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

Heidi Moeller Hello and welcome to the Microsoft Support WebCast program. We'd like to thank all of you for joining us today. Our topic will be "Microsoft Windows^® Millennium Edition Setup" and our presenter will be Brian Zoucha. I'm Heidi Moeller and I'll be your host for today's session.

We'll start this session with Brian's presentation. I expect that to last anywhere from about 30 to 45 minutes and then we'll follow that up with a Q&A session. You can submit questions at any time during the broadcast. However, once again, we're going to hold off until after the presentation is finished to go ahead and address those questions. Also, the Q&A portion of the Support WebCast is intended to encourage further discussion of the Support WebCast topic; however, one-on-one product support issues are outside the scope of this broadcast. If you do have a support issue and would like to speak with an individual, we would encourage you to phone into Microsoft Product Support Services and you can always submit an incident on the Web.

With all those details aside, let me go ahead and introduce Brian. Brian Zoucha joined Microsoft just a few years ago as a Support Professional. He's been involved with several beta projects and recently worked with the Product Development group during the Windows Millennium Edition beta. He currently works for Product Support Services as a contact to the Development team for the Windows Millennium Edition product release. Thank you so much for joining us today, Brian. Let's go ahead and get started.

Brian Zoucha Good morning, everybody. I'd like to go ahead and just briefly outline what's going to be covered in this presentation.

What we're going to cover today are going to be the four sections of setup. This is going to start off by preparing to run Microsoft Windows Setup, collecting information about your computer, copying files to your computer, and then setting up hardware and finalizing system settings. This is actually going to take us all the way through, from the moment you click or type setup.exe through the Wizard pages, whether or not you've had some problems and may be offered safe recovery, on through the EULA, checking your system, preparing a directory, saving system files, creating EBD, and preparing to copy files, evaluating Plug and Play devices, reviewing system configuration, and then finally reaching the Windows Millennium Edition desktop.

What happens when Setup.exe is started? Setup.exe is a stub executable. This may be a different name for localized versions. This actually starts SUhelper.bin, which gets the path and real name of Setup.exe.

Differences between setup started from Microsoft Windows or Microsoft^® MS-DOS^®. Depending on whether you're going to do an upgrade or a clean MS-DOS install, there are two different scenarios that take place. When starting setup from within Windows^® 95 or Windows^® 98, W9xsetup.bin is called and then extracts the .cab files from your install point, CD, or flat, to the Wininst0.400 directory. The main difference in starting setup from MS-DOS is that DOSsetup.bin is called to unpack Mini.cab, which is commonly called mini-Windows, which includes files such as a System.ini, Win.ini, keyboard and mouse drivers. After this is unpacked the [Shell] line =w9xsetup.bin, which then extracts the .cab files to the Wininst0.400 directory. At this point in setup, Suwin.exe is started. Then it uses Setupx.dll to guide you through the remainder of setup including the wizards, the end-user license agreement, emergency boot disk creation, etc.

What blocks setup? Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition will block setup when it detects incompatible applications or drivers such as Dr. Solomon's Anti-Virus version 7.71 or earlier or some of IBM's Mwave Modem Drivers version 2.60.36.0 or earlier. Some of the other applications or drivers that we block include some Internet applications, PPPOE, which actually stands for the Point-to-Point Protocol and it's over Ethernet. This is commonly used with DSL services. There are some newer versions that have been released that are going to be compatible with Windows Millennium Edition, so we have worked with the vendors of these specific applications and drivers to get them compatible with Windows Millennium Edition.

How do you get around the blocks? When you receive a block during setup, the message will offer the resolution. So depending upon the application or the driver that you may receive the block for, you'll either receive instructions to visit the Hardware.txt on the Windows Millennium Edition retail CD, or you will receive information in the dialog box to visit the vendor's Web site and download the latest version.

After we've passed the blocks, if you receive them, we now begin to prepare to run setup. This is actually where we're going to be running through the wizard pages, which include safe recovery, end-user license agreement, checking your system, preparing the directory, saving system files, creating your EBD, and preparing to copy files.

