including drivers in Windows 98 setup

[soporific]

Cornfused asked a good question in the Unattended and Updated ... thread about ways to let Windows setup know where to find the drivers for all the new fangled hardware that didn't exist 7 years ago ... what was actually said was:

"So, is there a way to slip in all the drivers needed for a custom setup of win98SE (mb, vid, lan, ect)?"

I would take this to mean how would you do it if, say, you already have your boot CD made and you buy a new computer, you're not going to be able to install the drivers until after the setup finishes and this would then prohibit installing any applications unattended that require evidence of particular hardware (eg audio).

But if you knew a way to ask Windows to check a particular location for extra drivers during setup, all you then would need to do is make sure you copy all needed drivers to this location before setup starts. Your boot CD would then be fool-proof against future hardware changes.

SO is there? A way I mean ...

Does anyone know more about this issue? I would love to include it in the just-about-to-be-released version 2.1 of the Unattended and Updated Boot Cd for Windows 98 project.

Oh I could just do the research myself I suppose ... nah, surely someone's already done it ... go'arn! give us a look!

Edited August 8, 2005 by soporific

[Gape]

You can use InfInst.exe from Windows 98 CD.

[soporific]

nah dude, how do you know in advance what drivers to use the infinst.exe on? the question isn't how do you include drivers, that question was answered in another thread, it was really asking if anyone knew more about this inkling I have that there is a way to do this ...

[MDGx]

My 2 cents:

If u have both the driver and the INF that installs it [make sure they are both in the same directory], Windows 9x should pick it up as soon as it detects that respective PnP hardware has been physically connected to the computer.

Depending on particular hardware device, this may not be possible as 100% unattended.

To do this the unattended way [most cases], make sure all drivers + their INFs are installed into %windir%\INF .

Also, it may be good idea to plug in the hardware [if possible] after drivers + INFs are copied into %windir%\INF .

Hope this helps.

[leonardopenha]

hey soporific you already know as to make this?

if yes, he can explain me?

thx