Oblivion for Windows 98

From Oblivion Mod Wiki

Author:	Shakkara
Last Updated:	March 29th, 2006
Requires:	Windows 98
Download(s):	SHELL32.DLL (see below for details)

[edit] Description

When Windows 98 users try to run Oblivion, they will get an error referring to shell32.dll.

The reason for this is that Oblivion is referring to the instruction SHGetFolderPathA, which is indeed located in Shell32.dll on Windows2000/XP systems, but not on Windows 98 systems. Windows 98 has this instruction in SHFolder.dll. Games normally point to SHFolder.dll to be backwards compatible (it's also present there on 2k/XP), but unfortunately Oblivion is not doing this.

Warning: Proceed at your own risk. Shakkara and Oblivion Mod Wiki cannot be held accountable for any problems that may occur.

Download the new version of Shell32.dll above and put it into your Oblivion folder.

Unfortunately, that's not all. Since Shell32.dll is a system DLL, windows will refuse to let it be loaded from a location that's not the windows\system folder.

Warning: The following step has major security implications. It allows any application to place a custom shell32.dll in the DLL search path. This could give a malicious application full system level access. I strongly encourage you not to make the following modifications and to upgrade your operating system instead.

Hit Start, choose Run, type regedit and hit enter. Follow the path...

• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
  • System
    • Current Control Set
      • Control
        • SessionManager
          • KnownDLLs

...and delete the SHELL32 - "SHELL32.DLL" registry key.

Windows 98 will now allow programs to load Shell32.dll from anywhere. Oblivion should now run without errors.

In some cases Oblivion will suddenly ask for your Windows 98 CD to get other DLLs from at startup. Just put in the Windows 98 CD and let it copy the DLLs it needs. This should only happen once.