Windows 2000 Tweaks

< Windows 2000 Tips & Tweaking Guide created by Michael and reprinted with permission >
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Dual-booting Microsoft Operating Systems is a fairly standard practice for many users nowadays. Using this system you can gain the reliability & security of Windows 2000, or whenever you feel like gaming, switch back to the speed (Although Windows 2000 is faster in some cases) & compatibility offered by Windows 98/Me.

This guide is more concerned with dual-booting Windows 98/Millennium Edition & Windows 2000 than the older Microsoft Operating Systems. This is basically because A. Windows 95 is too old now for most to still be using it, B. NT4 while also old has other limitations, e.g. inability to recognize FAT32, limited DirectX support, etc. While a lot of the procedure here may well apply to those earlier Operating Systems I’ll not be going into extra detail to mention those extra…... issues.

Requirements

While these are probably stating the obvious (well, partially), there are a few requirements you should meet before you even attempt dual-booting.

Windows 98/Me & Windows 2000 CD’s. Obviously you need to have some combination of these. Installing with OEM versions (Particularly of Windows 98/Me) may be a pain for many however so the retail versions are recommended.

Large hard drive(s). Installing 2 Operating Systems can take up a lot of hard drive space. I’d recommend having at least a 4 Gig hard drive, preferably a fast one at that. Although preferably you’d have 2 UDMA capable hard drives on seperate IDE channels.

128MB RAM or more. While it’s probably not technically a requirement – Windows 2000 is very RAM intensive. No serious users should have less than this amount of RAM.

Backup

Before you do anything else you should backup any important data you have, & whatever else needs to be saved. Once you’re happy that everything’s saved proceed to the next section.

NOTE – Please remember the process of re-partitioning/re-formatting will permanently remove all data on a hard drive.

Startup disks

Obviously it’s a good idea to make a Startup disk for each OS in case you run into any problems with either OS & you’ll need such a disk for the next procedure. If you didn’t get one with your current OS then (In Windows 98/Me); Click on Start, Settings, Control Panel. Open Add/Remove Programs & select the Startup Disk tab. Select the Create Disk button (Insert a blank floppy disk when required) to make your Startup Disk.

If you wish to make a Windows 2000 Startup Disk you will require 4 floppy disks. To make the Startup Disk(s) for Windows 2000, insert the Windows 2000 CD. Open Windows Explorer & navigate to the CD\DVD drive where the Windows 2000 CD is located. On the CD enter the BOOTDISK folder. Run (Double click it) the MAKEBOOT.EXE file & follow the prompts as instructed. Be sure to label the Windows 2000 disks 1-4 to make it easier to boot from the floppy disks (They need to be inserted in order).

If your BIOS supports Bootable CD’s you may use your Windows 2000 CD, rather than the 4 floppy disks instead.

Setup - Partitioning

Before you install Windows 98/Me you will want to re-partition your hard drive. Insert the Startup/Boot disk & reboot your Computer – setting your BIOS to boot from the floppy drive first. Once this disk has been booted from (To a Command prompt) type in fdisk & hit Enter.

The first thing to do is to Delete your existing partition(s) – Option 3. Once these have been deleted you can re-partition your hard drive as you see fit. You’ll want at least 2 partitions created – 1 for each Operating system. It may also be worthwhile creating a third partition for other uses. Personally I’d recommend using a second hard drive for the purposes of sharing application/game installation, although, this really is up to you.

I’d recommend giving the Primary partition the greater proportion of space available. The reasoning for this being that Windows 98/Me will be installed into this partition – These particular Operating systems only support FAT32 file system at the most, they cannot access NTFS partitions. As a result any shared program installations between Windows 98/Me & 2000 will have to go into the FAT32 partition.

Once you have created your Primary partition, make an Extended DOS Partition, this is where Windows 2000 will be installed onto. Unless you are going to create another partition you should use the remainder of the free space for this partition.

