Any reproduction of this training video, in part or in whole, is unlawful and strictly
prohibited without the prior written consent of the graphics corporation.
Included with your videotape is the course index.
This contains reference numbers which will allow you to quickly access sections and topics
with ease.
In order to use this, you should reset the counter on your VCR to zero, now.
The Teach Yourself Series from VIA Graphics, designed to teach you to use your computer
the fast and easy way.
I'm David Cooper, along with Jessica Renslow.
Windows 95 is a real improvement on Windows 3.1.
Using Windows 95 made accessing our programs and documents much easier, and integrating
the Internet better than ever before.
Those of us who have become accustomed to using Windows 95 are about to find out how
much easier Windows 98 is.
But even if you never upgraded to Windows 95 and will be making the switch from Windows
3.1 to Windows 98, you are in for a pleasant surprise.
With Windows 98, we are going to see Internet integration like never before.
We can boldly claim that taking a look at what Windows 98 has to offer is nothing short
of exciting.
In this tutorial, we'll look at the Windows 98 desktop to see what's different, and we'll
check out the icon highlighting and single click launching.
We'll see how Windows 98 integrates to Internet like nothing else before, as well as the new
power managing features of Windows 98.
We've made a default installation of Windows 98 to our PC.
For this tutorial, you have the option of following along with us, or just watching
and enjoying the ride.
We'll get started by giving you a sneak peek at the newest technology on the market to
help you prepare to use it.
One of the many improvements of Windows 98 is its power management.
One benefit of this power management is its dramatic decrease in startup time.
When restarting Windows, we'll be pleasantly surprised to find that it only takes a few
seconds.
In addition, any programs that were left open when we choose to restart the computer will
be restored within those few seconds.
Another advantage to this power management is more powerful multitasking.
With the necessary hardware upgrades and few advances settings, we can multitask using
more than one monitor.
This means that if we want to see more than one of the applications running at the same
time, we can, by attaching more than one monitor to our hard drive.
Now that's powerful.
We haven't yet updated our computer to show you some of the power features, and it's probable
that the average person won't be hooking up to more than one monitor for their computer.
But everyone can enjoy the faster starting Windows 98.
Although we need special additions to our computer for the ultra-fast startup, ordinary
people will still notice an improvement in startup speed.
We've already started our computer and are looking at the Windows 98 desktop.
Right away we can see a difference from the Windows 95 desktop.
There are several more shortcuts placed on the desktop by default, and on the right side
of the window is a long tool palette.
Depending on the extras you install with Windows 98, you may have even more to see.
Windows 98 gives us the option of double-clicking shortcut icons to select them in a traditional
way or using a single-click method.
Those of us who were previously using Windows 95 will probably find this to be a big improvement
once we get used to the difference.
As we think more about how Windows 95 functioned, we know that the shortcut icons were not automatically
highlighted when we placed the mouse pointer over them.
In order to select an icon, we'd have to click it once.
To open the application or file symbolized, we had to double-click on the shortcut.
With Windows 98, we can say goodbye to double-clicking the desktop icons because Windows 98 has the
option of being web-based.
We're going to take a moment and show how Windows 98 uses single-clicking.
This will involve adjusting some settings.
We're going to demonstrate without a great deal of explanation, so please refer to the
Learning Windows 98 Tutorials for more detailed lessons.
Depending on the settings of our desktop, we may or may not have the single-click launching
activated.
To activate this, we choose the My Computer icon, then the View menu.
From this menu, we select the bottom command, which is Folder Options.
The Folder Options dialog box now appears.
With the General tab selected, we see options for the Windows desktop update.
Notice that we can use the Web Style, which makes our computer look and act like the Worldwide
Web, Classic Style, which makes our computer default to classic Windows settings, or Custom
Based Settings, which acts like a I-choose-none-of-the-above sort of setting, so we make up the way we want
things to look ourselves.
Right now, Classic is selected, and a preview of it appears in the box above.
To show the single-click feature, we'll click the radio dial beside Web Style.
Notice that the preview box above now reflects this style.
When we choose Custom Style, the preview readjusts.
For our purposes, we'll select Web Style, then press Enter.
Now we can close the My Computer window by clicking its Close button.
Right away, we notice the difference between using Windows 95's traditional methods for
selecting and the single-click method.
First of all, the titles of the shortcut icons are all white and underlined.
