I would like to see that, for sure. It’d save a lot of time.

- Alex

Nice work!

What about the performance, does it feel as light as regular W98SE + unofficial SP3?
Have you done any comparative in that regard when it comes to gaming?
What version of DirectX does it include?

Con 2 botones wrote on 2021-09-27, 17:02:

Nice work! […]
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Nice work!

What about the performance, does it feel as light as regular W98SE + unofficial SP3?
Have you done any comparative in that regard when it comes to gaming?
What version of DirectX does it include?

Well, I'm emulating using PCem, with a Pentium 90mhz, and 64mb of ram, on a 2gb hd, and S3 graphics.

The performance has improved a lot, the loading screen for example has an animation (a light reflection that runs across the windows flag), but during boot, there is no time to run the animation completely 🤣

I'm not done yet, I'm working on it, when everything is ready, I'll test it on real machines (PCem is good, but it doesn't simulate the performance of an old hard drive), I'll benchmark and time runtimes with a stopwatch.

I have put the latest available version of direct x (9) for windows 98. Some people prefer 8 or 8.1, but I have integrated several drivers for more modern AGP video cards, which require an updated version of direct x. My wish is to create a plug and play version out of the box, to avoid the hassle of transferring files to the retro pc all the time.

Seem like cool features but I doubt I'll use it tbh.

The only things mods I need are nusb, updated windows installer, latest windows explorer and Space Cadet Pinball.

I'm kidding, I can go without the latest explorer.

But it would be cool to get to see how you go about and add those things to an installer cd.

Joakim wrote on 2021-09-27, 19:05:

Seem like cool features but I doubt I'll use it tbh. […]
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Seem like cool features but I doubt I'll use it tbh.

The only things mods I need are nusb, updated windows installer, latest windows explorer and Space Cadet Pinball.

I'm kidding, I can go without the latest explorer.

But it would be cool to get to see how you go about and add those things to an installer cd.

I cannot claim that it will be an installation CD. Maybe a DVD. Storage was limited in the past, but nowadays it isn't anymore. The first thing I know is that I'm not going to use the original windows cabs and compression system. It is inefficient, slow and unnecessary. Maybe I'll create an Install Shield or an uncompressed norton ghost image. The entire system holds about 1.2GB the drivers take up some space, maybe I'll put them separate from the windows installation, but particularly, I like to have them on windows, as I change my hardware a lot (for tests, benchmarks, or simply to take off the shelf)

I thought about using a minimal version of windows 98 instead of dosx (win3.1) during installation, but I don't know if this would decrease compatibility with older machines (before 486), although on my 486 I prefer Win 3.1 or 95, I believe some people like win 98 on 486...

I love the animated boot screen!
And the multilevel DOS boot menu

How did you manage to replace the config.sys/autoexrc.bat during installation from CD with your custom versions? How does DOS 6.22 (FAT16) get along with Windows 98 (FAT32) in your start menu?

Would you mind sharing your msbatch.inf, config.sys, autoexec.bat and the logo[x].sys files?

Great initiative, Rikintosh!

Have you considered scripting this installation process? That way, it could be tweaked and maintained more easily as a GitHub project, going forward. And people can independently reproduce the image.

I think it might be possible with a tool like Packer.

Actually MS-DOS is not 6, but native windows 7 (I forgot to change that, this menu I had changed about 1 year ago to my 486 with msdos 6.22)

Actually I did a clean install of windows, and I am directly modifying this installation, which will become an image (similar to the system used in Windows Vista - 10) all my hardware drivers will be uninstalled from the device manager, and will be detected and installed new drivers on first boot.

Unfortunately modifying the cab files, and the original installation program proved to be inefficient, with many problems, I believe the way is to use a "WinPE" to unzip the image to disk. I assume the new installation takes about 5 to 8 minutes on a 90mhz pentium with 64mb of ram.

1541 wrote on 2021-09-27, 19:22:

I love the animated boot screen! And the multilevel DOS boot menu […]
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I love the animated boot screen!
And the multilevel DOS boot menu

How did you manage to replace the config.sys/autoexrc.bat during installation from CD with your custom versions? How does DOS 6.22 (FAT16) get along with Windows 98 (FAT32) in your start menu?

Would you mind sharing your msbatch.inf, config.sys, autoexec.bat and the logo[x].sys files?

Later I will organize myself better, and separate all modified files into a github repository to allow other people to create their custom installations.

I'm creating some wallpapers too

We don't support so called abandonware here nor a thread advertising it so if that's what this is then this thread will need to be removed. If it requires the user providing the OS then that may be allowed depending on what else is included

DosFreak wrote on 2021-09-27, 21:04:

We don't support so called abandonware here nor a thread advertising it so if that's what this is then this thread will need to be removed. If it requires the user providing the OS then that may be allowed depending on what else is included

DosFreak You are right. I had forgotten about that. I should change my project so that it is an OS iso patch, rather than a standalone one.

The third party programs I used are all freeware.

i wont say no

Well, I'd like if you'd do it in a way compatible with the forums rules, not only to comply with the forums rules, but for other reasons, too.
People want custom-tailored systems.
For example, not all people like things like the "unofficial SP3", which imho cannot be recommended. So, all things should be user-choice.

You made me think of my current tinkering with MSBATCH.INF to mod the Windows 98 installation process for being friendlier to installs on computers > 512MB.
There are a lot of great options in MSBATCH.INF that you could use for achieving what you described.

I will post how I did that in a thread about getting the DFI HD620-H81 working on DOS and Windows when/if I manage to get it work.
If that is too much of "abandonware support", I guess I'll notice 😀

retardware wrote on 2021-09-27, 23:39:

Well, I'd like if you'd do it in a way compatible with the forums rules, not only to comply with the forums rules, but for other […]
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Well, I'd like if you'd do it in a way compatible with the forums rules, not only to comply with the forums rules, but for other reasons, too.
People want custom-tailored systems.
For example, not all people like things like the "unofficial SP3", which imho cannot be recommended. So, all things should be user-choice.

You made me think of my current tinkering with MSBATCH.INF to mod the Windows 98 installation process for being friendlier to installs on computers > 512MB.
There are a lot of great options in MSBATCH.INF that you could use for achieving what you described.

I will post how I did that in a thread about getting the DFI HD620-H81 working on DOS and Windows when/if I manage to get it work.
If that is too much of "abandonware support", I guess I'll notice 😀

I don't like SP3 and I'm not using it, all fixes I put in are official. The windows ME files I copied from a real ME install

It's always going to be a discussion what software you find essential and what someone else finds essential. For example I find 7ZIP much more vital than WinRAR. 7ZIP supports more compression types including RAR. If I were you, I'd make it a menu where you can toggle options.

Stuff like USB (stick) support however I would consider essential since for most people it will be the easiest and cheapest way to move files to and from a Windows 98 system unless they use network sharing.

red_avatar wrote on 2021-09-28, 10:21:

It's always going to be a discussion what software you find essential and what someone else finds essential. For example I find 7ZIP much more vital than WinRAR. 7ZIP supports more compression types including RAR. If I were you, I'd make it a menu where you can toggle options.

Stuff like USB (stick) support however I would consider essential since for most people it will be the easiest and cheapest way to move files to and from a Windows 98 system unless they use network sharing.

Totally agree.
Something like Windows Post Install Wizard, to let user decide what to be installed and what not, that would be ideal.

I think you're right, a post installation wizard is a great idea.

I forgot to mention, I also created icons for removable media (pendrive icon), and improved some icons and bitmaps

A bunch of KernelX pre set apps ready to hack in would be wonderful