My Computer\Drive{\Folder or \Folder\File} \RIGHT mouse click \PROPERTIES
or
EXPLORER\Drive {\folder, file, etc}\RIGHT Mouse click\Properties
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To save 7 MB of disk space: can delete the 10 AVI files in Win95\Help - they only show some very basic things like how to move a window, how to use the Start menu etc...
For maximum DOS memory in an MS-DOS session, add the line
LocalLoadHigh=1
to the [386Enh] section of system.ini.
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Make more memory available to run DOS games?
Try this new config.sys:
How can I get 600 conventional memory when I run a DOS session? I was having no problems before win95, but now I can't seem to get it no matter how bare bones I run. (this is "full" DOS session, like rebooting to DOS).
After much pulling of hair, and threats to my computer, I found the following tip which helped free up conventional memory. Try adding the following lines to the top of config.sys:
DOS 7: If Shutdown Win95 & choose to reboot to Dos7, when finish
doing whatever,
shd. type "exit" so it will reboot back to Win95. Win95 does not create a
Dos folder, puts most of its "Dos" files under it's Command subfolder.
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DOS Prompt (to shell out to Dos)
Start/Program/MS-Dos Prompt. Alt-Enter to toggle between full and small
windows. Can click on the X at top right to exit to Windows.
Dosstart.bat
In Win95 dir'y. Controls behaviour of Dos7. Contains only 1 line to load
mouse.exe. Added another line to load Smartdrv automatically when goes into
Dos. (Win95 does not use Smartdrv):
LH /L:0;2,45488 /S C:\WIN95\SMARTDRV.EXE"
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DOS Program running under Win95:
Start the prog., Alt-Enter to small window, click on Properties button,
select "Close on Exit". No need to create or modify PIF files anymore, just
modify the properties. Click "Background" button on Toolbar to NOT suspend
the app when it's in the b/grnd.
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I have an old MS-DOS program I need to run. The problem is that it won't run in Windows. It's a real pain to have to boot to MS-DOS (and terminate all the other applications) just to run this one program. Is there a better way?
It sounds like your problem is that the program you want to run detects Windows. Many MS-DOS programs were developed after the coming of Windows. In some cases, the programmers weren't sure whether their program would run in Windows. But they decided not to chance it not running, so they detected Windows and then terminated the program if a run in Windows was attempted.
Windows 95 can handle this type of program quite well. Use Explorer to locate the program. Right-click its icon to open the Properties dialog. When the dialog box opens, giving you the view shown in Figure A, click the Program tab.
The Properties dialog box is where you start to run stray MS-DOS programs.
Now click the Advanced button. This opens another dialog box.
Moving right along... the Advanced dialog box.
See the check box at the top of this box labeled "Prevent MS-DOS-based programs from detecting Windows?" Select this check box.
When you make this selection, Windows removes the WINDIR environment variable for that application. Windows also returns, if checked, the information that Windows isn't running. And Windows declines to provide information to the program about what mode it's running in.
This should take care of your problem. If it doesn't, you'll have to continue running in MS-DOS, even if it is a pain.
Drag and Drop Primer
1. Drag files or folders to the My Briefcase icon, which you then transfer to a portable PC.
2. Drag a file to the desktop or a folder to copy, move, or make shortcuts of the object:
* A plain drag acts differently according to the object and destination.
Dragging moves a file across directories and copies it across drives, but
creates a shortcut of an application.
[Shift]-drag always moves.
[Ctrl]-drag always copies.
[Ctrl]-[Shift]-drag, or right drag, always prompts to copy, move, or make a shortcut.
3. Drag a file to a printer shortcut to print the file.
4. Drag an object to the Recycle Bin to delete it.
5. Drag an object to the Start button to make a shortcut on the Start menu.
6. Drag an object to an application button on the taskbar and wait until the application is restored; then drop the object in the application window.
7. Drop a document on an application title bar to open the document.
8. Drop an object in an open document window to OLE-embed the object.
9. Drop a selection from a document onto the desktop or a folder to create a document scrap - a file fragment you can drop into another file.
10. Drop a document scrap on an open document window to paste or OLE-paste
the scrap into the open document.
