OT: Windows 95 INF looking for 8.3 folder name

[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.

 

[glee]

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...k=st&q=power+toys+ron+badour#50dd18c0a78e9abd

http://groups.google.com/group/micr...k=st&q=power+toys+ron+badour#e9440e9b1823c74b

--
Glen Ventura, MS MVP Windows, A+
http://dts-l.net/
http://dts-l.net/goodpost.htm

 

[Franc Zabkar]

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.

 

[glee]

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

 

[Lee]

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.