Exit & Reboot your system for the changes to take effect (Again, booting up with the Startup Disk, enable CD ROM support & insert your Windows 98/Me CD).

OS Installation – Windows 98/Me

This is the easy part, well the-should-be-easy-part. (In case you missed what I said before – After partitioning, boot up using the Windows 98/Me Startup Disk, enable CD ROM support & insert your Windows 98/Me CD) Access the CD\DVD drive from the DOS prompt, e.g. type E:\ & hit Enter. Next type in setup.exe & hit Enter.

From here on just perform a standard installation of Windows 98/Me to your C:\ drive (Do not select any other partition as it will most likely can problems later on). You can change the installation folder (Default of \WINDOWS) if needed although I don’t recommend it, nor would I bother changing it myself.

Once Windows 98/Me has finally installed you can install Windows 2000. You shouldn’t customize/install/do anything else until Windows 2000 has been installed (I’ll go into Why later).

OS Installation – Windows NT/2000

Thankfully Windows 2000 setup can occur, or at least be initiated from within Windows. Simply insert your Windows 2000 CD & the setup program will be auto-run.

Do not select Yes, select No. Instead select Install Windows 2000. The next screen to appear being the following;

Select the Install a new copy of Windows 2000 (Clean Install) option & hit the Next button. Enter in the Serial number & at the next screen select the Advanced Options button.

The first 2 entries in this section should be left alone (As before, I do not recommend changing the Installation folder for Windows 2000). In particular you should Tick both options available here – Copy all setup files from the Setup CD to the hard drive & I want to choose the installation partition during Setup (So you can select the other partition for installation). Click Ok & enter in your preferences for the other options. Click Ok to start the installation procedure & reboot as prompted.

After re-booting you will have additional installation option available.

1. Press ENTER to – Setup Windows 2000 now.

2. Next a list of Partitions available for installation will appear. Select the empty one (D:\ most likely) & hit Enter.

3. Next comes up certain file system format options for the selected partition. Choices available being as follows;

· Format the partition using the NTFS file system.

· Format the partition using the FAT file system.

· Convert the partition to NTFS.

· Leave the current file system intact (no changes).

I’d recommend selecting Format the partition using the NTFS file system as NTFS has more benefits than the FAT32 file system (more secure, handles larger partitions better & so on). Although this will leave Windows 98/Me unable to access files on the NTFS partition…… which is why I recommended making the Windows 98/Me, or other FAT 32 partition larger – so that Programs & other files can be installed/saved onto it instead of the NTFS partition.

Either way, the choice is yours in the end.

Once installation has completed, setup any users accounts (I just use Administrator only). Should you have any problems check the Troubleshooting boot/Uninstall problems section.

Backup, again

Your first task is to load Windows 2000 & make an ERD (Emergency Repair Disk). Click on Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Backup.

Click the Emergency Repair Disk button & follow the on-screen prompts. You should also Tick the box to backup the registry also.

Now backup the following files from the root directory, e.g. C:\, to a floppy disk;

arcldr.exe, arcsetup.exe, BOOT.INI, NTDETECT.COM, NTLDR. Although the first 2 probably won’t ever be needed they seem to be installed there when dual booting so, better safe than sorry. These files can be used in situations where the Boot Loader has been corrupted/broken in some way, simply copying them back into C:\ can fix the problem encountered, e.g. Installing Windows Me over Windows 98 may delete many of those files, & as a result break your Dual boot capability.

Boot Loader tweaking

Load Windows 2000. Right click on My Computer, select Properties. Select the Advanced tab, then the Startup & Recovery button.

Use the Default operating system drop down menu to select the Default Operating System to be loaded during boot-up. This default operating system is loaded assuming a different choice is not selected in the Boot Loader or the timeout for making a selection expires.

