Windows 95 was introduced in August 1995 and Microsoft stopped selling it in December 2000 and supporting it the end of 2001.
Microsoft intended on ending support for Windows 98 in March 2004 and I suspect due to an outcry from Win98 users have extended it through June 30, 2006 with online support available until June 2007.
Windows 98 Support Extended
How to preserve your copy of Windows 98
Windows 98 and Windows XP are two of Microsoft's biggest successes in terms of what they were intended to do as an operating system. Both are fairly stable. Windows 98 has modest system requirements and is quite possible still the most widely used Microsoft operating system.
In many cases Win 98 S/E (latest version) is still a very viable operating system. The major bugs have been been fixed. It is a very stable operating system and tends to run faster than Windows XP, unless you are running the latest and greatest hardware and have lots and lots of fast RAM.
The only major problem with Win 98 S/E that has been fixed in XP is it's ability to manage "resource" memory, where Windows keeps its pointers to what's going on. When that memory area gets full (only 64MB), Windows loses control. Your mouse might stop responding or you'll find that you can't close a window on your screen. You'll be stymied just trying to close programs, and your Windows PC will freeze. You'll lose what you were working on. The 64K limit in Windows 95, 98 and Me is a barrier that can't be taken down. No program can change this. Adding more regular memory (adding RAM, in other words) won't fix it. Rebooting (shutting down and starting up again) can help by clearing out resource memory. When resource memory runs low again, reboot again.
Discussion about Win 98 memory problem
Most people won't don't even notice this memory manegement problem found in Win 98. It is typically more an annoyance than a major issue.
I have a Win 98 computer at home loaded with the latest Win 98 S/E upgrades and I have not seen this problem for over a year. I usually run my browser (using Firefox these days) and the Google blogger.com or my Eudora e-mail program. I sometimes run Excel.
I have no plans to upgrade to a newer OS or faster laptop. The old Pentium II 400 MHz Toshiba I have been running for 3+ years on our kitchen counter runs fine. What if the kids dump a heavy soup can on it! I would be bummed if it was a new P4 laptop. Besides XP would cost at least $159.99 from the discounters.
July 11, 2006 Microsoft will officially end support of Win 98, although online self-help support will be available until July 11, 2007. Microsoft planned to end support in January 2004, but extended that to June 30, 2006.
Windows XP is the best all-around operating system that Microsoft has yet produced. It built on Windows 2000's idea of integrating Microsoft's stable NT operating system with some of the user-friendly features of the Windows 9x operating systems. The resulting product is an extremely stable and mostly user-friendly hybrid combining ease of use with advanced features for businesses. Its only major drawback is its steep system requirements. So, you should plan on having at least a P3-700 MHz or faster CPU and at least 256MB RAM if you want to run XP in a reasonable manner.
The latest computers don't get the best out of Windows 98. If you are playing games and using the latest software they have started the transition to being 2000/XP compatible only.
I am updating this post in June 2006. The end of Microsoft support for Win 98 is finally here. Microsoft claims it is not secure, as if it ever was! Microsoft recommends that people who still use Windows 98 protect their PCs by using a network firewall that filters traffic on TCP Port 139. "Such a firewall will block attacks attempting to exploit this vulnerability from outside of the firewall," it said.
The software maker even had trouble with its fix for Windows XP. It had to revise the update and release it a second time because the patch caused problems for people who used Hewlett-Packard Share-to-Web software or older Nvidia graphics drivers.
Microsoft is phasing out support for Windows 98 Microsoft has been providing fixes for only "critical" flaws the past couple of years and is ending support altogether next month, after its planned July 11 patch release. Windows XP with Service Pack 1 reaches its end of support on Oct. 10, 2006. Many people will still continue to use it for years. I expect the release of VISA will hasten it's demise should there be a version that supports older hardware?