The wizard pages, if you have received or if you encounter problems during Windows Millennium Edition setup, sometimes when you restart setup you'll be offered the safe recovery option. What actually tells us to offer safe recovery is the Setuplog.txt. Setuplog.txt shows the last attempted failed setup and uses that file to determine where to resume. This file is located in the root of C and also contains a lot of information about what you've actually chosen to install. We've got the [Started] section, Setuplog.txt, which actually will show whether you did a clean or upgrade install. You can tell this by the WinVer= line. WinVer here in this example shows Mini, which tells us that it's a clean install because mini-Windows was the last version of Windows to be running on this machine.

On to the end-user license agreement. This is actually a text file, License.txt, and it's extracted from Precopy1.cab. You pretty much just have to agree to the end-user license agreement. That will take you to the next step, which is checking your system.

During Windows Millennium Edition setup, Scanreg.exe first copies System.dat, User.dat and Classes.dat if they exist to C:\ as System.new, User.new, and Classes.new. Then it scans the new files and splits or repairs the *.new files as needed. That way it is possible to cancel setup and still have a bootable Windows 95 or Windows 98 system, because the Windows 95 or Windows 98 registry remains unchanged. During setup, Scanreg no longer creates the *.bad backup files of the .dat files as they existed before running setup. Setup now leaves the Classes.1st file hidden at the root of C, along with the System.1st containing the state of the registry before the first boot after setup.

Preparing the directory, during the very first progress bar, we're checking your system for installed components. Then we load all .inf files that are listed in the Setup.inf in the [load_inf] section. After this has been done, we'll perform a class installation on any hardware .inf files.

The ClassInstall installs a new class for a device in the class section of the registry. Typically a ClassInstall section will use the AddReg-type entries to add a class description and a class icon to the registry. These will be visible in the Windows Millennium Edition user interface. In addition, the ClassInstall section can specify a property provider and an exert control over how the class is handled in the Windows Millennium Edition user interface. Every device installed has a class associated with it, even if the class is unknown and every class has a class installer associated with it. The installer processes the ClassInstall section, if one of the devices defined in an .inf file is about to be installed, and the class is not built into the Windows Millennium Edition.

The following are hardware classes and class names that are built into Windows Millennium Edition. This includes CD-ROM controllers, display adapters, floppy disk controllers, hard disk controllers, keyboards, memory technology drivers, modem, mouse, multifunction adapters, network adapters, other devices, PCMCI sockets, COM and LPT ports, printers, SCSI controllers, sound and video game controllers, system devices, and USB devices.

Saving system files. During the first progress bar here we're going to be processing the COPY, DEL, and REN sections in the .inf file. After this is complete, we will check free disk space a second time. Then at this time we will back up all needed files for uninstall. As in previous versions of Windows 95 and Windows 98, these files are backed up to the Win9xundo.dat, Win9xundo.ini, and the Winlfn.ini.

On to the EBD creation. While creating the EBD, 0–20 percent, we collect the files for the EBD from the .cab files and copy to the C:\Wininst0.400\Ebd folder; 20–60 percent, we're formatting the floppy disk; and then from 60–100 percent, we're copying files from the C:\Wininst0.400\Ebd folder to the floppy disk.

Prepare to copy files. The [Basewinoptions] sections are processed in this portion and specifies what files are to be copied. Examples of .inf files that contain this section are Msbase.inf, Custom.inf, and Machine.inf. This portion of setup is where you determine what type of installation you prefer and also whether or not you have chosen the ability to uninstall.

Copying files to your computer. Another change that has been made with Windows Millennium Edition setup is that we are copying the .cab files from your installation media to the hard drive. The following are the cases in which the files will be copied or will not be copied.

