Great guide!

FYI - The link(s) to the Unofficial Service Pack(s) contained within section 2.1 of your guide is/are dead/404. The update can be found at archive.org, though:

Full
https://web.archive.org/web/20180106031049/ht … spx/OSR2SP1.EXE

Lite
https://web.archive.org/web/20190817122722/ht … px/OSR2SP1L.EXE

Once again, vogons has taught me a bit more than I previously knew. Reading the bit about Rain, I dug into if this was 95 only, or if it was useful in 98/me as well. It appears that in 98, acpi and idling were much better supported. This is fairly self-confirmed by testing with one of my slot1 pcs, a 500mhz p3 with 98se. It stayed very cool until I began doing a fairly large file transfer between hdds, at which point it heated noticeably, and then cooled after it was done.
For me, this is another drop in the bucket of 95 being far better suited for p1 and earlier PCs, especially those with no USB ports. They also typically have less need for fat32, because they are also systems that don't usually support larger than 8gb hdds. 98/ME are much more compatible out of the box with USB support, and now throttling.

Meatball wrote on 2022-09-30, 14:01:

Great guide! […]
Show full quote

Great guide!

FYI - The link(s) to the Unofficial Service Pack(s) contained within section 2.1 of your guide is/are dead/404. The update can be found at archive.org, though:

Full
https://web.archive.org/web/20180106031049/ht … spx/OSR2SP1.EXE

Lite
https://web.archive.org/web/20190817122722/ht … px/OSR2SP1L.EXE

Thank you, both for the compliment and for letting me know the service pack link had died! I've now updated the initial post so that the download links are working again.

Cobra42898 wrote on 2022-10-02, 14:19:

Once again, vogons has taught me a bit more than I previously knew. Reading the bit about Rain, I dug into if this was 95 only, or if it was useful in 98/me as well. It appears that in 98, acpi and idling were much better supported. This is fairly self-confirmed by testing with one of my slot1 pcs, a 500mhz p3 with 98se. It stayed very cool until I began doing a fairly large file transfer between hdds, at which point it heated noticeably, and then cooled after it was done.
For me, this is another drop in the bucket of 95 being far better suited for p1 and earlier PCs, especially those with no USB ports. They also typically have less need for fat32, because they are also systems that don't usually support larger than 8gb hdds. 98/ME are much more compatible out of the box with USB support, and now throttling.

Well... many of the tips and trips in this guide are applicable to Windows 98/98SE as well. Cacheman and Rain as well as Total Uninstall were nearly a must on any Win9x system that I had to administer.

USB was such a buggy mess around the Windows 98-days that I wouldn't give it much thought any more. There's very little use for it as network file transfers trump crappy USB memory sticks any day. That said, it's pretty neat that one can now use those as well.

I would make my choice between Win95/98 for a specific system based on the minimum requirements of apps/games that I intend to run on it. For example, the original WarCraft III requires DirectX 8.1 and thus Windows 98. Even though Windows 95 supports and runs beautifully on hardware that exceeds the requirements of WC3, you still have to install Windows 98 if you wish to play it. Most late 90's and early 00's games still run on both 95/98, which makes a system such as this "proof-of-concept" Athlon-build really tenable for Windows 95 for those of us who want to go for a really lean and mean, IE-free setup. 😉

2.2.4) Delete unnecessary files

CS3KIT.EXE SETUP25I.EXE SETUP32.EXE WOWKIT.EXE [enter]

I only see CS3KIT.exe - no other files to delete
Also - is there an image of a boot floppy with disk utilities around?

vinci18@gmail.com wrote on 2022-10-14, 00:37:

2.2.4) Delete unnecessary files

CS3KIT.EXE SETUP25I.EXE SETUP32.EXE WOWKIT.EXE [enter]

I only see CS3KIT.exe - no other files to delete

Not all versions of Windows 95 will have all of the listed files. OSR1, OSR2, 2.1 and 2.5 will have differences due to the fact that they ship with different versions of IE or bundled advertising. I have included a list of all files that can/should be deleted. If you don't see the files, you can ignore them in the instructions.

vinci18@gmail.com wrote on 2022-10-14, 00:37:

Also - is there an image of a boot floppy with disk utilities around?

The internet is littered with custom boot disk images for DOS - I have built my own from the ground up.

Would you be interested in instructions for building a boot floppy (to include in the guide) or an image of the disk I personally use? If the latter, I'd be interested in learning if it is legal to distribute such an image (DOS / command.com etc. are MS IP, after all - am not sure if their licensing terms permit such).