This shows us that each icon is already part-selected, so that instead of needing to double-click
one to open it, as we did using the traditional Windows method, we can simply click once.
Notice that by clicking the recycle bin one time, its window opens.
Now to close the window, we'll click the Close button.
But before clicking it, notice how tooltips for the buttons appear.
This is a nice improvement over Windows 95.
The single-click method may take a little getting used to at first, but after a little
use, it's very likely to become the preferred practice.
If you've been running Windows 98 along with us through our discussions, you may have noticed
the monitor automatically began power saving and shut off.
This is an advantage many people had the option of setting with Windows 95.
But Windows 98 does a better job of letting us know the feature is actually there because
it is selected automatically.
To see where we set this power saving feature for our monitor, we click the Start button,
go to Settings, then the Control Panel.
We can also use the Control Panel icon on the desktop to access the Control Panel.
Before we select this option, this is a good time for us to notice the new options available
in this fly-out menu.
The Control Panel and Printers options were always available in Windows 95, but the Task
Bar and Start menu options were only available for the Task Bar in Windows 95.
In addition, the folders and icons, Active Desktop, and Windows Update options are all
brand new for Windows 98.
In fact, if we highlight the Active Desktop option, we will find the settings we can choose
for the desktop.
They are the same options we just used when setting our desktop for the Web Style.
This fly-out menu confirms that we are using the Web Style by adding a check mark beside
the Style.
If we were to look at the other startup commands, we'd find each fly-out is updated for Windows
98.
But we won't look at them right now.
Instead, let's choose the Control Panel option.
The Control Panel window now appears.
If this window is its restored size, we can click the Maximize button.
This gives us a good look at Windows 98's new features.
The Game Controller, Power Management, Telephony, and Users are all new.
And of course, anyone having additions to their system will see other specialized folders.
For this exercise, we want to select Power Management.
Since we're using the Web Style, this only requires one click of our mouse.
With the Power Schemes tab selected, we see the Power Schemes is always on.
At the bottom of this dialog box are two more options.
One is to turn off monitor, and the other is to turn off hard disks.
Because the turn off monitor option is set for 15 minutes, our Windows 98 will automatically
conserve the power on our monitor if we don't perform any actions for 15 minutes.
The only exception is if our monitor does not offer this technology.
In that case, the monitor would not automatically shut off.
By clicking the drop down arrow for turn off monitor, we see there are several time frames
to choose from, ranging from after one minute to after five hours or never.
We'll keep 15 minutes selected here by clicking the drop down arrow again.
Now that we understand why our monitor may have shut off, we can press enter.
We can close the control panel window.
When our monitor shuts off, it looks as if it were actually turned off because the screen
becomes black.
To revive our monitor, all we have to do is to move our mouse or press a key as we would
when a screen saver is in use.
As we see, the screen has shut off itself, but we can revive it by just moving our mouse.
The window now returns to normal.
While we're here, let's do one more thing.
We want to look at the start menu one more time to show the new commands.
When we click start, we immediately notice a few changes.
First of all, the favorites folder is added here for easy access.
In addition, the top of the menu offers commands to create a new office document, open an office
document, or open the Windows update for more information.
You can learn how to create a variety of new office documents by watching our Learning
Office 98 tutorials, which will be available in 1998.
Now we'll open some of the commands of the start menu to point out new commands here,
starting with favorites.
This folder offers a quick way to access our favorite places.
This can be a website or somewhere on our hard drive.
We see default favorites including channels, cool sites, links, Microsoft software and
service, software updates, Internet Explorer 4 components, my documents, and the Windows
update.
There are flyout menus with more choices on many of these.
Now we'll select the documents folder.
This is the same setup in Windows 98 as it was in Windows 95.
The documents that are listed here depend on what files we have most recently opened,
in addition to the README file.
Because we haven't created or opened any folders yet, there are not any here.
We've already looked at settings, so we'll highlight find.
There are new commands here as well.
They include using Microsoft Outlook, on the Internet, and people.
Again and again we will find that Windows 98 does a great job of integrating the Internet.
Now that we've taken a look at the new commands in the start menu, we can close it.
You may pause the tape now to practice on your computer.
Let's review what we covered in this chapter.
We learned about Windows 98's new power management, and we saw how Windows 98's new icon highlighting
works.
We demonstrated the difference between the single click and traditional double click
methods by changing our desktop setting to web style.
And finally we showed the power management feature of monitor shutdown.
