http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...

"As of July 2007, HP will no longer be able to offer driver downloads or replacement driver CD ordering for Windows 98, 98 Second Edition (SE), or Windows Millennium (Me) for your HP printer, all-in-one, camera, or scanner. Microsoft has stopped providing and supporting certain files related specifically to Windows 98 SE, and this change affects all technology companies. HP, along with other technology companies, is no longer able to use selected components in support of Windows 98SE, which has an impact on our software strategy for Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, and Windows Me. HP will continue to provide other selected HP software and applications that do not depend on Windows 98 SE components for the foreseeable future."

Better grab all the drivers ya can from the compaq.com support site. HP owns Compaq, but they left many of the Compaq pages alone SO FAR. If you know your hardware you can play matchup to the Compaq machines using the same parts.

The Compaq site also has drivers for NT, 3.1, DOS, etc so get all ya can.

FWIW:

I fired up the FTP client a few months back and grabbed everything from Compaq's site. Took over 40 DVD's to burn it all off, but it's there should I need it...

I suspect this will be a trend for all manufacturers for Win9x (and Win3.x drivers are already virtually unheard of nowadays...)

Yes well, but as Compaq/HP use fairly common motherboard chipsets and other hardware usually have OEM drivers. Therefore the drivers are not an issue.

As for Windows 9x/ME many OEM copies on fleebay......... so not a problem.

"Therefore the drivers are not an issue."

Don't forget printers too.
They are brand-specific, and while sites like Driverguide are excellent they may not always be available. Driverguide doesn't offer software patches or old version apps either.

T-R-A:
Love the ftp idea! I guess I'll have to free up some space...

>>>Yes well, but as Compaq/HP use fairly common motherboard chipsets and other hardware usually have OEM drivers<<<

Maybe something like PII or newer machines, but ever work on an older Deskpro or Prosignia? You can't even boot them without a working diagnostics/system partition or Softpaq disk set. They also have some machine-specific cards which require drivers...