How to Uninstall Windows 98

ID: Q186102

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows 98

SUMMARY

This article describes how to uninstall Windows 98.

MORE INFORMATION

If you decide to return to your previous operating system, you may be able to uninstall Windows 98. In order to uninstall Windows 98, you must choose to save uninstall information during Windows 98 Setup. The uninstall information is saved in the Winundo.dat and Winundo.ini files. If these files are deleted, you can not uninstall Windows 98. Also, Windows 98 cannot be uninstalled if your hard disk has been compressed or converted to the FAT32 file system after you install Windows 98, or if your hard disk is compressed before you install Windows 98. If you had FAT32 on your hard disk before upgrading to Windows 98, you can uninstall Windows 98. The FAT32 Converter tool and the DriveSpace tool remove the Winundo.dat, Winundo.ini and Uninstal.exe files from your hard disk.

If your hard disk is compressed with DriveSpace before you upgrade to Windows 98, you are not prompted to save uninstall information, and you cannot uninstall Windows 98.

NOTE: Windows-based programs you install after you install Windows 98 may not function correctly after Windows 98 is uninstalled. Reinstall these programs to restore their functionality.

IMPORTANT: You should not attempt to Uninstall Windows 98 if the partition information for your hard disk or disks has changed since you last installed Windows 98 successfully. Windows creates a backup copy of your partition information in the Suhdlog.dat file at the end of a successful installation, and Uninstal.exe restores the partition information listed in the Suhdlog.dat file to your hard disk during Uninstall. If the partition information on your hard disk or disks has changed since you last installed Windows 98 successfully (specifically, since the Suhdlog.dat file was created), then you may experience partial or complete data loss as a result of attempting to Uninstall Windows 98.

Your partition information may be different from the backup copy in the Suhdlog.dat file for any of the following reasons:

You ran Drive Converter (FAT32) to convert a FAT16 drive to FAT32 after you installed Windows 98. Windows 98 removes the Control Panel option to Uninstall when you run Drive Converter (FAT32) to prevent this problem from occurring.

You ran a 3rd-party partitioning utility, such as PowerQuest's Partition Magic, to change your partition structure after you installed Windows 98.

You copied or restored the Suhdlog.dat file from a different physical hard drive or from the same physical hard drive with different partition information (for example, you ran FDISK to re-partition your drive, then you restored a backup that included the Suhdlog.dat file).

NOTE: Suhdlog.dat is a hidden file in the root directory of drive C.

Your computer is infected with a boot sector virus. If you suspect a boot sector virus, run an anti-virus program with the latest virus signatures and allow the program to remove any viruses that it finds before you attempt to uninstall Windows 98.

For additional information about boot sector viruses, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
ARTICLE-ID: Q129972
TITLE : Description of Computer Viruses

To uninstall Windows 98, use the following steps:

Click Start, point to Settings, click Control Panel, and then double-click Add/Remove Programs.

Click Uninstall Windows 98, click Add/Remove, and then click Yes.

When you are prompted "Before Windows 98 is removed from your computer, your disk(s) will be checked for errors. Do you want to continue?", click Yes. This starts ScanDisk and the uninstallation procedure.

After ScanDisk checks all of your drives, you receive the following prompt:
Uninstall is ready to proceed. Windows 98 will shutdown and uninstall will continue automatically. Do you want to continue?
Click Yes.

Follow the instructions on the screen to finish uninstalling Windows 98.

If you cannot start your Windows 98-based computer after you upgrade from Microsoft Windows 95 or Microsoft Windows 3.1, you are not be able to remove Windows 98 from the Add/Remove Programs tool in Control Panel. In this case, you can restart your computer in real mode and run Uninstal.exe from the Windows\Command folder. Microsoft recommends that you perform these steps after restarting your computer and choosing Command Prompt Only from the Startup menu or booting from a Windows 98 Startup disk. To start your computer to a command prompt from the Startup menu, restart your computer, press and hold down the CTRL key until you see the Windows 98 Startup menu, and then choose Command Prompt Only.

For more information about how to use the Startup menu in Windows 98, see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

ARTICLE-ID: Q178548
TITLE : No "Starting Windows 98" Message at Startup

Type each of the following lines, pressing ENTER after each line

smartdrv
<drive>:
cd\<windows>\command
uninstal.exe

where <drive> is the drive letter of the drive containing the Windows folder, and <windows> is the name of the Windows folder.

Type "y" when you are prompted to continue. This process can take several minutes.

Notes

Uninstal.exe may not be available in the Windows\Command folder. If you run DriveSpace or Drive Converter (FAT32), Windows removes Uninstal.exe. You cannot Uninstall Windows 98 after compressing a drive with DriveSpace or converting a FAT16 drive to FAT32 using Drive Convertor (FAT32). If Uninstal.exe is unavailable on the hard drive, you cannot uninstall Windows 98.

SMARTDrive (Smartdrv.exe) is not required to run Uninstal.exe, but it can significantly speed up the removal process.

If you want to uninstall Windows 98 when a real-mode NetWare client (VLM or Netx) is installed, run Uninstal.exe from Safe Mode Command Prompt Only. If the real-mode NetWare client is loaded in memory, the computer may not have sufficient conventional memory to successfully uninstall Windows 98.

For information about optimizing conventional memory, see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

ARTICLE-ID: Q77083 Q77083
TITLE : Optimizing Your Use of Upper Memory Blocks

When you upgrade a Windows 95-based computer that has Internet Explorer 4.0 or 4.01 installed, the IE4.txt file is not removed from the computer. The Ie4.txt file documents how to remove Internet Explorer. These instructions do not work because Internet Explorer is an integrated part of the operating system and cannot be removed from Windows 98.

Additional query words: 98


Keywords          : kbsetup win98 
Version           : WINDOWS:
Platform          : WINDOWS 
Issue type        : kbhowto

Last Reviewed: February 4, 1999