Unable to run WordPad?
If you get an error message that WordPad cannot find a DLL, it may well be because you have uninstalled the Microsoft Network. In Control Panel, select Add/Remove programs. Click the middle tab, for Windows Setup. Select Accessories by double clicking. At the bottom of the list is WordPad. Click the tick to untick it, then OK, followed by OK. Then repeat the previous operation, this time clicking WordPad to be reinstalled. This should fix the problem, provided you have either the Windows 95 CD-ROM or disks.
Can't run a program that requires Expanded memory?
Some programs, especially games on CD-ROM, requires Expanded memory. However, installing Emm386 on your system by changing your config.sys file will force Windows 95 to run in MS-DOS compatibility mode, or be very unstable, as Windows 95 handles memory in a totally different way. To solve this, download this pkzipped shortcut, uncompress it and copy it to your desktop, then double click it. This will shut down Windows, with a warning beforehand, and reboot your machine. Then you can install your mouse drivers and CD-ROM drivers, or add them to the new config.sys and autoexec.bat files. The old ones are now called config.w40 and autoexec.w40. When you finish running your program, type exit and your machine will reboot and go back into Windows.
You want to run Windows 95 and DOS/Windows 3.1x?
Some people, including myself, need to be able to run programs under Windows 3.1x as well as Windows 95. Some programs don't run under Windows 95, for instance,you can't use undelete to restore a file from disk. If you have purchased an upgrade version from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95 this is no problem, since all you have to do is install Windows 95, and when you start or restart your computer press F8. Select the last entry and press enter. You are now back in your old version of DOS/Windows3.1x. If you have the full version of Windows 95, I believe that you can also upgrade directly from your old version, though I've never tried this.
This solution does not work with OSR2, the latest version of Windows 95. It will not allow you to create a dual boot machine. Only versions 95 and 95a (OSR1) will allow you to do this. See the Microsoft Knowledge base for more information. If you wish to upgrade from 95 to 95a (OSR1), get the service pack available from Microsoft.
I shall assume that you have Windows 95 on CD-ROM. If you have the disk version, then ignore what I say about CD-ROMs. Be careful to read all of this page before starting!
The solution involves reformating your hard disk and therefore losing all your files. If you are not sure about doing this then get help! I would suggest that you create several partitions on your hard disk using FDISK, each of either 510MB or 254MB (which gives you smaller cluster sizes and your disk space is then used more efficiently) depending on the size of your disk. You will need to boot from a system floppy disk containing the following
If you cannot access your cd-rom from a boot disk, you cannot install Windows 95.
when booted up, run fdisk to delete the primary DOS partition. Once this is done, you cannot get your files back! Then create a smaller primary partition. Then create an Extended DOS partition. The Extended DOS partition will contain all your other drives. For example, my own machine has C: as the primary partition, and D: E: F: and G: in the secondary partition.
Format each partition using format c: /u etc
If you have the full version CD-ROM for Windows 95 install DOS, then Windows 3.1 in the directory d:\windows. make sure that your cd-rom drivers are copied over so that you can install Windows 95. put Windows 95 in the C:\windows directory. You will have to be careful when installing software in future that it knows which windows directory you are using. If Windows 3.1 software assumes that c:\windows is the Windows 3.1 directory, it can cause problems. I do not know of a way around this, as Windows 95 always want's to be Top Dog, and doesn't give you the option of installing itself in another partition, as far as I can recall.
If you have the OEM version of Windows 95 (which says on the box 'only for use with a new pc'), then after installing DOS, boot your machine from floppy, with a disk that has the CD-ROM drivers.(If Windows 95 is pre-installed, which it often is in the case of OEM versions, and you don't have your original DOS disks, then you'll have to buy MS-DOS). Then move the dos directory to d:\dos. copy autoexec.bat and config.sys to your boot disk, ensuring that you still have reference to your CD-ROM drivers in them, and changing any reference in them to c:\dos to d:\dos. Rename them as autoexec.dos and config.dos. Copy the hidden files
to the a: drive as msdos.dos, io.dos, command.dos. You will probably have to use the attrib command to change attributes of the files. Then format the C: drive again. Install Windows 95, and copy the files
from your disk to c:\. Edit the new file msdos.sys and add the line
if it is not already there.Finally install Windows 3.1 to the d:\windows directory.
In both case, to get to Windows 3.1, hold down F8 when the words 'Starting Windows 95' appear on your screen. the last option says 'previous version of DOS'. Select that option and you can then run Windows 3.1. Note that in this mode, you have three files, autoexec.w40,command.w40 and config.w40 in your root directory. DO NOT DELETE THEM. They are the configuration files for running Windows 95. Conversely, in Windows 95, you will have three files, autoexec.dos, command.dos and config.dos. DO NOT DELETE THEM EITHER! They are the configuration files for Windows 3.1x and DOS. Windows 95 swaps between them.
© John Airey, johnairey@geocities.com, Background © Albino Frog Software, Inc.