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Drag and Hover
If you have an application minimized to the Taskbar, you can easily pop the
window open by dragging a file out of Explorer and hover over the icon on
the taskbar a second. The application's window will be restored, allowing
you to drop the file onto the application to open it.
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Dragging to Minimized Apps
In Windows 3.1 you could drop a file to a minimized application on the desktop, but you can't in Windows 95. The minimized applications now reside on the taskbar, and you can't drop anything on them.
The solution? Drag the file to the appropriate button on the taskbar and hold it there until the application window is restored. Then drop it onto the window.
Can't get those stupid Compressed drivers out of memory even if your hard
drived is not compressed? Well this is how you do it! First, find the
hidden file MSDOS.SYS in the root directory and edit the properties.
Take OFF Read-Only and put ON Archive, Hit OK. Now edit MSDOS.SYS through
NotePad and add the following lines right under options:
[options]
drvspace=0
dblspace=0
BootWarn=0
After you have completed this, save the MSDOS.SYS file and edit properties. Put back ON Read-Only and turn OFF Archive, hit OK, and reboot the computer.
This will free up a huge chunk of memory. Mine went from 512k of
conventional memory to 617k WOW! Now I can run all of my MS-DOS
programs.
Note: This works only on Uncompressed Drives and you should always make a
back up MSDOS.SYS before editing it.
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Improving Driver Speed
Chances are that some of the device drivers you have in your CONFIG.SYS
file are part of Win95's Plug-n-Play device library (CD-ROMs are probably
the most common). To check and see if Win95 has a driver, clear out the
contents of your CONFIG.SYS file by putting a REM in front of every
line.
Also, put a REM in front of TSR drivers in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file. Remember
to make a backup of your AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS file when you do this.
Next, restart your computer so the drivers are cleared from memory. Load up
Windows 95 and check the device manager to see if it got all of the devices
that you removed from CONFIG.SYS. The ones that it didn't find, remove the
REM from the first part of the line. Also, check with your manufacturer to
see if they have a new or updated 32-bit driver. Hopefully, by replacing
the 16-bit drivers with the 32-bit drivers, you will have a lot fewer
crashes and a faster access speed to all of your devices.
--------
Tracking Those 16-bit Drivers
If you are using any 16-bit drivers, there are three files that can give
you another look at your hardware. The first two are found in your root
directory and the third in your Windows folder. DETLOG.TXT is a record of
the hardware detection process, SETUPLOG.TXT details what files were
installed, and IOS.LOG tracks your real mode drivers.
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How to Install New Drivers
To install a new driver (never before installed)
1. On the Windows 95 Service Pack 1 CD, locate the device you want in the
listing at the end of the W95dl.doc file, located in the \Drivers folder.
Note the name of the file listed next to the device.
2. Copy the file to a new folder on your hard disk.
3. In Windows Explorer or My Computer, double-click the file you copied to
extract the files it contains.
4. Click the Start button, point to Settings, and then click Control
Panel.
5. Double-click Add New Hardware, and then click Next.
6. Click No, and then click Next.
7. Click the type of hardware for the driver you are installing, and
thenclick Next.
8. Click Have Disk.
9. Type the location of the files you extracted in step 3, click OK, and
then follow the instructions on the screen.
To upgrade an existing driver with a Windows 95 driver
1. On the Windows 95 Service Pack 1 CD, locate the device you want in the
listing at the end of the W95dl.doc file, located in the \Drivers folder.
Note the name of the file listed next to the device.
2. Copy the file to a new folder on your hard disk.
3. In Windows Explorer or My Computer, double-click the file you copied to
extract the files it contains.
4. Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
5. On the Device Manager tab, double-click the branch containing the device
you want to update, and then double-click the device.
6. On the Driver tab, click Change Driver.
7. Click Have Disk.
8. Type the location of the files you extracted in step 2, click OK, and
then follow the instructions on the screen.
If you want to restart Windows 95 without rebooting the computer, all you
have to do is click Shut Down in the Start Menu, select the Restart Windows
95 radio button in the dialog, then hold down the Shift key as you click
OK. Windows restarts as if it had been restarted by a program instead of
performing the default warm boot.
