Do you find the Support WebCast transcripts helpful?
Let us know!

Note This document is based on the original spoken WebCast transcript. It has been edited for clarity.

Dan Miller: Today we’re going to be talking about Windows^® 98 and Windows Millennium (Me) Setup. I’ve been involved in product support for operating systems for seven years. Today we’re going to talk about some basic setup steps and issues. This WebCast is intended for the average user, and hopefully it will provide information that will help you install your Windows 98 or Windows Millennium operating system and avoid common installation problems.

Installing or upgrading your operating system can sometimes be very frustrating. Even though Microsoft spends a lot of time and money testing a new operating system before it is released to the public, it is nearly impossible to test the operating system with every combination of hardware and software available. As a result, you may run into trouble with installing the operating system. You may also experience issues or problems after you have installed the operating system — issues such as no boot, software issues, hardware issues, or error messages. We will discuss three basic phases of setup on the next slide (slide 2).

The three phases of setup we are going to discuss are before setup, during setup, and after setup. Most setup issues can be avoided if we invest some time preparing our computer before installation. Before you begin the setup procedure, there are several steps that you can perform that will minimize problems during setup.

Before you start, there are two important decisions you should make. Decide now if you want to save system files when prompted during setup. This will allow you to revert to your previous operating system if Setup does not complete successfully.

Decide if you want to create a startup disk before setup or when you’re prompted to do so during setup. This will allow you to start your computer to a command prompt and use the tools available; Scanreg to fix registry problems; Scandisk for hard disk problems; Defrag; and Uninstall. The startup disk also allows you to access files on your hard disk.

Decide if this is a clean install or an upgrade. A clean install is an install on a hard disk with no operating system. There is a Knowledge Base article, Q221829, "How to Install Windows 98 On a Computer with No Operating System," that you can look up on our Internet site to help you with this process. We will be discussing text files that are on your installation CD and that are also available on the same Web site in the Microsoft Knowledge Base, and which hopefully will help you have a trouble-free installation.

We will discuss issues that can occur during the setup process, such as error messages, the system stops responding (hangs), or no-boot situations.

We will discuss issues that can occur after setup is completed, such as error messages, hanging, no-boot situations, hardware issues, software issues, and connectivity issues.

Go to our next slide (slide 3), "Before Setup," and tips and tricks. We’re going to discuss some Microsoft Knowledge Base articles that provide tips to help avoid common installation problems. We will also discuss Setup.txt files provided on the installation CD. It is important that you thoroughly review these documents before installing or updating your operating systems. I would suggest that you print these documents and have them handy before you start Setup. You can access these articles on our support Web site at http://support.microsoft.com/. The KB articles that I mention in this WebCast and the Web site will be posted in the supplemental reading.

On the next slide (slide 4), we will discuss tips and tricks. We will be discussing article Q272156, "Tips Before Purchase, Setup, and After Setup of Windows Millennium Edition (Me)." This article covers the following subjects. Before purchasing Windows Me, you should verify that your computer meets the minimum hardware requirements. You should verify that the programs installed on your computer will work with the version of Windows that you are installing. I’d also suggest that you contact the manufacturer of the program, such as your antivirus vendor, to make sure that your program is compatible with the new operating system.

The next item in "Tips and Tricks" is a review of text files. We’ll talk about the Setup.txt files later, but there are many other text files included on your installation CD that can assist you. We have a KB article, Q297606; the title is "List and Description of the Text Files Included on the Windows Me CD." This will give you a list of text files that are helpful, as far as hardware and different issues you might have, and helpful hints, tips, and tricks.

The next subjects covered in this particular article are specific hardware issues. During testing, issues with certain hardware became apparent. This is not a complete list in this article, but it does list some of the issues with specific hardware that were discovered before release. The availability of Windows Millennium Edition is discussed, concerning the full version and upgrade version. Before installing Windows Me, a boot disk is very important. Have available the Windows Me CD; and the manufacturer’s driver disk — one of the most critical things that you should have with you before you start Setup are the driver disks from the manufacturers of your hardware. You should have the documentation for your computer hardware ready and any upgrade information that you can obtain.

This article also covers installing Windows Me. Installing on a clean hard disk, which we discussed previously, and installing with a previous operating system installed. This article also discusses Windows Me setup issues.

Also read Q271240, "Windows Millennium Edition Setup.txt File Contents," which we’ll discuss later in this presentation, and Q267200, "Setuplog.txt Reports Generic Installation Problem After Upgrade." Q270593 is "SU0325 Error at 10%."

