• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

Any Win98lite users here?

computerdude92

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 10, 2014
Messages
1,056
Location
Alaska
It looks like a good idea, since it can come without the bug causing IE4 and Active Desktop. I think it is an add-on or something rather than a modified win98 iso... How well is the stability of 98lite vs regular 98se? What did you like and dislike about it? Are there any other lightweight modded win98's on the internet other than 98lite? Or is only this available?

http://www.litepc.com/98lite.html
 
I had program that removed IE intergration from my old Win98 install. Found it a bit snappier in general. If was called IEoff or something similar.
 
It is an excellent modification to Windows 98. How well it works depends on what options you tell it to remove or disable. The final version doesn't go as far as the 2.x versions, however.

If you install the genuine Windows 95 desktop, you get all the 98 speed improvements without the massive bloat of the IE desktop (which more than negates all the 98 speed improvements). The effect is very noticeable on 486/pentium 1 machines. Although running on a VM on a fast "modern" machine won't see much difference.

The main drawback is that with the Windows 95 shell in place, some Windows 98 applications will attempt to call shell functions that are then missing.

Despite what Bill Gates claimed, 98lite permits IE 4 to be completely removed. (look for the 2.x versions of 98lite if you really want to eradicate all traces)

So many fun memories. There used to be a video of a couple of Microsoft employees "testing" 98lite and they were bitching and moaning about how "slow" 98 was after removing IE with 98lite, but never showed or described what they were doing that was so "slow". You know, you are just supposed to believe them.

And then there were all the Microsofties who would always whine "weeell how are you supposed to download another web browser if you don't have IE?! Whaaaaaaah!". And then I would stuff a shiny Netscape/Mozilla/Firefox CD in their face. :p

I recall early on there was some other program that also removed IE or the IE shell, but everything it did 98lite did and more.

If you just want to remove some of the visual clutter, search for "ThrobOff", that is just a small registry tweek that hides the annoying and useless throbber animation. Microsoft stuffed thobbers in everything back then. :p
 
I've never used it, but I've got an 80GB 2.5" drive adapted to a 3.5" port slammed into a module for my 486. Might want to compare the performance between 95 OSR2.5 and 98 SE with 98 Lite on it. Why anyone would want IE on their old 9x machine these days is beyond me - there's that hacked version of Seamonkey, Firefox, and Thunderbird for 95 (toastytech.com), there's also fairly recent builds of Firefox and so on that run on 98 SE as well - probably more choices there. And those can all handle all the site security everyone is all about these days.
 
And then there were all the Microsofties who would always whine "weeell how are you supposed to download another web browser if you don't have IE?! Whaaaaaaah!". And then I would stuff a shiny Netscape/Mozilla/Firefox CD in their face. :p

The last browser that I installed on 98SE was obtained using ftp on the command line.
 
There's LiteStep. It seemed ok, but the version I tried was a beta. it was like FVWM IIRC. I tried the 98Lite and it was ok too, but the removal of IE caused all sorts of issues installing other software, mostly bad. One good issue was that the register now nag screen for something I was running at the time didn't show up anymore. Still I eventually went back to regular 98. The only reason I used 98 was for games, Much preferred NT. NT was generally reliable (for windows) provided you didn't fiddle with it.
 
There's LiteStep. It seemed ok, but the version I tried was a beta. it was like FVWM IIRC. I tried the 98Lite and it was ok too, but the removal of IE caused all sorts of issues installing other software, mostly bad. One good issue was that the register now nag screen for something I was running at the time didn't show up anymore. Still I eventually went back to regular 98. The only reason I used 98 was for games, Much preferred NT. NT was generally reliable (for windows) provided you didn't fiddle with it.

Thanks for the input! I will save my money and keep using Windows 95 as my retro OS. Thank you! ;-)
 
I used 98Lite for a long time and it did achieve its goals of running faster and taking up less RAM, but installing new software was always a crapshoot because you didn't know if the lack of the IE-ified Windows 98 Explorer would cause problems with it or not. Eventually the hardware I was using got powerful enough that the benefits of 98Lite no longer outweighted its drawbacks, and I replaced it with a standard installation of 98SE.
 
I found the effort to even make it work was not worth my time. Ultimately unless something desperately needed 98 I would just run 95 OSR2.
 
I didn't know these were actual products. I think the 98Lite I had was a beta, it was free anyway. I though it was just a package put together by J. Random Hacker who really hates I.E. I would guess now it's more polished.

A few clicks on the site you posted gets you here:
https://www.litepc.com/shop/?product=Our_Products&pid=1

You get the license key via email.

98Lite or XPLite? depends on whether you have XP or 98.
 
I didn't know these were actual products. I think the 98Lite I had was a beta, it was free anyway. I though it was just a package put together by J. Random Hacker who really hates I.E. I would guess now it's more polished.
Where did you get your copy at? I like to try it before I buy any of them.
 
I need to go to my basement and find my 95, 98, ME and XP CD so I can install one of these. The XP SP3 is a copy I got with my Dell Laptop if it will work.
 
My old business Pc had a Windows 95 shell in a 98se install

I liked using it to remove IE4 and then do a full ie5.5 install, bloat was down and available memory went up.
 
Back
Top