Lardog says:

Last modified: 3/2/98
 Welcome to Windows 95!
Microsoft Windows Technical Support mostly sucks, try Known Bugs,
You may download & install Service Pack 1 and System Updates too (no big improvement though).
 
  • How to open a DOS window into a subdirectory from Explorer
  • How to multi-boot to old DOS and/or Windows 3.1
  • Mapping Middle-Mouse to Double-Click
  • AUTOEXEC.BAT, CONFIG.SYS and MSDOS.SYS
  • Miscellaneous Tips
    • A good reference for Windows 95 is Windows 95 Secrets by Livingston. Like it's predecessor for Win 3.1, this book should be browsed cover to cover like a novel. It would appear to be a reference book, but in reality you won't know what to look up, since the helpful tips are all secrets.

    How to open a DOS window into a subdirectory from Explorer

    1. From Explorer, click the VIEW / OPTIONS menu item
    2. Select the FILE TYPES tab
    3. Edit FOLDER (select FOLDER & click on EDIT)
    4. Click on NEW
    5. Action: MS-DOS Prompt (or whatever description you like)
    6. Application: c:\windows\command.com /k cd (or wherever you installed Win95)
    7. Click on all the OK buttons
    Now when you click RIGHT on a folder in Explorer, "MS-DOS Prompt" will appear as an option. Select this and you will get a DOS window with the current path set to the folder you selected.

    P.S. you can run Windows 95 programs from DOS shells, e.g. from a DOS prompt type "NOTEPAD myfile.bat" and you will get a new Notepad window editing the specified file.

    How to multi-boot to old DOS and/or Windows 3.1

    If you have the installation disks for all your old Windows applications, it is probably best to install Win95 to a new subdirectory rather than overwriting your old Windows 3 .1. You will lose all your icons, WIN.INI and SYSTEM.INI settings, but it is cleaner to reinstall your apps. Most of us have dead weight from old, deleted apps clogging up our SYSTEM.INI and C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM anyway.

    If you wish to keep your old apps and icons as installed, you should back up your C:\WINDOWS and C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM subdirectories in case Win95 installation doesn't work (it often doesn't). You should switch to a TEMPORARY SWAP FILE first (from Control Panel / Enhanced / Virtual Memory) to avoid backing up a huge swap file, and you should also switch to standard VGA video mode. After you feel everything is working fine in Win95, you can delete your old Windows backup.

    Before installing Windows 95 over your existing Windows 3.1 (or WFW 3.11):

    Mapping Middle-Mouse to Double-Click

    To map the Logitech Mouse Driver middle button to double-click:
    1. Install the mouse driver for DOS. This makes changes to your AUTOEXEC.BAT, so use an editor to move these changes to the appropriate boot sections (assuming you are set up to multi-boot). Your Windows boot section should load no mouse drivers; if you boot only to Windows 95, just comment out all references to mouse.
    2. From Windows 95, make sure you are using Microsoft's Logitech mouse driver that comes with Windows 95, not the 16-bit Logitech driver for Windows that came on a floppy with your mouse.
    3. Run the WMOUSECC.EXE program in your C:\MOUSE (or wherever) subdirectory. Make sure middle-mouse is mapped to double-click, then click on OK. If you still see the mouse icon at the bottom of the screen, click right, then click on Hide Icon.
    Now WMouseCC will automatically run hidden every time you run Windows 95, giving you middle-mouse double-click support.

    AUTOEXEC.BAT, CONFIG.SYS and MSDOS.SYS

    Windows 95 loads better drivers (32 bit) than can be loaded from CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT. These two files, run when DOS initially boots, can only load 16 bit drivers. Your CONFIG.SYS should have no DEVICE= commands except for possibly: 
    DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS
    It is not clear that the DEVICEHIGH=C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\DRVSPACE.SYS /MOVE command helps anything, not even for DOS mode. I seem to get more free memory if I just leave that line out. (This line did help very much with DOS 6.22).

    Your AUTOEXEC.BAT should load no drivers either, except possibly for 

    LH C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\DOSKEY
    or possibly other TSRs you want loaded in all DOS boxes. You do not need to put these TSRs in AUTOEXEC.BAT; you could list them in a BAT file, then enter this file name in the "Batch file:" text box under the PROGRAM tab of your MS-DOS Prompt Properties dialog box.

