Removing Operating Systems from the Boot Menu?

[sjaguar13]

I have a few computers that had a lame Windows 98 DOS installation on it when I got them. When I installed Windows, it now thinks there are two operating systems and asks me which one I want. I do not want the Windows 98 DOS choice to be there. Is there a way to remove any unwanted menu choice? Would editing boot.ini work, or is there some formal way to actually remove the OS as well as the OS choice?

[CiSmAXz]

Yes, you can delete the entry in the boot.ini under [operating systems] that lists the choice for Windows 98 Dos

[GaryRouth]

Hi sjaguar13

As CiSmAXz mentions, editing the boot.ini file will remove the item from the startup OS choice menu. Here's a Microsoft article with all the details about editing an XP boot.ini file --- http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=289022
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Which more recent version of Windows did you install alongside the Windows 98? . . . (and did you create a new partition for it? or use an "upgrade" version of the newer Windows?) . . .

If you installed a 2000/XP version on the same FAT32 partition as the older Windows 98, I'd recommend just starting over with a clean install. Even if your 2000/XP disk is an upgrade version, you can still do a clean install [you just insert your Windows 98 CD (if you have one) when prompted during the installaton as proof-of-previous-version]. And if your hard drive is greater than 10gb, might as well use the NTFS file system that is native to 2000/XP.

Best of luck
. . . Gary

[sjaguar13]

There really isn't Windows 98 installed. It's just that command.com file from Windows 98, so when it boots up, it starts off with "Starting Windows 98...." and then goes to C:\. The hard drive only had that one file. When I installed Windows 2000, it still thinks that file is another operating system. If I chose it, I would just go to DOS. It really wasn't doing me any good. I just opened the boot.ini file in NotePad and got rid of the second choice.