Teach Yourself Windows 98 in 24 Hours
This hour shows how the Windows 98 interface supports your hardware. Windows 98 supports Plug and Play, a term that describes automatic installation of new hardware you add to your PC. Before Windows, you had to set jumper switches and make operating system settings. Often, hardware and software conflicts would occur, creating many hours of debugging headaches. With Plug and Play, you simply plug new hardware components (memory, disk drives, CD-ROM drives, and expansion boards) into your computer, and Windows 98 immediately recognizes the change and sets everything up properly.
Plug and Play requires almost no thought when installing new hardware to your system. At least that's the theory. In reality, you may still encounter problems, as this hour explains. If Plug and Play does not perform as expected, Windows 98 provides a hardware setup wizard that you can use to walk you through the new hardware's proper installation.
Windows 98 has not only made it easier to change hardware on one system, but it also contains a program that aids you in changing entire machines! Many people work on multiple PCs. Perhaps you have a laptop and also a desktop computer. Perhaps you work both at home and at the office. Whatever your situation, the Windows 98 Briefcase will help you synchronize your document files so they remain as current as possible.
The highlights of this hour include the following:
Some computer users actually refer to Plug and Play as Plug and Pray; these users are actually making a good point. Despite the industry hype over Plug and Play, it does not always work. If you attempt to install an older board into your computer, Windows 98 might not recognize the board, and you could have all kinds of hardware problems that take time to correct.
Things do not always go right when installing non-Plug and Play hardware. (New hardware that supports Plug and Play often has a seal with PnP on the box indicating its compatibility.) You often have to set certain hardware switches correctly. You may also have to move certain jumpers so that electrical lines on your new hardware flow properly to work with your specific computer. The new hardware can conflict with existing hardware in your machine. Most hardware devices, such as video and sound boards, often require new software support contained in small files called drivers that you must install and test.
NOTE Hardware designed before the invention of Plug and Play specifications is called legacy hardware.
Before Plug and Play can work in Windows 98, these two Plug and Play items must be in place:
You are running Windows 98, which is compatible with Plug and Play. If you do not have the Plug and Play BIOS inside your computer (most computers made before 1994 have no form of Plug and Play compatibility at all), you have to help Windows 98 with the installation process by answering some questions posed by a new hardware setup wizard. When you purchase new hardware in the future, try to purchase only hardware rated for Plug and Play compatibility.
TIP One key in knowing whether the hardware is designed for Plug and Play is to make sure the Windows 98 logo appears on the new hardware's box or instructions. Before a hardware vendor can sell a product with the Windows 98 logo, that product must offer some level of Plug and Play compatibility. If you have older hardware already installed under a version of Windows when you install Windows 98, you will not have to reinstall this hardware.
If you run Windows 98, own a computer with a Plug and Play BIOS, and purchase only Plug and Play hardware, the most you usually have to do is turn off the computer, install the hardware, and turn the computer back on. Everything should work fine after that.
NOTE Although most hardware sold today supports Plug and Play, some notable exceptions do not. For example, the Iomega Jaz and Zip high-capacity drives require several non-Plug and Play steps that you must go through to install these devices (the parallel port versions are simpler but are slower in their operation).
Plug and Play works both for newly installed hardware and for removed hardware. If you remove a sound card that you no longer want, or remove memory and replace that memory with a higher capacity memory, Plug and Play ought to recognize the removal and reconfigure the computer and operating system automatically. Again, Plug and Play is not always perfect and does not always operate as expected, but as long as you run a Plug-and-Play BIOS and install Plug and Play hardware, there should be little installation trouble ahead for you.
If you install hardware and find that Windows 98 does not properly recognize the change, double-click the Add New Hardware icon in the Control Panel window. Windows 98 starts the Add New Hardware Wizard, shown in Figure 18.1, which helps walk you through the installation process.
The wizard goes through a series of tests and attempts to detect the newly added
hardware. Remember that Windows 98 recognizes most Plug and Play hardware; that is,
when you install a new graphics card, for example, and then restart Windows 98, Windows
98 recognizes the graphics card and configures itself for use with your new card.
Nevertheless, Windows 98 cannot automatically recognize all Plug and Play hardware.
The wizard, therefore, first analyzes your system in detail, looking for hardware
that is Plug and Play but unrecognized from the second Add New Hardware Wizard dialog
box page, shown in Figure 18.2.
Figure 18.1. The Add New
Hardware Wizard helps you install non-Plug and Play hardware.
Figure 18.2. The Add New
Hardware Wizard helps you install non-Plug and Play hardware.
After the Add New Hardware Wizard searches for Plug and Play hardware, you can have
it search for non-Plug and Play hardware, or you can select the hardware from the
list of vendors and products Windows 98 offers. Of course, if your hardware is newer
than Windows 98, Windows 98 will not list your specific hardware.
WARNING You can let the Add New Hardware Wizard search for the new hardware, and if the Wizard does not recognize the hardware, you can select from the list of devices.
