by Phil Callihan and Keith Underdahl
Windows 98 performance will hinge on the hardware of your computer. The minimum system requirements call for a 486DX2-66 processor with at least 16 MB of RAM. If you choose to install Windows 98 on a system with these specifications, the following recommendations will speed up installation:
If you have problems during setup, increase the size of your permanent swap file.
No matter what system you are installing Windows 98 on, you should follow these steps as well:
You should also check to ensure that any components installed on your system are on the Windows 98 Hardware Compatibility List (HCL). The Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) contains components that have been tested to work with Windows 98. The most current version of the HCL can be found on the Microsoft web site (http://www.microsoft.com). In general, any devices that worked with Windows 95 should also work with Windows 98.
While installation on a 486 is possible, performance will be poor. A 486 running Windows 98 should be considered only for the most basic operations, such as simple word processing or sending and receiving electronic mail. Users who plan to run more than one application at a time or who often work with large documents should consider a machine with at least the following specifications:
NOTE: Before you begin, check the Windows 98 installation CD for the SETUP.TXT file. This file contains last-minute setup information and warnings about possible problems that you may encounter during setup with specific pieces of hardware.
Windows 3.x users need to take the following steps before upgrading:
To begin installation, use File Manager to run SETUP.EXE from the Windows 98 CD-ROM. The menu screens that appear during installation might look slightly different than if you were installing from Windows 95. Your program groups are migrated to the Programs menu of Windows 98. You might need to manually edit your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files to properly configure legacy devices that are not directly supported under Windows 98.
Upgrading from Windows 95 is fairly straightforward. Insert the Windows 98 CD-ROM into your computer and let Autorun begin the installation process. If Autorun is disabled, click Start, Run and browse to SETUP.EXE on the CD-ROM. Click OK to begin installation. All program groups will be migrated during the installation process.
There have been three releases of Windows 95: Windows 95 Build 4.00.950, Windows 95 Build 4.00.950A, and Windows 95 Build 4.00.950B. Windows 98 will upgrade all three releases.
The original release Build 4.00.950 is identical to the product that has been sold commercially since August of 1995. Although service releases have been released since then, no new full installations have been made available to the public. Two OEM releases (4.00.950A and 4.00.950B) have been made available for preinstallation on new personal computers by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). You can check to see which version you have by clicking on the My Computer icon and selecting Properties. Figure A.1 shows a typical System Properties dialog box.
FIG. A.1 Checking the version number in Windows 95.
These OEM releases include many bug fixes and patches to the original Windows 95. Some of these fixes have been made available to previous owners of Windows 95 through the Microsoft web site (http://www.microsoft.com/windows95/info/updates.htm), while others are available only preinstalled on new computers. These releases also include a few interface modifications, in addition to bug fixes. All of these fixes are included in Windows 98. In addition, most devices that were supported under Windows 95 are also supported in Windows 98.
If you want (or need) to install Windows 98 on a new or freshly formatted hard drive, you must first prepare a System disk according to the following steps. Ideally, you should copy these files from your old hard drive because some of them are not on your Windows 95 or Windows 98 Startup disk. If this is not possible, use the SYS.COM and FDISK.EXE utilities from the Startup disk or a DOS system disk.
To configure the System disk, follow these steps:
Once you have created a system disk, you can prepare the hard drive and install Windows 98. Perform the following steps:
CAUTION: FDISK.EXE erases everything on your hard drive. Make sure you have backed up important data from your hard drive before you using this utility.
The Windows 98 installation process is driven by an easy to use installation wizard. The wizard guides you through the necessary steps for a successful upgrade.
To begin the installation of Windows 98 from the CD, follow these steps:
FIG. A.2 The Windows 98 Installation Wizard's welcome screen.
FIG. A.3 The Microsoft License Agreement screen.
FIG. A.4 The Not Enough Disk Space notification screen.
FIG. A.5 This is the point of no return if you choose not to save the previous version of your system files.
NOTE: You will not be given the option to save your system files if you are installing to a new directory or if you are running a version of MS-DOS earlier than 5.0.
