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  #1  
Old August 29th, 2015, 08:55 PM
justacruzr2 justacruzr2 is offline
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Question Add/Remove Programs - Windows Setup

Hi to all. Anybody know why Add/Remove Programs, Windows Setup would not be looking at the Layout files to find the Cab that the files are located in?

Now for a somewhat lengthy explanation. Had to reinstall Win 98 after 2 of my hard drives broke due to a power surge. The one had Win 98 on it and the other had the backup (that's bad luck!). Since the Win 98 drive was one I got from a computer that was being thrown out, it was already setup and only needed some clean-up to run with my motherboard. Since I never owned a Win 98 setup CD I had to find an ISO copy out on the web which I did. It was the full Retail version and so I ran the install. Everything worked fine and I now have Win 98 back. However I noticed that for some reason MSN Messenger was not included by default. It does not show up in the Communications section of the Windows Setup tab in Add/Remove Programs. So I did what I once did before for Win ME when I installed MS Backup from Win 98 on it. I copied the Win ME INF file MSMSGS.INF into the \Windows 98 INF directory, Added Messenger to the "Optional Components" registry key along with the appropriate data (copied from the Win ME registry info: INF - "MSMSGS.INF" / Is Installed - "0" / Inf Section - "Option.Messenger.Install"), created a new cab WIN98_75 containing the copy files, Modified the Layout2.Inf file to include "75="Windows 98 Second Edition CD-ROM","WIN98_75.CAB",0" and copied the file lines:

msmsgs.exe=75,,438544
msmsgsc.dll=75,,20752
msmsgsin.exe=75,,12560
msgslang.dll=75,,102672
msgstrst.dll=75,,20752
newemail.wav=75,,6156,406f
online.wav=75,,6160,9371
pmsnlogo.gif=75,,1439
type.wav=75,,4454,773d

into the Layout file list of files and changed the "SrcDisk" subkey of the Setup registry key to point to "\Windows\Options\Win98\" which is where the win 98 setup puts a copy of itself after the install. Messenger now shows up in Windows Setup in the Communications section but when I check mark Messenger and click on Apply the setup program says it cannot locate the files to install. It does make all the registry entries and it does go to \Windows\Options\Win98\ for the files but acts as if it expects them to be laying out in the open and not in a cab. Thought that was the purpose of the Layout files....to tell the setup program which cab they are in and extract them. This method worked perfectly in Win ME for adding MS Backup to it and I have duplicated in Win 98 everything necessary from Win ME to install Messenger. I'm puzzled....should work. Don't think there's any difference in the way Add/Remove programs works in 98 or ME but I could be wrong. Any ideas what's happening, or what's not happening?
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Old August 30th, 2015, 07:00 PM
justacruzr2 justacruzr2 is offline
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Figured it out...sort of. Because Win 98SE didn't come with MSN Messenger already setup, the required registry entry in

"HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Se tup\VarLDID"

was not there. The Messenger INF setup file has the following section:

[DestinationDirs]
BLC.Install.App = 30600
BLC.CleanPrev.App = 30600
BLC.Remove.App = 30600
BLC.Install.Help = 18
BLC.Remove.Help = 18
BLC.Install.Inf = 17
BLC.Install.Shared = 11

This section tells the setup program where to copy the files to. The number "30600" is a pseudo folder number and has to be defined in the VarLDID registry key like this:

(default) (Value)
30600 C:\PROGRA~1\MESSEN~1
30601 C:\Program Files\Messenger
30602 C:\PROGRA~1\MESSEN~1

This is the DOS SFN and the Windows LFN name. The setup program now runs fine with one exception...it creates the folder incorrectly. It puts the folder in the root directory as "PROGRA~1\MESSEN~1" (literally). I tried it the other way with the LFN but got "Program \Messenge" in the root directory. It should have simply created the folder \Messenger under the Program Files folder. So I'm still missing a piece of the puzzle. Looking at the Setup INF file there is another section which looks like it is creating and then renaming the folders. Because this setup INF came from Win ME, there may be a small difference in the way each OS handles this, but I don't know the proper use of this. Any ideas?
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  #3  
Old September 3rd, 2015, 01:06 AM
Murf's Avatar
Murf Murf is offline
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Doubt you will find anyone that still has in-depth knowledge of Win 98/ME. But I can tell you there is a huge difference between the two of them. In my opinion Win ME was the worse O/S MS came out with. It was a total failure.

I would suspect the setup INF is a bit different between the two O/S.
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Old September 3rd, 2015, 05:17 PM
justacruzr2 justacruzr2 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Murf View Post
Doubt you will find anyone that still has in-depth knowledge of Win 98/ME. But I can tell you there is a huge difference between the two of them. In my opinion Win ME was the worse O/S MS came out with. It was a total failure.

I would suspect the setup INF is a bit different between the two O/S.

Some in-depth knowledge was what I was hoping for. Thought part of the purpose of the VarLDID entries was to associate the DOS SFN with the Windows LFN. Can't tell if there was a difference between the 2 setup inf's because it didn't come with 98SE. Checked the cabs and there's nothing there for MSN Messenger. Agree there's a difference in the underlying OS's. 98 SE has many more OS files than ME yet takes up less hard drive space. My guess is that MS consolidated alot of routines into fewer, but larger, files. Even so, there are many MS updates that are for both 98SE and ME so there is some compatibility. Anyway, thanks for your response Murf.
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