On clean installs or MS-DOS upgrades, differences between installing from a flat versus CD. If your source directory is on drive C or the same drive that you're installing to, the .cab files will not be copied. However, if you're doing a MS-DOS upgrade clean install and your source directory exists on another logical drive or a non real-mode fixed disk drive, then the .cab files will be copied to the Windows\Options\Install directory of the drive that you're installing to, and then setup will resume from that directory.

Windows 95/98 GUI upgrade. GUI is the graphical user interface. Within a GUI upgrade, if the source is on a real-mode fixed disk we will not be copying the .cab files. However, if you're installing from a non-real-mode fixed disk drive, the .cab files will be copied to the Windows\Options\Install directory. For example, if you were to install from a mapped network drive, the .cab files would be copied the same as they would be if I was installing from a CD.

Setting up hardware. During the first reboot, we're going to be copying the .vxd files and on the first reboot we've already performed the registry split. We now have a System.1st and a Classes.1st. At this point, we're going to be detecting all of your Plug and Play and non-Plug and Play devices. Items in the Run key do not get executed until the first boot into GUI mode. Items in the RunOnce key are only executed during the second boot. However, we are not yet up in Windows Millennium Edition for the first time.

Finalizing system settings. During this portion of setup we're setting up the Plug and Play devices that we have detected, and finalizing the system settings. Setting up programs on the Start menu, Control Panel, Windows Help, as well as registering files and finalizing registry entries. The following registry entries are being executed at this point:

The items that are executed from the RunOnceEx key are logged in the following location. That file, RunOnceEx Log.txt is in your Windows directory. At this point we are in Windows Millennium Edition for the first time. This will take us up to the third reboot and then to the desktop.

Also, this is point in setup at which the Internet Explorer files are actually placed on the machine and registered, and are getting ready to be finalized and getting us ready to hit the desktop.

On the final reboot, we are going to be reregistering and registering files and finalizing all registry changes. Then we will initialize the driver information database. Drvidx.bin and Drvdata.bin will be initialized, after which we will have arrived at the Windows Millennium Edition desktop.

Heidi, would you like to go ahead and open it up for some Q&A?

Heidi You bet. Thank you very much, Brian. It's time to move on to the Q&A portion of this Support WebCast. We only take questions during the live event. Once again, the Q&A portion of the Support WebCast is not intended for one-on-one product support. It is intended to look at the topic and encourage further discussion of that topic. However, if you do need technical assistance, please submit an incident on the Web or call Microsoft Product Support Services and speak with one of our Support Professionals.

Let's go ahead and see what we've got. We've got some questions that have already come in. The first question is: Can you buy the upgrade version and install it clean having the Windows 98 CD available for verification?

Brian The question would be the upgrade version, which is commonly called the Step-up CD. Yes, you can install it on a clean drive. You can install from MS-DOS. This does vary. It is different than the behavior with Windows 98 and Windows 98 Second Edition CDs. We are now able to go ahead and install the Step-up on a clean drive, as long as you have one of the qualifying products, which would be Windows 98 or Windows 98 Second Edition.

Heidi Excellent. Moving then to the next question: What steps are needed to install the Shared Internet Connection feature? And does Windows Millennium Edition have a firewall built in?

Brian Windows Millennium Edition does not really have a firewall, so-to-speak, built in. ICS (Internet Connection Sharing) pretty much acts as a firewall with the way that it's set up. It's kind of a scaled-down version from what actually resides in Windows 2000. We have added the Windows 2000 TCP/IP stack, so a lot of the security fixes and patches and everything are included in Windows Millennium Edition, so the IP stack is brand new.

As far as steps to install Internet Connection Sharing, I believe all you'd really need to do is click Start, point to Settings, click Control Panel, open up Add/Remove Programs, choose Communications, and select ICS. We also have included a Home Networking Wizard, which will guide you and aid in setting up your home network to make sure that both machines can take advantage of just one Internet connection.

