How
to make the Creative Zen Nano Plus mp3 player work with Windows98 (1st
Editon)
(zen-nano98.html)
written by carpediem2100
date April 26, 2007
I purchased a Creative Zen Nano Plus mp3 player.
It works with Windows XP but would not work with
Windows98 (1st Edition).
On the Creative website, they show how to install drivers for
Windows98 SE. One is supposed insert the Cd-rom, navigate to
the
folder Muvo/Drivers and click on setup.exe.
If one tries this on plain Windows98, a message pops up saying
Windows98 is not supported and that the minimum requirement is
Windows98 SE. The installation is aborted.
The directory "Drivers" is about 4.3 Megabytes in size and the file
that prevents installation in Windows98 is Support.cab (approx 86KB).
This is a pretty rotten scenario. Windows98 and Windows98 SE
are so
similar I don't understand why one would intentionally prevent devices/
software/drivers from working on the older OS. (I purchased my computer
in the Spring of 1999; It must have just missed the cut-off for getting
Win98-SE). [actually, i do understand why. It's a corporate
decision
which is more profitable because the user has to spend more $ to
upgrade to Windows98 SE]. The corporations aren't breaking
any laws,
but it doesn't feel like the Christian thing to do.
Technically the Nano-Plus does work with Windows98 (1st Edn).
Below
are the steps to modify the driver folder.
A. on the Creative manufacturer's Cd, copy the directory "Drivers" to
your desktop. (ie. from D:Muvo/Drivers)
B. extract Support.cab; It extracts to a folder called "Common"
In "Common" you will find 4 files:
MSDriver.ini (configuration settings)
regdll.dll
muvoRes.dll
Setup.bmp.dll
It is specifically MSDriver.ini file that prevents
installation.
C. open MSDriver.ini (usually with notepad, or other text editor) and
change these lines from
E. recompress the "Common" folder back into "Support.cab"
(For this step i used Dirk Paehl's Simplyzip version 1.1b62)
F. Replace Support.cab in "Drivers" folder with the above modified one.
G. Now go ahead and click and on setup.exe in the "Drivers" folder and
continue the installation process. The system
should reboot Windows98
and after the computer restarts, your Zen Nano Plus will be
recognized
as a mass storage device and you will be able to move
mp3's/data files
between it and your hard-drive.