See Q264938, "How to Examine Detail Error Messages in Windows Millennium Edition." The article contains a link to the "Highlights For Windows Millennium Edition" Web site. This contains the Web address for the FAQs (frequently asked questions) and highlights for Windows Me. The next subject is how to obtain assistance with Windows Me in the product help, help and support, and technical support. We have the Web address for that.

The next article is Q234782, "Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition Setuptip.txt File Contents." This file is located in the root folder of the Windows 98 Second Edition CD-ROM. The subjects discussed are similar to the ones in the previous article: hardware requirements and latest drivers for software and hardware. It suggests you consult hardware documentation or visit the manufacturer’s Web site. There are three KB articles listed in there that provide a list of hardware and software third-party vendor contacts.

Q234782 suggests that you scan your computer for viruses and then disable all software-based and hardware-based antivirus applications before running Windows Setup. This is a fairly vital step, as you will see later on in the presentation. Back up all critical data on your hard disk. Close all programs and disconnect from the Internet. The Setup.txt file, located in the Windows 98 folder, or the Win98 folder on the Windows 98 Second Edition CD, we’ll discuss that the next slide or two. That .txt file discusses how to upgrade and set up a dual boot, and how to create a startup disk and save system files.

The next article under "Tips and Tricks" is Q188881, "How To Install Windows 98: Helpful Tips and Suggestions." Before purchasing Windows 98, again, we discussed the minimum hardware requirements; remember, these are minimum hardware requirements. Your system will run with these requirements, but for better performance, you may want to have higher requirements than these.

The article suggests that before installing Windows 98, review the Setup.txt file. Check for viruses. Disable programs that run automatically, especially antivirus. Uninstall any utilities or tools that protect or encrypt the master boot record or partition table. Back up all critical data on your hard disk. The article covers installing Windows 98 on a clean hard drive; it refers to Q221829, "How To Install Windows 98 On A Computer With No Operating System." And common Windows 98 setup issues. Again, these KB articles will be listed in the supplemental reading.

The article refers to Q232142, "Troubleshooting Invalid Product Key Error Message During Setup"; this is a fairly common error message we see, and this is a very good article. Q225252, "Error Message: Your Computer Already Has An Operating System Installed." Q140901, "Could Not Decode This Setup (.cab) File." We’ll talk about this one a little bit later. Q128730, "Error Message: Invalid System Disk After Setup Reboots." Q129971, "Windows 95, 98, Me Setup Error Message List." And Q162453, "OEM Product ID Not Accepted During Reinstallation." The next subject discussed is "Highlights for Windows Web Site." Again, it includes the FAQs. And finally, there’s how to obtain assistance with Windows 98.

On the next slide (slide 5), "Tips and Tricks Hardware," we’ll talk a little bit about hardware requirements. Make sure that you have enough hard disk space to install the operating system. For Windows Me, the minimum is 320 megabytes (MB) of free hard disk space. For Windows 98 Second Edition, it’s 205 MB to 260 MB of hard disk space, but may range between 190 MB and 400 MB. This depends on your system configuration, the options you choose to install, and whether you are installing the full version or upgrade version of Windows 98. For Windows 98, it’s 120 MB of free hard disk space, and for a typical installation, approximately 195 MB of free hard disk space. The required space may vary from 120 MB to 295 MB, depending, again, on your computer’s configuration and the options that you choose to install.

For hardware compatibility, we have a KB article, Q131900, "Windows Hardware Compatibility List." It’s a good idea to look at this article before you start the installation to see if your hardware is compatible. Also, there is a Web site, http://www.microsoft.com/hcl/default.asp, which provides the same information. It’s a good idea, before you start the installation, to check this out to see if your hardware is compatible. If you’re not sure if your hardware is compatible, contact the manufacturer of your hardware, or visit their Web site for information.

On to the next slide (slide 6), "Tips and Tricks Software." Antivirus — as we’ve seen from the tips articles, checking for and removing any viruses that may be present on your hard drive is very important. Equally important is removing all antivirus protection before installing. Virus protection’s job is to protect important files, mostly system files. If it is not removed, it will do its job; it will protect those files and may interfere with the setup process. I would suggest that the antivirus be uninstalled after checking your hard drive and removing any viruses that may be present.

Real-mode and TSR (terminate-and-stay-resident) programs, these are programs that basically run from your startup file. These can include the Autoexec.bat, the Config.sys, the Win.ini files, and files from the registry.

Clean boot is a way of disabling these programs from running in the background. There are instructions in the Setup.txt file with clean boot instructions.

