Absolute Beginners Guide to A+ Certification. Covers the Hardware and Operating Systems Exam

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Upgrading to Windows 98

The process of upgrading to Windows 98 varies, depending upon the version of Windows already installed. The following sections describe typical upgrade processes.

Preparations to Make Before Upgrading to Windows 98

If you are upgrading from MS-DOS / Windows 3.1 or Windows 95 to Windows 98, follow these procedures before performing the upgrade:

  • Back up hard drives . If a full hard drive backup isn't possible, back up data files to avoid data loss in case of a problem with the upgrade. For maximum safety, use the Byte-by-Byte Verify option during backup if available, and test the backup by restoring some files to an empty hard drive or empty folder.

  • Disable EMM386.EXE or other memory managers in Config.sys that provide access to upper memory blocks (UMBs), the memory addresses between 640KB and 1MB that are not occupied by RAM or ROM chips; these can interfere with software installation. Keep Device=Himem.sys and DOS=High options in the Config.sys file.

  • Disable Load= and Run= statements in the Win.ini file used by Windows 3.1; verify that drivers in the System.ini file used by Windows 3.1 refer to installed hardware only.

  • If Windows 98specific drivers are not available for your video card, set your Windows video type to VGA before the installation because all SVGA cards will also run as VGA.

Microsoft sometimes refers to upgrades as "replace in place" installations.

If you are upgrading from Windows 3.1 to Windows 98, you should also back up the following .grp files to a floppy disk:

  • Startup.grp

  • Oldstart.grp

Then, delete all icons listed in your Startup folder ; many of these programs will not run properly under Windows 98 and might not be needed.

.grp files are used by Windows 3.1 to store pointers to programs.

Upgrading to Windows 98 from MS-DOS

Windows 98 enables you to dual boot with MS-DOS automatically if only MS-DOS is installed on the system before you start the installation process.

If MS-DOS has CD-ROM support already installed

  1. Boot the computer to an MS-DOS prompt.

  2. Insert the Windows 98 CD-ROM.

  3. Change to the drive letter for the CD-ROM drive.

  4. Type Setup and press Enter to start the upgrade process. Proceed as described in "Upgrading to Windows 98 from Windows 95" later in this chapter.

To boot back to MS-DOS after installing Windows 98, do one of the following when the system restarts:

  • Press the F4 function key.

  • Press the Ctrl key and choose Start Previous Version of MS-DOS from the list of options.

Most MS-DOS programs stored in the \DOS folder work as they normally do, but the following disk utilities programs are removed or disabled because they won't work with long filenames:

  • Drvspace (MS-DOS 6.22)

  • Dblspace (MS-DOS 6.0, 6.2)

  • Defrag (MS-DOS 6.x)

  • Scandisk (MS-DOS 6.x)

tip

The Windows Notepad DOS Edit, Sysedit (Windows 9x/NT 4.0), or MSConfig (Windows Me version) programs can be used to edit plain-text configuration files such as Config.exe , Autoexec.bat , Win.ini , and System.ini .

Follow these tips to make needed changes referred to in the previous section:

  • To disable a device driver in Config.sys or a command in Autoexec.bat , place the word REM at the beginning of the line containing the command or driver. For example,

    device=c:\windows\emm386.exe RAM

    can be commented out by editing the line like this:

    REM device=c:\windows\emm386.exe RAM

    The system ignores any line preceded by REM in Config.sys or Autoexec.bat .

  • To disable a statement in Win.ini or System.ini , use a semicolon instead of the word REM . For example,

    load=printspl.exe

    can be commented out by editing the line like this:

    ; load=printspl.exe

    Be sure to back up any files you edit.

When you try to run any of these programs, a message appears onscreen informing you of the steps you need to follow to run the Windows 98 equivalent.

Upgrading to Windows 98 from Windows 3.1

Installing Windows 98 on a machine that has Windows 3.1 running on it requires that you first decide whether you want to replace Windows 3.1 or create a dual-boot environment that allows you to run your choice of Windows 3.1 or Windows 98.

Using the default installation location for Windows 98 ( C:\Windows ) replaces your Windows 3.1 installation with Windows 98 and prevents dual booting with your old version of Windows. If you choose a different installation location (for example, C:\Win98 ), you can dual boot Windows 3.1 as well as MS-DOS as discussed earlier. However, you will need to reinstall any Windows 3.1 applications you still want to use with Windows 98.

