Excellent things about a fresh PC: newest versions of all my drivers and software. The newest ASUSLive video capture software is much better to it's previous bug filled version.
It was all quite easy. Everything is up and running again after only about two hours of work. Only thing left is arranging everything so my Sound Blaster Live! soundcard doesn't pop and crackle (involves forcing various PCI cards to not share IRQs, a nightmare).
None of this matters of course because I'm going to blow it all away again when I get the new PC. But it was a fun and clensing experience. Back to the old school when you were forced to do it every few months or so. This setup of Win98SE has been going for almost three years now. Amazin'
Oh yeah, and I'd love to know how WindowsUpdate actually works because it's claiming my brand new out of the box Win98SE installation requires no updates when quite clearly it does.
Two theories: that the new version of WindowsUpdate (implemented very recently for XP users) doesn't support Win98 properly or at all, given MS plans to cut off Win98 support soon. OR the way it decides if you require updates is that is stores a unique ID somewhere at Microsoft with info on whether you've been updated or not. Given previously I was fully updated I suppose it's possible WindowsUpdate id'd my PC and said "you're fully updated". Sounds a bit far-fetched that one. It's SUPPOSED to search your PC for updates but I've serious doubts it's doing that. I've seen a few people on newsgroups with similar problems after reinstallation. And try to find an easy way to update Windows without WindowsUpdate? Manually entering each security patch? Dang!