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When you first set it up, Win95 will offer to make you an emergency startup ("boot") floppy. You also can make one yourself anytime from Control Panel. Click on Add/Remove Programs, and pick the Startup Disk tab. instl
Before you install Windows 95, uninstall any antivirus programs you have running.
Before you install Windows 95, exit Windows and type MSD at the DOS Prompt, then press the Enter key. From the File menu, select Print Report. Select Report All, then OK. You can keep this printout to answer questions that pop up during the installation process.
Don't install the store-bought version of Win95 over older beta builds (anything earlier than 435). Take the extra time to clean your system off and install Win95 fresh, as there's no telling what kind of beta bogeys could be lurking in you system.
If you're upgrading to the commercial Win95 from a version that required a CD key, you can upgrade without retyping the key. When the Setup program prompts you for the key, click the ahead-arrow button. A dialog box will pop up with a few options, one of them being Ignore. Click on Ignore.
And don't forget to defragment your hard drive. If you're upgrading from Windows 3.*x*, it's also time to turn off your permanent swap file if you have one, and let Win95 create a fresh (and contiguous) one. Also, delete your swap file before defragmenting. For some reason, Win95 likes to use the extant swap file. Forcing it to create a new one on a freshly optimized drive will yield far better results.
Upgrade your BIOS. Generally, any BIOS older than January '94 may have problems with Win95. Notebooks are especially vulnerable, as the BIOS contains the power management controls, and the Win95 beta builds were notorious for problems with power management.
Many people are intrigued by the possibility of dual-booting Windows 95 with Windows NT 3.5 or 3.51. In this case, Windows 95 needs to be installed first. The original NT boot sector handles the startup menu that gives you a choice of operating systems. Installing Win95 over it will overwrite this sector.
Another option is more for pros, but does work: Install Win95 on an extant NT system (yes, this does trash the boot sector, but hang on). Then, boot the NT install floppies and select the Repair option. This should allow for an "MS-DOS" selection in the startup menu, which can be renamed to Windows 95 in NT.
You can dual-boot OS/2 and Windows 95. OS/2's Boot Manager resides in its own partition on your hard drive and lets you choose which of several partitions to boot from, each of which can contain different operating systems. If you're installing OS/2 and Win95 onto a completely clean system with plenty of storage, start with OS/2 and use this method.
Another way to dual-boot OS/2 and Windows 95 is to use the Dual Boot program in OS/2. When OS/2 is installed on a DOS- or Win95-only partition (or drive), it copies the old boot sector to a backup file. To restore this old boot sector, start an OS/2 command line and type BOOT /DOS. The system will then boot as a DOS or Win95 machine. (To reverse the process, type BOOT /OS2 from a DOS or Win95 command line.)
Windows NT 3.51 has been augmented to run Win95-specific software, such as Office 95. If you don't feel like making two separate installs of each Win95 app for each OS, go into Windows NT and open up the System icon on the Control Panel. Under System Environment Variables, select the PATH= line and in the Value section, add a semicolon and then the path to your main Windows 95 and Windows 95 System directories. Usually it's C:\WINDOWS and C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM. Once you close that window the changes should be active and all the .DLLs (but not configuration files) should be available to the program. The same trick can be used for Windows programs that are being run in a Win/OS/2 session.
If you're currently using Microsoft Mail 3.*x*, either on a LAN or across a dial-up, it's generally not a good idea to replace it with Exchange while installing Win95 for the first time. Make sure Win95 itself is running properly before you upgrade your mail system. Note that during the installation process, there are two places where the Setup program prompts you to install Exchange: one is during the installation of optional components, and the other is in conjunction with Microsoft Fax (which also should not be installed with conventional Mail) and the Microsoft Network (ditto). Do not check any of these options if you've already got the older version of Mail installed and want it to keep working.
Shell extensions or substitute desktops like Outside/In or Norton Desktop should be removed before installing Windows 95. Win95 has its own replacement to Program Manager (although Program Manager is still there in case you want it), and most of those programs' functions are eclipsed by new Windows 95 features anyway.
Third-party programs that use long-filename schemes, such as Sherlock, will not work under Windows 95; Win95 has its own long-filename system that isn't compatible with anything except Windows NT (and OS/2 name space on NetWare servers).
You don't have to accept Microsoft's idea of what you need; the Typical installation leaves out a lot of files. Select Custom; it will still have all the Typical settings selected, and you can add or subtract from them at will.
If you want to know exactly what the difference is between typical, portable and custom installs, check the resource kit on the CD-ROM.
If you have the space (about 6MB extra), always select the option to back up your old system files when installing Windows 95.
If you decided to uninstall Windows95, you will receive a "Corrupt Swapfile" error message when you start up your old version of Windows. That's normal. Allow Windows to erase the old swapfile by clicking on OK in the Delete dialog box that pops up. Then go into Control Panel, double-click on the Enhanced icon, click on the Virtual Memory button and set the swap file size to "none." After rebooting again, use Control Panel's Enhanced icon to set up a permanent swap file.
If you have problems after a Windows 95 uninstall, check your video driver; it may not have been reset correctly.
Remember that any programs installed under Windows 95 may not work after you uninstall the operating system.
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