First of all, if you have not yet read the Introductory Information page in the "Before you start" section of this document, you should do that now. In that section we discuss some key concepts as well as the differences between Admin Mod version 2.50.50 and prior versions. There are some key differences, so whether you are new to this or if you have been working with Admin Mod since it was first born, that section is important to become familiar with.
Admin Mod can be installed on any 32 bit Windows platform that supports the HLDS server application ranging from Windows 95 to the Server 2003. It is not reccomended that you run a server on a 98 family operating system (windows 95, 98 or ME). It should work but its just a bad idea, use a more modern OS if at all possible.
Admin also works on linux, any linux which can run hlds_l can also run Admin Mod. Similarly if your BSD server can run hlds_l you can use Admin Mod with it, though you may need to do a little more setup in this case.
For those of you performing Windows installations, a Visual Basic script is supplied that automates and simplifies installation of the mod, as long as you have a fairly typical installation of Half Life and any game mods. If you have specified any ultra-custom paths for your mods or half-life, the installation script may get confused, and you will need to do a manual installation which is covered later in this documentation.
There are a few important things to consider from the onset – if you are skimming this file, stop and read this next part carefully:
THE FIRST THING YOU SHOULD DO IS BACK UP YOUR CONFIGURATION AND OTHER CUSTOM FILES!!!
If you think you’ll figure it out later, you might just be in for a surprise. Now, Admin Mod is easy to install, but our experience has shown us that people tend to skip this step. So, it bears repeating:
THE FIRST THING YOU SHOULD DO IS BACK UP YOUR CONFIGURATION AND OTHER CUSTOM FILES!!!
Okay. Hopefully you get the picture. Come back here after you have completed your backup.
Next: Extracting Admin Mod the Right Way