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Running OO on W98SE

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jwr
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Running OO on W98SE

Hi,
I have the portable version of Open Office on a USB Flash Drive. It will work great on an XP machine, but when I take it to work and use it on a Windows 98SE machine (full updated) -- the top menu bar (file, edit...etc) will not appear. Everything else does appear, but not the top menu bar.

I gave the same Flash USB drive to a co-worker --using an XP machine -- and it worked perfect.

How can I fix this so it works on my W98SE machine?

Thanks in advance

jwr

Bruce Pascoe
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This appears to be a known issue. I remember a thread a while back where someone had the same problem trying to run it on Windows Me. Nobody could figure out what the problem was there, either.

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John T. Haller
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Fonts

This usually means there are fonts missing or corrupt on the Win98 box. I think OO.o uses Tahoma. Be sure it's installed and isn't corrupt.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

Bruce Pascoe
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I've heard this, but being a programmer myself and having quite a bit of experience with the Win32 API, I doubt it. Windows' font mapper doesn't just return NULL when it can't find a font. If CreateFont (or CreateFontIndirect) can't find the specified font, it will choose a similar font, or else fall back on a basic font like Arial.

Besides, even if you were to try drawing text with null HFONT, you'd get System (or Fixedsys, not sure which). I can't think of a single case where the nonexistence of a font would cause the menus not to show up.

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bh2ooo
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Windows 98 needs a driver to run a USB flash

If I remember, in order to operate under the old Windows 98 SE OS, a USB flash drive typically requires a driver to be installed. I don't recall if plain Windows 98 can support it at all.

USB things used to come with drivers on CD, but XP doesn't need that, so that's why you had success. Try visiting the flash drive manufacturer's web site for info.

Bh2ooo

Bruce Pascoe
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You're talking about something completely different. His USB key is quite clearly accessible, or he wouldn't have gotten as far as to run OpenOffice. Please read more carefully before you make suggestions, or you'll only end up confusing people.

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jessejazza
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I'm running it on win98se

I'm running it on win98se and have had no problems. I will try it on my work laptop running XP and see what happens. I have also recently reformatted drives and reinstalled win98se. Most problems are due often to a corrupt file somewhere [problem is finding where!] - but i'm no expert! I'm using a SuperTalent flash drive with OEM win98se driver.

ksepdx
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Same Problem - Found a solution

I had the same problem. I downloaded the suite that includes OOP, installed it on my Sony Microvault 512 MB USB drive. It ran fine on my XP machine, but on both of my win98 machines, menus were missing. (Only the OOP, other applications were fine.)

After considerable experimenting, found that with both OO and OOP the problem does not occur on win98 when they are loaded from the hard drive. Only when loaded from the USB drive did the problem show up.

Bought a LEXAR JumpDrive 512MB USB, copied the PortableApps Suite over. Problem solved!

Appears my problem was with the win98 driver for the Sony USB drive.

If only some win98 drivers for USB drives are at fault, that would explain why it's not a general problem.

Hope this helps.

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