Display list of operating systems for. Tick this setting to enable a list of bootable Operating Systems to be displayed during boot-up & the amount of time (In seconds) that the list will be displayed for before loading the Default operating system. This menu can be used to select which Operating System to boot-up each time you start your computer. Untick this setting to disable the display of the list. In this event the Default operating system will always be loaded. If you wish to change this (Assuming you didn’t select Windows 2000 to always boot), click on Start, Run. Type in \boot.ini & hit Enter. Add\Edit the line Timeout=x, where x is the length of time to display the Boot Loader menu.

OS Updates

It is probably a good idea to update your Operating Systems now, rather than later. Now that your system has basic dual booting capability it would be wise to have any compatibility/security/bug fixes installed before you begin installing other programs in your system.

Check out our OS Updates page for links to, & recommended installation order of all updates for Windows 98 Second Edition, Millennium Edition & 2000. Once you have installed these updates proceed onto the next section.

Program Installation & Uninstallation

Now that you’ve finally installed both Operating Systems you can go on to install additional programs, games & so on. This section can be fairly subjective in certain areas so be careful.

As I recommended earlier, your FAT32 (Windows 98/Me) partition should be larger than your NTFS (Windows 2000) partition (although preferably you would have an entirely separate partition for sharing applications & such). The reason for this being that most installations will be onto a FAT32 partition.

The basic process for this is:

Install the program in either OS.

Install the program (again) in the other OS, into the same directory as you previously installed it.

Any updates/patches for the application installed should take place in the exact same way, i.e. install the update in 1 OS & re-apply it again in the other.

Here’s an example of a typical installation which you might go through. In Windows Millennium Edition I install Unreal Tournament to C:\UnrealTournament. I restart in Windows 2000 & install Unreal Tournament to the same directory, i.e. C:\UnrealTournament. Next I download the 436 patch, once more I install the patch in Windows Millennium first, then in Windows 2000 I re-apply it.

The reason for this is so the relevant registry entries or other file updates occur in both Operating Systems. Otherwise the Operating System that the Application wasn’t installed in may not run it. It’s not very convenient but it’s certainly better than having multiple installations of 1 Application. The only problem I have encountered with this is that of Uninstallation.

Uninstalling

Generally uninstalling in one OS will not make the other aware that it has been uninstalled. So using Add/Remove programs in the other OS will generally return an error message of some sort should you try to Uninstall the program again (In this instance it’s purely to have it removed from the list), although many will remove/prompt you as to whether or not it should remove the program from Add/Remove Programs should this happen.

If you wish to Manually remove a program from the Add/Remove Programs list do the following. Click on Start, Run, type in regedit & hit Enter. Open the [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Uninstall] key & from the list of subkeys here, e.g. SchedulingAgent, delete the subkey(s) which reference Uninstalled programs.

E.g. If you uninstalled Unreal Tournament in Windows 2000, but in Windows 98/Me Add/Remove Programs returns an error upon attempting Uninstallation you would need to delete the [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Uninstall\UnrealTournament] key.

To fully remove any left over registry entries you should check our Registry guide for registry cleaning utilities.

Sharing the Page File

It can be quite useful for both OS’es to use the same Page/Swap File. This is a good way of saving space on hard drives more than anything else. You should set the Initial/Minimum size of the Page/Swap File the same for both Operating Systems; the Maximum size is irrelevant for this purpose as it will revert to the Minimum size when possible.

Before you consider renaming your Page File you must meet one criterion. That being that you cannot share a Page File on a NTFS partition, Windows 98/Me can’t recognise NTFS. As a result, you can only really share the Page File when on a FAT32 partition. For sake of convenience, I'll assume that you want to have both Operating systems share the Page File on a FAT32 partition.

The Windows 2000 Page File is named pagefile.sys, while the Windows 98/Me Page File is named WIN386.SWP. You can rename either, although renaming the Windows 98 Page File is much easier. First load Windows 2000 & set your Page File to the appropriate size & location, e.g. D:\pagefile.sys. Once you've made your changes reboot.

