KRH

Eureka! The solution turned out to be absurdly simple. First, I created the folder, "c:\desktop". Then, using the location tab from the properties dialogue of the desktop folder in my user folders, I moved that folder to c:\desktop. I'm not sure how I had tried to do it in the first place, but this time it changed the appearance of c:\desktop by adding an icon overlay in the image of a desktop (as on the old computer), it displayed the files and folders in my user desktop folder, and the shortcut folder in Favorites now pointed to c:\desktop. Finally, I renamed the Public Desktop to just "Desktop" and moved it in the same way (in order to make the location of that folder editable, even when logged in as administrator, it's necessary to temporarily disable UAC). Voila! C:\desktop, in all it's glory! My user desktop and the public desktop are merged and the folder shows all the files, folders, and shortcuts, and only those, physically present on my desktop. But the story has a twist. At a certain point, I realized that having all those shortcut icons from the public desktop in the c:\desktop folder view is really of no value in browsing, downloading, etc., and just creates distracting clutter, so I restored the public desktop to it's original location. All I wound up with was a view of my user desktop by opening one folder instead of three, but that made it all worthwhile. It's actually an improvement over what I had on the old computer, although it's taken me a few years to realize it. I apologize for making a simple issue so complicated.

I haven't solved this yet but I'm getting closer. I have a vague memory of removing "Libraries" from Windows Explorer view 2 or 3 years ago on the old computer but before I did, I had to take care of something, and I'm sure that that was moving the merged desk top folder I had created from Libraries to the root drive. Now, I see two tasks: 1. I need to merge my user and public desktop folders using Libraries. The easy way to merge true folders in Windows is to rename one folder to match another in the same root, which gives you the opportunity to just overwrite any common files. So far, I haven't found any way to do that in Libraries. It won't allow me to rename a folder to that of another. I'm sure there must be a way to merge 2 libraries, or 2 library sub-folders, into one folder without sub-folders but I haven't been able to get anything to work. 2. I need to be able to move the merged folder to c:\desktop. Edit: As an experiment, I put my user desktop in Libraries, added a folder (c:\desktop) to that, and made it that the default save location, but when I add a test item to my physical desktop, it's still saved only to my user desktop while c:\desktop remains empty, both in Windows Explorer and the Libraries view. I'm completely mystified be that but it's typical of how things are going. Edit 2: Failed experiment: I redirected the save locations for user and public user desktop locations directly from their c:users folders to c:\desktop. That made a nice looking c:\desktop folder but put dupes for everything on my physical desktop and deleting one instance deleted both, both from the physical desktop and from the respective users' folders. Got to get those folders truly merged so that their are no dupes.

In moving my 64 bit Windows 7 Ultimate platform to a new computer, I'm trying to recreate a folder I had on the old one, "c:\Desktop". It contained all of the folders and files and only the folders and files actually present on my user's desktop. The desktop shortcut in the "Favorites" folder points to "c:\Desktop". Opening that shortcut folder shows the complete list of all folders and files on all user desktops but but only those that are physically on my user desktop appear in the target folder. From my administrator account, the desktop shortcut in Favorites points to the administrator desktop and the shortcut folder displays only those contents, but c:\Desktop still displays only my user desktop files and folders! I think I set that folder up initially in order to have quick and easy access to my user desktop while logged in as administrator but it's become very useful in many other ways. On the new computer, moving my user desktop from users\me\desktop c:\desktop displays only the only the files and folders I've personally created and the shortcut folder in Favorites still points to "users\me\desktop". Similarly, moving the public desk to to c:\desktop shows only icons created by program installations and the shortcut folder points to "users\public\desktop". I can't remember how I did it, I can't find any documentation as to how I did it, and Googling has been totally fruitless. How did I do it? (What I mean, of course, is that if you were I, how would you do it?)

