Troubleshooting Applications

This section describes some problems that might occur with applications on Windows 98. For information about specific applications, see the Relnotes.txt file included on the Windows 98 compact disc.

Hot keys fail to start applications.

In Windows 98, you cannot use hot keys to run applications located on the desktop. You can use hot keys to run only those applications located in the Applications folder. To start an application located on the desktop, double-click its icon.

You cannot create a shortcut.

If you try to add an application to the Start menu by dragging the application’s icon to the Start button, you may receive a message that says that you cannot create a shortcut. The message prompts you to place the shortcut on the desktop. This message appears if the \Start Menu directory is corrupted or deleted.

To repair a corrupted or missing \Start Menu directory

1. Click the Start button, and then click Shut Down.
2. Click Restart.

   This creates a new Start Menu folder.

.Lnk extensions are never displayed.

Windows 98 never displays the .lnk extension in My Computer or Windows Explorer.

A disk utility cannot write to a disk.

Windows 98 does not support MS-DOS-based or Windows 3.1–based utilities that perform direct disk writes. Direct disk writes using the MS-DOS read sector (INT 26h) or absolute read sector (INT 13h) interfaces will fail unless the application has locked the volume for exclusive use. For information, see Chapter 10, "Disks and File Systems."

You cannot print from an application.

If you cannot print from an application, you can bypass spooling by sending printer output to a file and then dragging that file to a printer. For more information about printing to a file, see Chapter 11, "Printing, Imaging, and Fonts."

The taskbar is hidden.

Whenever you maximize an application, Windows 98 resizes the window so it does not cover the taskbar. However, if an application maximizes itself by using screen metrics to resize its window to take up the entire screen, the taskbar may be obscured. Because such an application commonly has problems with the taskbar, Windows 98 hides the taskbar when this occurs, giving the application the entire screen. To display the taskbar, manually resize the application’s window or minimize the application. To display the Start menu, press CTRL+ESC.

An application on a compressed drive lacks sufficient memory to run.

Applications that require maximum available conventional memory should not be run on compressed drives. You might need to run such applications in MS-DOS mode.

Running an MS-DOS-based application causes Windows 98 to stall during startup.

To restore Windows 98, shut down and restart the computer, and then hold down the CTRL key until the Microsoft Windows 98 Startup Menu appears. In the Microsoft Windows 98 Startup Menu, select the option named Previous Version of MS-DOS. (This option does not appear unless you edit Msdos.sys, as described in Chapter 5, "Setup Technical Discussion.") Disable the following lines in Autoexec.bat by typing rem before them:

rem cd c:\windows\command
rem call c:\windows\command\<game.exe>
rem c:\windows\win.com/wx

Remove the following line in Config.sys by typing rem:

rem dos=single

Text on menus and other screen elements is truncated.

Applications that depend on the system font to be a certain size may truncate the text on menus and other screen elements if the text is larger than the default setting. This may occur if users customize their screen fonts. To resolve this problem, right-click the desktop, and then click Properties. Click the Appearance tab; then, in the Scheme list, click Windows Standard.

Strange colors and patterns appear on the desktop.

Some Windows 3.1 applications hook into the desktop so they can be aware of all the events that take place there. When all applications were minimized in Windows 3.1, the desktop was the background area. In Windows 98, however, the background area is always covered by the new Windows 98 shell. Applications that subclass the old desktop no longer monitor any activity. If such applications attempt to draw on the old background, images appear on the new desktop, but they conflict with images that the Windows 98 interface draws there. Users cannot interact with the images such applications draw.

This problem typically occurs with screen background and wallpaper applications and with replacement user interfaces, typically located in the StartUp folder. These types of applications may also be started by run= or load= lines in Win.ini.

To resolve this problem, remove the application from the StartUp folder or remove its entry in Win.ini. Or obtain a version of the application designed for Windows 98.

A setup program cannot create shortcuts.

Because of cooperative multitasking in Windows 3.1, Program Manager was always guaranteed to respond within a few seconds of a Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) message. For that reason, many setup applications set the DDE timeout to a very short interval. In some cases, Windows 98 may be unable to process the DDE request within the same time because of preemptive multitasking. Setup applications may be unable to create an application group or shortcuts for this reason. If this occurs, you can manually add folders and shortcuts to the Programs menu.

You need to rebuild the Programs menu.

If Windows components are inadvertently deleted from the Programs menu, you can rebuild the menu. When you do, Windows 98 searches for installed components and adds shortcuts for them to the Programs menu. To rebuild the Programs menu, first rename Setup.old to Setup.ini. Then click the Start button, click Run, and type grpconv -s in the Open box.

For more information about manually rebuilding the Programs menu, see online Help. For more information about grpconv, see Chapter 5, "Setup Technical Discussion."

You need to save a Notepad or WordPad file using an unassociated file name extension.

If you are saving a file in Notepad or WordPad and you specify a file name extension that has not been associated with an application, Notepad or WordPad appends the default file name extension to the end of the file name. Notepad uses the extension .txt, and WordPad uses the extension .doc. For example, if you try to save the file "Cat.foo" in Notepad, Notepad saves it as "Cat.foo.txt."

To save a file using a file name extension that is not in the registry, enclose the file name in quotation marks.

An application requires Share.exe.

Windows 98 no longer supports real-mode MS-DOS Share.exe. However, some applications check for the existence of a file named Share.exe. To work around this problem, create a dummy file named Share.exe in the \Windows\Command directory.

For more information, see "System Changes Affecting Application Support," earlier in this chapter.

You are using Distributed COM and see run-time error 429.

Occasionally, when you attempt to access a Distributed COM server from a remote client application, you may see the following error:

Run-time error '429':
ActiveX component can't create object

If this happens, run dcomcnfg to check the following:

• In the application’s properties, make sure that the Run application on this computer setting is checked.
• In the application’s properties, make sure that the correct server is specified.
• In the Default Security tab, make sure that Enable Remote Connection is selected.

Also, make sure that the server application is started before the Windows 98 client tries to access it.

For more information about this troubleshooting step, see Knowledge Base Article Q177394, "HOWTO: Troubleshoot Run-Time Error ‘429’ in DCOM Applications."

Additional Resources