Editing Win98 boot menu

[aurgathor]

Is it possible to change the usual Win98SE boot menu (1. Normal; 2. Logged; 3. Safe mode; etc.) by editing some text file, or changing registry entry, or is this hardcoded somewhere in some system file?

TIA

[jaclaz]

It is hardcoded (actually it is plain text) inside the IO.SYS system file.

Probably (but I never tried doing so) it can be edited.

jaclaz

[aurgathor]

Ok, I see. I actually wanted to change so I could call my own batch files, but modifying IO.SYS may be a bit tricky.

[Tihiy]

There are commands in config.sys for building your own menu, Google MENUITEM.

[MDGx]

Config.sys menus appear only after msdos.sys is processed, which means will not be able to list items like Normal, Safe boot, Bootlog.txt etc..., unless a 3rd party boot manager tool is used.

Win9x MSDOS.SYS:

http://www.mdgx.com/msdos.htm

Config.sys menus:

go to:

http://www.mdgx.com/95.htm

download + install W95-11D.EXE.

Then look under C:\Program Files\AXCEL216\Sysfiles -> open config.sys [MS-DOS 7/8] and/or config.dos [MS-DOS 6.xx] in Notepad.

Or go see:

http://dos.rsvs.net/DOSPAGE/CONFMENU.HTM

http://www.knowplace.org/pages/morgue/dos_...oting_howto.php

But IO.SYS and/or COMMAND.COM can be hexed to replace all "autoexec.bat" strings with the BAT file name of your choice.

HTH

[aurgathor]

Thanks for the tips. I guess what I really needed was just a menu in config.sys.

I ended up with these:

[MENU]

MENUITEM=DOS, Start DOS

MENUITEM=Win98, Start Windows 98SE

MENUITEM=Router, Start Freesco router

MENUDEFAULT=Router,10

[DOS]

dos=high,umb

device=C:\WINDOWS\himem.sys /testmem:off

devicehigh=c:\DOS\oakcdrom.sys /D:mscd001

devicehigh=C:\Windows\ramdrive.sys /E 2048

lastdrive=z

REM device=aspicd.sys /D:mscd001

[Win98]

REM TBD

[Router]

REM nothing needed here

and:

if "%config%" == "Router" goto Start_Router

if "%config%" == "DOS" goto Start_DOS

if "%config%" == "Win98" goto Start_Win98

goto Command_Error

:Start_Router

router.bat

:Start_Win98

win

:Command_Error

echo Command_Error

:Start_DOS

PROMPT $P$G

SET PATH=C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND;C:\;C:\DOS\

rem - By Windows Setup - LH C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\MSCDEX.EXE /D:mscd001

the important thing for me is that whenever the system reboots unattended (i.e. powerloss) it should always come up as a router.

[MDGx]

If I may make a couple of suggestions:

- lastdrive=Z statement is not really needed, Win95/98/ME automatically sets it to Z if not specified otherwise.

- oakcdrom.sys driver is primitive, antiquated and does not work properly with some CD/DVD drives out there.

Please see:

http://www.mdgx.com/drv.htm#CDR

scroll down to QCDROM.SYS, XCDROM.SYS, VIDE-CDD.SYS, ATAPICDD.SYS + TEAC_CDI.SYS.

Or this guide:

http://www.mdgx.com/newtip1.htm#CDROM4

for free universal CD/DVD drivers for native MS-DOS.

These take less RAM, and can be loaded in upper memory if UMA memory manager [EMM386, UMBPCI, QEMM386, RM386, 386MAX etc] loaded already from config.sys.

And you can also use a MSCDEX.EXE replacement:

http://www.mdgx.com/drv.htm#CDR

scroll down to SHSUCDX [sHCDX33A.COM], NWCDEX + MSCDEX [Cloaked].

If you own a USB CD/DVD drive, you can use USB_CD.SYS:

http://www.mdgx.com/drv.htm#CDR

- I strongly suggest to replace primitive ramdrive.sys with Xmsdsk/Emsdsk or SRDisk [scroll further down]:

http://www.mdgx.com/dos.htm#OSR

HTH

[mohammed.alfateh]

who opened this fire ?

thats great , thats how it should be as \ aurgathor / made it

[aurgathor]

If I may make a couple of suggestions:

[...]

They're good suggestions, but this is a lowly P75 that will be my main router (replacing a P66 ) and once the router portion is properly set up, the usage of DOS or Win98 will be practically non-existent. I use windows because I can easily DL SW, DOS is there because I can only to start te router from DOS, and so I had to disable Win98 GUI. The router is linux based, and it really doesn't matter what is loaded in DOS since it will replace everything that was loaded before.