Software compatibility — make sure that your software is compatible with the new operating system, especially antivirus and any utilities that you might have.

The next slide (slide 7), "Tips and Tricks Setup.txt Files"; generally the Setup.txt files include the following information: quick tips for error-free setup, general setup issues and troubleshooting setup issues, setup error messages, and potential setup problems.

Windows Millennium Edition Setup.txt files (slide 8) include these topics in Q271240: "Quick Tips For an Error Free Setup;" "General Setup Issues;" "Installing Windows Millennium from MS-DOS^®;" "Performing a Clean Boot;" which is very important for troubleshooting and for also before you start the installation. Then "Antivirus Software," "Finding Hard Disk Problems During Setup Using Scandisk," ".cab File Errors During Setup," "Removing Windows Me from Your Computer," "Notes If You Have a Compressed Drive," "Installing Windows Millennium with Windows NT," "Setup Error Messages," and "Hardware Notes."

The Windows 98 Second Edition Setup.txt (Q232018) contains pretty much the same as the above, but includes "Memory Managers," "Disk-Cache Programs," "Using Terminate-and-Stay Resident Programs and drivers."

Windows 98 Setup.txt (Q179756) is nearly the same, but it includes "Installing Windows 98 on a System Running OS/2," "Editing the Config.sys and Autoexec.bat Files," "Hardware Notes," "Memory Managers," "Disk-Cache Programs," "Setting up a Dual-Boot Configuration with Windows NT," "Creating an MS-DOS Startup Partition," "Using Terminate-and-Stay Resident Programs and Drivers," and "Known Potential Setup Problems."

The next slide (slide 9) is "Steps Before Starting Setup." Make sure your computer, hardware, and software are functioning properly. Do not upgrade to fix an existing problem unless you know for certain that upgrading will solve the issue. Very rarely does upgrading resolve an issue, unless it is by simply replacing a system file.

Make sure that your computer is not infected with a virus. Disable antivirus in the CMOS and startup files, or better yet, uninstall the antivirus program after you’ve checked your hard drive. Make sure that your antivirus program is current. And it might be best to uninstall and then reinstall after Setup completes successfully. Now we’re going to mention antivirus programs quite often here, because if antivirus is running in the background, it can cause a lot of problems. So it’s not that I’m harping on you about this, it’s just that this is very important.

Next, disable any programs. Use Msconfig to boot clean. We will talk about an article on how to use Msconfig. See the appropriate Setup.txt file for instructions. Start with a startup disk or emergency boot disk. You can see why the startup disk is important now. Close all running programs, and use CONTROL+ALT+DELETE to End Task on all but Explorer and Systray. The way that you can find out about these TSRs, or these programs that are running in the background, is while you are in Windows, press CONTROL+ALT+DELETE. That brings up the Close Program dialog. Anything that’s running in there, other than Explorer and Systray, is a TSR; it’s running in the background. You may not know it’s running. You may not know what it is, but one thing that we can do for a clean installation is to go into this Close Program dialog and select End Task on everything except Explorer and Systray.

Maintenance — run Scandisk. Scandisk will check your hard drive for any errors. I would also suggest that you do a thorough scan that searches for physical problems on the hard drive. Run Scanreg to check the registry. The registry might be damaged, or there may be errors in the registry, and this can cause a problem during setup. So before you start setup, check your registry for errors and back up your registry. Again, back up important data using a third-party program. Microsoft no longer provides a backup utility, so you can use a third-party program to back up your important data, or simply copy the file that you need to a floppy disk.

Startup disk — again, this is one of the most important things that we should have during setup. Make sure you have a startup disk. If you don’t, create one. If you’ve converted to FAT32, you should create a new disk, if necessary. The Windows 98 Second Edition Setup.txt discusses this.

Third party — check the documentation for any third-party software or hardware that you have on your system.

If you have a drive overlay, check your documentation about upgrading and what to do.

MBR protection software is master boot record protection software. You may not know if you have this. Normally, you would have to put this on yourself. It doesn’t normally come preinstalled on your computer. So if you do have these two things, you probably know that you have them.

Again, get the latest driver software for any scanners, modems, or peripheral devices attached to your computer. A lot of issues that we have are hardware related, and basically, they are driver issues. After an installation, if a piece of hardware does not work or work properly, it’s because it needs an updated driver. Again, contact your manufacturer or go to their Web site and see if there is an updated driver.