Now load Windows 98/Me & set your Page file to the same Minimum size as the Windows 2000 Page File. Click on Start, Run, type in system.ini & hit Enter. Under the [386Enh] heading the changes will be made.

Add/edit the following lines as appropriate. The numeric values (where appropriate) to be entered in are in KB’s so to calculate the value, use MB*1024 or Bytes/1024 as the numeric value to enter in.

PagingDrive=x:. Replace x with the appropriate drive letter where you want your Swapfile located. E.g. If you want to locate your Swapfile on the D:\ drive then enter in PagingDrive=D:\.

PagingFile=x:\name. As above, replace x with the appropriate drive letter where you want your Swapfile located (Obviously you need to set it to the same drive as where the PagingDrive is set to). Replace name with the Windows 2000 Page file name, i.e. pagefile.sys.

MinPagingFileSize=x. x represents the Minimum/Initial size of the Page File. The value for x is in bytes & as you may recall it must be set to the same size as the Windows 2000 Page File. E.g. If the Windows 2000 Page File was 192MB then you should enter in 198 * 1024 (remember, value to be entered is in bytes) = 202752.

MaxPagingFileSize=x. x represents the Maximum size of the Swapfile. The value for x is in bytes (As stated earlier). E.g. If you wanted to set the maximum size of the Swapfile to 198MB then you should enter in 202752 (198*1024=202752). Obviously you cannot set the Maximum size smaller than the Minimum size (For the purposes of sharing the Page\Swapfile the maximum size is irrelevant).

Save the changes you have made & reboot for the changes to take effect. Also, you can delete the old Page File if it still exists, e.g. Win386.swp.

Sharing Outlook Express messages

Outlook Express comes installed on basically every Windows Operating System since Windows 98 & as such it can be a great help for users to be able to access there email in both Operating Systems rather than in the one they downloaded it in (They will both use different Store Folders by default). To share the Outlook Express Message Store folder take the following steps.

These following steps are based on the assumption that you installed Windows 2000 on an NTFS partition, although if it is installed on a FAT32 partition you can use either Operating Systems store folder.

In Windows 98/Me load Outlook Express. Click on Tools, then Options. Select the Maintenance tab.

Select the Store Folder button.

Copy the full location of the Store location into Notepad (Or some other text file). Reboot & load Windows 2000.

In Windows 2000 load Outlook Express. Click on Tools, then Options. Select the Maintenance tab.

Select the Store Folder button & click on Change. Change the location to the same location as the Windows 98/Me one (You should have this location copied into a text file as mentioned in Step 3.

Click Ok & exit.

Now any messages you download in either Operating System will be accessible in both.

Sharing the Windows Address book

On a similar note to the previous section it will also be useful to share the Windows address book. If your Windows 2000 installation is on a NTFS partition then you must share the address book on the FAT32 (Windows 98/Me) partition. You may want to backup your current address book in case you need to re-import any omitted entries afterwards.

Load Windows 98/Me (Unless you want to share the address book on the Windows 2000 FAT32 partition).Click on Start, Run, type in regedit & hit Enter. Open the following key [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\WAB\WAB4\Wab File Name]. Right click on (Default) & select Modify. Copy the location (Value data) into notepad (or other text file) & save it.

Reboot & load Windows 2000 (Or Windows 98/Me if you want to share the address book on the Windows 2000 FAT32 partition). Once again click on Start, Run, type in regedit & hit Enter. Open the following key [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\WAB\WAB4\Wab File Name]. Right click on (Default) & select Modify. Enter the location of the address book you had previously saved into the Value data field, e.g. C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book\AddrBook.wab. Now go to the following key & repeat the same procedure [HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\WAB\WAB4\Wab File Name], entering in the same location as before.

Exit the registry & reboot for the changes to take effect. Now you can access all your contacts in either Operating Systems address book.

