FYI: MSDE 2000 Windows 98 autostart work-around

Hey folks,

I just thought I'd post this for those of you who have experienced issues with getting MSDE 2000 to autostart on Windows 98 without having to pop up the ugly Sql Manager.

As it seems, Microsoft has no intention in making functionality to auto-start MSDE 2000 from a command line or other method without looking at this SQL Manager GUI and checking the "auto-start on reboot" box within Windows 98. For most of us, this is not a very good option. What I was able to do just for my Windows 98 customers was to use "scm.exe" and enable an undocumented (at least from the command line) feature of "-Silent 1". Executing the following within a shortcut from the "Start" folder:

scm.exe -Action 1 -Silent 1 -Service MSSQLSERVER

This will effectively start MSDE 2000 server every time on bootup without seeing any dialogs or status popup's. If you remove the "-Silent 1" from the call the standard "Starting Service" popup will show.

I welcome better ways of accomplishing an autostart in Windows 98 as there seems to be very little out there at the moment.

[Chandima]

Another approach I saw one user successfully implement was using the Registry's "Run" key. I'm not too familiar with MSDE 2000 but just to give you an idea of what I mean:

1. Launch the Regedit
2. Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
3. Create a new string named "Test"
4. Set it's value to C:\Windows\Notepad.exe
5. Reboot the machine

Everytime the OS reloads, Notepad will get launched.

Thats the best solution I've seen thus far, thanks for the information. We'll put that one to use right away