The reason Windows 98 is so much more web based is because of how the Internet Explorer's
web browsing advantages have been integrated with it.
With Windows 98 we have the advantage of linking to the Internet from anywhere on our computer.
To get the most out of Windows 98, please make sure that you have Internet access.
Some of the cool things we can do include being able to access the Internet through
web channels on our desktop, and make subscriptions to sites.
The links bar on our desktop is also customizable, and we can add an explorer bar.
Another advantage is a content advisor, which helps us with security zones for safe web
browsing.
As we look at the Windows 98 desktop, we see the first signs of this web integration.
Of course we see the quick launch toolbar across the top as we did in Windows 95, but
there is a new toolbar as well.
This links toolbar offers us shortcuts to a variety of websites, so we can access them
without needing to open our browser first.
When we pass the pointer over links, we see the tips about the link appear automatically.
There are shortcuts that take us to Pointcast News, Warner Brothers Entertainment, Disney
Entertainment, NBC News, the Microsoft Network, Lifestyles and Travel, Entertainment, Business,
Sports, News and Technology, as well as the Microsoft Channel Guide.
These links are all through the Internet, so we must have Internet access to use them.
Since we happen to be on a network, we'll click the entertainment link.
The Internet Explorer 4 window appears.
From here we can see more about AudioNet, Hollywood, or the comics.
To see the Hollywood information, we'll click its tab.
The left side of the window immediately updates with more hyperlinked channels, and Hollywood
stars' names begin flashing on the right.
What we are looking at is a pretty cool advertisement that is beckoning us to subscribe to the entertainment
channel.
To subscribe, we simply click the Add to Channels button.
Notice that when we move the pointer over here, the channels that did appear on the
left of the window slide out of sight.
Since we aren't going to subscribe at this time, we'll place the pointer back over to
the left side.
This causes the panel of channels to reappear.
Now we'll click the Sports button.
Three more hyperlinks appear below this.
We'll choose the ESPN SportsZone channel.
An advertisement for this now appears on the right side of the window.
We could continue to look at the channels, but now that you've seen how they work, it's
your choice whether or not to subscribe.
To exit from here, we'll click the Internet Explorer's Close button.
This takes us back to the Windows 98 desktop.
The new Links toolbar will help everyone to access websites much faster.
It will help parents and children to find fun sites right away, and it will help anyone
who is new in using the Internet to jump right in and get some use out of it.
Anyone who is already hooked on the Internet will be happy to know that the Links bar is
customizable.
This means that if we don't want one of the current links, we can replace it with one
we use more.
What's more, we can add new toolbars to the desktop so we can have as many links as we
want.
We've been talking quite a bit about the Windows 98 Links bar, but we can also have an address
bar on the desktop.
This is a bar that allows us to type the address we want to go to.
Our browser takes over once the address is entered, and we can see the page we want right
away.
To add the address bar, just right-click an empty area on the taskbar, then choose New
Toolbar Command.
From the flyout menu that appears, select Address.
A field will appear on the taskbar where we can enter a web address.
So much of what's new in Windows 98 focuses on web integration.
We simply cannot stress the necessity of having an Internet connection while using Windows
98.
Other new features include the active desktop, autocomplete, and improved listing of favorite
websites.
Active history and tracking of websites we've visited, support for all major Internet standards
including ActiveX and Java, and improved performance with dynamic HTML, which makes web pages richer
and more interesting.
The active desktop of Windows 98 lets us put active content from web pages or a channel
onto our desktop.
We can keep stock updates, news, weather, sports, and any information from the web that
we want to update from.
To use the active desktop, users must first install the Windows desktop update.
The autocomplete feature automatically completes previously visited web addresses as we type
them.
If we enter Viagraphics.com to see the Viagraphics website, then two days later go back to the
Viagraphics website, we will only have to type part of the web address.
As soon as we have the V entered, Windows 98 will begin trying to match the address
up with ones we've visited in the past.
This enhancement will allow us to access websites faster and it won't be as important for us
to memorize the addresses.
Simply pause the tape now.
Let's review what we covered in this chapter.
We used the links bar and explained how to add an address bar to the taskbar.
We talked about several of the new web enhancements in Windows 98, such as improved memory of
the sites we visited, autocomplete and the active desktop.
By now you have a pretty good idea about the amount of change Windows 98 has integrated
from web browsing, so it's time for us to focus on the changes in the Internet Explorer.
