks , X.25 , and Frame Relay . Additional features include NDIS power management, support for quality of service , Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) and support for

3627-512: The Windows XP Network Setup Wizard. An L2TP/IPsec VPN client can also be downloaded. By installing Active Directory Client Extensions, Windows 98 can take advantage of several Windows 2000 Active Directory features. Windows 95 introduced the 32-bit, protected-mode cache driver VCACHE (replacing SMARTDrv) to cache the most recently accessed information from the hard drive in memory, divided into chunks. However,

3720-546: The vertical blanking interval portion of existing broadcast television signals. Windows 98 had more robust USB support than Windows 95, which only had support in OEM versions OSR2.1 and later. Windows 98 supports USB hubs , USB scanners and imaging class devices. Windows 98 also introduced built-in support for some USB Human Interface Device class (USB HID) and PID class devices such as USB mice, keyboards, force feedback joysticks etc. including additional keyboard functions through

3813-413: The 256-color limit, Windows 3.0 prioritizes the active window to use that application's colors, without resorting to dithering and then filling in areas. Windows 3.0 retains many of the simple applications from its predecessors, such as the text editor Notepad , the word processor Write , and the improved paint program Paintbrush . Calculator is expanded to include scientific calculations. Recorder

Windows Image Acquisition - Misplaced Pages Continue

3906-460: The DOS applications in 386 enhanced mode can be run windowed and concurrently with the Windows applications. Unlike the other modes, this one cannot be used to run DOS applications that use DOS extenders incompatible with DPMI specifications . Normally, Windows will start in the highest operating mode the computer can use, but the user may force it into lower modes by typing WIN /R or WIN /S at

3999-496: The DOS command prompt. If the user selects an operating mode that cannot be used due to lack of RAM or CPU support, Windows merely boots into the next lowest one. Windows 3.0 is considered to be the first version of Windows to receive critical acclaim. Users and critics universally lauded its icon-based interface and the ensuing ease of performing operations, as well as the improved multitasking and greater control over customizing their environments. Computerworld considered

4092-453: The OS/2, but it also intended Windows 3.0 to be a "low-end" alternative to the latter, with Gates referring to the OS/2 as the operating system of the 1990s. The Windows brand was also intended to be canceled after this version's release. The investigations into—and the eventual subsequent suing of—Microsoft led to a settlement on July 15, 1994, where Microsoft agreed not to bundle separate software packages with its operating products. It marked

4185-570: The WIA service in Windows Server 2003 and Windows Vista operates in the LocalService context. This can result in compatibility issues when using a driver designed for Windows XP. In Windows XP, support was added for automatic document feeder scanners, scroll-feed scanners without preview capabilities and multi-page TIFF generation. For WIA video, a snapshot filter driver is introduced that allows still frames to be captured from

4278-1004: The Web or the user's desktop; these toolbars include an Address Bar and Quick Launch . With the Address Bar, the user accesses the Web by typing in a URL, and Quick Launch contains shortcuts or buttons that perform system functions such as switching between windows and the desktop with the Show Desktop button. Another feature of this new shell is that dialog boxes show up in the Alt-Tab sequence. Windows 98 also integrates shell enhancements, themes and other features from Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95 such as DriveSpace 3, Compression Agent, Dial-Up Networking Server, Dial-Up Scripting Tool and Task Scheduler . Windows 98 had its own separately purchasable Plus! pack, called Plus! 98 . Title bars of windows and dialog boxes support two-color gradients,

4371-572: The Windows Image Acquisition Automation Library Tool, which provides access to WIA functionality through programming languages and scripting environments that support OLE Automation. In Windows XP, WIA runs in the LocalSystem context. Because of the security ramifications of running a service as LocalSystem whereby a buggy driver or malicious person would have unrestricted access to the system,

4464-697: The bulk of user input required. The Windows 98 Startup Disk contains generic, real-mode ATAPI and SCSI CD-ROM drivers that can be used instead in the event that the specific driver for a CD-ROM is unavailable. The system could be updated using Windows Update. A utility to automatically notify the user of critical updates was later released. Windows 98 includes an improved version of the Dr. Watson utility that collects and lists comprehensive information such as running tasks, startup programs with their command line switches, system patches, kernel driver, user drivers, DOS drivers and 16-bit modules. With Dr. Watson loaded in