Well, I got Win 98SE running in Virtual PC 2007 in Win 7 and my old MIDI sequencing program seems to work fine. I haven't been able to get my old legacy games, such as Heretic, Doom, and Escape from Castle Wolfenstein, to work properly--they look like they're going to work but then they crash Windows--but I'll keep working on that and it's not so important, anyway. It's a good thing I have my second "special purpose" Win 7 partition for this purpose because VPC 2007 and Windows Virtual PC with XP Mode, which I use regularly, can't coexist. Considering the difficulties I could expect using other virtual machines, judging by what I've read, I think I'll just stick with VPC 2007. Thanks to everyone here for your help. I haven't used this forum for awhile but I've always liked it. Win 98 users are the salt of the Earth! I'm glad to see that this forum doesn't require a designated "best answer", as so many others do, when there rarely is a single best answer.

Thanks, submix8c. Interesting discussion. Thanks, rloew. It's the problem with drivers, after all, that pretty much drives the nail in the coffin.

I guess I didn't explain clearly what I do what I do when I "clone" a multi-boot drive to a second one. The first thing I do is to partition the drive and then install the appropriate OS "from scratch", sequentially, in each partition. I know from experience that the easiest, most effective way to do that is to add them in order, oldest first. That way, as each OS is installed, it sees the older operating systems on any preceding partitions and installs itself accordingly, so as to leave all partitions boot-able. No hassles. As I say, these are fresh installations, right out of the box, with no development. After everything is installed and the boot files are in order, all volumes will be bootable. Then I clone the appropriate, developed platform (with all files and programs) over to each partition from the original drive using XxClone. XxClone copies all files without touching the boot files. (It doesn't "mirror", it just copies files, so that the target volume is free of any fragmentation.) This erases any existing files (except the boot files) and replaces them. When that's done, I have a perfectly working, exact copy of my original drive. XxClone has the ability to make a drive boot-able, but if you use that for any one of multiple partitions, it will screw up the MBR, leaving only that one partition boot-able. That's why I both "install from scratch" and "clone". (Of course, for regular, routine backup after I have both drives in place, I just use XxClone.) Anyway, I've already discovered that installing Win 98 with ATA enabled doesn't work any better than AHCI, so I'm going to stop beating that horse. I'd never find drivers for it anyway. (I would at least need sound.) There's not going to be a Win 98 partition. Now it's on to trying virtual Win 98 in various virtual environments, as suggested by dencorso. I'll report back on which seems to work the best for anyone interested.

Dencorso, I agree that it would be worthwhile trying those other options. Thanks for the suggestion. As for needing to switch BIOS modes at each boot, I won't know until I try. that's the whole point of experimenting. If Win 7 won't function normally in ATA mode even though I installed it in AHCI, I'll have to give up on adding a Win 98 partition. It would not be practical to switch every time and there would always be risk of everything getting screwed up. rloew, I need to install Win 7 in AHCI because my existing platform, which I've worked long and hard to develop and which I will be cloning over, was originally installed in AHCI. My whole concern is being able to preserve that installation (actually, 2 installations on two separate partitions.) I wouldn't want to have to start over rebuilding my whole platform just to add Win 98. My understanding of the problem is that if an OS was installed in one or the other of the 2 modes and then that mode is changed, the OS might try to adapt in such a way that it can self-destruct. I need to find out if that's actually going to happen. (Really, although I'm very skeptical that it can work, I've become very curious about just what will happen, one way or another).

I've found that the simplest, most reliable way to set up a dual-boot (multi-boot) drive is to start with the oldest OS and add others sequentially. I've done that in the past with 98, ME, 2k, XP, and 7 on other computers and it always goes smoothly. What I'll do is install Win 98 first, then Win 7. That sets up the boot files. Then I'll clone over my existing platform with XXClone, which won't touch the boot files unless instructed to do so. I could start by just cloning my platform to the empty partition and then using XXClone's "Cool Tools" to make it boot-able, but that always opens a can of worms. I've decided to try 3 experiments: I'll start by trying Win 98 in VirtualBox in one of my existing Win 7 partitions. If that works well enough to run my old programs, I won't have to go any farther. Then I'll try installing Win 98 with the BIOS set to ATA, switch it to AHCI to install Win 7, then back to ATA to see if one or the other (or, hopefully, both) continue to work. Finally, I'll do the same thing with Win ME. As I say, I'll report back on how it goes.