IrfanView was mentioned in the guide. I have version 4.44. Anyone know where I can find all the PlugIns for version 4.44? Mostly I need the one to save as PDF. A thousand thanks!

NarakuITA wrote on 2022-10-25, 23:48:

IrfanView was mentioned in the guide. I have version 4.44. Anyone know where I can find all the PlugIns for version 4.44? Mostly I need the one to save as PDF. A thousand thanks!

32-bit version is here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20170821091630/ww … s_444_setup.exe

64-bit version is here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20170821103909/ww … 4_444_setup.exe

You owe me a burger and a beer.

Ok, I installed it, but how come it keeps telling me IrfanView PDF save error ???

Thanks so much for this guide! In case it helps anyone else, when following this I ran into an issue where after installing the DMA chipset driver for my chipset (i430HX on an emulated 86Box machine in my case), Windows 95 would just stay at the splash screen and never boot.

To get around it, I followed the guide at the bottom of the page here: https://sripro.tripod.com/hardware/theharddiskdrive.html - in case that link ever goes down, here's the relevant part:

Problems with the Bus Master DMA Drivers under Windows 95 […]
Show full quote

Problems with the Bus Master DMA Drivers under Windows 95

The most common problem with these drivers I came across so far are with an ATAPI CD-Rom drive or a NON EIDE HDD, which also is connected to the EIDE interface and isn't recognized by the driver. In other words: You install the driver and your CD-Rom and older harddrive have disappeared.

We also have all come across the delayed Windows 95 boot up problem, which seems to annoy a lot of impatient people. If you have a look into the System Manager you'll find a not working second IDE port in case you haven't connected anything to it. The solution to this problem is the same.

One very good answer to this problem is to get the DMA driver working on one EIDE port and the default PIO driver on the other (to connect the CD-Rom or old hard drives or to get rid of this non functioning second IDE port).

After installing the Bus Master Driver you simply have to change the registry (always back up registry before changing it !!!!!):
find HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/System/CurrentControlSet
/control/Services/Class/hdc
there should be four subdirectories 0000-0003
find the one where DriverDesc is something like "Primary Bus Master IDE controller" or "Secondary Bus Master IDE controller", according to the port you want to change (should be 0002 or 0003).
in this subdirectory you change PortDriver from "ideatapi.mpd" to "ESDI_506.pdr"
if you want to, you can change DriverDesc to something like "Standard IDE/ESDI controller", to make it look more correctly in your Systems Manager
reboot

Now this EIDE port is using the default PIO driver and you easily can use CD-Roms or non EIDE hard drives on this port.

You'll have to boot into Safe Mode to get into Windows, and in my case I changed the "Primary Bus Master IDE Controller" which was in the 0002 directory.

Hopefully this helps out someone else who runs into this problem down the line! 😀

A Future Pilot wrote on 2023-02-05, 17:43:

Thanks so much for this guide! In case it helps anyone else, when following this I ran into an issue where after installing the […]
Show full quote

Thanks so much for this guide! In case it helps anyone else, when following this I ran into an issue where after installing the DMA chipset driver for my chipset (i430HX on an emulated 86Box machine in my case), Windows 95 would just stay at the splash screen and never boot.

To get around it, I followed the guide at the bottom of the page here: https://sripro.tripod.com/hardware/theharddiskdrive.html - in case that link ever goes down, here's the relevant part:

Problems with the Bus Master DMA Drivers under Windows 95 […]
Show full quote

Problems with the Bus Master DMA Drivers under Windows 95

The most common problem with these drivers I came across so far are with an ATAPI CD-Rom drive or a NON EIDE HDD, which also is connected to the EIDE interface and isn't recognized by the driver. In other words: You install the driver and your CD-Rom and older harddrive have disappeared.

We also have all come across the delayed Windows 95 boot up problem, which seems to annoy a lot of impatient people. If you have a look into the System Manager you'll find a not working second IDE port in case you haven't connected anything to it. The solution to this problem is the same.

One very good answer to this problem is to get the DMA driver working on one EIDE port and the default PIO driver on the other (to connect the CD-Rom or old hard drives or to get rid of this non functioning second IDE port).

