Removing Windows 98 from a Computer

You can uninstall Windows 98 as long as your current configuration satisfies the following conditions:

You clicked Yes (recommended) on the Save System Files? dialog box that appeared when you installed Windows 98 the first time. If you clicked Yes, two files containing the saved Windows 95 system files, Winundo.dat and Winundo.ini, were created in the root directory of the partition that you designated during Setup.
The system boot partition or any partition on the same physical drive where Winundo.dat is located was not compressed when you installed, and you did not compress it after installing Windows 98.
You did not convert any file systems to FAT32, unless your Windows 95 version is OSR2.

Note

The retail and OSR1 versions of Windows 95 cannot read FAT32 drives.

Windows 98 can be removed from a computer by using the procedures described below. If the computer is configured for dual booting, you will be left with the previous versions of MS-DOS and Windows 3.1x intact. The recommended method for removing Windows 98 is to start the computer and use the F8 key to go to a command line, as described in the following procedure. When you do this, real-mode Windows 98 operating system files start the computer. If you encounter problems starting Windows 98 in this way, start your computer from the previous operating system (which might require using a floppy disk).

During the installation of Windows 98, you have the option of saving your Windows 95 system files. If you save your system files, you can uninstall Windows 98 and restore your Windows 95 environment. If you created shortcuts after you saved your system files, you have to delete them manually, because information about these shortcuts does not exist in the system files you saved.

Important

This recovery capability is available only if you do not compress your primary partition after you upgrade to Windows 98.

To uninstall Windows 98

In Control Panel, double-click Add/Remove Programs.
On the Install/Uninstall tab, click Uninstall Windows 98, and then click Add/Remove.
The Windows 98 Uninstall dialog box appears explaining that you are about to remove Windows 98 from your computer and restore Windows 95.
Click Yes to continue with the uninstall procedure.
A dialog box appears informing you that your disk(s) will be checked for errors.
Click Yes.
The ScanDisk program scans all non-removable hard disks, and another dialog box appears asking if you want to continue.
Click Yes.

The computer restarts in MS-DOS mode, and the program Uninstal.exe runs automatically. This program is located in the \Windows\Command directory. The MS-DOS program restores the Windows 95 files and the settings contained in Winundo.dat; it then prompts you to restart the computer. Once the computer restarts, Windows 95 is restored.

Important

Any programs that you have installed after installing Windows 98 must be reinstalled in the restored Windows 95 configuration.

Removing the Windows 95 System Files

To remove the Windows 95 system files, you can delete the Winundo.dat and Winundo.ini files manually. However, after doing this, the Uninstall Windows 98 and Delete Windows 98 uninstall information items (Windows 98 uninstall information) will still be displayed in the Install/Uninstall tab on the Add/Remove Programs Properties dialog box. If you want to remove the Windows 95 system files and remove the Windows 98 uninstall information, use the following procedure.

To remove the Windows 95 system files and the Windows 98 uninstall information

In Control panel, double-click Add/Remove Programs.
On the Install/Uninstall tab, click Delete Windows 98 uninstall information, and then click Add/Remove.
The Windows 98 Uninstall dialog box appears explaining that if you remove these files, you can no longer uninstall Windows 98.
Click Yes to continue with the uninstall procedure.
A dialog box appears informing you that the files have been successfully deleted.
Click OK.
The Delete Windows 98 uninstall information and Uninstall Windows 98 items no longer appear on the Install/Uninstall tab.

Removing Windows 98 with Command-Line Startup

Before you begin this process, make sure you have a system startup disk that contains an earlier version of MS-DOS and the Sys.com file. You need this startup disk because the Windows 98 startup files (real-mode operating system files) must be deleted, so the process for removing Windows 98 makes your hard disk temporarily unbootable.

Note

The MS-DOS 6.x disk #1 is bootable, but the retail MS-DOS 5.0 disk #1 is not, and OEM versions may vary. To make a startup disk with MS-DOS 6.x, run setup /f from disk #1.

