Restore missing files in Windows 95

Helpline Q&A Directory

You often mention using the SFC (System File Checker) to restore missing or damaged system files in Windows 98. What is the corresponding procedure for Windows 95?

Windows 95 doesn't have such an easy procedure for restoring system files. Instead, they must be extracted manually from the CD using a command line program called Extract. If this application isn't already on your hard drive you can remedy this by simply copying the file entitled 'extract.exe' from the \Win95 folder of the CD to the \Windows\Command folder.

To restore a file, you must use a command like this: Extract /A d:\Win95\win95_02.cab 'filename' /L 'destination' (where D is the letter of your CD drive, 'filename' is the file you want to restore and 'destination' is the folder it should be restored to).

So, if you wanted to restore the file mfc42.dll, you would type: Extract /A d:\Win95\win95_02.cab mfc42.dll /L c:\windows\system. On a PC with Windows 95 it's likely that many key system files will have been upgraded (for example, by a later version of Internet Explorer). So restoring a file from the Windows 95 CD isn't necessarily a good idea. If you are replacing an existing file we'd advise copying the current one to a safe place as a backup before overwriting it.