Hope I don't sound too thick here but, I have the chance to obtain the original Win 98 & manual that came with a new Compaq PC.

Will this operate properly in a non-Compaq PC ?

I always had a feeling that Compaq's were a little odd...!

To be honest, I've never heard of a Compaq machine that had a full version Win98 disk shipped with it. Most of them (if not all) had a "Restore Disk" included with the system.

I believe when you use the restore disk, you end up reformatting your hard drive from the .cab files already existing on a pre-fabbed partition on the Compaq machine's hard drive. I don't think the disk actually contains the Win98 OS. It also installs proprietary Compaq software and drivers unique to the model number of the system it was shipped with.

I'm glad you have confirmed that Compaq's are a little different!

There are two discs - you are right in saying that one is labelled Restore.
The other one is package sealed with the manual and is labelled Operating System.

I think I'll steer clear - thanks for your input.