Decide now to save system files from the previous operating system. If you’re doing an upgrade, saving the system files can save you a lot of heartache in the end. These system files are stored in a couple of files, the Winundo.dat and the Winundo.ini. They are fairly large files, but after you get your system installed, if everything is running properly, you can go into Add/Remove Programs and remove these. If in the Windows Setup process you’d like to know where this happens, you can look at Q195568; the title is "Description of Windows 98 Setup Process."

In the next slide (slide 10), we’re going to discuss issues that might occur during setup. There are a couple of things that can happen during setup. Your system may hang — that means stop responding; this can happen during any phase of setup. There is a KB article, Q125480, "Windows Setup Was Unable To Update Your System Files"; this may be caused by virus detection that is built in to your machine or by virus detection software running on your system. Again, we can see how important it is to disable virus protection, whether it be in your CMOS, or software virus protection.

The other things that can happen during setup are error messages. Again, you can receive an error message during several different phases of setup. In some cases, you can continue with setup; in other cases, you can’t. For example, see Q254942, "Load Disk Based Error Upgrading To Windows Millennium Edition"; this error message may appear when you are saving the system files and you don’t have enough disk space. If this is the case, you should clear up some space on your hard drive, because it is really important that we save the system files during setup.

Another very good article we have is Q281967, "Computer Stops Responding (Hangs) During Setup, Installing Updates, or Adding New Hardware." This issue can occur at times other than setup. For example, if you’re going through the Windows Update site, or if you’re updating device drivers or hardware, this is a good article to have.

Errors when you restart — there are approximately four to five restarts during the installation process, depending on the operating system you’re installing. Many times you may receive an error. Again, the most common cause for this is antivirus software or antivirus protection in your CMOS being present during the installation. Other software, particularly utilities, can cause this, or a VxD (a virtual device driver) that may have been installed by other software may cause this. A great KB article is Q268891, this one you might want to print out before you start your setup, just in case; "How To Troubleshoot Installation Issues When You Try to Run Setup Windows Millennium Edition."

In the next slide (slide 11), we’ll discuss hang during setup. Again, a hang is when your computer stops responding. During file copy, one of the first phases of the setup, it’s typically some sort of "Cannot Find File," or suddenly Setup just stops, and you’d just be staring at a blinking cursor; or it just stops, and nothing’s happening. Check out the Windows Millennium and Windows 98 Second Edition Setup.txt files. See Q140901, "Error Message Could Not Decode The Setup.cab;" you may get an error message, or it may hang.

A hang during setup can have several other causes, too. A CD-ROM drive may not be functioning properly. Your computer may be over-clocked; that, or mismatched RAM or cache. You may have a virus. A Plug and Play device may not be detected correctly. The CD-ROM or disks may be damaged. Your CPU is overheating. Or the internal/external cache on the processor or main board is going bad.

Hangs during hardware detection — this is the most likely point where the computer will hang. This is usually during the Plug and Play portion of setup. If Plug and Play has a difficult time deciding what a piece of hardware is, it may hang here. Typically that’s caused by a BIOS that may need to be upgraded, your motherboard, your display adapter, a network interface card, a USB device, hard drive controllers, or a combination of several or all.

A couple of great articles, you might want to look at these before you start; you may even want to print these out: Q194721, "Windows 98/Millennium Setup Hangs During Plug and Play Hardware Detection" and Q262381, "How To Troubleshoot Computer Hangs During Hardware Detection." Again, this is the most likely point where setup will hang, because the operating system is doing a lot of business here. It’s going out and looking at your hardware, trying to figure out what it is, and installing the appropriate driver for it.

Restarts — during the restarts during setup, those four or five restarts, the computer may stop responding or hang at the logo or the splash screen, or you may receive an error message and it may hang there, or you may boot to a blank screen or a black screen with a blinking cursor. Again, this may be caused by BIOS, hardware, or software. Many times though, this is display related. Another article is Q193156, the title is "Computer Hangs When You Restart For the First Time During Setup." Again, this is one of the common places where the computer will hang, when you first restart after setup is completed.

The next slide (slide 12) will talk about error messages during setup. During the Scandisk portion of Setup, Setup might report cross-linked files, but Scandisk reports no errors. Scandisk may say it finds errors or cross-linked files that it can’t fix; but if then you boot off your startup disk and you run Scandisk, it will show that there are no errors. This article is great for that particular issue.

If you hang during the registry scan or when the registry is checked, there’s another great article, Q183091, "Cannot Complete Setup After Receiving Scanreg Error Message." This problem can occur if you have a damaged registry. This error can also be caused by insufficient or improperly installed RAM.