Heidi I know also one of our support professionals did an Internet Connection Sharing Support WebCast just a while ago. Now if I recall correctly it was not a Millennium Edition session, but I got a tremendous amount of very, very good feedback on it. My assumption is that there will be some very strong similarities between the setup of Internet Connection Sharing in Windows 98 and Windows 2000. Is that a fair assumption, Brian, or am I out to lunch with that one?

Brian Between Windows 98 and Windows Millennium Edition, it's going to be pretty much identical.

Heidi So that might be a useful archive for you. For all the Support WebCasts we have on-demand streaming media available, the PowerPoint^® slides, and within three weeks of live session, we have full session transcripts. The URL is http://support.microsoft.com/webcasts/. From there, you can get to all upcoming sessions as well as the archives from all of our past sessions.

Moving on to the next question. How long does it take for a typical installation both clean and with an upgrade?

Brian That is an extremely difficult question to gauge. It really depends on what machine you're going to be installing on. Say I've got 150 MHz laptop here in front of me with 32 MB of RAM, which just barely slides under the system requirements; it takes anywhere from an hour to an hour and 15 minutes to get Windows Millennium Edition completely set up on this machine. If you're running a PIII 500 MHz with 128 MB of RAM, it could take as little as 35 to 40 minutes. So it's an extremely hard question to gauge. It really depends on the hardware that you're dealing with.

Heidi Let's go ahead on to the next question. Any resources currently available to troubleshoot shut down problems?

Brian The Microsoft Knowledge Base is going to be the best resource to troubleshoot your shut down problems. Typically what causes the shut down issues are third-party drivers that leave something in memory, so that we can't actually reach the power state that we need to, to recycle the machine. So I think the best bet for you is probably going to be just querying the Microsoft Knowledge Base and checking out some of the articles up there that discuss the shut down issues. At this time there really haven't been any specific Windows Millennium Edition shut down issues encountered.

Heidi Terrific. Moving on to the next question. Now, Brian, you mentioned just a few questions ago that somebody that already has Windows 98, they have the CD, they want to move to Windows 2000, not a problem with that even if they don't have it installed. They can go ahead and do the full install. They just need to have that Windows 98 CD to identify that they are owners of the previous version so that they essentially qualify for that Step-up, correct?

Brian Correct. The compliance checking for Windows Millennium Edition has been improved quite a bit. We now allow you to install clean from MS-DOS using the upgrade CD as long as you do have the original Windows 98 media present, so that during Windows Millennium Edition setup, when you are asked to insert your Windows 98 (or other qualifying product) you can do so.

Heidi How about Windows 95? Does the Windows 95 also?

Brian The Step-up CD does not work on Windows 95. You would have to buy the full release.

Heidi Next question: Has Millennium Edition been upgraded with the new drivers for some of the Windows 98 version drivers, like USB camera and scanners, so just some additional drivers.

Brian There has been a lot of work done around the USB hardware for Windows Millennium Edition. There have been some improvements and there have been some additions in drivers. I really couldn't answer your question unless we had some specific pieces of hardware that we were dealing with, to know if you wanted specific drivers for this piece of hardware instead of having to use the third-party driver.

Heidi Is there a Hardware Compatibility List available on the Internet yet?

Brian It's http://www.microsoft.com/hcl/. That's just an acronym for Windows Hardware Compatibility List.

Heidi Excellent. I would also like to encourage everybody who is listening in, to send us some feedback. We're very interested in your feedback regarding the Support WebCast program overall. If you have any comments about the topic you listened in to today or any suggestions for subjects you'd like to see in the future, you can submit your feedback to the alias, feedback@microsoft.com. If you do use that alias be sure to include "Support WebCast" in the subject line, so it does get back to us.

Brian, are you ready there?

Brian Yes. The URL is for the Hardware Compatibility List, which is just http://www.microsoft.com/hcl/. The Hardware Quality Lab, or actually the people who go through and say they've sent the driver to us, we've taken a look at it, we've tested it, and it's completely compatible. So yes, Windows Millennium Edition has been added to the HCL, so it is up there for you.

Heidi Next question: I heard there was not going to be a resource kit for Windows Millennium Edition. Is this true? And if so, do you know why not?

