How to Disable the Installation of Exchange During Setup

This article describes how to disable the installation of the Exchange client during Windows NT Setup.

When you install Windows NT, the Microsoft Exchange client for Windows NT is installed and an Exchange icon is placed on the desktop. To disable the installation of the Exchange client during Windows NT Setup, follow these steps:

WARNING: Modifications to INF files incorrectly can cause serious, system-wide problems that may require you to reinstall Windows NT to correct them. Microsoft cannot guarantee that any problems resulting from modifications of INF files can be solved. Use this method at your own risk.

NOTE: This procedure requires that you install (locally or over the network) from a flat folder on a hard drive. To complete these steps, you must be able to modify the Syssetup.inf file. By default, the Syssetup.inf file is compressed on the Windows NT 4.0 CD-ROM.

1. Copy the I386 folder from the Windows NT CD-ROM to a hard drive.
2. In the I386 folder on the hard drive, expand the Syssetup.in_ file to Syssetup.inf using the following command:
   
   expand Syssetup.in_ Syssetup.inf
   
   NOTE: Expand.exe must be run from within Windows NT.
3. Rename the Syssetup.in_ file to Syssetup.old. By default, setup will use the compressed version if both exist.
4. Open Syssetup.inf in a text editor, and then place a semicolon before the MSMAIL.INF entry in the [BaseWinOptionsInfs] section of the file.
   
   The change should look like this:
   

      [BaseWinOptionsInfs]
      accessor.inf
      communic.inf
      games.inf
      imagevue.inf
      mmopt.inf
      ;msmail.inf
      multimed.inf
      optional.inf
      pinball.inf
      wordpad.inf
   						

The procedure to disable the installation of the Exchange client described above works with a local, network, or local installation of Windows NT.