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Just thought I would update my earlier thread about reinstalling win98 (after 3 years of abusing the OS it finally got too buggy). But the problem was that that I recently installed XP as a dual boot on a separate partition and I did not want to lose it as a useful backup for now ( I may eventually switch fully over to XP but I want to wait for the first service pack).
Unfortunately simply reinstalling win98 into the same windows folder did not cure the bugs (like the OS crashing when I put in an cd lol)...and rather than reformatting the drive and losing a lot of programs that worked on ther own (ie...not needing registry entries to function) I decided to rename my WINDOWS folder to BINDOWS.
I tried renaming it "LINDOWS" and "MINDOWS" and even "ZINDOWS" before lucking out with "BINDOWS" (it is REALLY important to rename it with a "B" as the win98 install disk will not work as it is a quirk in microsoft programming needing to rename folders with the second letter of the alphabet). Also it is important to raname your "PROGRAM FILES" to "ROGRAM FILES" or the new install will be unclean from your previous program files settings and create some confusion in the registry.
This way Win98 will install itself WITHOUT mucking up the existing dual boot choices which I wanted to preserve so if it messes up you can still back into the previous XP OS.
Just type in "WINDOWS" when you get to the install prompt screen as your choice of folder destination. This is not automatic because the WIn98 install will want to try to copy all its OS files into the recently named "BINDOWS. But this is ok, because you just type in "WINDOWS". Cool, yes.
Also files which were useful to use in my clean install - get a copy of your Internet bookmarks (very easy to do as an import function on your browser) and save your Outlook Mail settings located at "C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Identities\{8B3E53A0-1C99-11D6-888D-D0FD7C7C283A}\Microsoft\Outlook Express".
After the standard 45mins of installing Win98 you get a a really clean WIN98 OS again AND you have not screwed up the dualboot either.
So don't hesitate reviving your tired windows 98 because it can be done with minimum fuss. And I also want to write this because some of the information posted here for my original request was incorrect in assuming that the dual boot would be messed. I believe this incorrect assumption was based on people assuming that XP was like WIN2000 in installing specific ntboot files and such; as far as I can tell XP does the dual boot thing only with 2 boot files (Boot.ini and boot.dos imho) which are unaffected by the win98 reinstall.
ok, so now I know and you murcers know too :0
regards
dc
ps...just kidding about the "BINDOWS" And "ROGRAM" thing; rename it whatever you want.,..just be sure to tell win98 setup to intall into "WINDOWS" - which really does not exist yet since you renamed it!
Unfortunately simply reinstalling win98 into the same windows folder did not cure the bugs (like the OS crashing when I put in an cd lol)...and rather than reformatting the drive and losing a lot of programs that worked on ther own (ie...not needing registry entries to function) I decided to rename my WINDOWS folder to BINDOWS.
I tried renaming it "LINDOWS" and "MINDOWS" and even "ZINDOWS" before lucking out with "BINDOWS" (it is REALLY important to rename it with a "B" as the win98 install disk will not work as it is a quirk in microsoft programming needing to rename folders with the second letter of the alphabet). Also it is important to raname your "PROGRAM FILES" to "ROGRAM FILES" or the new install will be unclean from your previous program files settings and create some confusion in the registry.
This way Win98 will install itself WITHOUT mucking up the existing dual boot choices which I wanted to preserve so if it messes up you can still back into the previous XP OS.
Just type in "WINDOWS" when you get to the install prompt screen as your choice of folder destination. This is not automatic because the WIn98 install will want to try to copy all its OS files into the recently named "BINDOWS. But this is ok, because you just type in "WINDOWS". Cool, yes.
Also files which were useful to use in my clean install - get a copy of your Internet bookmarks (very easy to do as an import function on your browser) and save your Outlook Mail settings located at "C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Identities\{8B3E53A0-1C99-11D6-888D-D0FD7C7C283A}\Microsoft\Outlook Express".
After the standard 45mins of installing Win98 you get a a really clean WIN98 OS again AND you have not screwed up the dualboot either.
So don't hesitate reviving your tired windows 98 because it can be done with minimum fuss. And I also want to write this because some of the information posted here for my original request was incorrect in assuming that the dual boot would be messed. I believe this incorrect assumption was based on people assuming that XP was like WIN2000 in installing specific ntboot files and such; as far as I can tell XP does the dual boot thing only with 2 boot files (Boot.ini and boot.dos imho) which are unaffected by the win98 reinstall.
ok, so now I know and you murcers know too :0
regards
dc
ps...just kidding about the "BINDOWS" And "ROGRAM" thing; rename it whatever you want.,..just be sure to tell win98 setup to intall into "WINDOWS" - which really does not exist yet since you renamed it!
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