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Quick restart tip
1. Open Notepad or Write and create a simple text file called RESTART.BAT. The single entry for the batch file is: @exit
2. Create a Desktop shortcut for RESTART.BAT (find where you saved it in Explorer and right drag it to Desktop area and left-click on Create Shortcut).
3. Right-click on the icon and left-click on Properties. Left-click on Program tab and left-click on Close on Exit box.
4. Left-click on Advanced button and put a check on "MS-DOS mode." Remove the check mark in the "Warn before entering MS-DOS mode" dialog line.
5. Left-click on OK and then left-click on Change Icon. Pick another icon from the Windows icons (I picked the lightning bolt). Click OK twice. Right click on the icon and left-click on Rename. Rename it to RESTART.
6. To quickly restart Windows 95 click on your desktop shortcut icon.
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Prevent having to reboot!
Have you ever clicked Shutdown and remembered something else you wanted to
do on the system? Don't want to wait for the PC to power back up and go
through self test? You don't have to - when you get the screen that says
"It is now safe for you to turn off you computer" just type "win" and hit
enter! Want to be in the DOS mode? Type "mode co80" and there you go. A
Windows 95 system shutdown closes the registry, and drops you back to a DOS
session, but displays a graphics message for you to turn off your
computer.
Behind the scenes, your PC is really sitting at the familiar C: prompt!
Note: This only works if you do not load Windows
automagically. When booting, hit F8 and choose Command Prompt Only. When
you get to the command prompt, type Win. Then exit Windows and choose
shutdown. When the "Safe to turn off" screen comes up, type CLS and you
should be at a command prompt in 40 column mode. You can type "MODE CO80"
to get to 80-column mode. And you can type Win to get back into Windows.
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Q: Can I set up a dual boot NT and Win95 system where Win95 is the OS installed first (currently running)?
A: Yes. Just install Windows NT after you install Windows 95. The Windows
NT Boot Manager will give you the option of starting Windows 95 or NT. If
you'd like to change the order of how they're listed or which one boots by
default, just edit the BOOT.INI file in your root directory. It's read
only, so you'll have to change its attribute in its Properties dialog
before editing it.
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Q: Is there a way to set Win95 to boot to the DOS prompt? I'd much rather have it do that, and then go into Windows if I want.
A: Yes but you have to edit the MSDOS.SYS file which is a hidden, read only
file in your root directory. Do an attrib -h -r -s msdos.sys then edit the
file changing the option Bootgui=1 to Bootgui=0. Save the file and do an
attrib +h +r +s msdos.sys to change its attributes back.
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Tired of a GUI Interface?
If you want Windows 95 to boot up like a regular MS-DOS session, do the following:
1. Edit your msdos.sys file
2. Add the line "BootGUI=0" to the file.
This will bring a regular DOS session up upon reboot.
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For the Multi-boot Users
Tired of hitting "F8" every time you boot to change your settings?
Boot to Good Old MS-DOS
Q. Before I upgrade to Windows 95, I need some answers to a few questions. I know that programs such as Norton Utilities don't work under Windows 95's 32-bit structure. Can I bypass Windows 95 and boot up directly to DOS? If so, would the utilities run?
A. Yes, after you've upgraded to Windows 95 you can still boot to your previous DOS version. But no, you can't use most 16-bit disk- and file-related utilities, mainly because you risk losing Windows 95's long file names. Symantec has released Windows 95 versions of several Norton products (see Tools Rush In," October 95).
Even if you upgrade to 32-bit versions of your favorite applications, you
may still want to boot to your old version of DOS so that you can run
Windows 3.x or programs that aren't compatible with Win 95. If you choose
the dual-boot option and install Windows 95 to a directory other than the
one containing Windows 3.x, just reboot your system, wait for the 'Starting
Windows 95' message, and press
If you installed Windows 95 over Windows 3.x, your old DOS files are still
there, but Windows 95's dual-boot feature is disabled. To enable it, switch
to the root directory of your boot drive, and either enter attrib -h -s -r
msdos.sys at the command prompt, or right-click the msdos.sys
file in the Explorer, select Properties from the resulting menu, and
uncheck Read-only in the Attributes section of the Properties dialog box.
