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In article RDFre.2630$kj5.2370@trnddc03 writes:

In my 98SE systems, I use the System File Checker constantly.

My recollection of SFC is that it works a little differently in Win98
than in 2000 or XP, at least it's more informative and tells you what
it's doing. I did run it on the Win2000 computer (that's how I found
the missing AUTOEXEC.NT file) and it just runs. It doesn't tell you
what it found out of whack, if anything.

In the case of the TMP environment variable, the problem wasn't a
missing system file. I'm guessing that something changed in the
registry, and I don't think SFC cares about that. The manager window
that lets you set the path for the TMP directory probalby writes
whatever you enter into the registry, but I suspect that it doesn't
read (for display) what's actually in the registry, but just remembers
what was last entered via that route. (all speculative on my part - I
don't have the schematic g) I didn't dig in with the registry editor
since my intuitive fix worked.

I had some issues with the Microsoft security patches from March...
Security Update for Windows 98 (KB888113) and Security Update
for Windows 98 (KB891711) seemed to cause scripting errors when
surfing the web. Turns out that something happened to both my IE
preferences and to the manner in which Zone Alarm looked at web
sites.

What does SFC do when you've installed a patch or update to the
operating system? It asks you to put in the original installation CD,
so it's possible that it would replace a missing updated file with the
old version. Is that what happens?

Anyway, Zone Alarm expired at the end of March, and the stupid
web site refused to accept the passwords I had set up for upgrading
over the web, so I just went out and bought the newest version.

This new version has become bloated and invasive, something that I
used to praise ZA of *not* being.

I'm just using the free version. I figured it was working but just for
kicks I went to the Gibson Research web site (grc.com) and played with
their Shields Up test. It trys to probe all the ports (or the first
1000 or so) and tells you if they're open, closed, or stealth (the
probe gets no response from your machine). With Zone Alarm turned on,
it showed stealth for all of my ports. So I shut down Zone Alarm, ran
the port probe test again, and it still showed them all as stealt. So
maybe my router is doing that, or my ISP is. I figure that if there's
really a problem, Gibson would want to show it in his test since he's
trying to sell stuff that seals up computers.

As the days have passed, problems have again begun to rear their heads
with me changing nothing. Once again, ZA is not allowing simple .gifs
and a great deal of scripting to load from web pages.

Honestly, I'd feel more comfortable if it blocked something now and
then. I do get pop-ups when some program or Windows service that I
have't put on the "good guy" list tried to access the Internet. Real
Player is one example. If I want to use it to play a non-downloadable
file, I'll anser the pop-up with "allow" but won't tell it to always
allow that program to access the internet. I want to know when it's
"phoning home" and then don't let it. But I've been disappointed. It
hasn't tried to access the Internet other than when I sent it there.

Call me paranoid or delusional, but these patches seem to me to be
compromising security rather than fixing it. Zone Alarm no longer
reports to me when my IP address changes, and a few other little
anomalies that don't make any sense.

I don't recall that I ever saw that (I'm sure it changed now and then
when I was on AOL dial-up) but then I've only been using the program
for less than two years. Maybe I never got an old enough veresion.

Lo and behold, today there are two more security patches for Win98...

Who says Microsoft doesn't support old versions. G

--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me he double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo