On: Why does part of the Windows 98 Setup program look...

[pndy]

Pretty sure you have Windows Preinstallation Environment, WinPE in mind but it arrived with XP - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Preinstallation_Enviro...

On Windows 200 and XP you could install additional recovery console - which in later version has become a default addition to the system

[qingcharles → pndy]

Ah, this was what I was thinking of, thank you. WinPE.