What interest is there in Unattended Windows 9X?

[peachy]

Haven't looked at this thread in a while, but there is a tool on the Windows 98 CD that automates installations like the XP OPK.

Yes, on the CD its under \tools\reskit\batch. Just run the setup.exe to install. Then run batch.exe. If you want to automate a network of Windows 98 PCs with unique NetBIOS names there is an option to read a text file containing a list of host names (and you can even associate IP addresses) and create multiple msbatch.inf files.

[oioldman]

On M$ this article may have all your answers =>

Automating Microsoft Windows 98 Installations

Hope it helps

[svasutin]

Actually, the vast majority of home people us 9x platforms. Most repair business is done for 9x systems. With the issue's concerning xp sp2 and longhorn, I'm telling most people to wait a while before any purchases; especially with the new driver model (WFD).

Also, xp patches typically are also applied to winme. However, if clients really want to reinstall an os, I usually ask them to go xp home.

It is my firm belief, reformatting should never be a support option, thus, some cases, I'm stuck helpping people with 9x. There are many many p2/p3/k2/duron's etc. Except for us geeks and freaks, most people are still using pre 2k platforms.

As for the usefulness of an unattend 9x, there really isn't any. As for safer, Msft announced some time ago, they are not going to provide security fixes for old os. In other words, they decieded to patch only 2k/xp and not make updates for 9x/nt.

[GeneralMandible]

I'm married with children and just completed college. I can only afford one good machine at a time. I have my wife using a Pentium 166 MHz with Windows 98. I've used it for browsing the internet and the kids can play some games on it. It works fine for everything she needs. I also have a 200 MHz and a 350 MHz. They're nice to have when my main machine has an issue. It is impressive ow fast 98 runs on the newer machines.

98 is still useful!

[Alanoll]

Windows 98 running extremely fast on a 3.2 ghz P4. Trust me.....wow.

But it's those darn older games that got their speed from the processor clock. The faster the processor the faster teh game....

CPUKiller is a good proggie for that.

But what most people don't understand about Windows 98, when XP has truly become mainstream, Windows 98 may still be vulnerable, but it won't be exploited nearly as much.

[enuffsaid]

These days one can obtain an Pentium I or II laptop for not too much money. Windows 98 would definatly be the OS of choice.

I've gathered some info myself from the web, but haven't gotten down to actually creating an unattended 98 CD. I'd be interested for sure.

Thanks,

eNuffSaid

[Phyridean]

It seems that we've established that a 98 cd can be unattended, but the problem that's still plaguing this topic is the unattended install of extra progs. All I have to say is it CAN be done. At the school where I worked for a while, there were CDs for some of the 98 machines that did similar things to the CDs we're all making here for XP (especially post-OS-install-program-installations...like the runonce registry key does).

And I can definitely understand the impetus...I think a lot of people had to give up some of their favorite programs when they switched.

[svasutin]

Ya, I remember scripting 95 cd to install 100 floppies for c; glad those days are way behind me. It can be done, but there are lots of reboots. FYI, DVD+-RW's were available in Europe in 1997, so I had some experience with CD's prior to their US release.

I carry an external hdd with partitions for 95/bob/98/98se/nt/me/2k/xp around when I go on support calls. When I encounter 9x (pre me) systems, I always take the 'puters home since they require many, many reboots.

I gotta say this about Microsoft, they made an incredible OS with 95. I know people who burn dvd's on 95. I don't know how they coded the system to be so flexible and far reaching, but they have my vote when look towards future and backward compatibility for an OS.

I suppose there are two main issues: driver and software support. As long as driver.com caches drivers, and people still have access to software updates, then it should work. However, 9x is fundamentaly unstable. Wasn't there some patch for an issue if 9x was on for more than 49.7 days?

[Radimus]

My biggest peeve with wintendo is that it is unmanagable. the time and effort to maintain a win9x box in a corp setting is a HUGE waste to time and money

This is an issue of a cheap company... win2k is the minimum OS any company should have. P2 400mhz machines a gettable for about $100 from ebay or ubid or surplus companies.

You want to run wintendo at grandma's house, that is fine... and an unattended CD with win98 se, openoffice, firezilla, and some non-outlook express email prog would be wonderful... and pretty secure from general virus BS.

