Installation Guide - Windows 98 / 98SE / ME

Installation

The big thing before starting any Windows installation is to plan, know what you are doing. Read this blog in full. Back up your data.

I have written this guide using Windows ME, however it is equally valid for Windows 98/98SE. The order of things may change slightly but thats about it.

Some Windows disks will not boot from the CD therefore you must boot from the floppy. If you don't have a boot disk you can download one from here.

Insert floppy disk and CD into your PC and start the machine. At the prompt select 'Start computer with CD-ROM support' and press 'Enter'.

At the command prompt type 'format c:', press 'Enter' and 'y' to format. Let it do its thing and then enter a name for your drive, I would call it 'WinME', 'Win98, or 'Win98SE'.

After the formatting has completed type 'setup', press 'Enter' and once Scandisk finishes press 'x' to start installation.

Click 'Next' when prompted, accept the Agreement, enter your Product Key and click 'Next' three times.

Now enter your Name and Company Name then click 'Next' twice. If you know what the name of your Workgroup is enter that information here, if not just type 'MSHOME' then click 'Next'. Select your Country and click 'Next', select your Time Zone and click 'Next'.

Finally remove the floppy disk, click on 'Cancel' and then 'Finish'.

Let Windows do its thing until it restarts and asks you for a password, enter a password and then press 'Enter' and then re-enter your password. Be sure to enter a reasonably strong password but something you can remember.

Now you will have to install any needed drivers for your system, video card, sound card etc. I will have to leave this up to you!

Systems

Updates

Microsoft Updates

You would be surprised how many people are running their Windows machines totally unpatched.

Go to Start/Programs and click on Windows Update.

Set it to update automatically, download and install all updates. You just have to keep Windows fully patched!

AVG Anti-virus

If you do not have anti-virus you are asking for trouble. Download AVG Anti-virus Free Edition from here, install but choose 'NO' to restarting PC when it has completed.

If the AVG Control Panel doesn't start automatically go to Start/Programs/AVG 7.5/ AVG Control Center. On the left hand panel select 'Check for Updates', check the box 'Do not ask....' and select 'Internet'. Then select 'Update'.

Repeat process until no more updates are available, only restart if AVG prompts you to. Once done restart PC and check AVG Control Center for any more updates.

From the Control Center run a Full scan.

SpywareBlaster

We also need protection from spyware, I use SpywareBlaster, download from here. Install and run the program.

On the left hand panel select 'Updates' and then 'Check for Updates' on the main panel.

After updating has been completed select 'Protection' from the left panel and then 'Enable All Protection' from the main panel.

Spybot

While SpywareBlaster prevents known spyware from installing you need a program to remove any you may already have. Download and install Spybot from here.

Once you have Spybot installed - run the program, check the box not to see the warning again. Don't create registry back-up just click 'Next'.

Click on 'Search for Updates' and then 'Download All Available Updates'. Click on 'Immunize' on the left pane and then the Immunize green cross on the main pane.

Now to run a complete scan, do the 'Update' option, then 'Immunize' and then 'Search & Destroy'- 'Check For Problems'.

Remove everything it finds.

CCleaner

Windows collects a lot of useless crap for you, download and install CCleaner from here.

On the Install option page uncheck the following boxes 'Add CCleaner Yahoo!', 'Add Open CCleaner...', 'Add Run CCleaner...', 'Add Start Menu...'. Then click on 'Install'.

Run the program once installed.

On the main pane click on 'Advanced' and click 'OK' three times. Now down the right hand bottom corner select 'Run Cleaner'. Check 'Don't Show...' and select 'OK'.

After that in the left hand pane select 'Issues' and down the bottom in the middle select 'Scan for Issues'.

Once it has completed select 'Fix Selected Issues', click on 'No' to registry backup and finally 'Fix All Selected Issues' and the 'OK' Follow this procedure each time you run this program.