As I understand it, ATA is the equivalent of "legacy" in my BIOS, but as I say, I'm afraid that switching to it at this point might completely ruin the other operating systems in my multi-boot system, which were all installed using AHCI. My main drive of one Terabyte includes two boot-able 64 bit Win 7 installations (one for special use) and one large, Bitlocker encrypted data partition formatted with exFat. My back-up drive (in the modular bay of my laptop) had exactly the same configuration except that the drive was only 500 Gigs. Since I have to set up the new 1 Terabyte drive I just acquired as the new backup, I thought I'd add the Win 98 partition at the beginning, clone the other partitions on the old drive over to the new one, then clone the whole thing back over, so that the drives would be equal in both size and structure. If I switch the BIOS setting to ATA in order to install and use Win 98 on the new drive and then boot to one of the Win 7 volumes on the other drive, I'm afraid it might spell disaster for that volume. I still have the old 500 Gig back-up drive set aside, and I might experiment with that, running it as the only drive in the machine, but even that makes me a little nervous. I'd hate to lose my backup before I've successfully set up the new one, especially with the chance of Win 98 ever working adequately even if it is properly installed being so slight. I just remembered that I have another much smaller drive that I could use to experiment with. That might take awhile. The results should be interesting, so I'll post them back here.

I reinstalled windows, paying closer attention this time to what happens. During the initial phase, copying files, I got a couple of routine messages about non FAT32 partitions that I wouldn't be able to access later, and continued on. On the first reboot, of course it crashed, but after making the entry in system.ini, installation continued. I got the message, "Windows did not detect any real mode PC card drivers", and asking me if I wanted to search my system files for real mode drivers, to which I answered, "no". Finally, the desktop appeared. I immediately searched the registry for "NOIDE" but didn't find it. Then I checked Device Manager and found only 3 entries under "Computer", all with yellow marks. Checking properties for them returned these results: keyboard-- "Windows can't specify the resources for this device" Ports(Com and LPT)--Windows can't specify the resources for this device" Mouse-- "This device is causing a resource conflict" I tried rebooting and surprisingly, got back to the desktop. This time, the yellow marks were gone from the original 3 entries in Device Manager, and there were several new entries, all with red checks. Properties didn't show any problems. Another attempted reboot ended in failure, so I tried step by step confirmation boot, which led to windows opening with no error messages, but the red-checked entries in Device manager were all missing and the original 3 had their yellow marks back. Again, 1 or 2 successful reboots, failure. Thinking I would give up for the day, I put the computer back on the docking station, then decided to try it that way, booting again by using the step by step method (which I'm apparently able to use at any time). Windows immediately started looking for device drivers for the docking station itself and for the peripherals attached to it, such as keyboard and external monitor. The external monitor didn't work but the sea-green of the laptop desktop suddenly changed to the deep blue Win 98 screen. Device Manager still showed only the original 3 entries. Upon rebooting, the screen was back to sea-green, there were no more attempts by Windows to load device drivers, and still the 3 entries. But then I found that I was able to successfully re-start 6 or 8 times! I pushed my luck by shutting down completely and trying to restart, but it was back to square one. No go. All in all, it's just kind of chaotic situation. A lot of Googling has conviced me that the SATA problem is no doub critical. An obvious solution would be to change my BIOS setting from ACHI to ATA, the only option available, but I don't want to do that for fear of trashing the other OS installations on my multi-boot system. In the final analysis, even If I could get Windows to open reliably, I don't think it would work for what I need. I didn't check for sound, but there was none when the desktop opened and I didn't see a sound card in Device Manager. Pretty hard to use my midi sequencer program without sound, and there's little hope of finding a driver. I didn't think drivers would be much of a problem, but they obviously are. Dell will be of no help since, by policy, they refuse to support any OS older or newer than the OEM version. I might try Win ME(nothing to lose), which is actually newer than Win 2k. I might try installing Win 98 on my old Dell Inspiron 5000, which is currently running XP ok in spite of an apparently failing, soldered-on CMOS battery (judging by the fact that it won't hold it's BIOS settings). I might try VirtualBox in one of my Win 7 partitions. Win 98 sort of runs in MS Virtual PC on Win 7, even though it's not officially supported, but very, very poorly. (It's not officially supported in VirtualBox, either, but some people claim that it works fine.)

