Some experiencing problems with Win98

While Microsoft hasn't officially confirmed it, users upgrading their systems to Windows 98 has experienced some problems with the new OS recognizing certain kinds of hardware. When you've got literally millionsof people upgrading, this is to expected, but Windows 98 seems to have aparticular problem with PC card-based Ethernet and modem cards. While thebest way to install Windows 98 is on a clean system, this clearly isn't anoption for the majority of Windows 95 users, but some people are reportingsuccess by simply removing any PC Cards during the upgrade. Then, afterWindows 98 is installed, they insert the cards and let Windows 98 detectthem one at a time.

Microsoft says there hasn't been an inordinate amount of problems reported.

"No one's jumped off the top of the building here, so I guess that's a pretty good indicator that it can't be all that bad," said Microsoft's RobBennett.

Personally, I've never seen this issue, and I have upgraded Windows 95laptops with PC Cards to Windows 98. I did receive a couple of inquiriesfrom people how hard heard about the problem, though none profess to havebeen experiencing it. In any event, while Windows 98 is the end of theline for the Windows operating system as we now know it--future OSes fromMicrosoft will be based solely on Windows NT--the company does plan to upgrade Windows 98 over the next three years. The first such upgrades, aWeb-based task manager and a multimedia enhancement called "Chrome," aredue in September. No doubt other enhancements--and the inevitable servicepacks--will come along as well