This is a safe tweak that I’ve tried on Windows 98/ME.

It has to do with VFAT. You don’t have to know anything about this to try it. We’re going to trick your Windows 98 into thinking it’s a Network Server. Actually it’s not a trick, but a setting.

Right-Click the My Computer icon on the desktop, click Properties, click the Performance tab, click the File System tab, and under “Hard Disk”, change the setting “Typical Role of This Computer” from “Desktop Computer” to “Network Server”.

Click “Apply”, “Ok”

Re-boot.

What does it do? It utilizes 40 KB of RAM instead of the normal 10KB to cache the most recently accessed folders and files. For the extra 30 KB, it is well worth the effort.