Just wanted to share my experience in creating a Win98SE CD that does a complete installation of Win98SE with minimal user interaction. The following steps describe how to create the installation scripts to install Win98SE with pretty much all components installed. This should be easily adaptable for Win95 with little effort, and adaptable for WinME with a little more effort. I have not tried it out yet but I'll let you know my results as soon as I do.
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The following code was created by the Batch98 utility found on the Windows CD in the folder %CDROM%:TOOLSRESKITBATCH
Just wanted to share my experience in creating a Win98SE CD that does a. The installation scripts to install Win98SE with pretty much all components installed. Now create a Win98 boot disk containing the following files. Aug 14, 2005 The Unattended and Updated Boot CD for Windows 98 has evolved into theWindows 98 Seven Years Later ed. Boot CD project:Change Log:version 2.5 released on August 14, 2005: - major modification to boot image file: now skips unnecessary stage (that contains a duplicate boot from CD.
To get more info on the utility, go here:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/win98/upgr98.asp
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/win98/upgr98.asp
For now, just create a folder containing all the files in the directory %CDROM%:WIN98 and create a file named msbatch.inf containing the following code.
code:
Notice on line 20 ('ProductKey='xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx'), enter the product key you have there.
Now create a Win98 boot disk containing the following files:
command.com
config.sys
autoexec.bat
himem.sys
oakcdrom.sys
btdosm.sys
btcdrom.sys
aspi2dos.sys
aspi8dos.sys
aspi4dos.sys
aspi8u2.sys
aspicd.sys
attrib.exe
deltree.exe
mscdex.exe
command.com
config.sys
autoexec.bat
himem.sys
oakcdrom.sys
btdosm.sys
btcdrom.sys
aspi2dos.sys
aspi8dos.sys
aspi4dos.sys
aspi8u2.sys
aspicd.sys
attrib.exe
deltree.exe
mscdex.exe
Edit the autoexec.bat file to contain the following:
code:
Edit the config.sys file to contain the following:
code:
Go into your favorite CD burning software and create a bootable CD. Use the boot floppy you just made for an image. On the CD, you're going to have the directory structure so that all the windows setup files are located in a folder named 'WIN98.' You also want to place the msbatch.inf file that you created in that same folder. From there, burn the CD and you should be all set.
All that's left to do is test out the CD. You should be able to just pop it into a drive, have it boot to the CD, select one options, have it install windows, remove the CD after the first reboot, and other than answering one prompt and removing the CD after the first boot, there is no other user interaction whatsoever.
Keep in mind that software drivers for some hardware will still need to be installed. I'm figuring out how to include that as well as including the latest versions of DirectX and IE. Right now I'm thinking along the lines of replacing the files in the .CAB files. I just need to find a way to get around any sort of file version checking that might be present.
View image: /infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif
Windows 98 Unattended Boot & Installation CD - February 2008Windows 98 second edition is old. Nearly 10 years old actually. These days straight out of the box, Windows 98 needs a lot of work just to get it to the point when you could possibly think about using it. And even then, you'd have to do lots of research to find out what what updates are available and what limitations still exist, in order to use it confidently in 2008. This is a shame because there's probably still thousands upon thousands of machines out there that don't have the hardware to run Windows XP or Vista but could handle Windows 98 easily due to there being so few processes running compared to a Windows XP machine. For machines near the minimum hardware requirement for Windows XP, in lots of cases if you setup it up right, the machine will run faster with Windows 98 on it than with XP.
Gee, wouldn't it be good if there was a CD that defeated every single obstacle that prevents Windows 98 second edition from being able to be used in 2008, and it installed everything automatically without you needing to do anything except format a hard disk, even installing drivers for the latest chipsets, and also nVidia and ATi video cards?
This is that CD.
Features:
* Unattended installation of Windows 98 second edition
- fully updated to February 2008 (see below for more info on this claim of 'fully updated'). Once setup starts, that's it, you don't have to do anything.
* Set custom installation options before setup commences
- system drive letter, windows directory name
- computer name, workgroup, username, organization
- keyboard type, screen resolution, screen color bit depth,
- regional setting, time zone
- product key
- i don't see any Windows XP unattended discs being able to do this before setup starts!
* Use a comprehensive suite of hardware tools available from within the Boot Menu
- create, delete, and resize your disk partitions without 3rd party apps
- check for disk errors and diagnose your hardware
- read NTFS disk partitions and set maximum Ultra-ATA support for modern hard disks
- add a RAM disk to your operating system (OS) configuration if you have more than 1 GB RAM installed
* Driverpacks for Windows 98SE
- homepage: http://www.msfn.org/board/Driver-Packs- ... 98369.html
- i couldn't let the Windows XP unattended discs have all the fun, i made my own versions to add support for some non-natively-supported chipsets and all the video cards from nVidia and Ati. This means for most people the resulting OS looks swish straight out of the box.
