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WHAT'S NEW IN WINDOWS 98
Many of you will doubtless be now contemplating whether
to upgrade your system to Windows 98. (You can do so from
either Windows 95 or from Windows 3.1x) Here are some
things to consider about doing so:
Several articles I've read have mentioned that one good
reason for upgrading from Windows 95 is that there are
over 3000 bugs (software errors) in the older system that
have been corrected in the new release. Of course, cynics
may counter with the question: "How many new bugs
have been introduced with the new version?" As I
write this, that remains to be seen.
If you bought your computer very recently -- say in the
past year or so -- then you may have hardware that only
Windows 98 will support, or at least will better support
than Windows 95: for example, a DVD-ROM drive, or the USB
(Universal Serial Bus) port, or Firewire...
If your current hard drive uses FAT16 as the file
allocation technique rather than the newer FAT32
architecture, then rejoice! The new version of Windows
comes with a program for converting from FAT16 to FAT32.
This will probably save you lots of disk space since
files can be allocated in multiples of 4-kilobyte
"clusters" rather than the 32- or 64-kilobyte
clusters used by today's large disks under FAT16.
Another nice thing about Windows 98 is its "Windows
Update" feature which lets you automatically locate
and install patches and drivers over the Internet.
Since the Task Monitor tracks the programs you use most
often in a file available to the Disk Defragger, the
latter can position these often-used programs on the disk
in such a way as to optimize their access. Consequently,
some of your programs may load faster after you do your
first defrag.
There are many other changes in the new operating system
-- too many to discuss in this short column. (I'll try to
cover others in the future.) But one fundamental change
which becomes obvious to anyone who has used Windows 95
should be mentioned: this is the new interface presented
when you first start up the computer. Your desktop will
likely look very similar to what it was under Windows 95,
but now -- as you do on the internet -- you need only
single click on an icon in order to start up the
connected program or open up the connected folder or
document. Just allowing your mouse to rest over an icon
highlights it (acts like a single click under Windows
95), and a single click afterwards will act like the
second click you needed before.
My Computer and Explorer have a few new menu items
unfamiliar to '95ers. I'll talk about that in a future
issue. Also, there are some new taskbars and new items on
the Start Menu. Again, more about this in the future.
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