After installing the Bus Master Driver you simply have to change the registry (always back up registry before changing it !!!!!):
find HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/System/CurrentControlSet
/control/Services/Class/hdc
there should be four subdirectories 0000-0003
find the one where DriverDesc is something like "Primary Bus Master IDE controller" or "Secondary Bus Master IDE controller", according to the port you want to change (should be 0002 or 0003).
in this subdirectory you change PortDriver from "ideatapi.mpd" to "ESDI_506.pdr"
if you want to, you can change DriverDesc to something like "Standard IDE/ESDI controller", to make it look more correctly in your Systems Manager
reboot

Now this EIDE port is using the default PIO driver and you easily can use CD-Roms or non EIDE hard drives on this port.

You'll have to boot into Safe Mode to get into Windows, and in my case I changed the "Primary Bus Master IDE Controller" which was in the 0002 directory.

Hopefully this helps out someone else who runs into this problem down the line! 😀

Thank you for reporting back with a solution! It is always annoying to find a thread that ends with 'nvm, I solved it!' without the references as to how. 😀
On another note, I may have to perhaps amend the original post with common errors and mishaps too at some point.

NarakuITA wrote on 2022-10-26, 09:10:

Ok, I installed it, but how come it keeps telling me IrfanView PDF save error ???

I missed this completely somehow. I never used IrfanView to create PDFs, rather I had a PDF-virtual printer installed which could be utilized from any app with printing features. I'll dig for it and maybe add it to the Essential Utilities-section...

Thanks for this guide. I have managed to follow it on my 486 dx2 66hz 16m ram. I using a cf card hdd and have an io card for an ide cable.
Im uncertain if to proceed with the post config. Like the xusbsupp chipset drivers and service pk rain utility etc. I know im using the minimum system but should i still install the usb driver? Also not sure if there are ide drivers for my sis chipset? So far i only made a raw image of the cf card so if i stuff up i can rewrite the img file.
Thanks for any recommendations

vacatedboat wrote on 2023-02-15, 22:10:

Thanks for this guide. I have managed to follow it on my 486 dx2 66hz 16m ram. I using a cf card hdd and have an io card for an ide cable.
Im uncertain if to proceed with the post config. Like the xusbsupp chipset drivers and service pk rain utility etc. I know im using the minimum system but should i still install the usb driver? Also not sure if there are ide drivers for my sis chipset? So far i only made a raw image of the cf card so if i stuff up i can rewrite the img file.
Thanks for any recommendations

You're welcome!

I seem to remember from my experimentation that the update rollup requires you to either have installed the USB patch or the AMD high speed CPU patch. One or the other is required (even though the CPU-problem is also patched in the rollup itself). If you do install the USB-patch, remember to use msconfig to turn off the background process (hotplug.exe) since it's not really needed.

Don't toggle DMA for your hard drives with a CF card/a primitive HDD controller (even if you see a toggle for it), Windows will probably not boot after that.

My 486 is the only computer that I didn't install any motherboard chipset driver for. Pre-Pentium is actually old enough that this is not necessary, even for Windows 95. 😀

edit
p.s. I'm not certain if the 486-CPUs had support for the hlt-instruction yet so installing Rain might not provide any benefit to you.
p.s. According to Wikipedia, while the hlt-instruction was already present on CPUs predating the 486 it...

...was not specifically designed to reduce power consumption until the release of the Intel DX4 processor in 1994.

also

Some of the first 100 MHz DX chips had a buggy HLT state, prompting the developers of Linux to implement a "no-hlt" option for use when running on those chips, but this was fixed in later chips.

So basically Rain is probably good on Pentium- and higher chips and can be skipped on Windows 95-installs performed on 386- or 486-class of computer.

p.p.s. If you do intend to use networking on your system (highly recommended for file transfers and LAN-gaming) - make sure you follow the parts about setting up your networking components before you install the update rollup so that your networking features will be updated as well.

What entries do you need to make in order to get the sound card drivers to load when you exit windows into DOS mode ?

Intel486dx33,

Phil's guide is what you need:
https://www.philscomputerlab.com/ms-dos-mode-super-easy.html

The older (and IMO, better) version of that guide is located here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20160704124711/ht … -tutorials.html

leonardo wrote on 2023-02-06, 20:22:

NarakuITA wrote on 2022-10-26, 09:10:

Ok, I installed it, but how come it keeps telling me IrfanView PDF save error ???

I missed this completely somehow. I never used IrfanView to create PDFs, rather I had a PDF-virtual printer installed which could be utilized from any app with printing features. I'll dig for it and maybe add it to the Essential Utilities-section...