PID, or product identification — many times, after you enter your product ID number and click Next to continue, you may get an error message that it is an invalid product ID or the wrong product ID. This is fairly common. We have a KB article for this, Q232142, "Troubleshooting Invalid Product Key Error Message During Setup."

On the next slide (slide 13) we’re going to start talking about after setup. This is after setup is completed. This could be the first boot or the third boot or the 28th boot, or the first time you use a piece of software or hardware. Again, we usually have two symptoms here. We can have a hang, or the system stops responding. This could be while you are in Windows. It could be before you get into Windows. Usually it hangs at the logo or at a blinking cursor, and this is a display-related issue. Also, you may receive an error message. Some of the error messages you may receive are invalid page faults, fatal exception 0D or 0E, invalid VxD dynamic link calls, or a Windows protection error.

For an invalid page fault, we have a KB article, Q286180, "Invalid Page Fault Errors Occur In Windows." It’s good for troubleshooting invalid page fault errors.

If you get a fatal exception 0D or 0E or an invalid VxD dynamic link call, this is almost always a hardware or driver-related issue. We’ll talk later about how to troubleshoot devices, but usually, if you get one of these error messages, it’s either a driver or a piece of hardware that’s not installed properly.

Windows protection errors — Q149962, "How To Troubleshoot Windows Protection Error Messages." These aren’t quite as common during setup, but this is a good article.

Hardware — many times after installation, certain hardware won’t work for you: a modem, display, USB scanner, etc. USB has become more popular these days, and seems to be a big area where people are having problems. We have a great article on that, Q263218, "General USB Troubleshooting In Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, and Windows Millennium Edition."

For modems, we have Q253633, "Troubleshooting Modems In Windows Millennium" and Q190554, "How To Troubleshoot Modem Problems in Windows 98 and 98 Second Edition." Another article, Q288838, discusses the available troubleshooters in Windows Millennium Edition. There are several built-in troubleshooters in Windows Millennium Edition, so you might want to have a look at this one.

Software — after installation, if your software doesn’t work, it’s usually because a file has become damaged or a file has been overwritten.

Connectivity is usually either Dial-Up Networking or the browser itself.

The next slide (slide 14) is "Hang After Setup Completes." Hardware, if it hangs after Setup is complete, many times this is display related. It can also be caused by other hardware. It can be caused by BIOS. This is the article I mentioned before. If you have a hardware issue, this article may help you. It’s Q133240. I think every support professional has that one ready to use, if he hasn’t memorized it. It’s "Troubleshooting Device Conflicts With Device Manager." This is a great article. If you’re having hardware problems of any sort, this is a great article to use.

Software — if your software isn’t working (for example, your antivirus isn’t working, or software in general isn’t working, if you had antivirus installed when you upgraded), it can cause a lot of problems, the least of which is a no-boot situation. You may be unable to restart your computer. Here is why it’s so important to save system settings and create that startup disk. It is best to uninstall the operating system at this point, remove the antivirus program, after you get back to the previous operating system, and then reinstall the new operating system. If you attempt to uninstall the antivirus program while you’re in the new operating system, this may prevent you from uninstalling. So when you do get back to the previous operating system, you may have problems that didn’t exist there before.

Articles I mentioned briefly before, if you are having any of these problems, the software or hardware problems, see Q281995, "How To Troubleshoot Using the Msconfig Utility In Windows Millennium," and Q192926, "How To Perform Clean Boot Troubleshooting In Windows 98." Both of these are great articles. I’ve used both of these many, many times.

In the next slide (slide 15), we’ll discuss error messages after setup completes. Antivirus is usually the culprit if you’re receiving a lot of error messages after you start your computer. To resolve this issue, restore the original operating system with your startup disk and your saved system files, remove the antivirus program and/or disable the antivirus protection in your CMOS, and then reinstall the operating system.

Error messages, hardware related; there are several, but a lot of times this can be caused by bad RAM.

Clean boot troubleshooting. Again, the Setup.txt file goes through the clean boot steps, see Q267288, "How To Perform A Clean Boot In Windows Millennium Edition" Q192926, I think we’ve already mentioned it, "How To Perform Clean Boot Troubleshooting For Windows 98," and the two articles I previously mentioned about using MSconfig in the troubleshooting steps.

The next slide (slide 16), "Hardware Issues After Setup Completes" — normally these are modems, displays, and scanners. Scanners are a special creature. Because there are so many different brands of scanners and different ways that they’re installed, you should contact your manufacturer to find out what to do about getting these working again. Sometimes, the application that runs a scanner has to be installed first, and then the hardware itself, and in other cases it’s just the opposite.

