Windows 98 secret flag. Sssh. Microsoft doesnt know.
Posted: 2013-03-28 00:19
Seeing the Unofficial Windows 98 SE SP here, got me to do a little reminiscing.
I once had the extreme pleasure of my repair shop being visited by a Windows 98 Compaq desktop. The machine was USB only (no ps2 ports), and had a built-in monitor. Very clunky. The problem was that the user had deleted the drivers for the USB root hub, keyboard, and mouse. Now, it was operable in safe-mode, but when you booted normally, it had no drivers for the mouse of keyboard loaded, so it was impossible to click the "next" button on the driver installation dialog. Very frustrating.
Microsoft had previously documented the issue in their knowledge base http://support.microsoft.com/kb/206002/EN-US, so I know I wasn't the only one to run into this problem. Their solution? Re-install Windows. Well back in the 98 days, that was BAD, since re-installing old system files over updates usually broke the system in one way or another, took a long time, and was really a pain in the ass.
So, what I decided was that all I needed was to redo the setup hardware enumeration. The one that doesn't require a clicking of "Next". Anyone who has watched a Windows 98/ME install has seen it. It just says to wait while it detects hardware and installs drivers. So, long story short. I installed 98 on another box, backed up the registry just before the first reboot from dos, finished the install, then compared the registries for differences. Wouldn't you know, Microsoft has a single bit that they set to tell Windows to do the automated enumeration.
So, 15 years later, I've decided to let the world know the solution.
Simply set the low order bit in HLKMSoftwareMicrosoftCurrentVersionSetupFlags to 1 and reboot.
It's stuff like this that makes me rage when the company that developed the software doesn't even know it well enough to support it correctly. I had similar issues trying to get Lexmark and ATI to fix their broken shit back in the day too. I'd find the solution by hacking a bios or isolating a specific bug, and when it came time to contact them, I could never get hold of anyone who knew what they were talking about. Too many customer service reps, not enough engineers.
God bless MS.
I once had the extreme pleasure of my repair shop being visited by a Windows 98 Compaq desktop. The machine was USB only (no ps2 ports), and had a built-in monitor. Very clunky. The problem was that the user had deleted the drivers for the USB root hub, keyboard, and mouse. Now, it was operable in safe-mode, but when you booted normally, it had no drivers for the mouse of keyboard loaded, so it was impossible to click the "next" button on the driver installation dialog. Very frustrating.
Microsoft had previously documented the issue in their knowledge base http://support.microsoft.com/kb/206002/EN-US, so I know I wasn't the only one to run into this problem. Their solution? Re-install Windows. Well back in the 98 days, that was BAD, since re-installing old system files over updates usually broke the system in one way or another, took a long time, and was really a pain in the ass.
So, what I decided was that all I needed was to redo the setup hardware enumeration. The one that doesn't require a clicking of "Next". Anyone who has watched a Windows 98/ME install has seen it. It just says to wait while it detects hardware and installs drivers. So, long story short. I installed 98 on another box, backed up the registry just before the first reboot from dos, finished the install, then compared the registries for differences. Wouldn't you know, Microsoft has a single bit that they set to tell Windows to do the automated enumeration.
So, 15 years later, I've decided to let the world know the solution.
Simply set the low order bit in HLKMSoftwareMicrosoftCurrentVersionSetupFlags to 1 and reboot.
It's stuff like this that makes me rage when the company that developed the software doesn't even know it well enough to support it correctly. I had similar issues trying to get Lexmark and ATI to fix their broken shit back in the day too. I'd find the solution by hacking a bios or isolating a specific bug, and when it came time to contact them, I could never get hold of anyone who knew what they were talking about. Too many customer service reps, not enough engineers.
God bless MS.