Windows 98 Tips

Installation Tips

 

Setup Switches

For most installs of Windows 98, simply clicking the "Install Windows 98" button when the cd rom auto-runs will suffice, as will double clicking on setup.exe from the CD-ROM.  Setup has many parameter switches that can be invoked as well - I have a separate page that details these switches.

 

Using the Upgrade CD without a previous version of Windows installed

During installation, the Upgrade version of Windows 98 will search for a previous version of Windows on your hard disk (either Windows 3.x, NT, or Windows 95 will suffice).  If it doesn't find it, you will be prompted to insert the CD or diskette #1 from a previous version of Windows.  If you're like me, you are constantly rebuilding your hardware and installing Windows 98 from scratch on a clean hard drive - and it can get annoying having to dig out a disk from an older version of Windows.

To get around this (and, please, I only advocate this if you have a legitimate previous version of Windows), do the following:
  1. Boot your system from a boot diskette (Windows 95/98 startup disk, or DOS bootable diskette)
Create a file in the root directory of your boot partition named ntldr The file can't be a zero-byte file, so edit it and put rem on a single line with no spaces in front of it. Now, when you run the install routine for Windows 98, it should bypass asking for a previous version install diskette.  This works by basically fooling the Windows 98 install routine into thinking that Windows NT has been installed on your system.

 

Skipping the Emergency Startup Disk Creation

During installation, Windows 98 will insist on creating an Emergency Startup Diskette.  I highly recommend you create one.  However, if you already have one or simply don't have a diskette available, you can bypass this step fairly easily.  To do so, go through the normal installation until you get to the part stating that a diskette is needed so that an Emergency Startup Diskette can be created.  Press "Next" to continue, and Windows 98 Setup will display a graph as it prepares the files.  Part way through it will prompt you to enter a diskette.  At this point, click the "Cancel" button.  This portion of Setup will exit, and the rest of the installation will continue normally.  Please note that if you click Cancel before you are prompted to insert the diskette, Windows 98 setup will be completely cancelled and you'll need to start it from the beginning you'll be prompted as to whether you are sure you want to stop Setup.

 

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Wayne Smith

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