The easiest way to start the upgrade to Windows 98 is to follow these steps:

  1. Start Windows 3.1.

  2. Open the File Manager .

  3. Insert the Windows 98 CD-ROM.

  4. Open the Setup.exe file on the CD-ROM and continue as described in "Upgrading to Windows 98 from Windows 95" later in this chapter.

You can choose to upgrade Windows 3.1 or install Windows 98 in its own folder when you start the Windows 98 upgrade from within Windows 3.1. You can specify any name for Windows 98's own folder, but I recommend using the name Win98 .

UPGRADING THE WINDOWS 3.1 INSTALLATION TO WINDOWS 98

If you install Windows 98 into the same folder as Windows 3.1, the Windows 3.1 program groups ( .grp files) and .ini files, such as Win.ini , System.ini , and others, will be used to set up the Windows 98 desktop and Registry. Each .grp file becomes a folder of shortcuts visible when you click Start, and then Programs. The .ini entries will be transferred to the Windows Registry.

Upgrading to Windows 98 from Windows 95

As with Windows 3.1, the easiest way to start the upgrade process to Windows 98 is to

  1. Start Windows 95.

  2. Open the Windows Explorer .

  3. Insert the Windows 98 CD-ROMthis starts the Autorun.exe program in the root folder of the CD-ROM, which displays several options onscreen.

  4. To start the upgrade process, answer Yes when the computer asks, Do you want to upgrade your computer to this new version of Windows 98 now? .

  5. Answering Yes starts the Setup program for you and carries over your existing Windows 95 program groups and preferences to Windows 98. Close the Autorun menu after the Setup program starts so you can make the user entries needed.

According to Microsoft, Windows 95 and 98 cannot be used in a dual-boot configuration, although third-party boot managers, third-party partition managers, and unofficial hacks on the World Wide Web all provide unauthorized methods for bypassing this limitation.

Updating Windows 98

To download the latest security and other updates for Windows 98, click Start, Windows Update to launch the Microsoft Windows Update service. Windows Update is customized to the version of Windows on your computer. For details of how it works, see "Installing Windows 2000 Service Packs and Updates," later in this chapter.

Troubleshooting the Windows 98 Upgrade

The four files that provide valuable clues to why a Windows 9x installation or initial startup has failed are

  • Detlog.txt

  • Netlog.txt

  • Setuplog.txt

  • Bootlog.txt

All these files are hidden files stored in the root folder of the Windows installation drive (normally C:\). Change the default settings in the Windows Explorer to Show All Files to display these files. For more information about displaying all files in the Windows Explorer, see "Changing Viewing Options in Windows Explorer," in Chapter 18, "Using and Optimizing Windows." You can examine the contents of these files with either Notepad or WordPad.

If Windows 9x fails to complete its installation, a very long file called Detlog.txt can be used to figure out what happened . Detlog.txt lists the hardware devices that Windows 9x is looking for. If the Windows 9x upgrade process stops, the last entries in Detlog.txt indicate what was being checked at the time of the lockup , enabling you to remove or reconfigure the hardware that caused the installation to fail.

The Netlog.txt file records the network configuration of Windows 9x during initial installation. If network devices do not work, examine this file to see if the ends of any lines indicate error messages or error numbers .

Setuplog.txt is a file that records every event of the installation process. If the Windows 9x installation process doesn't finish, check the end of the file to see at what point the installation failed.

An installation might appear to succeed, but it isn't really finished until the system restarts successfully. The Bootlog.txt file records every event during the startup process. Bootlog.txt is generated automatically the first time Windows 9x is started; whenever a new Bootlog.txt is generated, the previous version is renamed Bootlog.prv (replacing any existing Bootlog.prv ). As with the other files discussed here, the end of the file is the critical location to look at if Windows 9x can't start. Unlike other files, which are very complex to read, Bootlog.txt is relatively simple: Virtually every START event will have either a matching SUCCESS event, a FAILED event, or no match (if the system locks up after START ing an event). If Windows 9x locks up, check the end of the file to determine the last driver or process that was START ed without a matching SUCCESS or FAILED ; that is the usual cause of the problem.

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