The app I use to create PDF-files on Windows 95 is PDFCreator 0.9.3 - this is super handy because it basically allows one to create PDFs with any app that supports printing. Given that almost all the apps that one would want to use for document editing on the platform cannot save in modern formats, I think I may just add this to the guide. It's quite useful.

Note: If after installing and launching PDFCreator you get a note about shlwapi.dll missing, you can extract the file with this command (in the Win95-setup folder with the .cab-files):
extract /A win95_02.cab shlwapi.dll

You can then just drag and drop the file into C:\Windows using Explorer.

Hi 👋
This guide is awesome 👌
Constructive suggestion
-Add a automated answer file to help speed up the install process
I believe the serial key can be put into the answer file.
https://msfn.org/board/topic/26389-how-to-95- … up-answer-file/

Nearly all of the win 98 gripes about slugish performance, IE integration and slower shell can be sloved with 98LITE Sleek option which makes me wonder why anyone who wants to use 95 shell would ever chose 95 over 98 LITE sleek. There was then a guy on MSFN who hacked together the 95 shell32 using the freely available update to 95 and added many missing functions present in 98 that was missing in the 95 shell, that could be patched to 98 LITE sleek so you could still launch more programs.

Considering the Free version of 98lite trial allows sleek for free its a no brainer.

1SH95UPD v0.0.8a 2/15/2010
2=========================
3-dllGetVersion removed, special buid
4
5SH95UPD v0.0.8 24/12/2009
6=========================
7-Added the following functions:
8 -IsUserAdmin (Export ordinal 680)
9 -SHFlushSFCache (Export ordinal 526, alias of the SHFlushSFCache that was already present in older SH95UPD releases)
10 -GetRealDriveType (Export ordinal 524)
11 -SHBindToParent
12
13-Fully implemented SHGetSettings
14-Seperated the uninstaller from the main program.
15-The uninstaller is now the resident manager of SH95UPD, which has a smaller footprint.
16 This may seem unimportant, but now the full uncompressed SH95UPD is already 366KB in size (Compared to the uninstaller's 144KB uncompressed).
17-Added the ability for SH95UPD to alias a function that was only exported by ordinal.
18-Added the ability for SH95UPD to export a function by ordinal.
19
20SH95UPD v0.0.7A 27/08/2009
21=========================
22-Made SHGetSpecialFolderPathA an alias of SHELL32 ordinal 175 again. The new implementation caused several dialogs in Firefox 2.0.0.20 to break.
23
24SH95UPD v0.0.7 26/08/2009
25=========================
26-Rewritten SH95UPD to use the KernelEx 0.3.6 architecture.
27
28Functions added:
29 -SHGetSettings (Rough version that returns dummy values)
30 -SHBrowseForFolderW
31 -ShellExecuteExW
32 -SHGetFileInfoW
33 -SHFileOperationW
34
35Readded:
36 -SHFlushSFCache (Dummy function)
37
38Rewritten: (Rewritten to convert unicode data to ANSI and executing the internal SHELL32 ANSI versions)
39 -SHGetSpecialFolderPathA
40 -SHGetPathFromIDListW
41 -ExtractIconExW
42 -SHExitWindowsEx (Further optimised the code for size and speed)
43
44SH95UPD v0.0.6 07/04/2009
45=========================
46SHGetSpecialFolderPathA/W are now an aliases of Shell32 Ordinal 175
47ShGetNewLinkInfo is now an alias of Shell32 Ordinal 179
48DllGetVersion now returns its version as 4.72.3612 instead of 4.0.1212, hence programs would not complain that SHELL32.DLL is too old(Or as version 4.0)
49SH95UPD's main executable is now UPX'ed! Hence file size is cut down from ~90KB to ~36KB
50
51SH95UPD v0.0.5 30/10/2008
52=========================
53-Added the folowing dummy functions:
54DllInstall
55DllRegisterServer
56DllUnregisterServer
57-Modified DllGetVersion to return its version as 4.0.1212 instead of 6.0.2800 as it seems to cause problems.
58
59SH95UPD v0.0.4A 20/07/2008
60==========================