Brian Yes, that is true. There is not going to be a resource kit released for Windows Millennium Edition. As for the specific reason why there wasn't going to be one released, I don't have the specific reasons on why they decided not to release one for Windows Millennium Edition. My guess would possibly be that this operating system is the first OS that is truly designed for home users. So the need for all of the group policies and explanations and scripted installs and things like that, there's really not a big need for an explanation for these types of features or items for Windows Millennium Edition because their functionality is just not what it was with Windows 98, just looking at a completely different a new OS. Our focus has changed for a home user.

Heidi Next question. Does Windows Millennium Edition work with multiboot programs such as Boot Magic or Partition Magic?

Brian Yes, it does.

Heidi Terrific. Moving right along. What are the minimum requirements for Windows Millennium Edition? Do you have them on-hand?

Brian Yes, I do actually have those. It's a Pentium 150 MHz with 32 MB of RAM. As far as the disk space specifics on needed disk space, I don't recall that number right off the top of my head.

Heidi I don't recall it either, but for some reason it seems like it was a pretty decent amount of disk space.

Brian Yes. If you go out to http://www.microsoft.com/windowsme/upgrade/sysreqs.asp, they did have the hardware specs and system requirements on the Web.

Heidi What you're giving of course is the minimum requirements.

Brian Yes. This is the minimum. Depending on what you're going to be using, depending on what features of the OS you're going to be using, it's going to vary greatly. Like I said, the 150 MHz with 32 MB of RAM is minimum. If you're going to be using Media Player to be burning CDs or making your own CDs or using Movie Maker to be editing and cataloging your home movies, it's going to greatly affect the system requirements. I did just confirm the link. It's http://www.microsoft.com/windowsme/upgrade/sysreqs.asp. This site is actually a pretty nice little site. It guides you through the optional features, telling you what we recommend that you have. So if I was going to use Movie Maker and Media Player, it recommends that I have a Pentium II 300-MHz processor or faster, 64 MB of RAM, two gigabytes of free disk space, a 56 Kbps modem or faster, Active Sync 3.0 or higher, that's for Windows CE.

Heidi Excellent. Let's go ahead and get on to the next question. For all of you who are interested in checking this out and what varies when you put in different components, once again use that link. It's pretty straightforward.

The next question: You mentioned that PPPoE drivers for some DSLs can result in blocking the setup. Does this apply to cable modems also?

Brian No, it does not. Most cable modems, I personally have a cable modem at home myself, I've had no problems whatsoever. The PPPoE is software that is commonly used for the DSL type of broadband connections, so it really doesn't apply to cable modems.

Heidi I've had a couple questions put out on Windows 2000 and I just wanted to let all of you know that is outside the scope of this Support WebCast. This Support WebCast is specifically regarding Windows Millennium Edition, so unfortunately we're not going to be able to address any of the Windows 2000 questions that have been submitted today.

The next question is: Will the upgrade product keep all existing drivers present that were used in Windows 98 Second Edition? The upgrade from Windows 98 to Windows 98 Second Edition forced me to reinstall the VIA chip set, IRQ mini port, and PCI bridge drivers.

Brian Right. That's an interesting question, especially in regards to the VIA chip set. With Windows Millennium Edition all of your drivers should remain intact. This is something that was tested extensively with all the latest and greatest hardware. In regards to the VIA technologies everything should remain intact. You should not have to reinstall it after you upgrade. If it's there before the upgrade, it should still be there intact after the upgrade.

Heidi Excellent. With that question answered, we've cleared the queue of all the questions that were submitted during today's Support WebCast. Once again, I want to encourage all of you to spend just a few moments to submit some feedback to us. Once again, you can use the alias, feedback@microsoft.com. If you use that alias, be sure to include "Support WebCast" in the subject line.

We want to thank you for joining us today. We do hope you found this content valuable and have an opportunity to join us again in the near future. Have a great day and good-bye.