Be sure to read your new hardware's installation documentation thoroughly before
you begin the installation. Often the new hardware comes with updated drivers that
fix minor bugs and add features to drivers that Windows 98 already includes. Therefore,
instead of letting the Wizard search for the new device, and instead of selecting
from the list of supported devices (shown in Figure 18.3), you use a disk or CD-ROM
that comes with the new hardware to add the latest hardware support for the device
to Windows 98. Therefore, you have to click the dialog box's Have Disk button and
select the hardware's disk or CD-ROM location to complete the installation.
Figure 18.3. Select
from the list of known hardware or use your hardware's own installation disk.
WARNING If you add a new modem to a serial port or a printer to a parallel port, you should not run the Add New Hardware Wizard. The wizard works only for hardware you physically connect to the system unit, such as a disk drive or graphics card. If you plug a modem into an existing serial port, that serial port will already be installed, so you don't need to run Add New Hardware. You will, however, have to double-click the Control Panel's Modems icon and select your modem from the list of modems displayed.
If you have a laptop or desktop with a PC card (PC cards are sometimes called PCMCIA cards), you can plug PCMCIA cards directly into the laptop, changing a PC card hard disk to a PC card modem, and Windows 98 will adjust itself automatically. Hour 19, "Using Windows 98 on the Road," explains more about mobile computing and the hardware issues you'll encounter.
Additional Hardware Support
Windows 98 uses a Registry and hardware tree to keep track of the current and changeable hardware configuration. The Registry is a central repository of all possible hardware information for your computer. The hardware tree is a collection of hardware configurations, taken from parts or all of the Registry, for your computer. (In addition, your Registry holds software settings.)
Luckily, you don't have to know anything about the Registry, because Windows 98 keeps track of the details for you. If, however, you want to look at the hardware tree currently in place on your computer, you can display the Control Panel, double-click the System icon, and choose the Device Manager page. Windows 98 displays the System Properties tabbed dialog box. The hardware tree shows the devices currently in use.
When you purchase a second PC, such as a laptop or a second home PC, you'll probably want to transfer files from your current PC to the new one. For example, you may have data files on the current PC that you want to place on the new one. Windows 98 supports a feature called Direct Cable Connection that lets you transfer files between computers without the need of a network and without moving data between the PCs via disk.
If you attach a high-speed parallel or serial cable between two computers, those computers can share files and printer resources with one another. This is a simple replacement for an expensive network if you want only two computers to share resources.
The Direct Cable Connection option should be available in the Accessories menu.
(If the Direct Cable Connection option is not installed, run the Windows Setup option
from the Control Panel's Add/Remove Programs icon if you need to install Direct Cable
Connection.) When you select Direct Cable Connection, Windows 98 initiates the wizard
shown in Figure 18.4. After answering the wizard's prompts, your two computers will
be linked, as Task 18.1 describes next.
Figure 18.4. The Accessories
menu contains the Direct Cable Connection Wizard.
NOTE The two computers connected using a direct cable connection must use the same type of port. Therefore, you must connect two parallel ports with a bidirectional parallel cable or two serial ports with a null-modem cable. You cannot connect a parallel port to a serial port.
Step 1: Description
The Direct Cable Connection enables you to easily transfer files between two computers
using both computers' parallel or serial ports. After you connect the two machines
with the cable, you must start the Direct Cable Connection Wizard, select the sending
and receiving computer, and select the files you want to send over the cable connection.
Step 2: Action
Figure 18.5. Tell the wizard which port the cable connects to.
Step 3: Review
The Direct Cable Connection provides a way for you to connect two computers to use
the files and printer on one (the host) by the other (the guest). The Direct Cable
Connection enables the guest computer to share the host's file and printer resources
without requiring expensive and more elaborate networking hardware and software.
NOTE After you set up a host or guest PC, your subsequent use of Direct Cable Connection is easier. You then have to specify the dialog box settings only if you change computers or if you decide to change directions and switch between the host and guest when transferring files. Figure 18.6 shows the dialog box that appears when you start the host's Direct Cable Connection Wizard after you initially set up the connection.
Figure 18.6. Tell the wizard which port the cable connects to. The next time you use the cable connection, you don't have to specify a cable or port.
This hour got fairly technical during the discussion of hardware. An operating system must run through several operations before it can recognize and work with new hardware. Fortunately, the Plug and Play process makes such work slightly easier and sometimes trouble-free.
If you do not use 100 percent Plug and Play hardware, the Add New Hardware Wizard will walk you through each installation and help make the hardware easier to install. Suppose, for example, you add an internal modem, but you cannot communicate with it. The Add New Hardware Wizard may realize that you have a new internal modem after running through its series of tests, but may not be able to determine exactly what kind of internal modem you have. You and the wizard together should be able to determine the proper configuration.
The Direct Cable Connection Wizard means that you'll be connecting more computers than ever before. You'll be able to transfer files and share printers easily from one to the other by attaching a cable between the parallel or serial ports of each machine.
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