4557-465: The cache parameters needed manual tuning as it degraded performance by consuming too much memory and not releasing it quickly enough, forcing paging to occur far too early. The Windows 98 VCACHE cache size management for disk and network access, CD-ROM access and paging is more dynamic compared to Windows 95, resulting in no tuning being required for cache parameters. On the FAT32 file system, Windows 98 has

4650-546: The company had attempted to dominate the applications market by luring its competitors into developing software for IBM's OS/2 while it was developing its own for Windows. At the time of Windows 3.0's release, Microsoft had only 10 and 15 percent of the market shares on spreadsheets and word processors, respectively, but those figures had risen to over 60 percent in 1995, overtaking previously dominant competitors such as Lotus Development Corporation and WordPerfect . Microsoft did indeed suggest developers to write applications for

4743-434: The company's improved applications market share. The company used to have close ties with IBM since the former's inception, but the unexpected success of its new product would lead to the two companies recasting their relationship, where they would continue to sell each other's operating products until 1993. After the fiscal year of 1990, Microsoft reported revenues of US$ 1.18 billion, with $ 337 million appearing in

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4836-524: The computer if a buggy driver is active, so Microsoft supplied instructions for disabling the feature. Windows 98 supports write-behind caching for removable disk drives. A utility for converting FAT16 partitions to FAT32 without formatting the partition is also included, however it is not compatible with DriveSpace . A number of improvements are made to various other system tools and accessories in Windows 98. Microsoft Backup supports differential backup and SCSI tape devices in Windows 98. Disk Cleanup,

4929-538: The core operating system. Windows 98 was the first operating system to use the Windows Driver Model (WDM). This fact was not well publicized when Windows 98 was released, and most hardware producers continued to develop drivers for the older VxD driver standard, which Windows 98 supported for compatibility's sake. The WDM standard only achieved widespread adoption years later, mostly through Windows 2000 and Windows XP , as they were not compatible with

5022-409: The data in another. This feature had appeared in Windows previously, but until Windows 3.0, due to memory constraints, users were unable to use the protocol. These users instead had to exit to DOS to run one application, close it, and open another to exchange data. Due to its support for the 386 and later processors, Windows 3.0 can also use virtual memory, which is a portion of a hard disk drive that

5115-485: The earlier Intel x86 CPUs) and which could be directly connected to 16 times as much memory as the 8088 (and 8086). The two companies developed the next generation beyond MS-DOS, called OS/2 . Early OS/2 software is not encumbered with MS-DOS compatibility, giving IBM a technological advantage. In late 1987 , Windows/386 2.0 introduced a protected mode kernel that can multitask several MS-DOS applications using virtual 8086 mode , but all Windows applications still run in

5208-453: The festivities, which co-founder Bill Gates referred to as the "most extravagant, extensive, and expensive software introduction ever". Microsoft did not offer free runtime licenses of the software to applications vendors, because runtime versions of Windows lack multitasking. Instead, the company offered upgrades for both full and runtime previous versions of Windows at a cost of US$ 50 (equivalent to $ 117 in 2023)—considerably lower than

5301-452: The first time that the company had ever been investigated for anticompetitive practices. Windows 3.0 is also considered the first Windows to see commercial success. At the time of release, of the 40 million personal computers installed, only five percent used either previous version of Windows, but within its first week of availability, it rose as the top-selling business software. After six months, two million copies were sold. Its success

5394-476: The full license's suggested retail price of $ 149 . The software was bundled by computer hardware manufacturers. The first were Zenith Data Systems , Austin Computer Systems, and CompuAdd , followed by more than 25 others, not including IBM. Microsoft's "Entry Team" was assigned to make Windows 3.0 generally appealing to the public, and was concerned that the public might perceive it as no more than

5487-487: The icons' titles can be renamed. When double-clicked on, these icons open corresponding applications or smaller windows within the Program Manager window called group windows. These group windows contain such icons and can be minimized to prevent cluttering of the Program Manager window's space. File Manager is another shell used to access or modify applications, but displays them as files contained in directories in

5580-408: The introduction of DirectMusic, improvements to Asynchronous Transfer Mode support ( IP /ATM, PPP /ATM and WinSock 2/ATM support), Windows Media Player 6.1 replacing the older Media Player 4.1, Microsoft NetMeeting 3.0, MDAC 2.1 and WMI. A memory overflow issue was resolved in which earlier versions of Windows 98 would crash most systems if left running for 49.7 days (equal to 2 milliseconds),