To remove Windows 98 when the computer is started to the command line

Start the computer, and press CTRL when the "Starting Windows" message appears.
If you have problems starting the computer in this way, you can use the "Removing Windows 98 with Your Previous Operating System" procedure later in this chapter.
Select Command Prompt Only.
To make it easier to delete files and directories, copy the Windows 98 version of Deltree.exe to the boot drive. At the command prompt, type:
copy \windows\command\deltree.exe c:\
To use the Windows 98 version of ScanDisk to clear invalid entries and long file names, copy the ScanDisk files from the Windows Command directory to the root directory. At the command prompt, type:
copy \windows\command\scandisk.* c:\
Use Notepad or a similar text editor to edit Scandisk.ini in the \Windows directory. Change the entries controlling whether ScanDisk looks for invalid characters in file names and volume labels:
- Set labelcheck=on to specify that ScanDisk should check volume labels for invalid characters.
- Set spacecheck= on to specify that ScanDisk should check for invalid spaces in file names.
For information about the entries in Scandisk.ini, see that file in the Windows directory.
To remove all entries that your earlier version of MS-DOS might see as invalid, type scandisk followed by the letter identifying the drive containing the Windows 98 installation at the command prompt. For example:
scandisk c:
If you receive error messages during the ScanDisk process, refer to Help for information to help you resolve the error.
To delete the Windows 98 directory, type in the root directory of the drive containing the Windows 98 installation:
deltree windows
In this command, windows is the name of the directory containing the Windows 98 files.
Caution
This command deletes all subdirectories of the Windows 98 directory. Before performing this step, make sure that the Windows 98 directory tree does not contain any critical data that has not been backed up.
This step also requires that you reinstall all Windows-based programs at the end of this procedure, so the correct drivers and settings are available in the restored Windows directory.
To delete the Windows 98 Config.sys and Autoexec.bat files, type in the root directory of the boot drive:
deltree Config.sysdeltree Autoexec.bat
To delete the Winboot.ini file and the Winboot directory, if present, type:
deltree winboot.*
To delete the setup, boot, and detection log files, type:
deltree setuplog.*deltree bootlog.*deltree detlog.*
To delete the real-mode operating system files Io.sys and Msdos.sys, in the root directory of the boot drive (or from the root directory of the host drive, if the boot drive is compressed), type:
deltree Io.sysdeltree Msdos.sys
To delete the Windows 98 compression drivers (Dblspace.bin and Drvspace.bin), if present, type in the root directory of the boot drive (or from the root directory of the host drive, if the boot drive is compressed):
deltree d??space.bin
To delete the Windows 98 command processor (Command.com), type in the root directory of the boot drive (or both from the C drive and from the root of the host drive, if the boot drive is compressed):
deltree Command.com
Put a bootable floppy disk with your earlier version of MS-DOS into drive A, and then restart the computer. After the computer starts from the floppy disk, put your earlier version of MS-DOS back on the boot drive (or the host drive, if the C drive is compressed) by typing sys followed by the letter identifying the boot or host drive and a colon. For example:
sys c:
If you have MS-DOS version 6.0 and are using compression, copy Dblspace.bin from the DOS directory to the root directory of the boot drive. Also, for all versions of MS-DOS, if you have a shell= statement referencing Command.com from a different directory, copy Command.com to the root directory. Then remove the floppy disk, and restart the computer from the hard disk.

To start the system with previous configuration files, copy Config.dos to Config.sys and Autoexec.dos to Autoexec.bat.

If you remove Windows 98 from a dual-boot installation, Windows 98 will be removed completely, and the computer will start the same way it did before installing Windows 98.

If you removed Windows 98 from an upgraded Windows 3.1x installation, drivers that were located in the Windows directory (such as Himem.sys, Ifslhlp.sys, and Emm386.exe) will be missing until you reinstall Windows 3.1x. After this, the computer will start the same way it did before Windows 98 was installed.

You might need to reinstall the previous version of MS-DOS, if needed files were removed by Windows 98 Setup.

Removing Windows 98 with Your Previous Operating System

Use this procedure if you cannot start a computer in Windows 98 real mode as described in the preceding section.

Before you begin this process, make sure you have a bootable floppy disk that contains an earlier version of MS-DOS and the Sys.com file. The process for removing Windows 98 makes your hard disk temporarily unbootable, and the Windows 98 startup files (real-mode operating system files) must also be deleted.

Note

The MS-DOS 6.x disk #1 is bootable, but the retail MS-DOS 5.0 disk #1 is not, and OEM versions may vary. To make a startup disk with MS-DOS 6.x, run setup /f from disk #1.