Windows 98 Explorer and the Internet Explorer 4 integrated local and web-based resources
in a single view, so let's begin by looking at the Windows Explorer.
We could open the Windows Explorer through the programs in the start menu, but instead
we will right click the start button and choose Explorer.
The exploring window now appears.
From this view we can certainly see integration.
The menus, the toolbar, the address line and the links in the right panel of the window
all resemble the Internet Explorer.
As we pass the pointer over these folders and files, we see that the single click method
applies here as well.
To open the Windows folder, we only have to click once.
Now we'll open the Java folder with a single click.
Notice how the address line shows our path to the Java folder.
To go back to the Windows folder, we can either click the back tool or the up tool.
Once we click one, we see the path update to our current position in the Windows folder.
For more about using the Windows Explorer, see the ViaGraphics Learning Windows 98 Tutorials
which will be available in 1998.
The Internet Explorer enables us to browse in ways we've never browsed before.
We've already mentioned several times how the Internet Explorer has been integrated
into Windows 98 for the look and feel of the World Wide Web everywhere we go.
When we have our desktop style set as the web style, then we have automatically integrated
all these features.
This means that the Internet Explorer has merged with our computer, so we have the ease
of maneuvering through our hard drive as if we were on the Internet.
A couple of the most obvious commands we'll find throughout Windows 98 are the Go and
Favorites menus, which can be used as if we were on the Internet.
While we're still demonstrating the Windows Explorer, we'll show how to use the Go and
Favorites menus.
With the Go menu open, we see commands for many of the tools in this window, such as
Back, Forward, and Up One Level.
But there are also commands that give us instant access to places on the Internet.
These include the Homepage command, Search the Web, Channel Guide, Mail, and News.
Other useful commands include My Computer, Address Book, and Internet Call.
Most of us probably already know how we would use My Computer and Address Book, but what
about Internet Call?
The Internet Call is one of the new features of the Internet Explorer.
It's a part of the Microsoft new NetMeeting.
NetMeeting allows us to hold conferences over the web or a local area network.
It allows us to place calls to anyone on a network or with a modem, to talk to someone
over the Internet, even on video.
NetMeeting also allows us to work in a shared application with people who are at other locations.
When we select the Internet Call command, the Microsoft NetMeeting dialog box appears
with a summary of what can be done with NetMeeting.
By continuing through the Setup Wizard, using the Next button, we are asked to enter our
personal and email information.
We will quickly enter this, then continue through the rest of the steps.
Since we're just entering this for a demonstration of what you can expect in Windows 98, we won't
actually be testing our sound and video, but anyone who plans on using NetMeeting needs
to have the hardware to set up these things.
Once all our settings are entered, the Microsoft NetMeeting window appears.
If you've already used Microsoft Exchange, you'll find this window looks fairly familiar.
For now, we'll close the NetMeeting window.
By opening the Favorites menu, we see standard commands from the Internet Explorer and Windows
Explorer, such as Add to Favorites and Organize Favorites.
But the rest of the commands are unique to Windows 98.
They include Manage Subscriptions, Update All Subscriptions, and a variety of folders.
For example, if we highlighted the Channels folder, we'd see a host of different channels
that were also available on the desktop.
When we select Business, then Quicken Financial Network, we are taken to this site on the
Internet.
This is another channel from which we can subscribe and add to our favorites, but we'll
click the back tool to explore the hard drive once again.
It's plain to see that the Internet Explorer has had a dramatic influence on the Windows
Explorer.
For now, we'll close this window and return to the desktop.
Most of us use the Internet Explorer for browsing the web, but in fact, we can do much more
with it.
The Internet Explorer can be used for organizing a video conference, browsing through the folders
on our computer, reading email, posting messages to Internet newsgroups, publishing a web page,
and much more.
Another real advantage to using Internet Explorer is that with its improved memory, we can add
a website to our favorites.
And if we want to look at the page later on, when we're not even on the Internet, we can.
Another of the Internet Explorer's advantages are its security features.
These security measures can help us ensure that our children are not exposed to inappropriate
material and save users from security breaches.
We set our security measures by opening the View menu, then choosing Internet Options.
The Internet Options dialog box has six tabs, including General, Security, Content, Connection,
Programs and Advanced.
It's a good idea for people to set their options before browsing it all.
For now, we'll focus on the new security features.
At the top, we see a zone field.
This is set for Internet zone by default.
