Basic questions

(1) I have a 2000 Windows 98se Dell computer. When I turn on the computer & it shows the desktop, it gives me the message that it's warming up as it counts down from 30. This warm up & countdown is a recent development. Why would it start doing this?

(2) If multiple people are using the same computer, there is a password you can use. This way each user can make changes to desktop & when signing in again, will get their own unique desktop arrangement. I set up password for myself but now would like to cancel it. Everytime I turn on computer it of course asks me for password. I am now the only user of this computer.

(3) When I go on vacation is there a way to set up the computer so that some curious friend can't go into my files?

Thanks for any info

Barney

Oh wow, 98 se. These may be basic questions, but Windows 98se is going back in history. I used to have a computer running 98se, but it
s PSU just died, so I really can't help unless I get that up and running again.

If you do not want your friend to get on your computer at all, just set a bios password (at start up look for which F key you need to press to get into bios on the screen). Without the bios password they can't do anything.

As far as the "warm up" I have never heard of that, but age would be my guess.

bartbarney said:

(1) I have a 2000 Windows 98se Dell computer. When I turn on the computer & it shows the desktop, it gives me the message that it's warming up as it counts down from 30. This warm up & countdown is a recent development. Why would it start doing this?

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I'm not entirely sure, but if you're able to stay in Windows long enough, I'd do a thorough virus scan and a scan for spyware. Trendmicro has an excellent web-based scanning tool that should be able to take care of these right on their website.

(2) If multiple people are using the same computer, there is a password you can use. This way each user can make changes to desktop & when signing in again, will get their own unique desktop arrangement. I set up password for myself but now would like to cancel it. Everytime I turn on computer it of course asks me for password. I am now the only user of this computer.

Click to expand...

Windows 98 is designed to be a single-user computer, so without a thirdparty client, like Novell Netware (ugh!), the most you can hope for is to designate a password and give it to people who you want on the computer. I believe what you're seeing may be due to some settings dealing with networking preferences, but it's been so long since I've used the Windows 9x family, I couldn't tell you where to look.

(3) When I go on vacation is there a way to set up the computer so that some curious friend can't go into my files?

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Well, I'll refer to my previous answer as a good solution. Now, if you want them to use the computer, then things become a little trickier. I can't remember, but you may be able to password out some folders if you want, but I'm thinking that's not a feature of the 9x Windows family. Depending on how computer literate your friend(s) happen to be, you could also remove the power cord to the computer and hide it and not worry about them. On the flip-side, it might be time to take stock of your friends if you have to worry about them checking out sensitive info of yours.
However, a password would be my choice. Hell, if they don't know of your current problem with the password box popping up, that might be enough.

Windows 98 uses a FAT32 filesystem. Unfortunately, FAT has no built-in file permissions. And since Windows 98 is built on DOS, it has no user privilege seperation or security to speak of. Sorry. :( I suppose you could password protect the BIOS, but anybody who knows anything about PCs could blow out the BIOS password in an instant.

I guess the only real solution is to either purchase some form of Windows NT (aka NT4, Windows 2000, Windows XP) and encrypt the filesystem so they can't change the SAM tables. Or you could go with a UNIX-like system such as Linux or BSD, which are free and extremely secure, but not something one learns overnight. :( Decisions decisions.

I had an old computer running 98se I put Mandrake on. What a difference! AT is right, you can't learn it over night, but, you can grasp the basic stuff pretty quickly.

Q1: That is not a feature of Windows, it sounds like a 3rd party program that you have installed (maybe without knowing it :) ). What have you installed recently? This error doesn't have the characteristics of a virus, but you never know.

Q2: I am not as familiar with Windows 98 as I once was, but I think this is what you do: Go into control panel and select 'passwords'. There should be an option to disable the windows passord. I think there is another tab (or an advanced button) that lets you specify whether users share the same settings, or different settings. You should change this so everyone has the same settings (as you are the only user now). Next you should delete any other users that exist on your computer. You need to click on 'users' which is located in the control panel. From there you can delete users and disable your own personal password.

Q3: Short answer: NO. Even if you set a Windows password, all the user has to do is press 'cancel' when they get to the log on screen :D . Windows 98SE is not secure. They will be able to browse your documents, and modify settings as they please. You best bet is to set a BIOS password and hope that any troublemakers don't know how to disable it.