5673-463: The lawsuit would further delay Windows 98's public release; it did not, and the operating system was released on June 25, 1998. A second major version of the operating system called Windows 98 Second Edition was later unveiled in March 1999. Microsoft compiled the final build on April 23, 1999, before being fully released to manufacturing on May 5, and publicly released on June 10, 1999. Windows 98

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5766-800: The older VxD standard. With the Windows Driver Model, developers could write drivers that were compatible with other versions of Windows. Device driver access in WDM is implemented through a VxD device driver, NTKERN.VXD , which implements several Windows NT -specific kernel support functions. Support for WDM audio enables digital mixing, routing and processing of simultaneous audio streams, and kernel streaming with high-quality sample rate conversion on Windows 98. WDM Audio allows for software emulation of legacy hardware to support MS-DOS games, DirectSound support, and MIDI wavetable synthesis . The Windows 95 11-device limitation for MIDI devices

5859-571: The operating environment's success: one of them was the inexpensive cost of the hardware needed to run it compared to the Macintosh, and the other was its focus on fully utilizing hardware components that were relatively powerful by its time's standards. Amid the unprecedented success of Windows 3.0, Microsoft came under attack by critics as well as the United States Federal Trade Commission , who alleged that

5952-473: The operating environment, which they viewed as an anticompetitive practice . It was succeeded by Windows 3.1 in 1992. Support for Windows 3.0 ended on December 31, 2001. Before Windows 3.0, a partnership bundled IBM 's personal computers with Microsoft's MS-DOS since 1981. Microsoft had previous attempted to develop a successful operating environment called Windows, which IBM declined for its product line. As MS-DOS's fifth iteration approached, IBM demanded

6045-568: The original version are those needed to run Windows in real mode, the lowest of the three operating modes. This mode severely limits the multitasking capabilities of Windows, although it can still use expanded memory, which is memory that is added by installing expanded memory boards or memory managers. However, it also provides backward compatibility with as many hardware and software designed for DOS as possible, and it may be used to run DOS applications and older Windows applications not optimized for Windows 3.0 if running them in higher operating modes

6138-588: The preceding text-only environment to the GUI with Windows 3.0 as their primary choice. One critical aspect of Windows 3.0 is how it managed memory. Before its release, users of previous versions of Windows were burdened with trying to circumvent memory constraints to use those versions' touted capabilities. The Windows software occupied a large amount of memory, and users regularly experienced system slowdowns and often exceeded memory limits. Windows 3.0 also had relatively high memory requirements by 1990's standards, but with

6231-599: The predecessor to its far more successful Macintosh. He cautioned about the seemingly cheap upgrade cost of US$ 50 when the system requirements and the need to upgrade any installed applications for compatibility are considered. He also cautioned that the software's advantages could be taken only by running Windows applications. However, in February 1991, PC Magazine noted a vast array of applications designed specifically for Windows 3.0, including many that had yet to be available for OS/2. It also cited two other factors leading to

6324-405: The presence of more compatibility issues, and without user objections, Microsoft merged the two upgrade packs into one and set all of their release dates to the second quarter. On December 15, 1997, Microsoft released Windows 98 Beta 3. It was the first build to be able to upgrade from Windows 3.1x , and introduced new startup and shutdown sounds. Near its completion, Windows 98 Release Candidate

6417-465: The previous maximum of eight colors, though the operating environment itself supports graphics adapters that offer resolutions and the number of colors greater than VGA. Windows 3.0 also introduced the Palette Manager, a set of functions that allow applications to change the lookup palette of graphics cards displaying up to 256 colors to use needed colors. When multiple displayed windows exceed

6510-425: The same area too many times, it will ask the user if it should keep trying or give up. This quirk was removed with Windows Me's version of Disk Defragmenter and will function on Windows 98 or Windows 95 if the user simply copies it over. Windows 98 also supports a Fast Shutdown feature that initiates shutdown without uninitializing device drivers . However, this can cause Windows 98 to hang instead of shutting down

6603-407: The software to share the same benefits as OS/2 and Unix. Garry Ray of Lotus considered this version of Windows the first of the environment to bear "serious long-term consideration." Bill Howard of PC Magazine found its user interface to be easy to use, though not quite as intuitive as Macintosh. The editor of InfoWorld , Michael J. Miller, had faith that PC users would fully transition from