[svasutin]

yes yes

[^_^]

well, I made myself a nice "unattended" cd that worked, but it does have the several places where you need to click next, which I would love to know how to circumvent.

but at least I don't have to stand there and input data the whole time.

here's my msbatch.inf

; MSBATCH.INF
;
; Copyright (c) 1995-1998 Microsoft Corporation.
; All rights reserved.
;

[BatchSetup]
Version=3.0 (32-bit)
SaveDate=07/24/04

[Version]
Signature = "$CHICAGO$"
AdvancedINF=2.5
LayoutFile=layout.inf

[Setup]
Express=1
InstallDir="c:\windows"
InstallType=3
ProductKey="betchawishedIleftitin"
EBD=0
ShowEula=0
ChangeDir=0
OptionalComponents=1
Network=1
System=0
CCP=0
CleanBoot=0
Display=0
DevicePath=0
NoDirWarn=1
TimeZone="Eastern"
Uninstall=0
NoPrompt2Boot=1

[System]
Locale=L0409
SelectedKeyboard=KEYBOARD_00000409

[NameAndOrg]
Name="Owner"
Display=0

[Network]
ComputerName="Workstation"
Workgroup="PROPHEAD"
Display=0
PrimaryLogon=Windows
Clients=VREDIR
Protocols=NETBEUI, MSTCP
DefaultProtocol=MSTCP
Services=VSERVER
Security=SHARE

[MSTCP]
LMHOSTS=0
DHCP=1
DNS=0
WINS=D

[VREDIR]
LogonDomain="PROPHEAD"
ValidatedLogon=0

[VSERVER]
LMAnnounce=0
MaintainServerList=2

[OptionalComponents]
"Accessibility Options"=0
"Accessibility Tools"=0
"Briefcase"=0
"Calculator"=1
"Desktop Wallpaper"=1
"Document Templates"=0
"Games"=1
"Imaging"=1
"Mouse Pointers"=0
"Paint"=1
"Quick View"=0
"Windows Scripting Host"=0
"WordPad"=1
"Address Book"=1
"Dial-Up ATM Support"=0
"Dial-Up Networking"=1
"Dial-Up Server"=0
"Direct Cable Connection"=0
"HyperTerminal"=0
"Microsoft Chat 2.5"=0
"NetMeeting"=0
"Phone Dialer"=1
"Virtual Private Networking"=0
"Baseball"=0
"Dangerous Creatures"=0
"Inside your Computer"=0
"Jungle"=0
"Leonardo da Vinci"=0
"More Windows"=0
"Mystery"=0
"Nature"=0
"Science"=0
"Space"=0
"Sports"=0
"The 60's USA"=0
"The Golden Era"=0
"Travel"=0
"Underwater"=0
"Windows 98"=0
"Desktop Themes Support"=0
"Internet Connection Sharing"=0
"Microsoft Wallet"=0
"Personal Web Server"=0
"Web Publishing Wizard"=0
"Web-Based Enterprise Mgmt"=0
"Microsoft Outlook Express"=1
"Baltic"=0
"Central European"=0
"Cyrillic"=0
"Greek"=0
"Turkish"=0
"Audio Compression"=1
"CD Player"=1
"Macromedia Shockwave Director"=1
"Macromedia Shockwave Flash"=1
"Multimedia Sound Schemes"=0
"Sample Sounds"=0
"Sound Recorder"=1
"Video Compression"=1
"Volume Control"=1
"America Online"=0
"AT&T WorldNet Service"=0
"CompuServe"=0
"Prodigy Internet"=0
"The Microsoft Network"=0
"Additional Screen Savers"=1
"Flying Windows"=1
"OpenGL Screen Savers"=1
"Backup"=0
"Character Map"=0
"Clipboard Viewer"=0
"Disk compression tools"=0
"Drive Converter (FAT32)"=0
"Group policies"=0
"Net Watcher"=0
"System Monitor"=0
"System Resource Meter"=0
"Web TV for Windows"=0
"WaveTop Data Broadcasting"=0

[Printers]

[InstallLocationsMRU]

