When most of us install Windows 98, we simply run the Setup program. Doing so decompresses and installs the contents of the WIN98 directory onto your hard disk. However, there’s much more to Windows 98 than what gets installed when you run the Setup program. In this Daily Drill Down, I’ll discuss some of the Windows 98 components that don’t get installed with Setup.

Installing extra Windows 98 components
If you use a default installation of Windows 98, many “normal” components don’t get installed. Open the Control Panel and double-click the Add/Remove Programs icon, and you’ll see exactly what was and wasn’t installed. Open the Add/Remove Programs Properties sheet and navigate to the Windows Setup tab. Components are organized under a list of the general categories of Windows 98. For example, you’ll see listings for Accessibility, Accessories, Communications, and Desktop Themes—just to name a few. To see which components are installed from a given category, select that category (the words, not the check box) and click the Details button. You’ll see a list of the available programs in that category, as shown in Figure A. Several System Tools aren’t installed by default. You can install any of these extra programs by selecting the corresponding check box and clicking OK.

Figure A
Many Windows 98 components aren’t installed by default.

Add-ons
The Windows 98 CD contains several other directories besides WIN 98. Although the CD appears to offer very little, the directory structure is deceptively simple. The first directory that appears on the CD is the Add-ons directory. Inside this directory is another one called PWS, which contains the Microsoft Personal Web Server program. The Personal Web Server allows you to publish your own Web pages on the Internet or on an intranet directly from your Windows 98 desktop. The Personal Web Server includes the program’s components, Windows 98 versions of Transaction Server, and various data access components. It also contains a message queue client and components that allow for easy management of your Web site. If you want to try out Personal Web Server, you can install it by running the Setup program from your Windows 98 CD’s \Add-ons\PWS directory.

Cdsample
The Cdsample directory (the next directory on the Windows 98 CD) is basically one big Microsoft commercial. You can run the Sampler.exe application to learn about most of the products that Microsoft sold at the time when Windows 98 was released. Subdirectories contain items like product catalogs, demo versions of some Microsoft software (which are very cool), and videos that play full-blown commercials or product demos for specific products.

Drivers
The Drivers directory is much more useful than Cdsample is. It contains hardware driver files that weren’t available with the original Windows 98 release. You can use the files in this directory to set up new hardware or to update existing drivers. To install a new hardware component, open the Control Panel and double-click the Add New Hardware icon. When Windows 98 asks if you want Windows to search for new hardware, select No. Now, select the device type that you’re installing and click Next to move on. Rather than choosing an existing driver, click the Have Disk button and specify the location of the driver within the Drivers directory that you wish to use.

If you’d rather update an existing driver, open the Control Panel and double-click the System icon. You’ll see the System Properties sheet. Then, select the Device Manager tab. Now, locate and double-click the device within the Device Manager for which you want to update the driver. Next, you’ll see the device’s properties sheet. Select the Driver tab and click the Update Driver button. Now, work through the Update Driver Wizard until you get to the screen that asks what you want Windows to do. Select the Display A List Of Drivers In A Specific Location So You Can Select The Driver You Want radio button and click Next. Finally, click the Have Disk button and specify the location of the desired driver.

Tools
The Tools directory contains the really cool stuff. As you can see in Figure B, the Tools directory is broken into several subdirectories, each of which contains one or more tools that you can use to fine-tune Windows 98.

Figure B
The Tools directory contains all sorts of really cool tools and utilities.

Mtsutil
The \Tools\Mtsutil directory contains some unique troubleshooting tools. For example, the Chnginbx.exe program changes the icon that’s normally associated with the Inbox to the Microsoft Outlook icon. The \Tools\Mtsutil directory contains two subdirectories, Fat32edb and Pmtshoot. Fat32ebd contains a tool that you can use to create a FAT 32 boot disk. It’s useful when you’re experiencing hard disk problems and you need to access the hard disk after booting from a floppy disk. The other tool, which is found in \Tools\Mtsutil\Pmtshoot, helps you troubleshoot power management problems. It’s designed to help you figure out which application or device driver is preventing your computer from entering its standby or suspend state correctly.

Old MS-DOS
The \Tools\Oldmsdos directory contains some of the older utilities that shipped with MS-DOS. These utilities include Deltree, Doskey, Fc, Msd, Qbasic, and Smartdrv—just to name a few.