CAUTION: Anytime a new operating system is released, some programs will need to be updated in order to work properly. No matter how sure you are that you do not want to go back to Windows 95 or Windows 3.x, you might run into a situation when you have to. (Uninstalling Windows 98 is covered later in this chapter.) Remember, too, that you usually have the option of removing the old system files after you're confident with Windows 98. However, if you convert your hard drive to the FAT32 file system, you might not be able to revert back to your old operating system. See the section on uninstalling Windows 98, later on this appendix.
FIG. A.6 Create a new Emergency Startup Disk during setup.
As the file copy process progresses, the Setup Wizard keeps you updated on how long setup should take.
Your system goes through a cycle of hardware detection, and your computer reboots a number of times until it has detected all legacy and Plug and Play components.
When the Setup Wizard finishes detecting the hardware on your computer, Windows 98 boots again and displays the Welcome screen shown in Figure A.7. The Welcome screen gives you the opportunity to register Windows 98 with Microsoft, provides a tour of new features, and helps you connect to the Internet or fine-tune your Windows 98 computer.
FIG. A.7 When setup is complete, Windows 98 reboots and displays the Welcome screen.
CAUTION: The first time you run the Maintenance Wizard after installation, you will have the option of upgrading your hard disk to FAT32 format. FAT32 optimizes the way in which Windows 98 stores data on your hard drive. If you choose to upgrade to FAT32, only computers running Windows 98, Windows 95 version 4.00.950B, or Windows NT 5.0 will be able to read the data on your hard drive. See Chapter 9 for details on converting your hard drive.
If you are upgrading from a previous version of Windows, Setup will automatically detect the configuration you had before and install Windows 98 in a similar manner. However, if you are installing onto a newly formatted hard drive or are upgrading from DOS, you will need to choose an installation option during Windows 98 Setup. These are the four options:
Which option you choose will depend on your hardware configuration and personal preferences. For instance, if you are installing onto a laptop computer, you will want to select Portable to ensure that portable features (such as PCMCIA bus slots) are supported. The other three options--Typical, Compact, and Custom--are intended for desktop PCs and differ only in which Windows components they install. Whichever one of these three you choose, you can easily make changes using the Windows Setup tab of Add/Remove Programs later. See Chapter 10 for more on adding and removing Windows 98 components.
Windows 98 includes some installation options that most home users will be able to ignore.
Custom setup mode allows you to preselect your setup options. This feature is most beneficial to companies who want to roll out Windows 98 to a large number of machines with a minimum of administrative intervention. By limiting choices, network administrators can automate installation by creating custom setup scripts.
To create a custom setup, follow these steps:
CAUTION: Microsoft Batch 98 is very involved. Refer to the Windows 98 Resource Kit for specific details regarding custom setup options.
Users who will be using Windows 98 in a network environment can install Windows 98 Network components by selecting Start, Settings, Control Panel, Network. Figure A.8 shows the Network dialog box that appears.
NOTE: You'll be prompted to install network features if Windows 98 detects a Plug and Play network adapter during setup.
FIG. A.8 The Network dialog box.
Here you can select options that enable you to connect to Windows NT servers and NetWare servers. You can also configure network protocols like TCP/IP, IPX, and your dial-up adapter. Click Add to add a new network protocol.
TIP: In the Network dialog box, make sure that Client for Microsoft Networks is installed, even if you are not on a network. This will allow the Connect To... dialog box for your Internet connection to save your password.
One nice feature of Windows 98 is the fact that converting your hard drive to FAT32 will not affect its performance on a network. Other network computers using Windows 95, NT, and other FAT16-compatible operating systems will still be able to access resources on a FAT32 hard drive over the network.
The specific options you will need to configure will vary depending on your network. Contact your Network Administrator to find out about options particular to your corporate network.
Use the Safe Recovery option if your initial installation of Windows 98 fails. If regular installation fails, turn your computer off and then on again. Run setup, and Windows 98 will use Safe Recovery (see Figure A.9) to pass the point at which the original installation failed.