While this zone is selected, the settings below reflect different Internet zones.
By selecting the radio button beside the option we want, we can set the security levels according
to our needs.
Notice that levels range from high to low or custom.
When we change the zone to Trusted Site Zone, the lower portion of this dialog box updates
to show these settings.
Again, the levels range from high to low or custom.
By just looking at these settings, we see that Windows 98 has already set a default
protection for us, which we aren't going to change at this time.
The important thing to remember when setting up security is that we should set the protection
levels for each zone that will affect us.
If we ever want to clear the settings back to their defaults, we can choose the reset
button.
But we won't do this right now.
While occurrences of theft through the Internet are pretty much hit and miss, it's still
a good idea to be cautious.
The Microsoft Wallet can help us do just that.
The Wallet is a free download available from the Microsoft website.
The easiest way to access it through Windows 98 is to open the Internet Explorer window.
Choose the Help menu, then Product Updates.
This special website will determine what components we have on our computer already, then offer
other Microsoft installations.
These component downloads include the Internet Connection Wizard, Microsoft Chat 2, a variety
of multimedia components, and of course, the Microsoft Wallet.
The Microsoft Wallet allows users to securely store credit card information in an encrypted
form, as well as their shipping address information.
The idea is that anyone who uses the Microsoft Wallet will be able to shop around on the
web without worrying about safety, since they can easily post personal information from
their wallet, which is encrypted.
While still looking at our Internet options, let's select the Content tab.
From here, we can enable the Content Advisor, use certificates for identification, and edit
our own personal information.
By enabling the Content Advisor, we are able to set a password so that our security settings
cannot be overridden.
Although we won't be entering a password now, if you want to do so, all that needs
to be done is to enter the password in both boxes the exact same way.
This will prevent the mischievous nature that thrives in many of us, especially children,
from gaining access to inappropriate sites.
Since we won't be adding a password ourselves, we'll click Cancel, then press Escape to
close this dialog box.
This returns us to the Internet Explorer window.
To download software through the Internet Explorer, we can open the Help menu, then
choose Product Updates.
This is an actual site on the Internet, so the Explorer takes us to the site.
It takes a moment for the site to load.
In the meantime, we'll want to be sure to have the Explorer window maximized to its
largest size to see everything.
The next thing we wait for is the Internet Explorer 4 setup to be initialized.
This takes several minutes.
We're speeding up the loading process that you see.
Be aware that when you actually use this site, it may take quite a while.
As the site loads, we see a listing of many add-on applications, but before we can download
any of them, a dialog box appears asking our permission for the program to search our computer
for the applications.
By choosing Yes, our computer would be searched.
We won't be showing the download process, so we'll just close the Explorer window.
When you decide to download this software, you can scroll down the window and choose
the application you want.
There are several listed here from the Internet Explorer browser to the wallet.
Let's review what we covered in this chapter.
We discussed how the Internet Explorer is integrated throughout Windows 98 and especially
the Windows Explorer.
We discussed the Go and Favorites menu, then learned more about NetMeeting.
Finally, we demonstrated how to secure ourselves through the new features of the Internet Explorer
and explained about the Microsoft Wallet and how to get it.
There are several ways to customize the Windows 98 desktop.
Actually, we've already mentioned a couple of them.
You already know that the links bar can be customized according to the channels of your
choice.
You know that we can add an address bar to the taskbar, and you know that we can customize
the desktop using webpages as backgrounds.
There are still more things we can do with our desktop.
One of them is to customize the Start menu.
We click the Start button, then go to Settings.
Now we'll select the Taskbar and Start menu command from the flyout.
The Taskbar Properties dialog box will appear with the Taskbar Options tab selected.
To customize the Start menu, we choose the Start Menu Programs tab.
Here we find buttons to add or remove programs, as well as a button for more advanced changes.
We click the Add button, and the Create Shortcut dialog box appears.
Inside is a field where we can enter the path for the program we want included in the Start
menu.
When we aren't sure what the path is, it's best to browse our system to select the program.
With the Browse dialog box displayed, we'll select Scan Disk by selecting the folders
we need to access it.
With its path in the command line, we continue through the rest of the setup questions, choosing
Next when we're ready to proceed.
One of our options is to select an icon for the shortcut.
Once we have one selected, we can click the Finish button, then press Escape.
This takes us back to the desktop.
To test that the Startup menu has been customized, we click Start, then go to Programs.
