Installing Windows 98 Drivers

[Steve1972]

Please help me. I tend to have a recuring problem with installing drivers for Windows 98. If it doesn't have a set up and has to be done through the device manager, I quite ofter get a message telling there is a missing file and asking for me to insert Windows 98 CD. I do this and click ok but it can't find the required files and just opens up a browser. Where am I going wrong?

[Gizmo]

You're talking about instaling the drivers for all your devices in your Device Manager right? Did any other disks come with computer that you have? I had this problem once and had to resort to searching all of my other disks that I had until I found the file that I needed for a certain device.

[Panama Red]

If you have the correct, legal 98 cd, there's one step that is often overlooked. After you put the cd in the drive, type the following in the location box:

X:\win98 (where x is the letter indicating what drive the 98 cd is in, most often D:)

[Steve1972]

X:\WIN98 Comes up as default usually. It still says file not found and promps for you to browse for file

[Spartan]

Just write down the file it needs, take the OS disk to another computer, search for that file and save it to floppy. Then point to your A drive and load it.

-Spartan

[glc]

Just write down the file it needs, take the OS disk to another computer, search for that file and save it to floppy. Then point to your A drive and load it.

-Spartan

Easier said than done - the file usually has to be extracted from one of the cab files.

[Spartan]

glc- Yeah I suppose that is true, but all of the ones i have run into have been a piece of cake. Guess I have just gotten lucky.

-Spartan

[RayH]

In the old days, I used to copy the cab files to the hard drive and run the installation of Windows 98SE from the hard drive. It was faster in the installation. But more importantly, I would not have to stick the W98SE CD in the drive when installing drivers. It would find them on the hard drive.

You can copy the cab files to a folder on the hard drive. Then there is a reg edit that I forgot to point to that folder.

[Steve1972]

Are the CAB files the zipped folders in the WIN98 folder on the windows disc?

[glc]

Yes - you want to create a folder on the hard drive, I usually call it win98 and make it directly off C, and copy all the files from the win98 folder of the CD into it. They may have the zip icon, but they are files. Show file extensions in your folder options if there is any confusion, they will all show up with the .cab extension. You need to copy other files too, not just cabs - but there is no need to copy any of the subfolders (such as OLS, TOUR, etc.).

[RayH]

After you copy the cab files to the hard drive, this is how you change the default location of them:
Start the Registry Editor
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \CurrentVersion \ Setup
In the right-hand pane find the SourcePath key
Double-click this key and change the location for your Windows 98 files
Close the registry editor