The joys of OS installing.....

from WinCustomize Forums
Well....I just got myself a new graphic card which DOES have Win2K drivers...not generic ones, so I figured I'd re-install 2K and get the benefit of a more stable system, now that one less device driver was likely to cause grief.
So...
New drive caddy and old drive...bye-bye to ME...reformat....
Installed base win98...
Added 2K for dual boot....
Loaded graphic drivers...Resisted temptation to push monitor to 2048x1536....
Oh how ugly the Exploder shell is....
Not one 'tweak'....yuck....
Then...
Success...can contact Virus proggy boffins....I was famous for being the only person that it wouldn't install for in 2K...so was a beta tester....many tries and no-go till now....
Guess it was LiteSPAWN and/or LiteSTEP that caused the OS to be unrecognised as 'NT5'....
Then the next challenge.....
To convince Mechwarrior 4 to run under 2K...it was supposed to....
2 more hours...got it....[damn Microsoft games]
Finally...
Just HAD to load LiteSTEP...[of course]
Woe is me.....no msvcp60.dll.....
Exploder exploded...
[well generated errors, as is its want]....
Hunted down the dll off another drive...
At last....familiar grey desktop...
Explunker was banished once more....

Of course...WindowBlinds is next....
Then I will be brutal, and resist all those silly tweaks and junk that makes life interesting, but dodgey, stability-wise.

And it all started because I had an error in wow.exe and couldn't run 16 bit proggies, namely one for postcodes.....hehe....
4,623 views 13 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
The smell of fresh install, nothing like it, its better then the new car smell.
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
"as is its want"

wont
n. Custom; habit; use; usage.

http://www.dictionary.com/cgi-bin/dict.pl?term=wont

Xi xi xi, say I...
ObjectDock - Access shortcuts and frequently used applications from an animated dock.
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Maxim...you are correct...but if you keep on correcting me I'll stop promoting your proggy....hehe...
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
You mean you'll remove your official endorsement? Oh no!

...I can't help it... everyone else's spelling I can forgive, they have the excuse that they're French or Dutch or American or something... but you...

/me remembers Jafo is a Wizop

Yes, Mr. Jafo sir, I will refrain from picking up on your deliberate mistakes in future. I know you only slip them in to test us all...
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Now I recommend getting Norton Ghost and creating,
a ghosted image of the drive. NG will take 1.5 GB, and crunch it down to 600 Mb's. When that is done, create a boot disk, and put the Norton Ghost .exe on the Boot Disk. Now take Nero and create a Bootable CD, using the Boot Disk with Ghost on it, as the Boot Rom image and include your triple compressed *.gho image on the CD.
Now if everything craps on ya, 12 to 20 minutes and you are back to guy..no muss, no fuss...
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Cyg....I'll do all that when I've finished all the tweaks....still heaps of stuff to do...
Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top
And, I might add....Setting up and running Component manager, and downloading a nice new Windowblinds, installing, and then adding a couple of my skins has been the most pain-free part of the whole procedure to date.
I honestly think a few more people/companies could learn a thing or two from the machinations of Stardock....

So far...one memory dump....thanks to ICQ2000b locking up....my fault, though....still had virus proggy monitoring...
Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Well, things started going down-hill when trying to add ICQPlus 3...it wouldn't take, and now exploder has lived up to its name....haha...good thing I can boot into 'STEP instead...just pickled the original shell, that's all...
But...
Deleted Plus again, and will try to regain control of my system....even the virus proggy is having second thoughts now.....I'm hoping I haven't caught a bug from 'Plus'....
The old bloated drive OS is looking more desirable once more....
Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top
"And it all started because I had an error in wow.exe and couldn't run 16 bit proggies, namely one for postcodes.....hehe..."


Well....actually, it was wowexec.exe, and the problem is back.
Now I'm really pissed off.....how is it that days of installing and tweaking can be all for nothing?

I still can't run that stupid 16 bit proggy....and that means certain installers won't work either, cos they are often 16 bit.

Now I'm forced to hunt through the net, searching for methods of curing this....I've already got into the registry and set the ntvdm's to run in their own protected memeory space...still no luck.

Now it's just getting to be a matter of pride, tinged with frustration.....bloody thing WAS working....

It really seems to be the only problem left....;(
Reply #12 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Jafo,

I'll be with you shortly my friend. My trusty build of Win2K is getting old and tiring from the old age. The WinXP RC1 build has been trashed for quite some time. Going to archive all goodies and start with some fresh blood. (Win2K and WinXP RC2 dual boot)
Reply #13 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Buzz....maybe RC2 will be the go...

Read somewhere there is a way to fool 2k into thinking it is a different OS so 16 bit proggies will work.....now I've gotta find the link again....