At the bottom of the window, we see the Scan Disk application we added with the icon of
our choice.
If we wanted to run this application, all we'd need to do is select it.
Now we'll show how to remove an item from the Start menu.
With the Start menu open, let's highlight the Settings command, then choose Taskbar
and Start menu.
After selecting the Start Menu Programs tab, we click the Remove button.
The hierarchy of the Start menu now appears.
We highlight the application we want removed from the menu, which is Scan Disk in this
case, then click the Remove button.
As we can see, the menu is updated immediately.
To check this in the actual Start menu, we click Close, then press Escape.
Once back at our desktop, we choose Start, and go to Programs.
We can see that the program is no longer listed here.
It is important for us to know that although we removed the item from the Start menu, we
did not remove it from our computer.
Any item that we add to the Start menu is simply made more convenient to access, and
any item we remove is simply removed from this access area.
Some of the things that make Windows 98 so entertaining are the new hardware and graphics,
the TV viewer, enhanced multimedia, net show, and desktop themes.
If you enjoy pumping up your computer system, then you'll be pleased with the new hardware
and graphics Windows 98 can support.
These include DVD devices, force feedback joysticks, digital audio speakers, and recording
devices.
In addition, the new plug and play capabilities make installing hardware easier.
To help you understand the hardware that can be used with Windows 98, we're going to explain
what some of the new devices are.
First of all, there's the DVD player.
The DVD player allows us to play DVD discs from a DVD drive connected to our computer.
We can also use the DVD drive to play software and music CDs.
Another new device is the Universal Serial Bus, or USB.
In plain terms, it enables us to easily add multiple devices to our computer.
The IEEE 1394 devices, or firewall, also enable us to add serial devices.
And finally, the Accelerated Graphics Port, or AGP, will help us to view the intense 3D
graphics that are available in more and more places.
Windows 98 is going to be more family-oriented, especially with its new internet features.
To get the most out of this, it's a good idea to add the hardware necessary for advanced
sound and graphics.
This brings us to another subject, the new TV Viewer.
TV Viewer is a program included with Windows 98.
It combines broadcast and HTML content to deliver previously unavailable entertainment
possibilities.
For anyone unfamiliar with HTML, it represents the hypertext markup language.
Any time you hear HTML, it's a clear sign that you're dealing with the World Wide Web
and the pages available there.
The TV Viewer enables us to view television as if we were on the World Wide Web.
Clearly this means that we have all the advantages of watching film, with the advantages of hyperlinks
that allow us to quickly jump from one spot to another.
With a TV tuner board installed on our computer, our computer can receive and display television
and other data distributed over the broadcast networks using our television cable system.
Additionally, we can receive internet content or other data services over the broadcast
networks without tying up our existing phone line.
We also have the advantage of continuous program guide listing of what's scheduled.
Another entertaining feature of Windows 98 is NetShow.
NetShow allows us to receive networked streaming multimedia content from the web or an intranet
server.
This may sound a bit confusing, but just imagine what an interactive CD-ROM looks like.
We have the ability to jump from place to place or play a part through.
This is what NetShow does with Windows 98.
We're benefited by being able to listen to radio or television news channels directly
on our computer talk about service.
Let's review what we covered in this chapter.
We learned how to customize the start menu and discussed other ways for customizing.
We also discussed ways that Windows 98 will entertain us like never before and the system
improvements for this.
Finally, we filled you in on the TV viewer and NetShow.
It's not over yet.
We have more cool stuff to inform you about Windows 98, such as new system tools, help
in technical support, hardware support, multimedia, enhancements, and internet connectivity.
Beware, things will get a little more technical here.
In this section, we'll be spelling out the new system tools in Windows 98.
These include Disk Defragment or Optimization Wizard, FAT32, the Windows System Update,
Random File Checker Utility, Windows Tuneup Wizard, Dr. Watson Utility, New Backup Utility,
and the new Accessibility Tools.
Disk Defragment or Optimization Wizard is designed to reduce load time for frequently
used applications.
This is done by logging file use and then rewriting the files in a contiguous space.
This enables the utility to eliminate random access of the hard drive.
Early tests show the utility is most effective on systems that have been converted to FAT32.
This brings us to the question of what is FAT32?
This is best explained by discussing what FAT32 does.
It converts the partitions where data is stored in the CPU to FAT32 partitions.
And it is a very, very big deal.
FAT32 makes better use of the data storing partitions.