[Install]
AddReg=RunOnce.BatchDelay,Run.Installed.Components,Skip.PCMCIA.Wizard,Registry.WinUpdate

[RunOnce.BatchDelay]
HKLM,%KEY_RUNONCE%,BatchRun1,,"%25%\rundll.exe setupx.dll,InstallHinfSection Delete.MSN.Icon 4 %10%\msbatch.inf"
HKLM,%KEY_RUNONCE%,BatchRun2,,"%25%\rundll.exe setupx.dll,InstallHinfSection Delete.Welcome 4 %10%\msbatch.inf"
HKLM,%KEY_RUNONCE%,BatchRun3,,"%25%\rundll.exe setupx.dll,InstallHinfSection Delete.Regwiz 4 %10%\msbatch.inf"

[Run.Installed.Components]
HKLM,%KEY_INSTALLEDCOMPS%\>BatchSetupx,,,">Batch 98 - General Settings"
HKLM,%KEY_INSTALLEDCOMPS%\>BatchSetupx,IsInstalled,1,01,00,00,00
HKLM,%KEY_INSTALLEDCOMPS%\>BatchSetupx,Version,,"3,0,0,0"
HKLM,%KEY_INSTALLEDCOMPS%\>BatchSetupx,StubPath,,"%25%\rundll.exe setupx.dll,InstallHinfSection Installed.Components.General 4 %10%\msbatch.inf"
HKLM,%KEY_INSTALLEDCOMPS%\BatchSetupx,,,"ICW"
HKLM,%KEY_INSTALLEDCOMPS%\BatchSetupx,IsInstalled,1,01,00,00,00
HKLM,%KEY_INSTALLEDCOMPS%\BatchSetupx,Version,,"3,0,0,0"
HKLM,%KEY_INSTALLEDCOMPS%\BatchSetupx,StubPath,,"%24%\progra~1\intern~1\connec~1\icwconn1 /restoredesktop
HKLM,%KEY_INSTALLEDCOMPS%\>BatchAdvpack,,,">Batch 98 - Advanced Settings"
HKLM,%KEY_INSTALLEDCOMPS%\>BatchAdvpack,IsInstalled,1,01,00,00,00
HKLM,%KEY_INSTALLEDCOMPS%\>BatchAdvpack,Version,,"3,0,0,0"
HKLM,%KEY_INSTALLEDCOMPS%\>BatchAdvpack,StubPath,,"%25%\rundll32.exe advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %10%\msbatch.inf,Installed.Components.Advanced"
HKLM,%KEY_INSTALLEDCOMPS%\>Batchwu,,,">Batch 98 - Windows Update"
HKLM,%KEY_INSTALLEDCOMPS%\>Batchwu,IsInstalled,1,01,00,00,00
HKLM,%KEY_INSTALLEDCOMPS%\>Batchwu,Version,,"3,0,0,0"
HKLM,%KEY_INSTALLEDCOMPS%\>Batchwu,StubPath,,"wupdmgr.exe -shortcut"

[Installed.Components.General]
AddReg=Browser.Settings, Shell.Prep
BitReg=Shell.Settings

[Installed.Components.Advanced]
DelFiles=Connect.Icon, OLS.Icons, QuickLaunch.Icons
CustomDestination=Custom.Dest
RunPostSetupCommands=DirCleanup

[Custom.Dest]
49070=DesktopLDIDSection,5
49050=QuickLinksLDIDSection,5

[Connect.Icon]
connec~1.lnk

[Delete.MSN.Icon]
DelReg=MSN.Icon

[MSN.Icon]
HKLM,SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Desktop\NameSpace\{4B876A40-4EE8-11D1-811E-00C04FB98EEC},,,

[DesktopLDIDSection]
HKCU,"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders",Desktop,OLSFolder,"%25%\Desktop"

[OLS.Icons]
americ~1.lnk
at&two~1.lnk
compus~1.lnk
prodig~1.lnk
themic~1.lnk
aboutt~1.lnk
abouto~1.txt
services.txt

[DirCleanup]
rundll32.exe advpack.dll,DelNodeRunDLL32 %49070%\%OnlineLong%

[Delete.Welcome]
DelReg=Registry.Welcome

[Registry.Welcome]
HKLM,Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run,Welcome,,