    The only way to avoid loading DRVSPACE.SYS (if you have a double-spaced drive) is to hit F8 during boot, select STEP BY STEP CONFIRMATION, then type N at the appropriate prompt.

    To run some DOS programs (especially games), you might need to boot directly into DOS instead of Windows 95. You might also need to boot into DOS with expanded memory, or boot DOS with CD and sound drivers. Here's some nice examples of how to set up for multi-config boot. Of course, don't just copy these three files to your root directory, it is probably best to edit your existing files using these files as examples.

    AUTOEXEC.BAT
    SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 E620 T6 - this is appropriate for my AWE32, yours might be shorter (just A220 I5 D1).
    C:\VIBRA16\DIAGNOSE /S - replace these commands with your sound card drivers. If necessary, use the floppy that came with your sound card to install drivers & modify AUTOEXEC.BAT so you'll know what to put.
    cd \access, ta games - replace these lines with your DOS menuing system if you have one (e.g. turbo-access, direct access, etc.).

    If you do not have a DOS menuing program, you can make your own using the CHOICE command (OK for Win95 or 3.1, but not supported in NT 4.0). Here's a fragment of a BAT file I made to run programs off a writeable CD I made of shareware games (for my kids).

    CONFIG.SYS
    MenuItem - for more info on this command, create a DOS window and type HELP MENUITEM
    DOS=NOAUTO - this specifies not to automatically load IFSHLP.SYS and SETVER.EXE (required for Win95)
    DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS HIGHSCAN I=B000-B7FF - you probably already have EMM386 in your CONFIG.SYS, copy what you already have to these lines.

    MSDOS.SYS
    To edit MSDOS.SYS, from Explorer click RIGHT on this file then select PROPERTIES. Uncheck READ-ONLY and HIDDEN, then click APPLY. Use NOTEPAD to make the changes, save your changes, then set READ-ONLY and HIDDEN back on.
    BootGUI=0 - specifies not to automatically run Win95
    Logo=0 - specifies not to display the Windows 95 splash screen when booting
    BootMulti=1 - indicates that you are using a multi-config boot

    Miscellaneous Tips

    Add a line to SYSTEM.INI

    To maximize DOS memory in an MS-DOS session: add the line LocalLoadHigh=1 to the [386Enh] section of system.ini.

    Enable CD Read-Ahead Buffering

    To enable read-ahead buffering of your CD, click RIGHT on My Computer, then click Properties / Performance / File System / CD-ROM, then select the "Optimize Access Pattern For" option that matches your CD-ROM speed. You can also increase or maximize the "Supplemental cache size" setting.

    Icons for BMPs

    To make BMP file icons in Explorer look like the bitmap itself: use REGEDIT to set HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT / Paint.Picture / Default Icon = "%1".
    This assumes BMPs are registered to Paint.Picture. If not - you can check HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT / .bmp / (Default) - substitute the actual program for Paint.Picture. It is probably easier to use Edit / Find to search for Paint.Picture than to click down the registration tree using the mouse.
    The old Default Icon was probably "C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\cool.dll,41" (Win95) or "mspaint.exe,1" (NT). This entry will automatically be mirrored in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SOFTWARE / Classes / Paint.Picture / Default Icon. The change will not take effect until you reboot.

    Start Explorer in a Subdirectory

    To create an icon that starts Explorer viewing a specific directory (say D:\mydir), create an icon with Shortcut Target "C:\Windows\Explorer.exe /n,/e,D:\mydir".
    For NT 4.0, the Target should be %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /n,/e,D:\mydir.

    Add Items to SEND TO Menu

    To add items to the Send To list on the pop-up menu you get by clicking RIGHT on Explorer, add shortcuts to your favorite programs in the C:\WINDOWS\SENDTO (or similar) subdirectory. This allows you to quickly force a specific application to edit a file, ignoring the file's extension (e.g. send a .DAT file to NOTEPAD).

    I add shortcuts to Notepad (for .DAT files, etc.), Paint Shop Pro browser (for directories) and Winzip (for self-extracting executables). Most other programs are correctly run automatically from double-clicking, based on registered file name extensions.

    Error Message - Can't Load (or Register) File: THREED16.OCX

    If you get this error message, or a similar one for a different OCX, you have probably moved some OCX files from the subdirectory in which they were registered. This will happen to Win95 and NT if you relocate or reinstall a 16-bit program that stores OCX files in the same subdirectory as the program (instead of storing them in \windows\system).