That allows us to more effectively use disks capable of containing over 2 gigs.
With a FAT32 system, drive space is completely optimized so we can hold more data and get
it faster.
The system also includes a graphical conversion utility designed to ease the conversion from
the old to new format.
The only catch of FAT32 is that any system not upgraded to FAT32 will be unable to read
the drive.
Another new system tool is the Windows system update.
This utility uses ActiVec technology to automatically update system files and drivers by downloading
newer files over the internet.
The system file checker utility tracks changes made to important system files and enables
the user to revert to previous configurations.
The Windows tune-up wizard schedules regular maintenance tasks such as scanning the disk
for purging unnecessary files and performing disk defragmentation.
The Watson utility is an easy one to remember.
The new improved Dr. Watson 32 is the improved version of Dr. Watson, the Windows error debugger.
When an application generates a general protection fault, or GPF, the details button will now
provide advanced technical information.
This is going to help technical support teams to get users up and running faster, as will
help application developers to find and fix bugs more easily.
We can sum it up by saying that Dr. Watson 32 is designed to intercept software fault
errors and display a detailed summary of how and why the error occurred.
And finally, the new backup utility is improved to support SCSI tape devices.
There are also new features for technical support.
These include the Windows 98 help desk, system troubleshooter, and the system information
utility.
The Windows 98 help desk links the user to both local and internet resources.
The system troubleshooter automatically performs a series of troubleshooting steps to determine
configuration problems.
And the system information utility aids technical support personnel by gathering and compiling
system information.
We'd also like to mention the Windows 98 tour.
Discover Windows 98 includes three tours, which are designed to help users become familiar
with Windows 98.
These include Computer Essentials, Overview, and What's New.
Computer Essentials is a very basic tour for the first time computer users.
The Overview will help users who are upgrading from Windows 3.1.
And the What's New tour highlights the new features in Windows 98.
It will be especially helpful for anyone upgrading from Windows 95.
The look of the help window has also changed and has become more flexible.
We are able to resize the window, resize either frame, and show or hide the contents and index
frames.
The new hardware support includes broadcast architecture, miscellaneous hardware support,
multiple display support, IRDA support, and PCMCIA support.
We've already touched on broadcast architecture a bit.
As you know, Windows 98 allows users with an installed TV tuner board to receive television
and other data signals from broadcast networks.
We also have an interactive program guide that is continuously updated.
Users can access programs directly from this guide.
In areas where the service is available, users can receive internet content directly from
these broadcast networks.
In addition to viewing television programming from cable, over-the-air, and satellite networks,
broadcast reception hardware can be used as a receive-only network device.
We can receive true data broadcast of webpages, multimedia streams, and data packets from
television stations and networks that provide this information.
There's also support for hardware including the Universal Serial Bus, Accelerated Graphics
Port, the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface, which is particularly useful for
notebook users, and finally, the digital video disc.
ACPI is a new power control specification that supports new hardware interfaces and
future computers.
Many OEMs are currently developing ACPI machines.
In addition, the Windows Sockets 2, also known as WinSoC 2, is the Windows 98 implementation
of Sockets.
You may be familiar with the subject as it was first popularized by Berkeley Software
Distribution, Unix.
The BSD standard was adapted for Windows with the original Windows Sockets.
Windows Sockets 2 provides easier access to multiple transport protocols.
By using the Windows Open Architecture model, Windows Sockets 2 defines a standard service
provider interface between the application programming interface with its functions which
are exported from WinX2 underscore 32 dot DLL.
This means that Windows Sockets 2 support is no longer limited to TCPIP protocol stacks.
Don't get boggled yet because there's still more.
We also have the ability to use up to 8 monitors on a single computer with Windows 98's new
multiple display support, as well as support for PC card 32, 3.3 volt cards, and multi-function
cards such as the Ethernet modem card.
To use the new multiple display support, we need to have a PCI computer with two or more
PCI display adapters and monitors.
Once we've set up the supports, we can use the taskbar to multitask across the monitors.
This is also a good time for us to mention the Icons tab.
In Windows 98, we have full window drag, font smoothing, and other user interface enhancements
that were only available with the Windows 95 Plus packages before.
With Windows 98, this is all built in, and the Icons tab now appears on the standard
display control panel.
As for multimedia support, Windows 98 has Active Movie and MMX support.
The Active Movie format increases the ability of Windows 98 to handle popular multimedia
files including MPEG audio and video, WAV audio, AVI video, and QuickTime video.
