Prepare for the unexpected. This program is a must for any technican who spends all day repairing Windows software problems. It can save you hours! Take a few moments to read John K’s article titled "Getting ready to install Windows 9x" published by TechRepublic.

From DOS (i.e. before Windows 9x starts up) it will tell you:

• Where Windows was installed from (will you or won’t you need the CD)
• Serial Number and Product Key
• Computer Name and Workgroup
• Screen saver time and password (don’t get locked out)
• Screen resolution and refresh rate (will your monitor handle it)
• What patches have been installed
• Regional Settings (date/time/currency formats)
• The odd registry settings that will cause you problems
• It can list programs set to run when Windows starts
• It can list 16-bit drivers that have been installed
• It can list extra "Property Sheet" that have been installed
• It can show you all Share names with access rights and passwords
• Diagnose Network problems
• Policies: Where did that “Run...” command go?
• What patches do I need for my combination of chipset and processor?
• MSDOS.SYS, CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT problems

Also included is DUMPREG - this will allow you to recover data from a damaged registry. All the other software we have seen rely on a backup copy of the registry: but what if you don't have a good backup?

DIAG has a huge advantage over other diagnostics programs: Windows doesn’t need to be running. How can you run a Windows-based diagnosis program, if Windows isn't running stabily?

2004.04.26 This is now an obsolete product, the free version has been removed and replaced with the latest registered version.

Operating Instructions

1. Turn on computer, and boot from its hard drive, choose Safe Mode Command Prompt only
2. Run DIAGPLUS. You may use any of these optional switches:
• /R — show programs that will Run during windows startup
• /S — show Share names and passwords
• /X — show eXtra property sheet and context menu handlers
• /I — don’t show the standard information page

Windows ME does not have a Safe Mode Command Prompt, so boot from a diskette or cd first.

The extra "Property sheets" are most likely to be found from the Display icon in the control panel. They are the extra tabs you may have such as "Plus!" or "Web" or "S3 Refresh".

The Run and Property Sheet options try to locate the files being refered to on your hard drive, and extracts the version information from the file. It uses Windows long file names to do this. If scandisk reports an error relating to long file names, (including any message indicating that the directory name is too long for MSDOS), then DIAG will not be able to locate the file and report it as missing.