Windows 98 (Beta 3)

The next incarnation
of Windows desktop family nears completion with this
latest beta release. There were some major changes
promised for this release, many of which seem to have
been delivered.

One of the most important
promised features was the ability to upgrade to Win 98
from a Win 3.x system. This was not possible from earlier
betas as you needed to have Win 95 installed for
upgrading. We installed a fresh copy of Windows for
Workgroup 3.11 over MS-DOS 6.22. After that we ran the
Install program from within Program Manager. It ran
without a hitch.

The install process
differs only slightly from Win 95 one. All dialog boxes
appear on the right of a vertical status bar which
informs you about the step being taken. The only new
dialog box in the install process was one to choose
country for Internet Explorer Channels. There are lot of
new programs and accessories to choose from in custom
installation. The communications section has a dial-up
server, infrared drivers, and support for Virtual Private
Networks. The Desktop Themes add-on from MS Plus! has
been moved into Win 98. A new Internet Tools section has
all the options you get with IE 4. The other new options
include multi-language support, a DVD player, a ShockWave
player, and a TV viewer.

After the usual round of
restarts, Win 98 starts with a multimedia tour of its
features. This has a new section for Win 3.x users who
are upgrading directly to Win 98. One major change we
noticed was that though Windows Web update was installed,
the Active Desktop was not turned on by default. This is
probably due to the number of complaints Microsoft had
received about systems slowing down or crashing because
of this feature.

Overall, Win 98
looks like Win 95 plus Internet Explorer 4.x installed.
However, there are a few additional features that just
might make the upgrade to Win 98 worthwhile. It comes
with a number of new system tools that can really
optimize your system. One of the most awaited ones being
the FAT16 to FAT32 converter. This utility optimizes disk
storage by making all clusters on your hard disk 4 kB in
size. And although it warns you that the process might
take a few hours, we were able to complete it in less
than an hour. The System Information tool is an easy to
use alternative for the device manager. However, this not
only shows you the hardware devices installed, but also
software modules loaded and other details. A new System
File Checker scans your hard disk for missing or
corrupted files, and repairs or re-installs them
automatically. We deleted a few important files from
Windows and system folders. When we ran the file checker,
it found that these files were missing, and restored them
from the CD-ROM. The final version promises to
automatically check for system integrity on boot, and
offers to restore files when apps are run with some files
missing.

Is Win 98 worth the
upgrade? To answer that, we’ll have to wait for the
final release. Many additional components are available
right now for download at the Microsoft Web site for use
with Win 95. OSR2 gives you an option of FAT32, albeit
without the conversion tool (although third-party
solutions do exist). IE 4.x on Win 95 gives you almost
all the desktop enhancements available right now. Other
system tools that you get are available from other
vendors for the Win 95 platform. If you regularly keep
your system and utilities updated or have been using the PC
Quest CD-ROMs, you already have many of these.
However, if you do want all these in one integrated
package or haven’t upgraded to Win 95/IE 4 yet, then
Windows 98 seems to be the right thing to go in for.