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Windows 98 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of Microsoft Windows operating systems. The second operating system in the 9x line, is the successor to Windows 95, and was released to manufacturing on May 15, 1998, and generally to retail on June 25, 1998. Like its predecessor, it is a hybrid 16-bit and 32-bit monolithic product with the boot stage based on MS-DOS.

Windows 98 is a web-integrated operating system that bears numerous similarities to its predecessor. Most of its improvements were cosmetic or designed to improve the user experience, but there were also a handful of features introduced to enhance system functionality and capabilities, including improved USB support and accessibility, as well as support for hardware advancements such as DVD players. Windows 98 was the first edition of Windows to adopt the Windows Driver Model, and introduced features that would become standard in future generations of Windows, such as Disk Cleanup, Windows Update, multi-monitor support, and Internet Connection Sharing.

Microsoft had marketed Windows 98 as a "tune-up" to Windows 95, rather than an entirely improved next generation of Windows. Upon release, it was generally well-received for its web-integrated interface and ease of use, as well as its addressing of issues present in Windows 95, although some pointed out that it was not significantly more stable than its predecessor. Windows 98 sold an estimated 58 million licenses and saw one major update, known as Windows 98 Second Edition (SE), released on May 5, 1999. After the release of its successor, Windows Me in 2000, mainstream support for Windows 98 and 98 SE ended on June 30, 2002, followed by extended support on July 11, 2006.

Following the success of Windows 95, the development of Windows 98 began, initially under the development codename "Memphis." The first test version, Windows Memphis Developer Release, was released in January 1997.

Memphis first entered beta as Windows Memphis Beta 1, released on June 30, 1997. It was followed by Windows 98 Beta 2, which dropped the Memphis name and was released in July. Microsoft had planned a full release of Windows 98 for the first quarter of 1998, along with a Windows 98 upgrade pack for Windows 95, but it also had a similar upgrade for Windows 3.x operating systems planned for the second quarter. Stacey Breyfogle, a product manager for Microsoft, explained that the later release of the upgrade for Windows 3 was because the upgrade required more testing than that for Windows 95 due to the presence of more compatibility issues, and without user objections, Microsoft merged the two upgrade packs into one and set all of their release dates to the second quarter.

On December 15, Microsoft released Windows 98 Beta 3. It was the first build to be able to upgrade from Windows 3.1x, and introduced new startup and shutdown sounds.

Near its completion, Windows 98 was released as Windows 98 Release Candidate on April 3, 1998, which expired on December 31. This coincided with a notable press demonstration at COMDEX that month. Microsoft CEO Bill Gates was highlighting the operating system's ease of use and enhanced support for Plug and Play (PnP). However, when presentation assistant Chris Capossela plugged a USB scanner in, the operating system crashed, displaying a Blue Screen of Death. Bill Gates remarked after derisive applause and cheering from the audience, "That must be why we're not shipping Windows 98 yet." Video footage of this event became a popular Internet phenomenon.

Microsoft had quietly marketed the operating system as a "tune-up" to Windows 95. It was compiled as Windows 98 on May 11, 1998, before being fully released to manufacturing on May 15. The company was facing pending legal action for allowing free downloads of, and planning to ship Windows licenses with, Internet Explorer 4.0 in an alleged effort to expand its software monopoly. Microsoft's critics believed the lawsuit would further delay Windows 98's public release; it did not, and the operating system was released on June 25, 1998.

A second major version of the operating system called Windows 98 Second Edition was later unveiled in March 1999.Microsoft compiled the final build on April 23, 1999, before publicly releasing it on May 5, 1999. Windows 98 was to be the final product in the Windows 9x line until Microsoft briefly revived the line to release Windows Me in 2000 as the final Windows 9x product before the introduction of Windows XP in 2001, which was based on the Windows NT architecture and kernel used in Windows 2000.

MS W98 UI

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Tags 90s computers font UI

MS W98 UI is a conversion of the original MS Sans Serif, which was the default system UI typeface of Microsoft Windows 3.1, 95, 98 and ME.

This is not an exclusive martyr⁠— creation, but rather a continuation of the work of many different authors.

Background

The initial typeface was developed by Microsoft for earlier versions of Windows. The original fonts used a vastly different format, incompatible with modern systems. Extensive work had to be done to convert them into usable standards like OTF and TTF.

The conversion process was carried out by Lev Leontev. I discovered it in this Stack Overflow answer.

Nonetheless, some fixes had to be made to make it work properly with Photoshop and other design applications. Just to name a few: rendering was not pixel perfect, a lot of characters needed manual fixes, baselines and sizes were different for each of the fonts, and hinting needed to be disabled. And more.

And that's martyr⁠— contribution :)

The release is free and credits to all the contributors behind the work been done for each font. Naming some: Microsoft, Lev Leontev, and martyr⁠—

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On December 15, Microsoft released Windows 98 Beta 3. It was the first build to be able to upgrade from Windows 3.1x, and introduced new startup and shutdown sounds.