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Solve : Edit 98SE Boot Menu? |
| Answer» <html><body><p>I have a conventional 98SE install on C:-drive on an 80GB HDD. C:-drive is 5GB, and there is a 15GB D:-drive, with the single optical drive, a DVD-burner, as E:-drive. The rest of the disk is occupied by a Linux install.<br/><br/>The PC has a Gigagyte GA-K8VM800M (rev. 2.0) mainboard, Athlon 64 AMD 3000 2GHz, and 1GB DDR400 RAM - 98SE is set to read 384MB of this. <br/><br/>The 98SE install has ZoneAlarm, Avast, Firefox, and connection to Cable Internet via on-board <a href="https://interviewquestions.tuteehub.com/tag/ethernet-17589" style="font-weight:bold;" target="_blank" title="Click to know more about ETHERNET">ETHERNET</a>. <br/><br/>This <a href="https://interviewquestions.tuteehub.com/tag/setup-1203067" style="font-weight:bold;" target="_blank" title="Click to know more about SETUP">SETUP</a>, with OpenOffice2, Roxio 6.1, <a href="https://interviewquestions.tuteehub.com/tag/photoshop-25605" style="font-weight:bold;" target="_blank" title="Click to know more about PHOTOSHOP">PHOTOSHOP</a>, etc, is working well. <br/><br/>What I need to do is to Edit the contents of the Boot Menu. I'm aware that you can add controls for it in MSDOS.SYS, but not of a way to edit or re-set the existing options on it. Perhaps like the NT BOOT.INI file or a Linux LILO or GRUB file. My intention is to do a Customised install on a purpose-made PC, but to try it out on this PC first. <br/><br/>That is - where is - or is there - an editable file that has the contents list for the Boot Menu?<br/><br/>After a lot of Googling, Forum searching, so on, I'm starting to think this is a bit of a mystery.....<br/><br/>I do hope somebody knows about this - or at least can tell me that the default entries in Boot Menu are "made in" and so can't be edited, anyway...<br/><br/>Thanks in advance to any who can enlighten me!<br/><br/>Kadani. Quote</p><blockquote>What I need to do is to Edit the contents of the Boot Menu. I'm aware that you can add controls for it in MSDOS.SYS, but not of a way to edit or re-set the existing options on it. Perhaps like the NT BOOT.INI file</blockquote><br/>Am not sure what you mean, options in MSDOS.SYS can be set/reset in any plain text editor.<br/><br/>Here are the permitted options and the associated values. As in BOOT.INI the boot directory etc can be set/reset as can the values in the varous options.<br/><br/>Please advise.<br/><br/>Good luckDusty - Thanks for your attention so quickly.<br/><br/>What I meant was that the default Boot Menu has a half-dozen or so options on it, 1. Normal Startup, 2. Logged, and so on. This list isn't in msdos.sys - but it's displayed, so it must be in a file somewhere. <br/><br/>It's that file, location, or whatever else creates that default Menu, that I'm trying to find. <br/><br/>I just hope that it isn't in a "closed code" file...<br/><br/>Thanks again. <br/><br/>Kadani.Win 98 has no boot menu. Are you looking at a 3rd party app? Or have you installed XP on the same machine?<br/><br/>Can you tell us more about your machine and hows it setup?<br/>If this machine has Linux on it then you need either a LILO or GRUB boot editor...Spoiler - 98SE does have a Boot Menu - with 6-7 items on it, starting with 1 = Normal start, thru to (usually) 6 = Command Prompt Only. The way to see said Menu without holding a key down at startup is to edit the Windows-side msdos.sys to read, LOGO=0 and BOOTMENU=1. <br/><br/>Patio - Yes, the PC has GRUB on it for PCLinuxOS. On the GRUB Menu, select Windows, and it boots to 98SE. And the Boot Menu does then show. <br/><br/>The Setup is as described in the header Post - <br/><br/>"I have a conventional 98SE install on C:-drive on an 80GB HDD. C:-drive is 5GB, and there is a 15GB D:-drive, with the single optical drive, a DVD-burner, as E:-drive. The rest of the disk is occupied by a Linux install...<br/><br/>The PC has a Gigagyte GA-K8VM800M (rev. 2.0) mainboard, Athlon 64 AMD 3000 2GHz, and 1GB DDR400 RAM - 98SE is set to read 384MB of this.<br/><br/>The 98SE install has ZoneAlarm, Avast, Firefox, and connection to Cable Internet via on-board ethernet.<br/><br/>This setup, with OpenOffice2, Roxio 6.1, Photoshop, etc, is working well..."<br/><br/>> What else would you like to know about the PC setup? <br/><br/>The Windows O/S is 98SE, there is no XP on it. I have to have "Windows something" as I'm in Australia and the ISP doesn't support Linux. So 98SE is the least hassle to dual-boot. <br/><br/>I've been adjusting the 98SE Boot Menu - making it visible on startup, changing the Boot Menu Delay from 30 <a href="https://interviewquestions.tuteehub.com/tag/seconds-239463" style="font-weight:bold;" target="_blank" title="Click to know more about SECONDS">SECONDS</a> to 3 seconds, so on, for nearly 10 years - so it does exist - and it should be editable. <br/><br/>I was a Windows Technician - CompTIA A+ qualified - for 11 years before I retired. So I do know the "usual things" of Windows, back to Windows-2.x - <a href="https://interviewquestions.tuteehub.com/tag/286-299698" style="font-weight:bold;" target="_blank" title="Click to know more about 286">286</a> in 1987 - and forward to XP-Pro-SP3. <br/><br/>Few people here have, or will tolerate, Vista, so Microsoft has extended XP-Pro (not Home) until end 2009 here. Probably into 2010 - or dealers will have stocks from end of 2009 - to last until the makeover of Vista, Windows-7, arrives. A recycled failure will most likely be another failure. <br/><br/>About 1 in 8 PCs here is still on 98SE. It runs faster than XPs on the many old and low-end PCs here. <br/><br/>Linux isn't yet taking much of the market here - but Vista has given it a big boost. Microsoft Australia is telling suburban dealers here that they'll be able to "bridge" the Vista era to Windows-7 with extended time on XP-Pro. If that's all they can offer, they're giving this market to Linux. <br/><br/>Thanks, Kadani.</body></html> | |