A lot of times, for modems and displays and other hardware, simply removing the device in Device Manager (using that article about using Device Manager with conflicts), restarting it, and redetecting it, or reinstalling it, will take care of the problem.

On the next slide (slide 17), we will talk a little bit about software issues after Setup completes. There are some issues with Windows Millennium that we’re aware of. For example, Help and Support, in Q261859, addresses this. The title is "Cannot Start Help and Support After You Upgrade To Windows Millennium Edition."

Another issue we see is the fatal exception 03h. This error message is covered in Q275003. Now, this error message is usually caused after you defragment in Windows Millennium. But it is after you’ve upgraded to Windows Millennium Edition, so this might be helpful there. If you’re having problems with other programs, or other programs are giving you error messages when you attempt to use them after you have upgraded, I would first contact the manufacturer to see if there are any known issues about that program with the new operating system. Many times, simply reinstalling the application will work, but again, I would talk to the manufacturer about that.

Next, we will briefly discuss connectivity issues after setup completes (slide 18). If it’s Dial-Up Networking or something to do with Dial-Up Networking, different error messages might indicate that it is Dial-Up Networking; usually uninstalling and reinstalling Dial-Up Networking will resolve the issue. If it’s browsing the Internet, one of the biggest call generators that we receive is covered in Q274498 titled "The Page Cannot Be Displayed After Upgrading To Windows Millennium Edition." This is a good article for troubleshooting that issue. There are several articles in Q274498 on "The Page Cannot Be Displayed." This one is specific to after upgrading to Windows Millennium Edition.

In our final slide, we will discuss the option to restore your previous operating system. Throughout this presentation, we have emphasized the importance of preparing your computer for installation and the importance of saving your previous operating system when prompted, as well as creating a startup disk. If after you install your operating system you have an unrecoverable issue, as a last resort, if you have the startup disk and have saved your previous operating system files, you can revert to your previous operating system.

Some reasons why you might want to revert to your previous operating system are:

• No boot — your computer will not start, or you receive an unrecoverable error during startup.
• One or many of your hardware devices are not working properly.
• One or many of your software programs are not working properly.
• You cannot connect to your network or the Internet.

and

• All troubleshooting attempts fail to resolve your issue.

See the following Microsoft Knowledge Base articles for information about uninstalling your operating system:

• Q272159, "How to Uninstall Windows Millennium Edition"
• Q186102, "How to Uninstall Windows 98"

Alternatively, for troubleshooting purposes, you can install your operating system to a new folder. This will help determine whether your issue is a hardware, BIOS, or registry problem. See

• Q277648, "How to Install Windows Millennium Edition in a New Folder"
• Q193902, "How to Install Windows 98 Into a New Folder"

That concludes this portion of the WebCast. I’m going to turn this back over to Jason, and we’re going to start the Q&A portion of the WebCast.

Jason Bennet: Thank you so much for that presentation, Dan. We are ready to move into the Q&A portion of the Support WebCast, but I have a couple of quick notes I want to mention before we move on.

To access information on all upcoming Support WebCasts and the archived content from all past WebCasts, the easy-to-remember URL is http://support.microsoft.com/webcasts/.

The Q&A portion of the Support WebCast is intended to encourage further discussion of the Support WebCast topic. One-on-one product support issues are outside the scope of the Support WebCasts. If you do need technical assistance, please submit an incident on the Web or call Microsoft Product Support Services and speak to a support professional.

Joining Dan today on the Q&A is Karl Swenson. Karl is also a support professional focusing on Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows Me.

Let’s get started. The first question we have is: What are the mandatory programs that must run when you run Setup?

Karl Swenson: I’m not exactly sure what the listener is asking. There really aren’t any mandatory programs that have to run during setup. As a matter of fact, generally the fewer the programs that are running the better off you are going to be. Now, if the person was asking what type of programs should you run before setup, I think we’ve already covered them pretty well; things like Scanreg to back up your registry, Scandisk to check your hard drive for any errors, and defrag to optimize your hard drive to put it in a better position before you start. Also, run antivirus to make sure your system is clean. But as far as running things during the setup process, really, the fewer things that you are running, the better off you are.

Jason: Next question: Could you expand on the concept of disabling or even removing virus protection before installing a new product? Would this hold true even for something like the SMS client?

