Why does part of the Windows 98 setup program look older than other parts?
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On Stack Exchange, a website for answering questions about computers and programs, a question was asked: 'Why do the scroll bars and buttons on the windows displayed in the Windows 98 setup program resemble the UI style of older Windows, such as Windows 3.1?' Debian developer Steven Kitt responded.
Why does part of the Windows 98 Setup program look older than the rest? - Retrocomputing Stack Exchange
https://retrocomputing.stackexchange.com/questions/14903/why-does-part-of-the-windows-98-setup-program-look-older-than-the-rest
The Windows 98 screen looks like this.
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Below is an example of the Windows 3.1 screen.
And here is the Windows 98 setup screen posted by the questioner, Wonder Nauta. Nauta pointed out that the scrollbars, buttons, and title bars are similar to the 'ctl3d' style used in Windows 3.1 or Windows 3.11. If you 'restart your computer' during the setup process, it appears to switch to the Windows 98 UI, so Nauta wonders why such a difference occurs.
According to Kitt, this is because Windows 3.1 is running during the initial stage of setting up Windows 98. The Windows 98 setup process is structured as three steps with three different operating environments, and each step installs the next operating environment until the installation of Windows 98 is complete.
The first step runs the DOS program DOSSETUP.BIN from the floppy or CD-ROM to set up and check the disk partitions (the first step is done in DOS), and copies a minimal Windows 3.1 configuration to a temporary directory on the target installation drive.
The second step uses this minimal Windows 3.1 configuration to execute 'W98SETUP.BIN' which is specified as the shell in SYSTEM.INI, and copies a large number of files to support information gathering during setup, including various functions including the Windows 98 UI.
Once most of Windows 98 has been copied, you can configure your system to boot Windows 98 from the target drive, reboot, and then in the third step after reboot, Windows 98 will officially boot.
According to Kitt, most PCs that come with Windows 98 pre-installed are shipped after this second step has been completed.
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