6696-413: The software, including the $ 3 million for its release. When its successor, Windows 3.1, was released, sales totaled about 10 million copies, and a year later the Windows series would overtake DOS as the bestselling application of all time. Windows 3.0 is regarded in retrospect as a turning point in the future of Microsoft, being attributed to its later dominance in the operating system market and to

6789-568: The success of Windows 95, the development of Windows 98 began, initially under the development codename "Memphis". The first test version, Windows Memphis Developer Release, was released in January 1997. Memphis first entered beta as Windows Memphis Beta 1, released on June 30, 1997. It was followed by Windows 98 Beta 2, which dropped the Memphis name and was released in July. Microsoft had planned

6882-571: The system tray, whenever a software fault occurs (general protection fault, hang, etc.), Dr. Watson will intercept it and indicate what software crashed and its cause. Windows Report Tool takes a snapshot of system configuration and lets users submit a manual problem report along with system information to technicians. It has e-mail confirmation for submitted reports. Windows 98 includes Microsoft Magnifier , Accessibility Wizard and Microsoft Active Accessibility 1.1 API (upgradeable to MSAA 2.0.) A new HTML Help system with 15 Troubleshooting Wizards

6975-413: The system. Normally, Windows will start in the highest operating mode the computer can use, but the user may force it into lower modes by typing WIN /R or WIN /S at the DOS command prompt. If the user selects an operating mode that cannot be used due to lack of RAM or CPU support, Windows merely boots into the next lowest one. There are two updates known to have been published for Windows 3.0. One of them

7068-436: The three memory modes, it was praised for using memory more efficiently, removing the 640–kilobyte limit that had existed in computers running on Microsoft software since DOS, and supporting more powerful CPUs. Ted Needleman of the computer magazine Modern Electronics called Windows 3.0's GUI "state-of-the-art" and compared Microsoft's previous attempts to produce such a GUI to Apple Lisa , Apple's early such attempt and

7161-460: The user through "scanreg.ini" file. The restoration of a registry that causes Windows to fail to boot can only be done from DOS mode using ScanReg. System Configuration Utility is a new system utility used to disable programs and services that are not required to run the computer. A Maintenance Wizard is included that schedules and automates ScanDisk , Disk Defragmenter and Disk Cleanup. Windows Script Host , with VBScript and JScript engines

7254-512: The video stream. Windows Vista introduced Windows Image Acquisition 2.0. Windows Vista also has the WIA Automation library built-in. WIA2 supports push scanning and multi-image scanning . Push scanning allows initiating scans and adjusting scanning parameters directly from the scanner control panel. Multi-image scanning allows one to scan several images at once and save them directly as separate files. However, video content support

7347-425: Was also only available on CD-ROMs. The two major versions of Windows 98 have minimum requirements needed to be run. Users can bypass processor requirement checks with the undocumented /NM setup switch. This allows installation on computers with processors as old as the Intel 80386 . Windows 3.0 Windows 3.0 is the third major release of Microsoft Windows , launched on May 22, 1990. It introduces

7440-479: Was available for older machines, albeit only via mail order. The floppy disk version of Windows 98 came on 39 DMF formatted floppy disks and excluded some additional software components that the CD-ROM version might have featured. The original release of Windows 98 was the last version of Windows to be available on floppy disks, as Windows 98 Second Edition was only available on CD-ROMs. Microsoft Plus! for Windows 98

7533-444: Was considered a challenger to those used and popularized by Apple Macintosh and Commodore Amiga . Other praised features are the improved multitasking , customizability, and especially the utilitarian memory management that troubled the users of Windows 3.0's predecessors. The software was a major success, achieving 10 million sales. However, Microsoft was criticized by third-party developers for bundling its separate software with

7626-509: Was damaged, but Microsoft asserted that it would cancel Windows after its launch and that it would continue to develop OS/2. Windows 3.0 was officially announced worldwide on May 22, 1990, in the New York City Center Theater. The event had 6,000 attendees, and it was broadcast live in the Microsoft social fairs of seven other North American cities and twelve major cities outside. Microsoft spent US$ 3 million to host

7719-557: Was described as having a three-dimensional look similar to the Presentation Manager , rather than the flat look of its predecessor, Windows 2.1 . It also includes technical improvements to the memory management to make better use of the capabilities of Intel 's 80286 and 80386 processors . Dynamic Data Exchange is a multitasking protocol whereby multiple running applications dynamically exchange data with one another, i.e., when data in one application changes, so does

