Tips

Customizing Startup / Shutdown Screens

Fast Access to System Icon

Install a New Motherboard
(the Easy Way)

Windows 98 Resource Kit Book (for Free)

Fast Access to System Icon

When you're configuring a Win98 system, you frequently need to get to the System icon in the Control Panel to check your hardware. The normal process for this is Start/Settings/Control Panel/System, or My Computer/Control Panel/System.

You can get there directly by holding the Alt key while double-clicking My Computer.


Changing the Startup / Shutdown Screens

You can easily modify or replace the startup and shutdown screens for Windows 98. The images are simply 256-color .BMPs that are loaded by the system.

  1. Make your own using these steps:

  2. using your favorite image editor, create a new image that is 533w X 400h
  3. shrink the image horizontally to 320w X 400h
  4. save it as a 256-color .BMP file
  5. rename the file and place it according the the following:

startup screen

\

logo.sys

shutting down screen

\windows

logow.sys

OK to power off

\windows

logos.sys


Windows 98 Resource Kit Book (for Free)

The Windows 98 Resource Kit book is a 1,750+ page book and CD set you can buy in the stores for around $70. It has extensive information on every aspect of Windows 98 - configuration, customization, and much more.

Guess what? You already own it! It's in \tools\reskit\help on the Win98 CD. Just drag rk98book.chm onto your desktop. (I've put a copy on my HD for quick reference.) Actually, it's the full text of the Resource Kit Book, and as a hypertext document, is *considerably* easier to use than the printed book.

A lot of the software included in the Resource Kit is also included on the Win98 retail CD. Run setup.exe from the \tools\reskit directory on the CD to install your choice of the utilities.


Install a New Motherboard (the Easy Way)

When changing the motherboard underneath Win98, you can easily, quickly (and correctly) update all the necessary drivers with a simple two minute process.

  1. Before shutting down the system for the last time, use Control Panel/System/Device Manager to remove most of the devices from the system.

  2. Remove the Display Adapter, Hard Disk, Modem, Network Adapter, and all the devices listed under System.

  3. When the Restart Windows dialog comes up, tell Yes to restart and pull the plug when the system BIOS boot message appears on the monitor.

  4. Change the motherboard, and reboot the system. (Make sure your Win98 CD is handy.)

When it wakes up, Win98 will detect all the new hardware and install the appropriate drivers. After resetting your video parameters, the system will have all your applications and preferences intact.