Microsoft dismisses warnings

WARNINGS from PC makers to steer clear of Windows 98 relate to a hardware issue, and not to the operating system.

That was the official line from Microsoft this week. The company hopes that rewritten device drivers and BIOS updates due for release in coming months will stifle the alarm bells ringing at IBM, Compaq, Dell and Toshiba.

These PC makers have posted notices on their Web sites ranging from warnings of reduced functionality on some machines using Win98 right through to instructions to avoid using the operating system altogether. Compaq posted a notice last week predicting that Microsoft will ?either release separate patches or configuration changes or incorporate many updates into a service pack.?

At the end of this month, Microsoft will post an ?update? covering the entertainment and DirectX multimedia facilities in Windows 98 ? and nothing else.

In a statement issued this week, Microsoft said it had no plans to release a service pack before the autumn, and that the problem was simply that hardware companies had only just started developing new drivers.

David Weeks, Windows 98 product manager for Microsoft UK said: ?Device manufacturers don?t start developing them until the operating system they?re writing for has gone gold, and there aren?t going to be any more changes.?

Weeks said as soon as the drivers were available, Microsoft would post them on its Web site. But the earliest it would ship a service pack would be this autumn.

Windows 98 introduced a new driver model which has left a large number of drivers obsolete, in the same way that Windows 95 did by demanding 32-bit drivers, Weeks said. No PC manufacturer warned Windows 95 users of lost resources and facilities if they upgraded the system.

Bryan Sycamore, director at BDS Training and Consulting, described a trial installation of Windows 98 at his company as ?problematic.?

?The trouble came when we installed it on top of Windows 95. It did nothing but crash until we started all over again with a fresh install, on a clean machine. Then it was fine. And no, we didn?t have any driver problems,? he said.