Copyright: WinBoot Help Version 1.5                                            Developed by William Rollison


WinBoot

Version 1.5

for

Windows

WinBoot is a multiple boot utility designed exclusively for Microsoft Windows. This utility allows installing and switching between multiple language versions of Windows on one computer system. WinBoot supports multiple language versions of Windows installed onto a single hard drive, or onto different drives or partitions.

 WinBoot General Information and Warnings

 Winboot File Installation

 Installing Additional Language Versions of Windows

 Changing Installed Language Versions of Windows

 Troubleshooting Winboot

Disclaimer:

WinBoot is intended for international software developers and testers only. The WinBoot utility is not available to the general public, and is not supported as such.  Microsoft does not support multi-booting between different language versions of Windows.

Please contact William. Rollison for questions or comments at

willro@microsoft.com

Developed by Wm. Rollison and Charles Clark

Microsoft International Test Team

Copyright 1996 - 97 Microsoft, Inc.

All rights reserved.

This program may not be redistributed in any form, or posted on a public source that is not supported by Microsoft.


Neither Microsoft Corporation, nor the developers of WinBoot shall be liable for any data loss or operating system damage as a result of using the WinBoot utility.


There is no need to repartition the system’s hard drive for multibooting different language versions of Windows when using the WinBoot utility. WinBoot is specifically designed to multiboot between multiple language versions of Windows installed to systems onto a single hard disk, or to different hard disks and/or partitions.


Compressed Drives

Multi-booting different language versions of Windows with the WinBoot utility or other multi-boot utility should not be done on systems using Double Space, DriveSpace, or any other compression utility on the primary hard disk partitions or secondary system hard drives.

WinBoot will NOT work on systems with compressed boot drives. If the boot drive is compressed attempting to use this utility may cause the operating system not to start properly and may cause data to be lost or unrecoverable.

WinBoot has not been tested on secondary system hard drives and/or partitions. It is not recommended to use any disk compression utilities when booting between multiple language versions of Windows because some non-DBCS aware compression utilities may corrupt data, especially on systems with Far East DBCS enabled language versions of Windows.


Non-DBCS Aware Utilities

Some disk utilities such as SCANDISK or DEFRAG may corrupt DBCS files and/or directory names. Do not run US or European versions of disk utilities that do not support double byte character sets (DBCS) if a Far East language version of Windows is installed on the system.

If a Far East language version is installed on the computer system, always change to that version and run the DBCS enabled utilities for disk management.


Problems with Japanese Windows

The Japanese version of Windows installs device drivers (JFONT.SYS & JDISP.SYS) in the CONFIG.SYS file that may cause problems when attempting to install other language versions of Windows. To ensure setting up a new language version from the Japanese environment, the Japanese CONFIG.SYS file is backed up, then deleted before restarting the system in real mode DOS. If the system requires real mode drivers for a CD ROM drive, create generic CONFIG.SYS file to load necessary drivers, then reboot the system prior to continuing.


General Warnings

This utility will only work on systems having a C: boot drive. The different language versions of Windows may be installed to drives or partitions other than the C: drive, but in all cases the boot drive must be C:.

The system’s boot drive cannot be compressed using any compression utility. Attempting to use Winboot on a system with a compressed boot drive will cause the operating system not to boot correctly and may result in data loss.

Do not click the setup check box and proceed with the setup new language version unless you are absolutely ready to install a new language version. Doing so renames critical system files and directories, and you may loose some functionality if you attempt to recover.

This program renames and copies operating system critical files and directories. Renaming files and/or directories may pose some potential for damage to system files. This utility should only be used for test development, or testing purposes. Neither the developers of WinBoot nor Microsoft can be held liable for any data loss or damage to the operating system or data stored on the computer system.

Different language versions of Windows must be installed from real mode. Attempting to setup a different language version of Windows from the shell or a DOS VM will show an error message indicating a character set mismatch and setup will fail.

This utility creates and stores critical information in the C:\WINBOOT directory. Do not modify or delete the C:\WINBOOT directory or any files in the directory. Tampering with these files may cause the WinBoot utility to fail or the operating system not to restart properly.

Warnings and Misc. Issues

Before using the WinBoot utility please review the following topics;

GENERAL WARNINGS

Compressed Drives

Multiple Drives and/or Partitions

Non-DBCS Aware Utilities

Problems with Japanese Device Drivers

Multi-booting Windows and Windows NT

Pan-European and European Language Versions

Removing a Windows OS from a Mulitboot System


To boot between Windows and Windows NT, or Windows and MS DOS please refer to the NT Resource Kit or the Windows Resource Kit.