61-Removed SHFlushSFCache (Causes problems)
62
63SH95UPD v0.0.4 13/07/2008
64=========================
65-Added the following functions:
66DllCanUnloadNow
67DllGetVersion
68SHFlushSFCache (Dummy function)
69SHGetDataFromIDListW (Alias SHGetDataFromIDListA)
70
71SH95UPD v0.0.3 12/05/2008
72=========================
73-Added SHGetPathFromIDListW and SHGetFileInfoW
74-Fully implemented SHExitWindowsEx
75
76SH95UPD v0.0.2B 03/05/2008
77==========================
78-Removed the SH95Version function, hence no patchingg done to KERNEL32.DLL
79-Optimized the code being patched into SHELL32.DLL, hence a smaller patch.
80
81SH95UPD v0.0.2 20/04/2008
82=========================
83-Implemented more functions in SHELL32.DLL:
84-SHGetNewLinkInfo (Only a dummy function)
85-SHExitWindowsEx
86-Some bugfixes and optimizations
87-Changed compiler to GCC, resulting in smaller program and more relible.
88
89SH95UPD v0.0.1A 27/04/2008
90==========================
91-Improved relibility while installing
92-Now installable under Windows 95 (Untested, can someone verify this?)
93-Added SH95Version to KERNEL32.DLL
94
95SH95UPD v0.0.1A 26/04/2008
96==========================
97-Initial release.
98-Implemented the following functions:
99
100SHELL32.DLL:
101SHGetSpecialFolderPathA
102SHGetSpecialFolderPathW
103SHGetFolderPathA
104
105KERNEL32.DLL:
106SH95Version

dc_carguy wrote on 2023-06-30, 03:44:

Constructive suggestion -Add a automated answer file to help speed up the install process I believe the serial key can be put in […]
Show full quote

Constructive suggestion
-Add a automated answer file to help speed up the install process
I believe the serial key can be put into the answer file.
https://msfn.org/board/topic/26389-how-to-95- … up-answer-file/

Automated installs are definitely nice! I've spent quite a bit of time trying to automate them fully, e.g. using AutoHotkey to close dialog boxes that can't be bypassed via the .inf file.

You can put a serial key in the answer file, but there's no point for Windows 95, as far as I've seen. From my notes, I found that for Windows 95 Upgrade, simply passing an .inf file on the Setup command line skips these parts of the setup process which would normally be seen in a manual install:

1. Prompting for product key
2. Checking for existing qualifying products for an upgrade

For Windows 95 OSR 2 and 2.5 (or possibly any Windows 95 OEM version), 2 would not occur anyway, but 1 does occur even when an .inf file is passed, and setting ProductKey in the [Setup] section of bsetup.inf doesn't prevent the prompt from appearing.

As documented at https://www.techrepublic.com/forums/discussio … inf-parameters/, Windows 95 Setup does not accept an OEM product key for the ProductKey in bsetup.inf, but the presence of an msbatch.inf file with the contents shown in the first post you linked to above prevents the prompt from appearing, so you don't have to provide a product key either in the file or interactively during Setup. It's weird that Microsoft provided the option to bypass the product key completely!

Warlord wrote on 2023-06-30, 17:06:

wonder why anyone who wants to use 95 shell would ever chose 95 over 98 LITE sleek.

For the same reason I don't run lots of other pieces of software: I know nothing about 98 LITE or the people who made it, whereas Microsoft is Microsoft, and I've had decades to learn what bad things Microsoft's versions of Windows 95 and 98 might do to my computer. That's just me though.

doshea wrote on 2023-07-01, 04:27:

For the same reason I don't run lots of other pieces of software: I know nothing about 98 LITE or the people who made it, whereas Microsoft is Microsoft, and I've had decades to learn what bad things Microsoft's versions of Windows 95 and 98 might do to my computer. That's just me though.

Shane Brooks? Washington Post 1999 https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/busine … 2-9bc17d4be3c4/

"Australian computer scientist Shane Brooks demonstrated that Windows 98 could in fact run with Internet Explorer removed. Brooks made his work available as a freeware removal utility called IEradicator, which removes all versions of IE from all versions of Windows 9x,"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Removal_of_Internet_Explorer

It is just 1 guy who made 98lite as more of a hobby project, whos real job is somthing like a Auquatic Bioligist or somthing like that. Its been out for 2 decades, and is a famous piece of software. I'm Surprised how anyone with decades of 9x Experience doesnt know about this piece of software that's been popular for decades as well. Also considering the guy is a fellow Australian to you.

The Devil you know is better than the Devil you don’t is actually some of the worst conventional wisdom out there.

doshea wrote on 2023-07-01, 04:27:

It's weird that Microsoft provided the option to bypass the product key completely!

That was probably just an oversight, just like accepting the product key "01234-OEM-0123456-01234" as valid.

You can also put "11111-OEM-1111111-11111" into the German version of Word 97, which is funny as hell 😁