startup menu

[tacoeater]

have a computer on the bench which only has usb ports. i want to add the startup menu so i have the choice of normal, safe mode, etc. i have seen this somewhere where you add a line to win.ini or something. what is the simple modification i need to do.
i can not get into safe mode with usb keyboard with f8 or control cause i guess the keyboard loads after it's too late.
please advise.
alan

[GaryRouth]

It's a MSDOS.sys tweak. Here's a cut-and-paste from "WinGuides"
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Show the Windows Boot Menu (Windows 95/98/Me)

Windows does not display the boot menu normally unless a key is pressed during bootup (F8 for Windows 95 or CTRL for 98/Me). The boot menu allows you to selectively boot Windows in different modes, including Safe Mode and Command Prompt Mode.

Change the attributes for MSDOS.SYS so it is not 'Read Only', MSDOS.SYS is found in the root directory of your C:\ drive. Open the file using Notepad or another text editor (not Microsoft Word or any word processor).
Change the value of 'BootMenu=' to 'BootMenu=1' for enabled or 'BootMenu=0' for disabled.

If the boot menu is enabled you can control how long it waits before continuing to boot with the 'BootMenuDelay=' option. Set 'BootMenuDelay=' to the amount of time to wait in seconds. i.e. 'BootMenuDelay=5' would wait 5 seconds before continuing to load Windows.

BootKeys must also be enabled for this option to function i.e. 'BootKeys=1'

Changes will take place on the next reboot.
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Best of luck
. . . Gary

[andyms18a]

or go into the bios and look for a option to enable usb legacy support then the key board will work like a standard one

[tacoeater]

thanks andyj,
i tried that but i can't get startup menu with f8 or the Ctrl key. will have to use the other option.
thanks to both of you,
alan