Suggestion: About making MiniWin - China DOS Union Forum - China DOS Union

From a practical point of view, if it's only for slimming down Win9x, then making MiniWin does not mean much. I think the real approach should be to thoroughly modify Win98 and get its size down to under 10MB, with the requirement that at that point running programs should still be relatively stable and all functions should remain basically normal. Why do this? As everyone knows, Win9x, like Win3.x, is actually a GUI program under DOS. Therefore, we can restore Win98 to the true form hidden by MS, and after slimming/modifying it, let everyone clearly see its real nature and what a true GUI program under DOS looks like. Then everyone can compare it with other GUI programs under DOS, such as Seal, Qube, UCShell, E/OS LX, and so on, and draw conclusions from that. You would definitely be able to appreciate DOS's powerful capabilities and the significance of its development. Then people could use this kind of MiniWin98, SEAL, etc. as templates for GUI programs under DOS, and develop more GUI programs under DOS (actually very similar to the situation on the GNU/Linux platform), so as to achieve a flourishing, thriving future for GUI programs under DOS, instead of having any one GUI alone (for example WIN) dominate. What do you all think?

I'm more concerned about compatibility!

I think that slimming down WIN9X is not only about reducing its size, but also about making it able to run independently from a CD, without needing to detect hardware, so that it can be used for system maintenance and repair. Right now WINPE can basically meet those requirements, but it's too slow, so if WINPE could be slimmed down to improve speed and compatibility, then it would be a very good tool for system maintenance. Since I don't like using ghost, what I do now is install win and then use winrar to compress the system into a rar file. When the system crashes, I delete win and then boot with winpe and extract the rar file, and that gives me a stable system. It's just a pity that winpe is too slow.

I agree with pfox's opinion: "Hopefully it can run independently from a CD, and without needing to detect hardware, so that it can be used for system maintenance and repair."

If it can't run from a CD, it could also run on a virtual disk. Memory is fairly large now, so opening a 30M-50M virtual disk is no big problem. I think the size doesn't have to be too small; under 30M would be enough. The main thing is good compatibility, and the main functions need to be there.

litepc does have a 10M win98 there, but I don't have the money.

Looking forward to success!

That won't be easy to do.

to pfox:
A question: how did you get winrar to run in winpe? I can't start winrar in pe.

The following is quoted from nico's post on 2003-7-16 1:32:23:
to pfox:
A question: how did you get winrar to run in winpe? I can't start winrar in pe.

2.9 can run directly. For 3.0 and above it's related to the registry. At that time I used the build tool provided on Wuyou, and used XP SP1. What it made supported running 3.0. I also tried some versions that could not run 3.0.

Floor1　Wengier	Posted 2003-07-14 00:00
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From a practical point of view, if it's only for slimming down Win9x, then making MiniWin does not mean much. I think the real approach should be to thoroughly modify Win98 and get its size down to under 10MB, with the requirement that at that point running programs should still be relatively stable and all functions should remain basically normal. Why do this? As everyone knows, Win9x, like Win3.x, is actually a GUI program under DOS. Therefore, we can restore Win98 to the true form hidden by MS, and after slimming/modifying it, let everyone clearly see its real nature and what a true GUI program under DOS looks like. Then everyone can compare it with other GUI programs under DOS, such as Seal, Qube, UCShell, E/OS LX, and so on, and draw conclusions from that. You would definitely be able to appreciate DOS's powerful capabilities and the significance of its development. Then people could use this kind of MiniWin98, SEAL, etc. as templates for GUI programs under DOS, and develop more GUI programs under DOS (actually very similar to the situation on the GNU/Linux platform), so as to achieve a flourishing, thriving future for GUI programs under DOS, instead of having any one GUI alone (for example WIN) dominate. What do you all think?

Floor2　hunome	Posted 2003-07-14 00:00
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I'm more concerned about compatibility!

Floor3　pfox	Posted 2003-07-14 00:00
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I think that slimming down WIN9X is not only about reducing its size, but also about making it able to run independently from a CD, without needing to detect hardware, so that it can be used for system maintenance and repair. Right now WINPE can basically meet those requirements, but it's too slow, so if WINPE could be slimmed down to improve speed and compatibility, then it would be a very good tool for system maintenance. Since I don't like using ghost, what I do now is install win and then use winrar to compress the system into a rar file. When the system crashes, I delete win and then boot with winpe and extract the rar file, and that gives me a stable system. It's just a pity that winpe is too slow.

Floor4　wglwx	Posted 2003-07-14 00:00
高级用户　Posts 187　Credits 616
I agree with pfox's opinion: "Hopefully it can run independently from a CD, and without needing to detect hardware, so that it can be used for system maintenance and repair." If it can't run from a CD, it could also run on a virtual disk. Memory is fairly large now, so opening a 30M-50M virtual disk is no big problem. I think the size doesn't have to be too small; under 30M would be enough. The main thing is good compatibility, and the main functions need to be there.

Floor5　dsm75	Posted 2003-07-14 00:00
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litepc does have a 10M win98 there, but I don't have the money.

Floor6　LK	Posted 2003-07-14 00:00
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Looking forward to success!

Floor7　yiyesong	Posted 2003-07-14 00:00
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That won't be easy to do.

Floor8　nico	Posted 2003-07-16 00:00
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to pfox: A question: how did you get winrar to run in winpe? I can't start winrar in pe.

Floor9　pfox	Posted 2003-07-16 00:00
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*The following is quoted from nico's post on 2003-7-16 1:32:23:* to pfox: A question: how did you get winrar to run in winpe? I can't start winrar in pe. 2.9 can run directly. For 3.0 and above it's related to the registry. At that time I used the build tool provided on Wuyou, and used XP SP1. What it made supported running 3.0. I also tried some versions that could not run 3.0.