I would venture if there are a million users of Windows (very conservative
estimate) and 5% were having a problem with KB896688 or any of the other
updates, that would mean that 50,000 computer users would be experiencing
problems! And that is a ridiculously low estimate! It is likely that many
users don't realize there is a problem right away. Contributors on this NG
are probably a lot more into their computers and a good bit more savvy about
how they are functioning. But for many folks, they might discover in a few
weeks that their Flash Player is not working, that WMP doesn't work when
launched within a website, that they can't access the Update site, or that
other 'Active X' problems are showing up. What to do then? They probably
start searching for viruses and end up sending the computer to the local
shop where they might very well be unaware of the issue and decide that the
OS must be reinstalled.

By the way, I just got another response from Microsoft concerning this
problem. The fix that they published:
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;909889 does not work
with Windows 98SE systems! This is what I'm talking about. Why is the update
still up there on the site in its original form? We know it needs a registry
fix. We now know that the registry fix does not work for Windows 98. Yet
there it is.......waiting for its next 50,000 or more "uncommon" victims!

If anyone is interested, here is the KB896688 FIX for Windows 98, according
to their e-mail support: ..................................Marcus

1. Click Start, click Run, type Notepad.exe, and then click OK.
2. Paste the following text in the Notepad document:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{0000031A-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}]
@="ClassMoniker"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{0000031A-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}\InprocServer
32]
@="ole32.dll"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{0000031A-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}\ProgID]
@="clsid"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\CLSID]
@="{0000031A-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}"

3. Click File, and then click Save.
4. In the Save in box, click Desktop.
5. In the File name box, type KB909889.reg.
6. In the Save as type box, click All Files, and then click Save.
7. Click File, and then click Exit.
8. On the desktop, double-click KB909889.reg, and then click Yes to add the
information to the registry.
9. Click OK to confirm that the information in the KB909889.reg file has
been added to the registry.
10. Restart the computer.