7812-603: Was generally well-received for its web-integrated interface and ease of use, as well as its addressing of issues present in Windows 95, although some pointed out that it was not significantly more stable than Windows 95. Windows 98 sold an estimated 58 million licenses and saw one major update, known as Windows 98 Second Edition (SE), released on June 10, 1999. After the release of its successor, Windows Me in 2000, mainstream support for Windows 98 and 98 SE ended on June 30, 2002, followed by extended support on July 11, 2006 along with Windows Me's end of extended support. Following

7905-542: Was interdependent with the PC industry, exemplified by an explosion of demand for and subsequent production of Intel's more powerful microprocessor, the 80486 . Windows became so widely used in businesses that Brian Livingston of InfoWorld wrote in October 1991 that "a company with no PCs that run Windows is almost like a company without a fax machine." Microsoft had spent a total of $ 10 million in its marketing campaign for

7998-521: Was introduced for scanners and cameras and Image Color Management 2.0 for devices to perform color space transformations. Multiple monitor support allows using up to nine multiple monitors on a single PC, with the feature requiring one PCI graphics adapter per monitor. Windows 98 shipped with DirectX 5.2, which notably included DirectShow . Windows 98 Second Edition would later ship with DirectX 6.1. Windows 98 networking enhancements to TCP/IP include built-in support for Winsock 2 , SMB signing,

8091-524: Was introduced to replace WinHelp . Users can configure the font in Notepad . Microsoft Paint supports GIF transparency. HyperTerminal supports a TCP/IP connection method, which allows it to be used as a Telnet client. Imaging for Windows is updated. System Monitor —used to track the performance of hardware and software—supports output to a log file. Windows 98 Second Edition (often shortened to Windows 98 SE and sometimes to Win98 SE or 98 SE )

8184-470: Was necessary to load Windows 3.0 in real mode to run SWAPFILE.EXE, which allowed users to change virtual memory settings. Officially, Microsoft stated that an 8Mhz turbo 8086 was the minimum CPU needed to run Windows 3.0. It could be run on 4.77 MHz 8088 machines, but performance was so slow as to render the OS almost unusable. Up to 4 MB of expanded memory ( EMS ) is supported in real mode. Standard mode

8277-403: Was released on April 3, 1998, which expired on December 31 of the same year. This coincided with a notable press demonstration at COMDEX that month. Microsoft CEO Bill Gates was highlighting the operating system's ease of use and enhanced support for Plug and Play (PnP). However, when presentation assistant Chris Capossela plugged a USB scanner in, the operating system crashed, displaying

8370-812: Was released to third-party manufacturers in October 1991. The application programming interface introduced Media Control Interface , designed for any media-related device such as graphics and audio cards, scanners, and videotape players. It also supported recording and playing digital audio, MIDI devices, screensavers and analog joysticks, as well as CD-ROM drives, which were then becoming increasingly available. Other features included additional applets such as an alarm clock and Media Player , used to run media files. MME supports stereo sound and 16-bit audio bit depth and sampling rates of up to 44.1 kHz. The official system requirements for Windows 3.0 and its substantial update, Windows 3.0 with Multimedia Extensions: The processor and memory minimum requirements for

8463-411: Was the first edition of Windows to adopt the Windows Driver Model , and introduced features that would become standard in future generations of Windows, such as Disk Cleanup , Windows Update , multi-monitor support, and Internet Connection Sharing . Microsoft had marketed Windows 98 as a "tune-up" to Windows 95, rather than an entirely improved next generation of Windows. Upon release, Windows 98

8556-666: Was to be the final product in the Windows 9x line until Microsoft briefly revived the line to release Windows Me in 2000 as the final Windows 9x product before the introduction of Windows XP in 2001, which was based on the Windows NT architecture and kernel used in Windows 2000 . The first release of Windows 98 included Internet Explorer 4.01 SP1. This was updated to 5.0 in the Second Edition. Besides Internet Explorer, many other Internet companion applications are included such as Outlook Express , Windows Address Book , FrontPage Express , Microsoft Chat , Personal Web Server and

8649-428: Was used most often as its requirements were more in-line with an average PC of that era — an 80286 processor with at least 1 MB of memory. Since some PCs (notably Compaqs) did not place extended memory ( XMS ) at the 1MB line and instead left a hole between the end of conventional memory and the start of XMS, Windows could not work on them except in real mode. 386 Enhanced mode was a 32-bit virtual machine that ran

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