- there are 7 packs - a total of 39.8 MB extracting to 147 MB uncompressed:
- Driverpacks 1-3 contain video drivers
- Driverpack 4 contains chipset drivers
- Driverpack 5 contains audio drivers
- Driverpack 6 contains network adapter drivers
- Driverpack 7 contains virtual machine drivers (VMWare)
* Fully updated to February 2008!
You're probably wondering how this is possible, didn't Microsoft stop support for Windows 98 on, like, the 11th of July 2006? Yep, except that hasn't stopped unofficial updates being released that has fixed some mighty big bugs:
- drives over 137gb can now be used safely, previously, the OS didn't recognise that drives could possibly go any higher and spat the dummy.
- you can now actually copy a file over 2 gigabytes using Explorer, previously, the OS didn't recognise that files could get any bigger than this and spat the dummy.
- the OS can now handle large amounts of large files. Previously if you tried to select a lot of files that added up to lots of megabytes, the OS would spit the dummy.
- you can now use USB devices like you can in Windows XP, the OS can recognize the device without you needing to install third-party drivers each time you plug in a device.
- every update known to all the last remaining Windows 98 enthusiasts who linger around the MSFN website is installed before setup finishes. They haven't been 'integrated' or anything fancy like that because this is an alien concept to Windows 98 setup and cannot be easily done. The number of updates is around the 200 mark but don't worry, most install in a flash and it doesn't take that much longer overall really.
- every single one of these unofficial updates comes from the community on MSFN at http://www.msfn.org/board/Windows-95-98-98SE-ME-f8.html
- the full list can be viewed here: http://soporific.dsleague.com/downloads/modules.htm
* Xstyle Theme Pack, using the UberSkin skinning engine
![Unattended Unattended](/uploads/1/2/6/3/126380812/497199098.jpg)
![Windows 98 Unattended Boot Installation Cd Windows 98 Unattended Boot Installation Cd](http://www.netbsd.org/docs/guide/install-images/inst-medium.png)
- the resulting OS is totally safe and secure to use as long as you use a good firewall due to the lack of one inbuilt.
* A fully stocked applications menu - 55 titles:
- all of the following titles are silently installed if selected and are ready to use after reboot.
- the list is: 7-Zip 4.57, 400fonts, ABI Word 2.5.1, Bulk Rename Utility 2.7.0.2, CDCheck 3.0.1.43, CloneCD 5.3.0.1, CCleaner 2.05.555, Cute PDF Writer 2.7, Data Recovery Toolbox Dec 2007, Driver Genius Pro 2007, DVDShrink 3.2.0.15, Everest Ultimate Edition 4.20.1170, ffdshow rev1431, FoxIt Reader 2.0.1414, GSpot 2.70a, Hard Disk Toolbox December2007, HDD Regenerator 1.51, Heavyload 2.3, Image Analyzer 1.27, Irfan View 4.10, Karen's Directory Printer 5.2.5, Metapad 3.51, Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.12, MultiRes 1.58, Nero Burner Suite 6.6.1.6, NOD32 Antivirus 2.7, NotePadSX 1.2, Opera 9.26, Outpost Firewall Free 1.0, PikyBasket 2.0, PowerDesk 6.0.4.2, PowerMenu 1.51, SaveMyWork 1.0.45, SpyBot SnD 1.52, Statbar 2.406, TuneUp Utilities 2007 6.0.2200, Universal Extractor 1.6, VLC Media Player 0.8.6d, WinAmp 5.35, Winimage Pro 7.0.7, WinRAR 3.71, Xstyle Theme Pack, XvidCodec 1.1.3, XYplorer 6.80.0000
* Revolutions Pack 7.11
- homepage: http://www.msfn.org/board/Revolutions-P ... 58357.html
- this is a complex system which targets on improving many Windows 98 user interface features. It incorporates many graphical and usability changes which are available in other OSes like ME, XP, and Vista. A very useful one is the ability to turn any explorer window into Windows Explorer where you have access to the files and folder tab on the left-hand side of the screen (ie like in Windows XP). Not having this feature in Windows 98 is rather annoying so this is an awesome imrpovement.
- Unfortunately, Revolutions Pack 7.11 can be buggy - on some systems it may not 'play well' with the hardware you have installed and not work as intended. I suggest you give it a try and you can always re-install the OS if it didn't work out well. I recommend that you give it a go because it if does work as intended on your machine, you will love all the improvements you get.
- Revolutions Pack is available from the applications menu.
* the resulting OS can be used for virtually any computer purpose in 2008.
- I would say the only purpose it can't be used for is file-sharing due to the lack of updated networking support files meaning very few connections can be made at once and thus ruling out being able to file-share properly. Apart from this, Windows 98, with the truck-load of unofficial updates, tweaks, and addons that are on this CD, is still a viable OS to use in 2008!
Don't take my word for it, check it out for yourself. I recommend using Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 to test it.
Windows98.UBCD.Feb.2008.iso [700.97 Mb]