98SE Tips & Techniques

[submix8c]

Does anyone know how to remove the floppy icon in windows explorer, the reason being i don't have a floppy drive so I don't need it. Thanks

? Disable it entirely in your BIOS, boot to SAFE mode, go the the Control Panel and remove all instances of it from the Device Manager. It better not be found again!

[submix8c]

Bugs in TweakUI. Here is v1.33.

edit - DUH! Sorry for two consecutive posts...

edit2 -

All editions of TweakUI have always been available at my site...

DOH! Better get off this dang box - it's warping my brain... Edited January 15, 2011 by submix8c

[defuser]

Is it possible to execute a user script or EXE file during a hot reboot? This is when the usual "Restart" is selected in the menu, while holding down the "SHIFT" key (Sometimes the OS itself also chooses this simplified method of rebooting). I always assumed that "DOSSTART.BAT" is also processed there (just like when exiting in DOS), but it turned out that it is not. Called only "WININIT.EXE", and then only if "WININIT.INI" exists next to it (you need to create it again each time). However, I didn't find any convenient way to call the EXE file from "WININIT.INI". The rough approach is to replace "WININIT.EXE" to any other EXE that needs to be executed by giving it this name and placing "WININIT.INI" next to it. And this method works. However, this also loses useful functionality (necessary for the system to work properly, as well as for installed programs and drivers). Maybe there is some more elegant way to execute the necessary code (BAT or EXE) during a hot reboot (But only necessarily at an early stage, before starting the WINDOWS kernel and GUI)? Thank you.

[SweetLow]

37 minutes ago, defuser said:

Maybe there is some more elegant way to execute the necessary code (BAT or EXE) during a hot reboot (But only necessarily at an early stage, before starting the WINDOWS kernel and GUI)?

Without patching WIN.COM - no.

38 minutes ago, defuser said:

However, this also loses useful functionality (necessary for the system to work properly, as well as for installed programs and drivers).

Just call original WININIT.EXE from fake one.

P.S. Necroposting is not the good idea.

[defuser]

On 30 Ìàðò 2025 ã. at 11:05 PM, SweetLow said:

Just call original WININIT.EXE from fake one.

Yes. It worked! Thanks for the tip.

I used a tiny program "BAT2EXEC", from here:
http://web.archive.org/web/20060512120615/http://ftp.sunet.se/pub/simtelnet/msdos/batchutl/bat2ex15.zip
Mention of this wonderful program was found there: https://www.mdgx.com/newtip14.htm

Combined in one BAT file a call to the original "WININIT.EXE" + "UserProg.EXE" (following it) and converted using "BAT2EXEC" to a single file, giving it the name "WININI1.EXE". Corrected and "WIN.COM" (What would be the new one "WININI1.EXE" called instead of the original one "WININIT.EXE"). As a result of all these actions, during a hot reboot, if "WININIT.INI" is found in the folder "C:\WINDOWS" - then run first "WININI1.EXE", which first calls the genuine original "WININIT.EXE" and he works out as usual, and after him immediately enters the game already and "UserProg.EXE", producing useful action. Not exactly a perfect design, but at least that's how it works.

So now, as they say, both hares are whole and wolves are full

I will generally observe. I hope that everything will work correctly from now on.

PS: Yes, you're probably right. But for some reason, Google sent me here with my question (And I thought that maybe we should not duplicate discussions that were previously created by other participants, but instead supplement existing ones?). But if this is somehow not good - then okay, it's not difficult for me to create a new topic next time.

[SweetLow]

12 hours ago, defuser said:

Not exactly a perfect design, but at least that's how it works.

Much simpler is rename original wininit.exe to something like wininit2.exe, make fake wininit.exe (not WININI1.EXE) and call both wininit2.exe and UserProg.EXE. No need to patch WIN.COM.

Edited April 2 by SweetLow