Windows 98 Beta 3 (Japanese)

[WindowsLover2016]

I found this image on some Japanese website.


It looks like a Japanese Beta version of Windows 98, since it has the Windows 98 Preview Program website from 1998 (or 1997) on the picture.

I didn't see an actual Japanese version of a Windows 98 Beta, so it may be a kinda rare version.

[gtgamer468]

The image itself is pretty blurry or maybe it's just how it's displayed on my phone (Samsung Galaxy S8). I can read Japanese pretty well so I can probably determine if it's legitimate or not. What build is this?

[Zv45Beta]

The image itself is pretty blurry or maybe it's just how it's displayed on my phone...

I'm viewing it on a PC, and it's really blurry here too. The photo WindowsLover2016 provided here is actually a thumbnail from the same site, while the full size image is badly resized to 640x480.

What build is this?

I ran the site through Google Translate, but there is no clear indication of a build number in question. (It's basically a showcase article which talks about the new shell integration with IE4.0 and similar new features in Win98)

However, on the same site, there is another screenshot:


The CD label says Win98_beta3, so this is clearly a Beta 3 build. The first leaked build which has the Windows98 start menu banner (instead of the old Memphis banner) is 1593, but there are no leaked Japanese Beta 3 builds, as far as I know. However, some of the 16xx builds (the first one being 1658) set the Windows98.htm file as the desktop background, which is indeed blue (just like Millennium started to set the default blue background near the end of the beta phase). More precisely, the IE logo on the top right of the Explorer window was replaced with a Windows logo in 1687, so this is somewhere in the range from 1658 to 1687.

[DiskingRound]

It could be 1676: that came in Chinese and I know a Korean version exists as well, so I don't see it to difficult for a Japanese version to exist along with the other Far East editions.

[Mezashi]

Perhaps I may own that build.
It is Windows 98 Preview Program Fareast Languages (Japanese, Japanese PC-9800, Korean, Traditional Chinese).
But this CD's volume label is "Fareast_cpp", not "Win98_beta3".

It is build 1650 (Beta 3). Change wallpaper to "Wallpapr" and enable Active Desktop, it is similar to topic's image.
Also, timestamp of "Beta Guide" is 1997-12-22. This date is close to that the website was written.

This CD image is on my hard drive, but I have a problem that I'm not found the original disc.
I reply to this topic again when I found it, maybe...

[Battler]

- Mezashi: The ISO will do actually until you find the original disc.