As you can see from the above list, the Operating System Images sometime include not just the Operating System files, but they may also include certain additional programs. You can make your own Operating System Images by following this procedure
We have been doing computer refurbishing for many years, and in the past we have used some of these older operating systems, however currently we would probably only select either Win95a, Win95b, or Win98SE.
Once we have selected the desired operating system, the Clone program transfers the individual files needed to install that operating system to the target hard drive. Usually the target hard drive is in a Mobile Media Hard Drive Tray in the image machine,
We then select what application programs we want to include:
Bible programs were described above, but here we can decide to include:
Game programs were described above, but here we can decide to include:
For machines intended for internet access, whether using one of the free dialup providers, or whether the recipient anticipates installing Cable Modem or DSL Broadband service and sharing that access with a router, we also can install any of these:
Every recipient would love to have us include Microsoft Office, however that application program is not included with the Windows 98SE that the Microsoft Authorized Refurbisher program makes available, so we put on one of four free Office Suites (or if we are really tight for hard disk space, the Word Processor from one of those suites:
There are a number of freeware and shareware utilities, plus a 911 Memorial Screensaver that I got permission to install, that may be selected:
The Clone Partition loads the application programs into the C:/INSTALL folder on the target hard disk. Once the Operating System and all desired application programs have been transferred to the target hard disk, it is removed from the image machine and installed in the target computer. SETUP.EXE is run, to install the selected operating system. Then we create another folder called Installed, and we open a desktop explorer on the Install folder. We go through that folder clicking on each application program, one by one, to install that program. Once a particular program is installed, we use drag and drop to move the installation program from the Install folder to the Installed folder. That way if we are interrupted, we can come back and resume installing each program still in the Install folder. Once the Install folder is empty, and all installation programs have been moved to the Installed folder, the installation is complete, and we take the Hard Drive back to the Image Computer and make a Ghost Image of it, which can be used to set up further computers.
We have found that if we use a 486 computer to do our initial setup for a particular application, the Ghost Image made from it can be installed on either 486 or Pentium computers, but if we do the initial setup on a Pentium Computer, and make a Ghost Image of it, we sometimes have problems installing that Ghost Image on another type of Pentium computer. The reason seems to be that Pentium computers use different structures for their secondary busses, and when a Pentium ghost image with one setup is installed on a Pentium with a different setup, you may have to uninstall some hardware components and run Add New Hardware, while if the initial Ghost image is built on a 486, when you put it in a Pentium and run it for the first time, it will automatically set up the proper secondary buss drivers.