Thread: Using DOS and 98 at once, can I toggle at boot time with a keypress?

If you have Tweakui, open it up, then goto the startup tab. Uncheck "Start GUI Automatically".
(If you don't have Tweakui, then you'd need to edit msdos.sys and change bootgui=1 to bootgui=0)

Once this is done, the computer will boot into Dos by default. Windows can then be launched by typing "win".
One way to automate this process would be to edit the autoexec.bat and add the following lines to the end:

CHOICE /N /C:12 /T:1,5 Boot Into Windows? [1-No, 2-Yes]
IF ERRORLEVEL == 1 GOTO END
WIN
:END

In this example the choices are 1&2, the default choice is 1 with a timeout of 5 seconds

This should get you started. It won't display anything on the lcd. For that you'd need to use a third party program, like LCDPrint.

How could I make it call LCDprint every second while it's waiting? Kind of like a countdown:

5 seconds remaining
4 " "
3 " "

etc...

and then at any time I could enter 1 or 2 and enter, just so i know when I have to press it.

I can handle working LCDprint, but I need help with the batch file.

I would have a floppy with autoexec.bat that has "win" in the end, so it would boot dos w/o the floppy, and windows with it in

You could try something like this:


ECHO Boot Into Windows? [1-No, 2-Yes]
REM Add lcdprint here
CHOICE /N /C:012 /T:0,1 (5)
IF ERRORLEVEL == 3 GOTO WIN
IF ERRORLEVEL == 2 GOTO DOS
REM Add lcdprint here
CHOICE /N /C:012 /T:0,1 (4)
IF ERRORLEVEL == 3 GOTO WIN
IF ERRORLEVEL == 2 GOTO DOS
REM Add lcdprint here
CHOICE /N /C:012 /T:0,1 (3)
IF ERRORLEVEL == 3 GOTO WIN
IF ERRORLEVEL == 2 GOTO DOS
REM Add lcdprint here
CHOICE /N /C:012 /T:0,1 (2)
IF ERRORLEVEL == 3 GOTO WIN
IF ERRORLEVEL == 2 GOTO DOS
REM Add lcdprint here
CHOICE /N /C:12 /T:1,1 (1)
IF NOT ERRORLEVEL == 2 GOTO DOS
:WIN
REM Add lcdprint here
WIN
GOTO END
:DOS
REM Add lcdprint here
:END


It's kind of repetitive but it should work. I don't know of any way to get "choice" to handle the enter key, though.

i simply have a file called "1.bat" that simply contains the line:

win

So i only have to hit 1 and enter if i want 98.

When I was using MPXPlay, there were no preassigned batch files. I had 1.bat and 2.bat, with 1.bat running MPXPlay without preloading ID3 Tags (quick boot time), and 2.bat scanning and loading all songs into the default playlist (this is how I handled song updates). I also ran Win98 in DOS mode, and used 0.bat to enter the Windows GUI for networking and file maintenance, as I only used a numeric keypad in the truck.