Diskeeper Lite

Basically as you use Windows it throws files all over your hard drive, to fix this you need to 'defrag' you hard drive. Windows comes with a defrag utility but it is useless on all versions except Vista.

Download Diskeeper Lite from here and install.

Select 'Yes' to a restart.

Run the program on restart. It may take a while to complete.

Maintenance Folder

Right click anywhere on the desktop and create a New Folder, call it 'Maintenance'.

Now drag the SpywareBlaster icon, the Spybot icon, the CCleaner icon and the Diskeeper icon into it.

Rename each icon as follows
SpywareBlaster = 1.SpywareBlaster

Spybot = 2.Spybot

CCleaner = 3.CCleaner

Diskeeper = 4.Diskeeper

This is now your Maintenance Folder; you should run each program one at a time. I strongly suggest doing this weekly.

Tweaks

Right click on the 'My Computer' icon on the desktop, select 'Properties' and the 'Performance' tab. Down at the bottom it has three items, select the first one 'File System', on the 'Hard Disk' click on where it says 'Desktop Computer' and change that to 'Network Server', then change the 'System Restore' from Max to Min. Click 'Apply' and then 'OK'.

Now click on the 'Virtual Memory' tab, check the 'Let me specify...' option. Enter a minimum and a maximum that is twice your amount of RAM. Click 'OK' and then 'Yes' and restart.

Applications

Zip Central

Used for extraction of files with .zip archives. Get it from Zip Central from here, download and install.

Open Office

If you don't have Microsoft Office a good alternative is Open Office. Download and install from here. Check the 'Custom Install' option, and choose to associate with Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint Presentations.

FoxIt Reader (PDF Documents)

This is needed for opening PDF Documents. Download and install from here. Be sure to restart PC before opening any PDF's.

K-Lite Mega Codec Mega Pack

This will install all the codecs you could ever need and a really good media player - Media Player Classic I suggest using it for all videos. Download from here, choose version 1.70, this is the last version to work on ME.

When you go to open a video file right click on the file and select 'Open With..' and chose Media Player Classic

FlashGet

This is by far the best download manager I have ever used, download and install from here.

Firefox

Firefox is an alternative browser to Internet Explorer, it is strongly suggested that you use it. Download and install from here. With Firefox you can add all sorts of extension, these add extra functionally to the browser. I suggest the following extensions.

videodownloader, super drag and go, flashblock, pdf downloader, flashgot, fasterfox, adblock, ie tab.

CD BurnerXP Pro

The best freeware CD burning program. Download and install from here.

That's it for the applications.

All that's required now it is time to clean up a bit of the mess created by installing programs. I suggest creating System folder and a Media folder on your desktop. Drag the CD Burner icon and the AVG icon into the System folder. Drag the Windows Media Maker and the Windows Media Player icons into the Media folder. Delete the Setup MSN Internet and the FoxIt Reader icons.

Now down next to the Start button you can safely delete the FoxIt icon, the Windows Media Player icon and the Internet Explorer icon (after all you will be using Firefox anyway). Delete the Outlook Express icon if you are not going to use this for your emails. You're better off with a gmail account anyway. You can delete both icons from the desktop also if you are not going to use. You can them drag the divider across and regain some Toolbar real estate.

You can now do the same for the start menu. Double click on My Computer then the C Drive\Windows\Start Menu. This will show you all the folders in your start menu. Double click on the Programs folder. I think you can safely delete the following folders AVG, CD Burner, FlashGet, Mozilla Firefox, SpywareBlaster, ZipCentral. I would also delete the Diskeeper icon and Windows Media Player icon.

Finally drag the Maintenance, System and Media folders from your desktop into the Start Menu.

Now really finally Start/Run and type 'msconfig'. Go to the Startup tab and uncheck everything except the AVG items. Restart the PC. Every time you install a new program it will want to put icons everywhere, be aware of it and delete or move as required

Anyway run the Maintenance Folder you are done (and every week)

Windows - Up and running!!