Setup Instructions

Installing an additional language version of Windows to a computer system already running a version of Windows must be done from real mode. (Setup of a different language cannot, or should not be done from GUI mode.) To setup a new language version of Windows on the system follow these procedures:

1. Launch WINBOOT.EXE from either a link on the desktop, explorer, or from Start/Run menu

2. Click the Setup check box on the WinBoot dialog, then click the OK button

3. The following dialog will appear indicating that proceeding will rename critical system files and restart the system in real mode. WARNING: If you are not ready to install a new language version of Windows into a different directory, press cancel and exit setup.

4. If you are prepared to install a new language version from diskette or CD ROM (be certain real mode CD ROM drivers are installed in the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files) press the OK button on the Warning dialog.

5. After the system reboots to real mode, install the new language version of Windows by typing “[drive]:\setup /is” (without the quotes) at the DOS prompt.

6. Ensure different language versions are installed into different named directories or setup may overwrite system files causing the operating system to function incorrectly.

See the Instructions for Changing Language Environments. to multiboot between the different language versions installed on the system.


Instructions for Changing Language Versions of Windows

After 2 or more different language versions Windows are installed to the system, use WinBoot to switch between the different language versions by following these instructions:

1. Launch WINBOOT.EXE from either a link on the desktop, explorer, or from Start/Run menu

2. Choose the language you wish to change to from the drop down list box, then press the OK button. (Only previously installed language versions will appear in the drop down list box.)

3. The WinBoot utility will then reboot the computer and restart in the selected language.


Pan-European and Localized European Language Versions

WinBoot uses the operating system’s Primary Language ID to detect the environment language and utilizes this to determine the 3 letter ISO lanaguage designation. Thus, it is not possible to install a localized European language version of Windows and a Pan-European version of Windows supporting that same language.


Installing WinBoot

It is recommended to install WINBOOT.EXE and WINBOOT.HLP into the root of the C: drive; however, the files may be installed anywhere on the system as long as they exist in the same directory.

After copying the executable and the help file to the root of the C: drive (or other directory) it is highly recommended that you create a shortcut linking the executable file on the desktop. (It is also possible to create an item in the start menu if so desired.)

After installing a new language version to the system, it is highly recommended you create a new shortcut on the system’s desktop (or a link in the start menu).


Removing a Windows OS from the System

The inability of some language versions to recognize extended ASCII and/or multibyte characters used in different language versions of Windows, it is virtually impossible to create a function which will automatically remove a version of Windows from the computer system.

However, it may be possible to manually remove a version of Windows from the computer following the steps outlined below; however it should be noted this has not been extensively tested.

1. 	Use WinBoot to change into the language version of Windows you wish to delete from the system.

2. 	Completely delete the \Program Files directory (this may be named differently in some European languages).

3. 	Delete any extended character, or multibyte character files which may have been created using the language version being removed from the system.

4. 	Delete any files or subdirectories in the windows directory for the language version being removed from the system that contain extended and/or multibyte characters.

5. 	Use WinBoot to change to a different language version that will remain on the system.

6. 	After the system reboots, open explorer and delete the directory of the language version selected for removal. (NOTE: If you failed to remove any multibyte characters before deleting the windows directory it may be impossibly to remove them later.)

7. 	From explorer, open the WinBoot directory folder.

8. 	Open WINBOOT.DAT using a text editor such as Notepad.

9. 	Delete the line entry for the language version of Windows you just removed from the system.


Troubleshooting WinBoot

If an error message indicates WinBoot failed to rename the Program Files directory the most common problem is the name of the Program Files directory for the current language version has changed or cannot be found.

•	Launch RegEdit from the Start | Run command.

•	Press F3 and search for ProgramFilesDir (This is in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion area .)

•	Open Explorer and ensure there is a directory located and named as indicated by the ProgramFilesDir key in the registry.

Another cause of WinBoot to fail to rename the Program Files directory is that a directory with that name already exists. This is a little harder to troubleshoot since WinBoot renames the Program Files directory with a 3 letter identifies based on the system’s environment.

•	From Start | Run enter “notepad c:\winboot\winboot.dat” (without the quotation marks)

•	Find the language listing for the current language version of Windows and note the 3 letter designation

•	Open Explorer and ensure there is no Program Files directory named with the same 3 letter designation as identified above.