W98 Unattended +IE6+Updates (how to) my 2 cents

[chon_]

After succesfully doing my XP and W2K unattended CDs, I wanted to make an unattended Win98/Me CD, just for fun and because a lot of friends and family still use it . I've been reading the posts in this awesome forum, all the answers are here, but are scattered everywhere in the forums, so I decided to post exactly what I did to get it to work in one place.

1. Grab the MS batch 98 utility that came with your original Win98 CD, it's located in your \TOOLS\RESKIT\BATCH directory.

2. Create a basic MSBATCH.INF file, you won't find any problems doing this as the utility is self explanatory.

3. Download all the critical updates needed for Win98, I suggest http://www.microsoft.com/windows98/downloads/corporate.asp as the download site, anyway, you can always use a VirtualPC/VMWare clean installation and go to Windowsupdate and take note of the critical updates.

4. Create a folder in your CD for the updates and download them. I called this folder INSTALL\W98_UPD, rename them to 8.3 format.

5. Edit MSBATCH.INF with notepad and add the following to the [install] section:

[Install]
AddReg=RunOnce.BatchDelay,Run.Installed.Components,Registry.WinUpdate,Instalar.IE6
CopyFiles=Copiar.Archivos

Note that I only added ,InstalarIE6 and CopyFiles=Copiar.Archivos to the file, the rest was created by the batch utility.

6. Create a new section called [Copiar.Archivos]. VERY IMPORTANT: this is an arbitrary name, but be sure that the name given in the [install] section matches the name of the newly created section, CopyFiles= is NOT arbitrary, is the instruction for setup to copy files. This section will copy the listed files to C:\Windows. We'll be using this files later to install updates, apps, etc. This is my [Copiar.Archivos] section:

[Copiar.Archivos]
regtweak.reg
upd98.bat
ie6_98.bat
office.reg

where regtweak.reg, upd98.bat, ie6_98.bat and office.reg are the files I want to be copied to windir.

7. Next we create another section that will handle the IE 6.0 SP1 setup. In my file is called [instalar.IE6], again, this is an arbitrary name but it must be identical to the name given in the AddReg section of [install]:

[Instalar.IE6]
HKLM,SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce,"Internet Explorer 6.0 SP1",,"C:\windows\ie6_98.bat"

As you can see this is only a good old RunOnce registry entry calling a batch file that has the following lines:

@echo off
IF EXIST D:\CDID.TXT set CDROM=D:
IF EXIST E:\CDID.TXT set CDROM=E:
IF EXIST F:\CDID.TXT set CDROM=F:
IF EXIST G:\CDID.TXT set CDROM=G:
IF EXIST H:\CDID.TXT set CDROM=H:
IF EXIST I:\CDID.TXT set CDROM=I:
IF EXIST J:\CDID.TXT set CDROM=J:
START /W %CDROM%\INSTALL\IE6SP1FULL\IE6SETUP.EXE /Q:U /R:N
regedit /S C:\windows\regtweak.reg
cls
exit

Then, this file (ie6_98.bat) registers regtweak.reg that has this code:

REGEDIT4

; make windows think it has been registered
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion]
"RegDone"="1"

; get rid of the bloat called Scheduled Tasks
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServices]
"SchedulingAgent"="-"

;GDI+
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\GDIDetectionTool]
"GDITool"=dword:00000001

; execute this script at first-login 
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce]
"Actualizacion"="C:\\windows\\upd98.BAT"

8. As you can see above regtweak.reg adds another RunOnce line that will be executed at next reboot and it will run upd98.bat wich is only a batch file containing all the critical updates for Win98, IE6 and OE 6, here's part of it:

@ECHO OFF
IF EXIST D:\CDID.TXT set CDROM=D:
IF EXIST E:\CDID.TXT set CDROM=E:
IF EXIST F:\CDID.TXT set CDROM=F:
IF EXIST G:\CDID.TXT set CDROM=G:
IF EXIST H:\CDID.TXT set CDROM=H:
IF EXIST I:\CDID.TXT set CDROM=I:
IF EXIST J:\CDID.TXT set CDROM=J:

START /W %CDROM%\INSTALL\W98_UPD\238453.exe /Q:U /R:N
START /W %CDROM%\INSTALL\W98_UPD\240308.exe /Q:U /R:N
START /W %CDROM%\INSTALL\W98_UPD\242975.EXE /Q:U /R:N
START /W %CDROM%\INSTALL\W98_UPD\243450.EXE /Q:U /R:N
START /W %CDROM%\INSTALL\W98_UPD\245729.exe /Q:U /R:N
START /W %CDROM%\INSTALL\W98_UPD\249973.exe /Q:U /R:N

Those were the files you've previously downloaded and renamed. Here you can add any applications you want, like MS office, etc.

9. Reboot and Voilá!!!!!!

NOTE: all the files you eant to be copied to windir MUST be in the same dir than the setup cabs.

PS: Sorry for the huge post!!

Hope it helps

[MolTraS]

I dont understand some words like Copiar.Archivos

But great work

[fantomcat]

"Actualizacion"="C:\\windows\\upd98.BAT"

Does this part pf the installation actually work, and if so, would you maybe give a little more information,

I can seem to get it to activate the .bat file form within a .reg file, Please help

[Jaymo]

Ahh... another excellent post on using batch files and executables in msbatch.inf. thanks much. This has been a problem area for me. Simple to understand post too. Either I've been paying too little attention or more people are putting this down for us learners.

-Jaymo

[-= Mancubus =-]

Really useful post.

But one note - it's better to use (at least when posting) international names.

I mean, not Copiar.Archivos, but Copy.Archives etc.

But anyway, really thanks!