[Delete.Regwiz]
AddReg=Registry.Regwiz

[Registry.Regwiz]
HKLM,Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Welcome\Regwiz,@,1,01,00,00,00
HKLM,Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion,RegDone,1,01,00,00,00

[Registry.WinUpdate]
HKLM,Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer,NoDevMgrUpdate,0x10001,0
HKLM,Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer,NoWindowsUpdate,0x10001,0

[Browser.Settings]
HKCU,%KEY_IEXPLORERMAIN%,"Start Page",,"http://www.google.com"
HKCU,%KEY_IEXPLORERMAIN%,"First Home Page",,"http://www.google.com"
HKCU,%KEY_IEXPLORERMAIN%,"Search Page",,"http://home.microsoft.com/search/search.asp"
HKLM,%KEY_IEXPLORERMAIN%,"Search Bar",,"http://home.microsoft.com/search/search.asp"
HKCU, "SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Help_Menu_URLs","Online_Support",,"http://support.microsoft.com/support"

[Shell.Prep]
HKCU,"Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Desktop\Components\0",Flags,01,00,00,00
HKCU,"Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\main",Show_ChannelBand,0,"no"

[Shell.Settings]
HKCU,"Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Desktop\Components\0",Flags,0,20,1

[QuickLinksLDIDSection]
HKCU,"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders",AppData,QuickLaunch,"%25%\Application Data"

[QuickLaunch.Icons]
viewch~1.scf

[Skip.PCMCIA.Wizard]
HKLM,System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\PCMCIA,SkipWizardForBatchSetup,,1

[DestinationDirs]
Connect.Icon=10,alluse~1\desktop
OLS.Icons=49070,Online~1
QuickLaunch.Icons=49050,Micros~1\Intern~1\QuickL~1

[Strings]
KEY_RUNONCE="SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce"
KEY_INSTALLEDCOMPS="SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed Components"
OnlineLong="Online Services"
KEY_IEXPLORERMAIN="Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main"

any suggestions are appriciated

[prathapml]

First suggestion : the very large posting of code messes up the view. Small chunks of code are fine, but pages of code?

Attach the **** file instead of having the code posted directly.

Here's my msbatch.inf for winME (attached, can also be used/customised for win98) - fully unattended, no questions asked setup. Just put this file in the directory where the cabs are present, and start Setup.exe to install.

An interesting tidbit of info for those who have got tired of seeing the bill-boards (ads/info that is presented in the back-ground) during installation:

Run "Setup.exe /IV" to get a clean, (and faster install in some cases) screen. That will cut-out the bill-boards (ads) you see during setup.

MSBATCH.INF

[^_^]

sorry bout the code, I'm a member on other forums, and that's how they want us to do it

And thanks for your input, I'll definitely try that setup, customized a bit to my needs.

[thundernetbr]

Here in Brazil lots of people still use the old (and good for them...) Win98SE.

It would be quite cool a unattended customized install CD...

Maybe the "click-here-reboot-click-there" procedures could be done unattended using some .vbs scripts, couldn't them ?

There's a guy who did a 98SE Service Pack of its own - sadly, it only works for the U.S. (and few others) versions of 98SE. He's working on version 1.6 (currently it's available on version 1.5). Take a look at http://exuberant.ms11.net/98sesp.html .

BUT... it doesn't install DirectX, IE6, WMP9, their patches and so on. What brings us back to this topic's relevancy...

[peachy]

First suggestion : the very large posting of code messes up the view. Small chunks of code are fine, but pages of code?

Attach the **** file instead of having the code posted directly.

Here's my msbatch.inf for winME (attached, can also be used/customised for win98) - fully unattended, no questions asked setup. Just put this file in the directory where the cabs are present, and start Setup.exe to install.

An interesting tidbit of info for those who have got tired of seeing the bill-boards (ads/info that is presented in the back-ground) during installation:

Run "Setup.exe /IV" to get a clean, (and faster install in some cases) screen.

So, how did you manage to get past Product Key and Identification pages without having to click the "Next" button? I thought that the display of the page was by design to ensure that legitimately licensed installs were forced upon you: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...&NoWebContent=1