MMX support, made possible by Intel MMX technology, is the other new multimedia advantage.
DirectX Show 2.0 and DirectX 5 are other features that improve gaining and multimedia infrastructure.
Windows 98 also offers us easier setup and faster shutdown.
To access setup options, just go to the control panel.
Windows 98 speeds up shutdown by eliminating some unnecessary procedures that were previously
used for shutdown.
For instance, full hardware detection during the initial setup also uses the information
on utilities that you have installed already and updates just those.
If we look at Windows 98's performance as a whole, we will find that it has faster system
boot time, application load time, system shutdown time, and general system-wide performance.
The Windows tune-up wizard will automatically schedule regular-time tune-up jobs to maintain
the computer.
As for internet connectivity, there are several new features.
We've already discussed most of them, so we'll be brief in this technical explanation.
Some of the internet updates include the integrated shell, improved dial-up, browser enhancements,
channels, additional internet tools, and support for PPTP.
The integrated shell is the most significant change in Windows 98, and we've been discussing
it throughout the tutorial.
Improved dial-up networking now enables scripting and supporting the use of multiple ISDN or
modem lines for increased transfer speed.
Finally, point-to-point tunneling protocol enables us to securely connect with a server
over the internet.
This is all made possible because of the new web-based driver and component update utility
that helps reduce the cost of ownership by providing a simple, controllable update engine.
Other features include WDM, Windows System Update, and the Windows Scripting Host.
The Win32 driver model, WDM, provides a common driver model for both Windows 98 and Windows
NT.
We can use the new WDM with new classes of devices such as USB, HID, IEEE 1394, digital
audio, DVD players, still image, and video capture off a single driver for both Windows
98 or NT.
The Windows System Update will enable a network administrator to ensure that users have installed
the latest drivers and file systems, and the Windows Scripting Host provides support for
direct script execution.
The Scripting Host is a tool that allows us to use ActiveX scripting, which includes both
Visual Basic Script and JavaScript directly from Windows or from the command line without
the need to embed it in HTML documents.
Another feature, the Distributed Component Object model, also referred to as OLA-DECOM,
provides extensions for existing OLA interfaces.
A package people may be interested in getting is the Personal Web Server package.
There are improvements in this package that give an easier platform for sharing information
on a personal website.
The Personal Web Server package makes it easy to install the Microsoft Personal Web Server,
Microsoft Transaction Server, Microsoft Data Access Components, and Microsoft Message Queue
Client.
The Microsoft Personal Web Server is a desktop web server that can be used to host a website
on a corporate intranet or to develop and test a website before hosting the site on
an intranet service provider.
The Microsoft Transaction Server supports creation of Microsoft Transaction Server applications.
When we talk about a transaction server, this is in reference to a server operation that
succeeds or fails as a whole, even if the operation involves many steps.
The Microsoft Transaction Server also supports process isolation of applications.
The Microsoft Data Access Components enable easy use of databases with supports for ActiveX
data objects and the Microsoft Access Server.
Finally, the Microsoft Message Queue Client allows applications to pass along transaction
notification and continue processing without waiting for confirmation that the transaction
has completed.
Then search your Windows 98 CD in the drive.
Click the Start button, then choose Run.
In the Run dialog box, enter the letter of your CD-ROM drive such as D then colon backslash
add hyphens ons backslash pws backslash pwssetup.exe.
With the path entered, click OK, then follow the directions in the personal web server
setup.
Another new feature we'll notice is Scan Disk.
Let's suppose that someone shuts down the computer without going through the proper
shutdown procedures, such as in the case of a power loss or just being hurried and careless.
The new Scan Disk will automatically fix errors on boot instead of notifying users and requiring
keystrokes.
This means that Windows 98 will reboot without user intervention.
If it's necessary to run advanced data recovery utilities, the data will still be on the hard
disk.
The final improvement we'll expound on is the Calculator.
New features include factorial works for non-integers and odd roots of negative numbers.
That concludes this tutorial learning what's new in Windows 98.
We've covered a lot of information in this tutorial.
If you feel the need to review, simply rewind the tape and watch that section again until
you are comfortable with the material.
We at ViaGraphics would like to thank you for choosing our company for your software
training needs.
Remember, if you plan to learn about Windows 98 or any other computer software, there's
no better way than through video training with ViaGraphics.
Thank you.
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