Operating System Uninstallation

Should you get tired of dual booting your Operating Systems you can remove either of them fairly easily, although problems which can occur afterwards you should beware of. These problems & possible fixes will be shown in the next section, Troubleshooting boot/Uninstall problems.

Any data which you wish to keep from the Operating System which is to be uninstalled should be moved to another location, be it the other Operating Systems partition, zip disk or whatever. As mentioned earlier you should also backup arcldr.exe, arcsetup.exe, BOOT.INI, NTDETECT.COM, NTLDR from your root directory, e.g. C:\ to a floppy disk. Although the first 2 files probably won’t be needed. These files may be needed later on.

Be sure to check that no shared programs are installed on the partition with the Operating System that is to be uninstalled, if so be sure to relocate them or backup any important data before you relocate/re-install it.

Depending on the Operating System to be uninstalled you have multiple methods available to you. These first 2 relate to uninstalling Windows 98/Me, although Windows 2000 Uninstallation can occur this way if it is installed on a FAT32 partition, rather than NTFS;

Load Windows 2000 (Bar the exception mentioned above when installed on a FAT32 partition). Open My Computer, Right click on the Partition, e.g. Local Disk (D:), where the OS to be uninstalled is located. Select Format.

You should do a Full format of the partition. Enter in a Label if you see fit & hit the Start button when you wish to begin formatting. Or;

Boot up using a Windows 98/Me Startup disk. Type in format x:, where x represents the partition to be formatted, generally C:\, & hit Enter. This will format your partition in much the same way as method 1.

The 3rd method should be used by those who have Windows 2000 installed on a NTFS partition.

Boot up using the Windows 2000 CD\Startup disk (Set the BIOS to Boot from floppy or CD). Press the R key, Repair a Windows 2000 installation. Select C next, To repair a Windows 2000 installation by using the Recovery console. Next select the Windows 2000 installation you wish to repair (Obviously you’ll only have 1) & enter in the Administrator password when prompted. Now type in format x: /fs:fat32, where x is the partition to be formatted generally D:, & hit Enter.

The reason for using the /fs:fat32 line is so that it will be reformatted to the FAT32 file system. Windows 98/Me can only recognise FAT 32 (Or earlier) partitions, not NTFS, obviously formatting the partition without that line would simply reformat the contents, but leave it in the NTFS partition.

Troubleshooting boot/Uninstall problems

The 2 following methods should help you fix problems related to booting up your system.

1. Start your system & enter the BIOS. Set the BIOS to Boot from floppy or CD. Preferably you should use your Windows 2000 CD rather than the Startup disks as it is a lot faster. Save the changes & Reboot your system.

Boot up using the Windows 2000 Startup Disks/CD. Once the Menu has loaded take the following steps.

Press the R key, Repair a Windows 2000 installation.

Select C next, To repair a Windows 2000 installation by using the Recovery console.

Next select the Windows 2000 installation you wish to repair (Obviously you’ll only have 1) & enter in the Administrator password when prompted.

Now type in fixboot & hit Enter.

2. If you are encountering problems with booting Windows 98/Me after uninstalling Windows 2000 then try the following;

Start your system & enter the BIOS. Set the BIOS to Boot from floppy. Preferably you should use your Windows 2000 CD rather than the Startup disks as it is a lot faster. Save the changes & Reboot your system.

Boot up using the Windows 98/Me Startup disk. Once this disk has been booted from (To a Command prompt) type in fdisk /mbr & hit Enter.

Reboot your system as required.

Further optimizing your system

Seeing that you now have 2 Operating Systems installed & configured its time to tweak them for more performance/stability & so on.

Check out our Tweaking guides section for all the guides you’ll want, many guides are prepared in Windows 98/Me & Windows 2000. While others are specific to certain Operating Systems.

Conclusion

Hopefully by now you should have your dual boot system up & running along nicely. More importantly you may have learned some of the space saving tricks for program installation & how to fix any problems related to updating/uninstalling them also.

- Courtesy 3D Spotlight - Thomas McGuire

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