There’s a little known and little heralded release of Windows 98 out now called Second Edition (W98SE). In my situation it came out at just the right time. I recently had my first involvement with networking several computers together when we relocated our offices to a new facility. Prior to this we had not been networked, but now we are. And it wasn’t very hard to set up our new peer-to-peer network, which I handled myself. After finding out that it wasn’t that tough, my home network is next on my agenda.

Then along comes W98SE, which is an update to Windows 98 (W98) that enhances W98 with the latest Internet, home-networking and hardware technologies. And notice I said home-networking. And that’s just a few of the things included in this upgrade. Here’s a full list of the enhanced capabilities related to the Internet and hardware compatibility:

• Internet Explorer 5, Microsoft's popular browser software, provides breakthroughs in Web performance, usability and flexibility, including the new Outlook Express 5 integrated email software. There’s also a great new feature called Radio Tool Bar that lets you listen to live radio while browsing.
• Windows NetMeeting® 3, the latest version of Microsoft's award-winning Windows-based conferencing software, brings Internet conferencing capability to consumers by offering an easier user interface, data conferencing security, enhanced standards support and more.
• Internet Connection Sharing, a set of advanced home networking technologies, enables multiple users to share a single connection to the Internet for simultaneous Internet access. (This is the one I’m interested in most!)
• Windows Media™ Player 6.1, the latest version of Windows Media Player, enables playback of popular multimedia formats, including streaming media such as Windows Media, MP3 and more.
• Enhanced IEEE 1394 support gives support for more devices, such as digital camcorders.
• Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) advancements deliver hardware optimizations and more granular control over settings on a device-class basis.
• USB improvements include the capability to work with devices on a per-device basis rather than a per-port basis.
• WDM modem support supports USB modems and enables hardware vendors to write a single WDM modem driver for Windows 98 and Windows 2000 Professional.
• WebTV® for Windows updates provides support for a broader array of analog television tuner cards and Advanced Television Enhancement Forum (AVTEF) standards for HTML-based enhanced programming.
• DirectX® API 6.1 delivers a variety of improvements to Windows multimedia technologies, including better audio and video synchronization.
• Processor and motherboard optimizations for the latest hardware technologies, including Intel Pentium III, are featured.
• Device Bay support enables a system to ship with Device Bay hardware.
• Windows 98 Service Pack 1 addresses top issues in existing Windows 98 features, such as Windows 98 Year 2000 updates
• Multiple monitor support can be extremely beneficial to users in many areas, including desktop publishing, web site development, video editing and gaming.
• Intel MMX technology support provides faster audio and video functionality.

Key performance and reliability features include the following:

• Setup enhancements reduce the number of setup steps, allowing for a faster and simplified setup.
• Applications load faster by identifying the most frequently used applications and placing the files associated with their startup together on the user's hard drive so they load quickly.
• Faster shutdown dramatically reduces the time needed to shut down the computer.
• More disk space is available as a result of the ability to store information more efficiently with a new feature called FAT32.
• Windows Maintenance Wizard automatically schedules and executes "tune-up" activities to keep users' PCs running in top form.

For new users to Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition will replace W98 in retail stores, new machines, etc. Existing W98 users can update their system to the Second Edition technologies via a CD that can be ordered directly from the Microsoft Web site for $19.95 (plus S&H). Also included is a book detailing features and benefits of Internet Connection Sharing.

To me it’s a cheap price to upgrade an otherwise pretty stable operating system. And for you people still on Windows 3.1 or 95, who have been waiting for Microsoft to get the bugs out of Windows 98 (…and God only know why!)…, now is the time for all good computer users to come to the aid of their computers.

(Note: I know that "bashing Bill Gates" almost seems like the stylish thing to do these days but you won’t hear it out of my mouth, or my keyboard. I’m thankful Gates and Microsoft have accomplished what they have because they sure have made computing a lot more enjoyable than it was in the early days (early 80’s) of personal computing. Thanks Bill!) u