Karl: Again, we find with the antivirus program, and this is regardless of which manufacturer it is, and we all know there are many different brands that are out there, they’re doing their job when they try to interfere with the setup process. What they are trying to do is protect the operating system files from an overwrite, which is a common virus action. When they see something overwriting the virus, they basically will try to step in to prevent that from happening. The problem is, if you just disable it, some antivirus programs have an automatic restart feature that basically acts in your protection again, in case you were to disable it for some reason and then forget to re-enable it later on. It automatically turns itself back on, so it’s putting your system back in a protected mode.

Another issue that we’ve seen with various antivirus programs is what we call a Real-mode detector that runs out of the Autoexec.bat or Config.sys, and it basically checks your computer for viruses before the computer even boots up. Again, if you’re disabling it within Windows, you won’t even see this there, and you can actually have the virus acting on the system during the restarts, when basically, you don’t want anything to be happening.

Dan: The problem is, too, that as virus protection has become more sophisticated, it can start from several different places. For Windows 95, we used to just disable it in the Autoexec.bat or the Config.sys or the Win.ini. These days it can be launched from several different places, such as from the registry, and it can be hidden in other places, too. So I agree with Karl, it’s just best that after you have scanned your system for a virus, that you uninstall the antivirus program and then reinstall it after your system is up and running properly.

Jason: The next question, they want to know about doing the low-level format and Fdisk before loading. They want to know the pros and cons associated with that.

Karl: Well, formatting an Fdisk is kind of a misunderstood thing. Your average person who runs a format probably doesn’t actually need to. Formatting or restructuring your drive is basically like taking an eraser to a chalkboard. It just wipes everything off and then gives you a clean place to start. A low-level format goes beyond that, and tries to reset the tracks on the drive, and normally is not necessary for the average user. As a matter of fact, I think most hard drive manufacturers do not recommended it, unless you’re a professional.

When doing a system installation, I normally don’t format at all. Normally, the only reason I would ever run an Fdisk is if I want to make a brand new partition that’s not there now, or if I want to remove an existing one. The only time I really format is when I have an unrecoverable error, something that really is deeper than the average thing, that has to be taken care of, and that’s the only way to get there. You can install an operating system without doing an upgrade. Do what we call a clean install using the article that Dan mentioned earlier, without removing a single thing from your system. There are a couple of advantages to this. One, if you forgot to back up a particular piece of data, it’s still available to you on the hard drive, basically in the same place that you left it. And two, if you’re having driver issues setting up your hardware, the drivers that you use beforehand are still available for you to use. This method allows you to not only upgrade your system to a new operating system, but it also allows you to reinstall the same operating system you’re using now, do it in a clean and safe environment, and still have everything necessary to get it set up properly and available to you.

Jason: Great. What is a drive overlay?

Karl: A drive overlay is kind of a helper tool from the old days when the computers did not understand how to deal with large hard drives. There used to be a size limitation that was put on hard drives, and the BIOS in the computer would not recognize anything larger than that. So you would buy an 8-gigabyte hard drive, and your computer would only recognize it as a 2-gigabyte drive.

A drive overlay basically lays down a special formatting that allows the BIOS to recognize it as something bigger than the BIOS is really capable of understanding. If you damage the drive overlay, the hard drive becomes unbootable. Now, if you have a drive overlay installed on your system, you will probably see a prompt for it when you start up, ahead of everything else. You’ll want to contact the manufacturer and find out if that particular version of the drive overlay is compatible with the operating system you’re installing.

Dan: On most computers these days, the drive overlay is not necessary, because of the updated BIOSs, but if you’re going from, for example, Windows 95 to Windows Millennium Edition or Windows 98, you might want to check it. You will probably know if you have it.

Jason: Great. Does Windows Me support multiprocessor hardware?

Karl: No.

Jason: Okay. Is it possible to uninstall Windows 98 without formatting drives? Windows 98 was not installed with the Uninstall option.

Karl: Going back to the reinforcing we did during the WebCast on this, if you don’t see your previous system files, you have no way to revert back to the previous operating system. Now in the cases described here, the person installed Windows 98 and they didn’t save their files, so the answer is no, they can’t uninstall the Windows 98 version that they have on there. All they can do is reinstall it or do a fresh install into another directory.

Is it necessary to format? No. Once again, going back to that article on how to do a clean install or how to install Windows into a parallel folder, you can install right along side of the place that you’re having the problem, and then use the drivers that are existing in the first one. So it’s not necessary to format, but no, you can’t revert back to the previous system.

Dan: We have a couple of articles on how to install into a new folder: Q193902, titled "How To Install Windows 98 Into a New Folder," and also we have Q277648, "How To Install Windows Millennium Edition In a New Folder."

Jason: The next question is: What kind of antivirus software usually has problems?

