OT: Windows 95 INF looking for 8.3 folder name

[Guest Franc Zabkar]

I recently tried installing Microsoft's Win95 Kernel Toys on my

mother's Win95B box (so that I could use the keyboard remapper to

render the Left Ctrl and Alt keys harmless). To do this, I copied the

tools to a W95KernelToys folder on a floppy diskette and transferred

them to her C: drive. However, when I r-clicked KEYREMAP.INF and

selected Install, Win95 complained that it couldn't find the Keyremap

files in the W95KernelToys folder. It turned out that Windows was

expecting a folder name in 8.3 format. After typing W95Ker~1 into the

search box, the installation completed successfully. BTW, the C: drive

was not operating in compatibility mode, and Windows wasn't having any

other problems with long file names. AFAICT, this problem does not

occur in Win98SE.

 

- Franc Zabkar

--

Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.

[Guest glee]

Re: Windows 95 INF looking for 8.3 folder name

 

Re: Windows 95 INF looking for 8.3 folder name

 

"Franc Zabkar" <fzabkar@iinternode.on.net> wrote in message

news:tpoq749atu19h4me2t44v9ch2mr4pc1ur1@4ax.com...

>I recently tried installing Microsoft's Win95 Kernel Toys on my

> mother's Win95B box (so that I could use the keyboard remapper to

> render the Left Ctrl and Alt keys harmless). To do this, I copied the

> tools to a W95KernelToys folder on a floppy diskette and transferred

> them to her C: drive. However, when I r-clicked KEYREMAP.INF and

> selected Install, Win95 complained that it couldn't find the Keyremap

> files in the W95KernelToys folder. It turned out that Windows was

> expecting a folder name in 8.3 format. After typing W95Ker~1 into the

> search box, the installation completed successfully. BTW, the C: drive

> was not operating in compatibility mode, and Windows wasn't having any

> other problems with long file names. AFAICT, this problem does not

> occur in Win98SE.

 

Old news, Franc. ;-)

That is a well-known bug in the PowerToys and KernelToys installers. The

installations would complain if the name of the folder from which it was being

installed was more than 8 characters long.

 

I don't recall if it happened in Win98 (it probably did), but it did in Win95. Ron

Badour's blurb for installing PowerToys in those days always included the caveat to

install from a folder named Power, for that specific reason.

 

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.os.ms-windows.win95.misc/browse_thread/thread/ff1dc9edc0d24876/50dd18c0a78e9abd?hl=en&lnk=st&q=power+toys+ron+badour#50dd18c0a78e9abd

 

http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.win95.general.discussion/browse_thread/thread/b903a9062a6813a0/e9440e9b1823c74b?hl=en&lnk=st&q=power+toys+ron+badour#e9440e9b1823c74b

 

--

Glen Ventura, MS MVP Windows, A+

http://dts-l.net/

http://dts-l.net/goodpost.htm

[Guest Franc Zabkar]

Re: Windows 95 INF looking for 8.3 folder name

 

Re: Windows 95 INF looking for 8.3 folder name

 

On Wed, 16 Jul 2008 07:16:25 -0400, "glee" <glee29@spamindspring.com>

put finger to keyboard and composed:

>"Franc Zabkar" <fzabkar@iinternode.on.net> wrote in message

>news:tpoq749atu19h4me2t44v9ch2mr4pc1ur1@4ax.com...

>>I recently tried installing Microsoft's Win95 Kernel Toys on my

>> mother's Win95B box ...

>> It turned out that Windows was

>> expecting a folder name in 8.3 format.

>

>Old news, Franc. ;-)

>That is a well-known bug in the PowerToys and KernelToys installers.

 

Sorry, I searched using Google, but obviously wasn't using the right

terms.

 

Thanks.

 

- Franc Zabkar

--

Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.

[Guest glee]

Re: Windows 95 INF looking for 8.3 folder name

 

Re: Windows 95 INF looking for 8.3 folder name

 

"Franc Zabkar" <fzabkar@iinternode.on.net> wrote in message

news:u6ps741ccd9pntbfva6ammie1rrjobhgic@4ax.com...

> On Wed, 16 Jul 2008 07:16:25 -0400, "glee" <glee29@spamindspring.com>

> put finger to keyboard and composed:

>

>>"Franc Zabkar" <fzabkar@iinternode.on.net> wrote in message

>>news:tpoq749atu19h4me2t44v9ch2mr4pc1ur1@4ax.com...

>>>I recently tried installing Microsoft's Win95 Kernel Toys on my

>>> mother's Win95B box ...

>

>>> It turned out that Windows was

>>> expecting a folder name in 8.3 format.

>>

>>Old news, Franc. ;-)

>>That is a well-known bug in the PowerToys and KernelToys installers.

>

> Sorry, I searched using Google, but obviously wasn't using the right

> terms.

>

> Thanks.

 

<heh> Nothing to be sorry about. :-) I'm sure a lot of folks reading weren't aware

of the issue, so it's good you brought it up. You'd have to search back through the

Win95 group archives to find references. Searching MVP Ron Badour's replies

concerning PowerToys in Win95 should eventually turn up a more detailed explanation

than what I linked in my reply.

--

Glen Ventura, MS MVP Windows, A+

http://dts-l.net/

http://dts-l.net/goodpost.htm

[Guest Lee]

Re: Windows 95 INF looking for 8.3 folder name

 

Re: Windows 95 INF looking for 8.3 folder name

 

On Jul 16, 3:17 pm, Franc Zabkar <fzab...@iinternode.on.net> wrote:

> On Wed, 16 Jul 2008 07:16:25 -0400, "glee" <gle...@spamindspring.com>

> put finger to keyboard and composed:

>

> >"Franc Zabkar" <fzab...@iinternode.on.net> wrote in message

> >news:tpoq749atu19h4me2t44v9ch2mr4pc1ur1@4ax.com...

> >>I recently tried installing Microsoft's Win95 Kernel Toys on my

> >> mother's Win95B box ...

> >> It turned out that Windows was

> >> expecting a folder name in 8.3 format.

>

> >Old news, Franc.  ;-)

> >That is a well-known bug in the PowerToys and KernelToys installers.

>

> Sorry, I searched using Google, but obviously wasn't using the right

> terms.

>

> Thanks.

>

> - Franc Zabkar

> --

> Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.

 

It's a 9x defect having to do with 16 bit executables invoked by the

right click inf installation launch method used this way

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\CLASSES\inffile\shell\install]

@="&Install"

 

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\CLASSES\inffile\shell\install\command]

@="C:\\WINDOWS\\rundll.exe setupx.dll,InstallHinfSection

DefaultInstall 132 %1"

 

Versus the much more better method of using the

rundll32.exe,advpack.dll pair of inf installers that update packages

use which are supposed to be 32 bit and then able to use long file

names along with with long folder names too.

 

Since NT is 32 bit all the way, I would hope for a better situation in

that camp, but I remain hopeless.