\Tools\Oldwin95
The \Tools\Oldwin95 directory contains the United States and the International versions of Windows Messaging and Microsoft Fax. These programs were included in Windows 95, but they’re not installed on Windows 98 unless you install them manually.

Reskit
The \Tools\Reskit directory contains all of the tools that are found on the Windows 98 Resource Kit. You can install the Resource Kit tools by running the \Tools\Reskit\Setup program. All of the Resource Kit tools will be installed except for those that are found in the Netadmin section—they require separate installation. Below is a breakdown of the various subdirectories that appear beneath the \Tools\Reskit directory and of the function of each tool.

\Tools\Reskit\Batch
This directory contains the Windows 98 Batch tool. It creates a Windows 98 installation script. The installation script automates the Windows 98 Setup program and forces Windows 98 to install using specified options.

\Tools\Reskit\Config
This directory contains a couple of different programs. The Fat32win.exe program tells you how much disk space you’ll gain by converting a specific partition to FAT 32.The Tzedit.exe program allows you to edit the Time Zone list. You can add unlisted time zones, modify existing time zones, or delete all of the time zones that aren’t relevant to your company. The Chdoscp program is found in its own subdirectory. It allows you to select which keyboard code page you want Windows to use.

\Tools\Reskit\Deploy
This directory contains another copy of the Batch tool that exists in the Batch folder.

\Tools\Reskit\Desktop
This directory contains tools that are designed to help you customize the Windows 98 desktop. One such program is Chklnks, which scans the desktop and the various menus and checks for links that are no longer functional. After detecting any such links, it gives you the option of deleting them. Another program in this directory is the Quick Tray program, which allows you to add an icon to the system tray.

\Tools\Reskit\Diagnose
The Diagnose directory contains tools that allow you to troubleshoot Windows 98 problems. For example, the Usbview tool allows you to see and diagnose devices that are attached to your USB port.

\Tools\Reskit\File
This directory contains tools that are aimed at file management. There are three major tools here: The Text View program allows you to look at the source behind an HTML page; the Where program helps you locate files on your system; the Windiff program compares two files for differences.

\Tools\Reskit\Help
The Help directory contains help files that are designed to assist you as you use the Resource Kit tools. It also contains documents that help you with general Windows 98 issues.

\Wtools\Reskit\Infinst
This directory lets you add an INF file to Windows 98 Setup. It allows you to install third-party device drivers as if they were part of Windows 98.

\Tools\Reskit\Netadmin
The Netadmin directories contain the following tools for network management:

  • The Netmon subfolder contains Network Monitor, a program that’s designed to add some network traffic-related counters to System Monitor.
  • The Poledit subfolder contains the System Policy Editor, which can restrict what end users are able to access in Windows 98. For example, you could prevent users from being able to access the Control Panel.
  • The Pwledit subfolder contains the Pwledit program, which helps you manage all of the passwords that are stored within PWL files.
  • The Remotereg folder contains the Remote Registry software. The contents of this folder will allow an administrator to edit a computer’s registry remotely from across the network.
  • The Rpcpp directory contains the Rpcpp program, which is a remote procedure call program. It allows a user to pause or purge print jobs on a Windows NT print server remotely.
  • The Snmp folder is designed for networks that use SNMP for systems management. It contains a program that allows you to monitor remote connections to Windows 98 via SNMP.

\Tools\Reskit\Powertoy
The Powertoy directory contains a copy of Tweak UI, one of the Windows 98 power toys. Tweak UI is designed to help you customize the user interface. If you’re interested in learning more about Tweak UI, read “Taking control of your system with Tweak UI.”

\Tools\Reskit\Scrpting
Have you ever wanted to automate a task, but you just couldn’t get the job done with a batch file? If so, then you’ll be happy to know that the Scrpting subdirectory contains tools that make it possible for you to perform more complex tasks through batch files and scripts.

Other subdirectories
The Setup directory contains files that the Resource Kit’s Setup program uses. Likewise, the \Tools\Reskit\Sysfiles directory contains the DLL files that many of the utilities we’ve discussed use, and the \Tools\Reskit\Tmc directory contains other system files that the Resource Kit needs.

Brien M. Posey is an MCSE who works as a freelance technical writer and as a network engineer for the Department of Defense. If you’d like to contact Brien, send him an e-mail. (Because of the large volume of e-mail he receives, it’s impossible for him to respond to every message. However, he does read them all.)

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