Replacing Windows Cab Files

[Hexxenhammer]

I have Win98 on my laptop computer at home. I just bought a wireless home network kit. The network card for my laptop won't install because I don't have Win98 second edition. I have the original Win98. I got an IT guy at work to borrow me a Win98 SE cd-rom with the cab files on it. He says if I just replace my cab files with the one on the disk, it should work. I'm skeptical. I don't want to screw up my computer. Any ideas how to replace those cab files safely?

 

[BobK]

I installed a D-Link wireless card on my win98 machine(not 2nd edition) and just had to go to the wireless company's site to get upgraded software. Maybe you can do the same.

 

[Sundog]

I have Win98 on my laptop computer at home. I just bought a wireless home network kit. The network card for my laptop won't install because I don't have Win98 second edition. I have the original Win98. I got an IT guy at work to borrow me a Win98 SE cd-rom with the cab files on it. He says if I just replace my cab files with the one on the disk, it should work. I'm skeptical. I don't want to screw up my computer. Any ideas how to replace those cab files safely?

It won't work. BUT you can then simply run the install program and upgrade to SE, and then it WILL work. Everyone really should be running SE at an absolute minimum.

 

[Skeptical Greg]

Re: Re: Replacing Windows Cab Files

It won't work. BUT you can then simply run the install program and upgrade to SE, and then it WILL work. Everyone really should be running SE at an absolute minimum.

Won't the SE install require a ' Product Key ".. Hopefully the provider of the CAB files can provide this also..

For testing purposes, of course...

 

[Hexxenhammer]

I installed a D-Link wireless card on my win98 machine(not 2nd edition) and just had to go to the wireless company's site to get upgraded software. Maybe you can do the same.

Tried that. The product I bought is too new. It's a Linksys card v4. The v3 would have worked. I tried installing the card with the v3 driver, but no go.

 

[Hexxenhammer]

Re: Re: Replacing Windows Cab Files

It won't work. BUT you can then simply run the install program and upgrade to SE, and then it WILL work. Everyone really should be running SE at an absolute minimum.

I don't think it has the install files. It's just a burned copy of the cabs. But I don't know that much about this stuff so I could be wrong.

 

[Hexxenhammer]

Re: Re: Re: Replacing Windows Cab Files

Won't the SE install require a ' Product Key ".. Hopefully the provider of the CAB files can provide this also..

For testing purposes, of course...

I've got the key....for testing purposes.

 

[Sundog]

Re: Re: Re: Replacing Windows Cab Files

I don't think it has the install files. It's just a burned copy of the cabs. But I don't know that much about this stuff so I could be wrong.

That's a shame, all you need besides the CAB files is the setup.exe in the root directory to do an install. And a key of course.

 

[Skeptical Greg]

Re: Re: Re: Replacing Windows Cab Files

I don't think it has the install files. It's just a burned copy of the cabs. But I don't know that much about this stuff so I could be wrong.

If you have " Setup.exe " from plain ol' 98.. Just put it in the same directory as the SE CAB files. It should work.. ..

 

[Hexxenhammer]

Thanks for the responses. What a nightmare. Turned out the disk had the full version. It even autoran when I stuck it in. "Great," I think, "this'll be easy." Wrong. It tells me I need to get Windows 98 UPDATE. I was using the full version. I do some internet research. I change the name of my autoexec, config, and win.com files and reboot. It should just load the disk at this point and install. Oops. Goes to dos prompt before it loads the cdrom driver. No prob, I'll use my handy startup disk. That's corrupt. Crap. 2 hours later I've found a dos program that lets me change the bootup order and I have it boot the cdrom first. Success! Windows setup starts! Enter my product ID comes up. No prob, I got that. Now are those "6's" or "G's". Neither I guess because I try every iteration of 6's and G's there is for 3 numbers. I've got to call the IT guy and see if he has the original documentation.

 

[scribble]

Thanks for the responses. What a nightmare. Turned out the disk had the full version. It even autoran when I stuck it in. "Great," I think, "this'll be easy." Wrong. It tells me I need to get Windows 98 UPDATE. I was using the full version. I do some internet research. I change the name of my autoexec, config, and win.com files and reboot. It should just load the disk at this point and install. Oops. Goes to dos prompt before it loads the cdrom driver. No prob, I'll use my handy startup disk. That's corrupt. Crap. 2 hours later I've found a dos program that lets me change the bootup order and I have it boot the cdrom first. Success! Windows setup starts! Enter my product ID comes up. No prob, I got that. Now are those "6's" or "G's". Neither I guess because I try every iteration of 6's and G's there is for 3 numbers. I've got to call the IT guy and see if he has the original documentation.

I feel your pain. But in fact you may have saved yourself some time - the majority of Windows98SE CDs are bootable. Assuming your BIOS supports it, you could have hit ESC (or F1 or whatever it is on your system) while booting to enter the BIOS configuration, and set the system to boot of the Windows install CD, which includes the option to automagically load your CD ROM drivers and start the install.

Of course that's assuming you had a copy with that functionality; some OEM versions won't do it.

Chris "Ex Microsoft Employee" Jansen

 

[Underemployed]

The quick and dirty guide to installing 98SE on top of the dreaded first edition when you do not have the official upgrade CD begins thusly:

Boot off the 98SE CD. It should offer you three choices - start Windows setup, start the computer with CD support, start the computer without CD support.

Choose Start the computer with CD support. It will boot up to a DOS prompt.

Type "C:" [enter]
"CD WINDOWS" [enter]
"RENAME WIN.COM WIN.OLD" [enter]

Assuming your CD-Drive is D type "D:" [enter]
(if you have more than one CD-Drive then the one with the Windows CD may be the E drive, in this case type "E:")

Type "SETUP" <enter> then follow the on-screen instructions UNTIL YOU GET TO THE FOLLOWING POINT WHICH MUST BE DONE CORRECTLY:

Windows setup will ask you if you want to install to the bizarrely named WINDOWS.000 directory. Choose to name one yourself and just enter WINDOWS (you can do this by deleting the .000 at this point).

Continue the install as you would normally. Depending on the flavor of the CD (OEM or not) you may not have to enter a product code. When finished you will have a 98SE install with all the icons and programs just as you left them on the dreaded first edition.

 

[scribble]

The quick and dirty guide to installing 98SE on top of the dreaded first edition when you do not have the official upgrade CD begins thusly:

Boot off the 98SE CD. It should offer you three choices - start Windows setup, start the computer with CD support, start the computer without CD support.

Choose Start the computer with CD support. It will boot up to a DOS prompt.

Type "C:" [enter]
"CD WINDOWS" [enter]
"RENAME WIN.COM WIN.OLD" [enter]

Assuming your CD-Drive is D type "D:" [enter]
(if you have more than one CD-Drive then the one with the Windows CD may be the E drive, in this case type "E:")

Type "SETUP" <enter> then follow the on-screen instructions UNTIL YOU GET TO THE FOLLOWING POINT WHICH MUST BE DONE CORRECTLY:

Windows setup will ask you if you want to install to the bizarrely named WINDOWS.000 directory. Choose to name one yourself and just enter WINDOWS (you can do this by deleting the .000 at this point).

All I owuld change is I highly recommend NOT installing into the already-existing WINDOWS directory. If you put in in another directory (say, win98) then you can delete the old windows dir and clean up a lot of junk that otherwise'll just sit there.