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Fravia+,



I found this info on the web.  I did not figure out how to do this on

my own nor claim to - but thought I'd share it since it's not posted on

Fravia's site yet.  These hacks pertain to Windows registration and

bypassing it.  First, I'll start with Win95a.



Bypassing Windows registration for WINDOWS 95:



1. Copy all of the installable files (*.cab) over to the hard disk.



2. Use the EXTRACT program to extract setuppp.inf from precopy2.cab.

     extract precopy2.cab setuppp.inf



3. Edit layout.inf and do a text string search for "setuppp.inf".  

   The line will read:

     setuppp.inf=2,,4550

   which you'll need to change to:

     setuppp.inf=1,,4550

   This tells Windows not to extract that file durring setup.



4. Edit setuppp.inf and do a text string search for ProductType= and

   you'll see something that looks like:

     ProductType=9

   This tells Windows that it's a full install requiring a CD key durring

   setup.  Change it to:

     ProductType=6

   and you'll trick Windows setup into thinking it's an OEM upgrade/full

   install.  You'll still be asked for a registration number durring setu

   but when you click on Next you'll be given the opportunity to Ignore

   it and proceed.



You can do the same thing with OSR2 and any current version of Windows

95.  I've noticed that new burns of Win95 and Win98 have a new set of

.CAB files with both setuppp.inf and layout.inf archived in

precopy2.cab.  Just extract both files using EXTRACT.EXE, edit them as

stated above then use the ATTRIB command:

     attrib +r setuppp.inf

     attrib +r layout.inf

to make them read-only.  This is to ensure that Windows setup won't

overwrite the files.



Now lets say you have a Win9X upgrade that won't let you install

because it doesn't detect a previous OS installed.  You can trick it

into thinking that you actually have WinNT installed by doing:

     dir >ntldr

on the root directory of your C: drive.  This will output the dir

command to a file called ntldr.  If you edit the file you'll see what

you should have seen if you just typed dir alone on a line by itself. 

Windows setup is stupid, though.  It doesn't check inside the file to

see if it's valid.  It just checks to see if the file is there.  If it

is, then Windows setup will gracefully continue the install procedure, 

thinking you have WinNT installed... but who runs Windoze when 

there's Linux? ;-)



- DeeEmAye
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