Windows 98 review

At the time of writing, the first shrinkwrapped copies of Windows 98 are being shuffled onto store shelves nationwide. There's certainly been some degree of hype, both in the popular press and specialist IT titles. When compared to the wave of marketing that surrounded the launch of Windows 95, however, the 98 release has been relatively understated. In some ways, this reflects the nature of Windows 98 itself. While Windows 95 represented a dramatic paradigm shift from the old 3.x style, in the terms of the interface and the underlying technology, Windows 98 represents a gentler evolution. It was still codenamed Memphis when it first emerged in beta, but it steadily grew into what we now know as Windows 98. Memphis was conceived as Windows 95 with the Internet Explorer browser integrated directly onto the Desktop and that, in many respects, isn't too far from what Windows 98 actually is. The key question facing users and IT departments, therefore, is whether the upgrade is worthwhile.

You'll have a better understanding of what Windows 98 is like if you think of it as a kind of giant Service Pack. There are, of course, important changes in the core operating system, but that could be also said about the OEM service releases. It's also arguable that the simple act of adding Internet Explorer 4 to a Windows 95 installation makes the most dramatic change to your working Desktop that Windows 98 delivers. However, as well as adding many new features, what could really persuade experienced users, novices and IT departments alike to upgrade to 98 is that it also goes a long way towards sorting out many of the bugs, crashes and patches of instability that have afflicted Windows 95, particularly since the launch of IE 4.

Naturally, Windows 98 is bound to create some of its own problems, but that only reflects the complexity of the problems facing software developers these days. If all PCs were identical it might be possible to produce bug-free software. However, when you consider the thousands of different system combinations out there - different hardware drivers, dynamic link libraries, hardware combinations, variants of system BIOS, and so on - it's easy to see why it's difficult to write an operating system that runs smoothly and never crashes.

Nevertheless, Windows 98 isn't doing badly. At PC Pro we've installed Windows 98 on many different systems and, while there have been occasional difficulties, the vast majority of installations have gone like a dream. We've installed it over Windows 95 systems, both the original release and OSR2, and even had it happily dual-booting with Windows NT 4 Workstation. The few problematic installations have involved obscure components, extremely complex, heavily patched systems, or difficulties between plug and play and non-plug and play components.

Setup and deployment

You'll be pleased to know that the new installation routine is about as painless as it gets. You're faced with the usual initial questions, but after that it just gets on with things. The next time you have to worry about your machine will be when the installation is complete. On a reasonable Pentium system, you can expect the whole process to take about half an hour to work its way from start to finish. One departure you might notice from the old Windows 95 installation routine is that you no longer have any choice in the matter of an emergency boot disk. You're going to have to make one whether you like it or not. At least it now includes a generic ATAPI CD-ROM driver which, unless you're planning to install all the CAB files to your hard disk, is essential for any sort of re-installation.