Subj : Re: Reinstalling Win98
To   : MIKE ROSS
From : Alan Zisman
Date : Tue Feb 08 2005 08:38 am

-=> MIKE ROSS wrote to Alan Zisman <=-

 MR> "Alan Zisman" bravely wrote to "Mick Lazic" (30 Jan 05  13:01:00)
 MR>  --- on the heady topic of "Re: Reinstalling Win98"

 AZ> -- Note as well that re-installing Windows over an existing
 AZ> installation, while convenient, rarely cures whatever problem is
 AZ> making you want to re-install Windows. If you're having serious
 AZ> problems, you're almost always better off with a clean install, even
 AZ> though that means having to reinstall drivers and applications. ...

 MR> I quasi-accidentally found a trick for w95 by renaming the directory
 MR> and then giving it a "hidden" directory attribute. This allows a new
 MR> install which doesn't overwrite the old one and I can switch between
 MR> each as desired simply by renaming them. For example make a copy to a
 MR> new name, then when some program install goes wrong one can always
 MR> revert in a few seconds. I haven't had to try it with w98se yet, so I
 MR> don't know if this hidden directory trick will work with it too.

 It ought to...

 However, the installs (both Win95 and 98), at least when using the 
widely-available OEM CD version, will want to install into a new directory 
anyway (by default WINDOWS.000 though you can change that) if it discovers an 
existing C:\WINDOWS folder.

 If you let it do that, you can then boot to the version of choice by editing 
the paths listed in the (hidden, read-only) C:\MSDOS.SYS boot file:

[Paths]
WinDir=c:\windows
WinBootDir=c:\windows
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