As long as you're mucking around inside msdos.sys, you should know about
some of the other Windows 95 boot options you can set there. For example,
instead of pressing
Multi-boot: F4 or F8
When screen shows "Starting Win95", press F8, get menu, can choose to go
into Dos7, or "Previous version of Dos". Press'g F4 will go into previous
ver.of Dos directly.
Multi-boot Tips
Reset the attrib. of Msdos.sys (R/click on file, Properties, uncheck Hidden
& Read only) then edit it with Notepad: Below the line: BootGUI=1 in
[Options], add 3 lines:
Reset attrib. of Msdos.sys to be Hidden & RO again. Now when reboot will go
to multi-boot menu, 30 secs. to choose, otherwise will go into Win95
(Choice #1)
Safe Mode (#3)
Safe mode command prompt only (#6)
Eliminate errors when booting up?
Errors 6102 on bootup: I am getting this message every time I boot up:
Answer: Seen this before, you need to specify a workgroup in the Control
Panel /network icon/identification tab. It doesn't matter what it says
(mine says "none") but it needs to have something there.
Safeguards for dual win95/DOS boots?
Booting to an old DOS environment is handled in WIN95 by renaming the
members of two sets of files in the root directory of the boot drive (C: in
most cases). Initially, while running in Win95 environment the files are as
follows:
During (after?) Power-on self-test (POST), if you press F4 to select DOS
mode boot, the list of files (ABOVE) -- on the left are all renamed to have
the file extension 'W40 and those in the right column are renamed to have
the extensions that had been on their counterparts in the left list. That
is, the files then appear as follows:
The above renaming sequence is reversed when you re-boot the PC after a DOS
session, if you don't interrupt the reboot process (i.e., you don't press
F4 again). In this way, the Win95 mode of operation is reestablished. Note
that selecting 'Restart the Computer in MS-DOS Mode' is NOT the same as
using F4 during POST. Instead you go into a 'Win95' version of DOS. You
will in fact be running the 92 KB DOS command processor. And some programs
(e.g., Colorado Tape for DOS) will still complain that it is being run in
Windows, and refuse to load!! You should type EXIT to terminate this form
of DOS session; you'll get the message that Windows is reloading!!
One could also add a section about setting ATTRIB -R -H -S on MS-DOS.sys
then edit in to add BOOTMULTI=1 in the OPTIONS section so you can hit F4 on
StartUp. Additionally, could add BOOTMENU=1 to get menu every
time.
Next, open msdos.sys in a text editor and change 'bootmulti=0' in the
[Options] section to bootmulti=1, or delete the line, since bootmulti=1 is
the default. Save the file and reset its attributes by entering attrib +h
+s +r msdos.sys, or by selecting from its properties sheet in Explorer.
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BootMenu=1 BootMenuDelay=30 BootMenuDefault=1
Goes into Win95 but does not load some devices. This diagnostic mode
enables you to fix the problems that prevents Win95 from start'g normally
(may be caused by netwk or hdware settings). Check them in Ctrl Panel, then
try start'g Win again.
Also called "Real" mode. Goes into Dos7 only. Can't go into Win95. Used for
when restoring config & system files with ERD.exe etc...
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"Error occurred while loading device: VNETSUP: Error 6102. The string
specified by the Workgroup keyword in the registry is too short."
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WIN95 FILES FILE SIZES DOS FILES
FILE SIZES AUTOEXEC.BAT Variable AUTOEXEC.DOS
Variable CONFIG.SYS Variable CONFIG.DOS
Variable COMMAND.COM 92,156 COMMAND.DOS
54,645 IO.SYS 250,840 IO.DOS
40,774 MSDOS.SYS 1,637 MSDOS.DOS
38,138
WIN95 FILES FILE SIZES DOS MODE
FILES FILE SIZES AUTOEXEC.W40 Variable AUTOEXEC.BAT
Variable CONFIG.W40 Variable CONFIG.SYS
Variable COMMAND.W40 92,156 COMMAND.COM
54,645 IO.W40 250,840 IO.SYS
40,774 MSDOS.W40 1,637 MSDOS.SYS
38,138