Karl: Well, that’s kind of a loaded question. The user was familiar with one particular brand and was curious about using that in Windows 98 and Windows Millennium. The answer is that all antivirus programs are the same, and yet different at the same time. People basically select them the same way they do everything else, based on feature preference or brand preference.

I don’t recommend one over another. A lot of the consumer computing Web sites are going to have better reviews than anything I could give. Basically, the most important thing is to select an antivirus program that’s going to be compatible with your operating system. Some antivirus programs are only compatible for Windows 98 and earlier versions, and the companies have a special version that is compatible only with Windows Millennium or Windows 2000, or any of the other operating systems.

So again, the manufacturer is going to be your best source of information about which version of an antivirus software to put on your system. But as far as which brand, it’s kind of an open question.

Dan: The basic point is that most or all antivirus programs are doing basically the same thing. They are there to protect certain files. So I don’t think it really matters which brand of antivirus program you have. They all pretty much are tasked with the same thing to do, and that’s protect files. So I don’t think which one you have really makes much difference.

Jason: Okay. Is removing virus protection a good practice for installing any software, whether it’s an operating system or an application?

Karl: Well, it’s certainly not a bad idea, although if I’m installing an application, I would be more likely to disable or turn off the detection on the antivirus program than I would be to remove it. We remove it during an operating system install because of the number of restarts the computer has to make and because of the depth of the file changes that are made during an operating system upgrade.

When you’re installing an application, while some do have mandatory restarts, most of them do not, and you don’t really have the same danger that you have during an operating system upgrade, of having the antivirus program reactivated and then interfere in the operation. So normally just disabling it is going to be sufficient.

The help files that come along with the application you’re installing are a good source of information. Normally, if it’s a major issue, they will tell you whether or not they recommend removing or disabling the antivirus program.

Dan: You should definitely check your product documentation regarding the application setup procedure to see if it might be necessary to disable or uninstall the antivirus program. I agree with Carl — in most cases, it’s not necessary.

Jason: Okay. The last question in the queue: If setup is interrupted, from a power failure, and I get error message, and the computer restarts for no reason, what precautions are required to ensure proper installation?

Dan: That pretty much depends on the operating system you’re installing. With Windows 95 and Windows 98, simply turning off the computer and turning it back on will restart the setup process. There were lines written to the Autoexec.bat. There was a file created that kept track of exactly where you were in the setup process and will resume Setup at that point.

With Windows Millennium, and also Windows 98, if it totally bombs out on you, and you decide to restart Setup, Setup is smart enough to know that you have attempted it before and it will tell you something along the lines that it has detected a failed setup, do you wish to recover from it and continue. In most cases, you just want to say yes and continue.

Karl: Again, it’s kind of dependent on exactly what happened. If you had a power failure, you can normally just restart the computer and continue on, although depending on what point that it failed, you may just want to restart. If you have an unexpected restart, the computer just decides to turn itself off and restart, sometimes starting it in a fresh install — so you’re removing all of the hardware and all of the other system information from out of the way — will help you determine whether or not you have a bigger problem. Because if this happens consistently or repetitiously, you may have a larger problem than something just happening with the startup. You may have a hardware failure that’s impending, or something like that.

So really, picking your location, making sure you have a stable power supply, and not trying to upgrade your operating system during a thunderstorm or something would probably be a good idea, to make sure you have a good, solid source of power to continue all of the way through it. Otherwise, when you have unexpected happenings, try starting it over again. If it fails, try starting it again in a different folder, and do a clean installation. And if it continues to fail, you may want to consult either Product Support Services or a hardware technician.

Dan: That’s why it’s so important, why we really stressed the startup disk and saving system files, because if you get to a point where you cannot boot, you cannot continue, and your computer has become a nice, heavy doorstop, you want to be able to boot off that startup disk and uninstall back to your previous operating system. We have an article, Q272159, "How To Uninstall Windows Millennium." There is one for Windows 98 and Windows 9x as well. I don’t have that one listed, but that just shows the point we’ve been trying to make about preparing in advance for this, because sometimes you will get to a point where you just can’t go any further, and that startup disk and those system files are going to save you.

Jason: Thank you so much. We have answered all of the questions that were submitted today, so that is going to wrap up our session. We want to thank all of you for joining us, and do hope that this information was useful to you.

We are very interested in your feedback regarding the WebCast program. You can send us feedback using e-mail alias feedback@microsoft.com. If you use that alias, please be sure to include "Support WebCast" in the subject line.

We hope you join us again in the near future. Thank you, and good-bye.