98lite

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98lite Windows Me Desktop
98lite Windows Me Desktop
98lite Windows 98 Desktop
98lite Windows 98 Desktop

98lite is a utility for Windows 98 and Windows Me written by Shane Brooks. It removes Internet Explorer components from Windows along with several operating system components that require IE to be present. Brooks was one of the first to author a method for removing Internet Explorer. He did so in response to Microsoft's claim, in antitrust proceedings, that IE is integrated into Windows and cannot be removed without breaking other features. Installing DirectX (any version) under 98lited Windows requires at least temporary presence of PC Health. Otherwise DirectX refuses to install, finishing installation attempt with error message "DirectX did not copy a required file".

Contents

[edit] History

Shane Brooks believes that Windows 98 has many advantages to its predecessor, Windows 95, in many ways besides just in its appearance. However, he does not believe that there is justification for requiring Internet Explorer to be installed at all times. He discovered a way of removing IE manually and presented it to the United States Department of Justice as evidence that Microsoft was monopolizing the browser market.[citation needed] Later, he made a series of programs collectively called 98lite. Its main selling point was the ability of one of its programs to remove Internet Explorer from Windows 98. A second program swapped the Explorer shell with the Windows 95 Explorer, which does not contain the web features of 98's Explorer and is therefore considerably faster and more lightweight. A third program converted "required" components into addable and removable options. With version 2.0 of 98lite, the three programs were merged and combined into a single, easy-to-use program. The IE remover was combined with the components converter, making IE uninstallable and reinstallable with the Add/Remove Programs control panel applet as with the other components. Version 3.0 added support for Windows 98 Second Edition, an upgraded version of Windows 98 with Internet Explorer 5.0 which made 98lite 1.0 through 2.0 obsolete. The current 4.x line has many improvements, including bugfixes and support for Windows Me. 98lite exists in Pro and Enterprise flavors, and there exists software superior to 98lite called 98EOS. Here are listed all flavors of 98lite-related software.

[edit] Alternatives to 98lite

Revenge of Mozilla is another, free, application that removes Internet Explorer from Windows 98 and restores the Windows 95 explorer.exe. There are two versions of this, one for the original Windows 98 release, and another for Win98 SE; there is no version for Windows Me. This is no longer supported, and not being updated.

There is also a company spun off from Lite-PC that produces Windows 98 and Me installations which are small enough to easily fit on embedded microchips; as small as 8MB, using 98EOS. [1] There are also many free alternatives to this, such as Mindows and Nano98, which can provide either smaller file sizes, or more broad functionality.

[edit] Totally extreme GUI and CLI based minimalizations of Windows Me

98lite Windows Me manually further minimalized from 98micro to extremely tiny GUI and LFN preserving footprint with GUI command prompt only
98lite Windows Me manually further minimalized from 98micro to extremely tiny GUI and LFN preserving footprint with GUI command prompt only
98lite Windows Me manually further minimalized from 98micro to extremely tiny CLI and SFN preserving footprint with CLI command prompt only
98lite Windows Me manually further minimalized from 98micro to extremely tiny CLI and SFN preserving footprint with CLI command prompt only

Windows Me after installing as 98micro with Windows 95 Explorer by using 98lite Enterprise can be manually further reduced to only 5MB with GUI, that exceeds even 98EOS maximal reduction. Very best solution for minimalizing Windows Me to such extreme would be using English version of Windows Me, because it doesn't require specific localization files at all. For running extremally minimal Windows Me with at least DOS box on desktop, following files and directories are required:
C:\IO.SYS
C:\MSDOS.SYS - content listed separately
C:\WINDOWS
C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM
C:\WINDOWS\FONTS
C:\WINDOWS\FONTS\MARLETT.TTF
C:\WINDOWS\FONTS\VGAOEM.FON
C:\WINDOWS\FONTS\VGASYS.FON
C:\WINDOWS\IFSHLP.SYS
C:\WINDOWS\PIF
C:\WINDOWS\PIF\COMMAND.PIF - generated by Windows, required for proper displaying of DOS box
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.INI - content listed separately
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\ADVAPI32.DLL
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\CMDNINST.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\COMCTL32.DLL
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\COMMCTRL.DLL
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\COMM.DRV
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\CP_1252.NLS
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\DDEML.DLL
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\GDI32.DLL
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\GDI.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\IOSUBSYS
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\IOSUBSYS\BIGMEM.DRV
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\IOSUBSYS\RMM.PDR
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\KERNEL32.DLL
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\KEYBOARD.DRV
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\KRNL386.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\MMSOUND.DRV
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\MOUSE.DRV
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\MSGSRV32.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\PIFMGR.DLL
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\SHELL32.DLL
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\SHELL.DLL
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\SYSTEM.DRV
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\USER32.DLL
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\USER.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\VFD.VXD
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\VGAFULL.3GR
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\VGA.DRV - renamed from SUPERVGA.DRV to display 800x600 instead of 640x480
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\VMM32.VXD
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\WINOA386.MOD

Configuration files listed above must have minimal content such as:

for the msdos.sys file:
[options]
disablelog=1
systemreg=0

for the system.ini file:
[386enh]
mouse=*vmouse

[boot]
shell=command.com

Windows Me prepared in that extreme way has only 5 MB in size, and still supports large FAT32 drives, Long File Names, mouse and all MS-DOS applications. Filelist that builds this 5 MB Windows Me is that minimal, that even removing one file from it can prevent this 5 MB system from successful booting and proper working with MS-DOS programs. This minimal system is commanded to shutdown by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Delete, and then selecting Shut Down button in Task Manager. This minimalized Windows ME requires temporarily renaming of other instances of Windows directory on other hard drives to something else, because other instances of Windows interferes with current running minimalized Windows ME, preventing it from successful bootup.

Windows ME can be even more further reduced to only 205kB with CLI. To do this, following files are required:


C:\IO.SYS - copied from bootable floppy image embedded in Windows ME OEM bootable CD
C:\MSDOS.SYS - content listed separately
C:\COMMAND.COM - modification listed separately

msdos.sys file must have minimal content such as:


[options]
disablelog=1
systemreg=0

command.com file must have minimal one-byte modification such as:


at hex offset 00006510 byte 75 is replaced by byte EB

To make booting procedure working, IO.SYS should be copied as first ever file to freshly formatted disk.

[edit] Windows NT component removal

With the success of 98lite, Shane Brooks decided to make a similar functionality to 98lite. It can remove similar "mandatory" components from Windows 2000 and Windows XP. Unlike 98lite, 2000 XPlite will not install Windows without the components. Also unlike 98lite, alternatives to 2000-XPLite already exist, such as NLite. NLite prevents components from being installed rather than removing them from an already-installed system. The Windows NT system is also not as 'shrinkable' as the 9x base; with few NT5+ minimization projects falling below 100MB; compared to the slightly more than 5MB (or less than UPX'ed 5MB) of Nano98.

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../9/8/l/98lite.html"