Safe Recovery instructs the Setup Wizard to continue copying files from the point of failure instead of starting over from the beginning. If you don't select Safe Recovery, your system might get caught in a loop, continuously failing at the same point during the installation over and over again.
FIG. A.9 The Safe Recovery option screen.
TIP: If Windows setup fails repeatedly even with the Safe Recovery option selected, you will need to begin removing hardware such as game cards, sound cards, and so on. Remove them one at a time to identify the offending piece of equipment. When you have identified it, complete Windows 98 installation and then try to install the hardware using Add/Remove Programs.
If you selected the Save Old System Files option during installation, you might be able to remove Windows 98. However, if you have converted your hard drive file system to FAT32, you might not be able to revert back to your old operating system. The only operating systems that can be used on a FAT32 hard drive are:
Be careful not to confuse Windows 95 version 4.00.950B (sometimes called OSR2) with other versions. If, after converting to FAT32, you want to revert back to any operating system other than the ones listed above, you will have to reformat your hard drive and reinstall the old operating system from scratch.
Assuming you are able to revert back to the old operating system, follow these steps to remove Windows 98:
TIP: If you have trouble uninstalling Windows 98 from the Control Panel, you can use your Windows 98 startup disk to perform the removal. To do so, boot your computer using the startup disk and run UNINSTALL from the command line.
During the setup process, Windows 98 asks you to specify the type of installation you want. The choices are Typical, Portable, Compact, and Custom. To install the Windows 98 components that are useful for mobile computer hardware, select the Portable option and click Next.
The Portable installation includes support for PCMCIA devices, power management tools for optimizing battery conservation, docking station compatibility, infrared transmissions, and direct cable connections for communicating with other computers.
CAUTION: If you don't choose the Portable option during your installation, you might have difficulty adding some of these components later on. Specifically, things like PCMCIA, ACPI power management, docking station, and infrared support can be added only through the Add New Hardware icon of the Control Panel--and then only if Windows can detect the hardware.
After you complete setup, you might want to configure a few additional items manually using the following procedure:
Here's a list of the categories that contain useful notebook components that might not already be installed: Accessibility Here you'll find the options for modifying your mouse and screen settings to enable better viewing on your notebook. Small icons and fonts can be hard to see on some small LCD monitors, so even though these components were intended for use by people with physical disabilities, they often prove handy for those using notebook computers, too. Mouse cursor options and a screen magnification tool help you find and control your mouse, even on small screens.
Accessories The large mouse pointers you'll find under this heading let you quickly and easily find your mouse cursor on smaller notebook displays.
Communications Under this heading, choose the components for Dial-Up Networking, Direct Cable Connection, and Infrared Communications (if available). Dial-Up Networking controls Internet connections via a modem. Direct Cable Connection lets you transfer data from your notebook to another computer over a cable. Infrared Communications lets you send and receive to other computers or devices (such as printers) that have an Infrared (IR) port. Systems Tools Use the disk tools in this category to make efficient use of your notebook's hard drive. If your hard drive is smaller than 512MB, you can use DriveSpace3 to make more space available. However, if your hard drive is larger than 512MB, you should consider using the FAT32 Converter to change to a 32-bit file system. FAT32 makes much more efficient use of the space on your hard drive, making compression unnecessary (although disk compression would then be impossible because it cannot be performed on a FAT32 system).
In the past, tracking down system patches and updated drivers was difficult. However, Microsoft streamlined the process in Windows 98 by including the Windows Update Manager directly on the Start menu. If you have Internet access, you can update your installation of Windows 98 by using the Update Manager, as shown in Figure A.10.
CAUTION: Web sites often change in terms of look and content. It is possible that the Windows Update web site may look differently than what is described here.
From the Start button, select Windows Update. After connecting to the Windows Update site, select Update Wizard. The Update Wizard scans your Windows 98 installation and displays any updates that are available from Microsoft (see to Figure A.10).
FIG. A.10 The Windows 98 Update Manager.
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