To remove Windows 98 when the computer is started with the previous operating system

Start the computer, and press CTRL when the "Starting Windows" message appears.
Select Previous Version of MS-DOS.
To make it easier to delete files and directories, copy the Windows 98 version of Deltree.exe to the boot drive. At the command prompt, type:
copy \windows\command\deltree.exe c:\
To copy the Windows 98 version of ScanDisk files from the Windows Command directory to the root directory, type:
copy \windows\command\scandisk.* c:\
Use Notepad or a similar text editor to edit Scandisk.ini. Change the entries controlling whether ScanDisk looks for invalid characters in file names and volume labels:
- Set labelcheck=on to specify that ScanDisk should check volume labels for invalid characters.
- Set spacecheck=on to specify that ScanDisk should check for invalid spaces in file names.
To remove all entries that your earlier version of MS-DOS might see as invalid, type scandisk followed by the letter identifying the drive containing the Windows 98 installation at the command prompt. For example:
scandisk c:
If you receive error messages during the ScanDisk process, refer to online Help for information to help you resolve the error.
To delete the Windows 98 directory, type in the root directory of the drive containing the Windows 98 installation, type:
deltree windows
In this command, windows is the name of the directory containing the Windows 98 files.
Caution
This command deletes all subdirectories of the Windows 98 directory. Before performing this step, make sure that the Windows 98 directory tree does not contain any critical data that has not been backed up.
To delete the Windows 98 real-mode operating system file named Winboot.sys, which was renamed from Io.sys when you started the computer with your previous operating system, type the following command from the boot drive (or from the root directory of the host drive, if the boot drive is compressed):
deltree winboot.*
Delete the Windows 98 files Msdos.w40, Command.w40, Config.w40, and Autoexec.w40 files. (The renaming of these operating system files occurred when you used F8 to start the previous operating system.) To do this, type the following command at the command prompt (if the boot drive is not compressed):
deltree *.w40
If the boot drive is compressed, you must delete Msdos.w40 from the root directory of the host drive and Command.w40 from the root directories of both the host drive and the boot drive.
To delete the setup, boot, and detection log files, type:
deltree setuplog.*deltree bootlog.*deltree detlog.*
If you are using Stacker version 3.1, either skip this step or back up the STAC Dblspace.bin file before completing this step. To delete the Windows 98 compression drivers (Dblspace.bin and Drvspace.bin), in the root directory of the boot drive (or from the root directory of the host drive, if the boot drive is compressed), type:
deltree d??space.bin
Put a bootable floppy disk with the earlier version of MS-DOS into drive A, and then restart the computer. After the computer starts from the floppy disk, put your earlier version of MS-DOS back on the boot drive (or the host drive, if the C drive is compressed) by typing sys followed by the letter identifying the boot or test drive and a colon. For example:
sys c:
If you have MS-DOS version 6.0 and are using compression, copy Dblspace.bin to the root directory of the boot drive. Also, for all versions of MS-DOS, if you have a shell= statement referencing Command.com from a different directory, copy Command.com to the root directory. Then remove the floppy disk, and restart the computer from the hard disk.

If you remove Windows 98 from a dual-boot installation, Windows 98 will be removed completely, and the computer will start the same way it did before installing Windows 98.

If you removed Windows 98 from an upgraded Windows 3.1x installation, you might need to reinstall your previous version of MS-DOS if some of the necessary files were removed by Windows 98 Setup. Drivers that were located in the Windows directory (such as Himem.sys, Ifslhlp.sys, and Emm386.exe) will be missing until you reinstall Windows 3.1x into the Windows directory. After you reinstall Windows 3.1x, the computer will start the same way it did before Windows 98 was installed.

To remove Windows 98 from a computer with Windows NT installed

Follow the procedure "To remove Windows 98 when the computer is started with the previous operating system" earlier in this section.
Use the Windows NT Setup disk #1 to restart your computer.
When prompted, choose Repair, then insert the Windows NT Emergency Repair Disk and choose the option to repair the boot files.
Restore your original MS-DOS and Windows 3.1x configuration.

The next section provides information about solving problems that might occur during Setup or system startup. For specific information about troubleshooting procedures and the tools provided with Windows 98 (including details about using the Startup menu and Safe Mode for troubleshooting), see Chapter 27, "General Troubleshooting."

Note

If you have MS-DOS-based applications that require complete access to system resources, see the information about using MS-DOS Mode in Chapter 25, "Application Support."