How do I disable dual core? Is that something that could be applied to only one OS on one partition?

Update: I thought I had it going for awhile. I did limit the amount of RAM available by adding the line, "MaxPhysPage=30000" to the [386Enh] section of the system.ini file and after that, Windows installation finished and it opened to the desktop. Unfortunately, after I shut down, it wouldn't boot again. At the Windows splash screen, the screen just went blank. Reinstalling Windows ended in exactly the same result. Unfortunately, I can't use Win 2k, an OS I like, because my program won't work in it. I'm thinking of trying Win ME, an OS I don't like. My program would work, but I don't expect the installation problems to be very different. rloew, I'd like to try your patch for the SATA problem. At a certain point while I was trying to get Windows installed, I got an error message to which I didn't pay close enough attention and which I can't figure how to bring back up again. It said something about the PCI controller, 64 bit vs 32 bit, real mode vs compatibility mode, etc. I don't know, I just can't remember the details. I believe it said that when Windows restarted, compatibility mode would be applied, but nothing happened. The more I think about it, the more likely it seems that that message might have been related to the SATA issue. May I PM you?

I'm trying to install Win 98SE to a 10 gig partition at the beginning of a 1 terabyte drive from a folder on that partion on my Dell Latitude D630 laptop with an Intel 2.6 GHz Core Duo CPU and 8 Gigs of RAM. Everything goes well until the first reboot after all the files are copied, then I get an insufficient memory message, advising me to remove excess files from my config and autoexec filies (which are basically empty). Granted that 8 Gigs of RAM is a lot more than Win 98 can address, but shouldn't it be able to access what it needs? There's only one favorite old program that I need use it for (a midi sequencer), so I'm not too worried about drivers, etc., I just want to get it installed. Is the CPU a problem? Am I beating a dead horse or is there some trick to doing it? Edit: Somebody please delete my extra posts. When I tried to submit this, I just got an interminable spinning throbber in my tab, so I thought it wasn't working and I can't figure out how to delete a post

Installation of Windows XP mode in 32-bit Windows 7 Ultimate goes smoothly but integration only partially works, even though enabled. For example, I can access all drives from XP and my multifunction Logitech mouse driver obviously works fine, but I can't drag objects between XP and Win 7 windows and, more importantly, programs installed in XP don't appear in the Win 7 start menu. There is no sub-folder under Virtual PC for apps. A little background: My computer is a Dell Latitude D630. Before attempting to install XP mode, I ran the Hardware-Assisted Virtualization Detection Tool from Microsoft which told me that acceleration needs to be enabled in the system BIOS, even though it is enabled. To be certain, I tried to install KB977206 which is supposed to eliminate the need for acceleration but I got the error message that its not applicable to my computer. In spite of all that, as I say, installation went smoothly and I'm able to install programs run programs in XP mode, just can't access them from Win 7. I'm inclined to doubt that the acceleration issue has anything to do with that but I could be wrong. If I can't find out what's going on and how to fix it, can anyone suggest a way to get those XP apps into my Win 7 start menu? Edit: I've stumbled onto the solution. In order for shortcuts to XP apps to "auto-publish" to the Win 7 start menu, the programs must install into the XP "All Users" profile. It turns out that not all do that and mine didn't. If you move or copy the shortcuts from within XP mode to the start folder in All Users, they will appear in the Win 7 start menu in a newly created apps folder. I still can't drag objects between windows but I'm not too concerned about that.

My reply on the black box issue is the same as that of rloew. It's a drop-down menu with my profile options.