    To fix this:

    1. Run regedit (click START / RUN... then type REGEDIT).
    2. Click EDIT / FIND... then type OCX, and click KEYS, VALUES and DATA all checked on.
    3. Keep searching by hitting F3. Watch for entries that specify a file location in your old (deleted) subdirectory, usually with the Name value of (Default).
    4. Double-click on (Default) to change the Data value to the correct location for this OCX.
    5. To do a global replace (Windows 95 only):

    Don't Compress drive C:

    You probably shouldn't compress your C: boot drive using Plus! DrvSpace. You will end up with some space (usually a great deal) in an uncompressed H: drive anyway. Better to "create a new compressed drive" named H:, leaving C: uncompressed. That way, if you ever need to hit F8 during boot-up and prevent loading of DRVSPACE drivers, your C: drive (including C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT and C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\*.*) will still be readable.

    To avoid loading DRVSPACE.BIN: By hitting F8 / Single Step during boot-up, then selecting "skip" when it comes to DRVSPACE.BIN, you can prevent loading the DRVSPACE drivers. This many be necessary to play certain old DOS games that require both sound and/or CD drivers and a large amount of low memory. This is the only way to disable loading of DRVSPACE; it can not be prevented using multi-config boot menus.

    If you have an uncompressed C: drive and a double-spaced H: drive (as I suggest), booting in this way prevents you from accessing the H: drive, but otherwise everything is fine. You still have access to all your C: based boot files, DOS sound & CD drivers and utility programs. If however you compress C:, then booting in this way makes your normal H: drive appear to be your new C: drive. Now only files on the old H: drive can be accessed.

    P.S. Both my friend and I ruined our hard drive files at lease once by attempting to compress our large hard drives using MS-Plus. It appeared that if we attempted to compress a large drive (1.2G+) that was more than half full, MS-Plus Compression ruined our FAT. This is clearly a nasty bug in the Microsoft software. The solution was to compress the hard drives before they were half full, preferably when the drives were nearly empty. For this reason, I do not advise my less-than-hacker friends to compress their nearly full hard drives at all.

    Windows 95 Desktop

  • When dragging & dropping with the Left Mouse Button from Explorer, hold Ctrl to copy, Shift to move, and Ctrl-Shift to create a shortcut. Of course, you can always drag & drop using the Right button to get a menu of these choices.
  • To copy program shortcuts from the Start menu to your desktop, click Right on the Start button, then select Open. This creates a directory browser window for C:\Windows\Start Menu. Traverse down the Programs folder until you find the shortcut you want, then drag & drop icons while holding Ctrl to copy your favorite program links to your desktop. For Windows NT 4.0, you must browse the folders C:\WINNT\Profiles\All Users\Start Menu or C:\WINNT\Profiles\<loginname>\Start Menu.
  • To quickly get to Device Manager (Win95 only), Right-Click on My Computer, then select Properties, then click on the Device Manager tab. Device Manager / Properties is the same as Control Panel / System. Similarly, to quickly get to Network Properties right click on Network Neighborhood then select Properties.
  • To delete a file immediately from Explorer (without going to the recycle bin), hold Shift then hit Del, or hold Shift while you click right then select DELETE..
  • To copy an image of the screen to the clipboard, hit Print Screen. To copy an image of just the current window, hit Alt+Print Screen. Use Paint Shop Pro to save or print the image (Windows Paint doesn't autosize to match the clipboard well).
  • To fully expand a directory tree in Explorer, highlight the directory then hit the * (asterisk) key in the Numeric Keypad.
  • You can quickly resize the columns in Explorer, directory browser and Find: All Files windows by playing with the columns legend. Drag & drop the line between "Name" and "Size" to resize the Name column, or click on these fields to sort the data on that field in ascending or descending order.
  • To change icon spacing: Right Click on desktop, then select Properties. Click Appearance tab in the Display Properties window. Set Item = Icon Spacing (Horizontal) then Icon Spacing (Vertical).

    • Lardog's Favorite Settings

    Here is how I like to set up my Windows 95 environment:
  • Click Right on the Taskbar (usually at the bottom of the screen). Select the Properties tab. Under Taskbar options, check only "Show Small Icons In Start Menu", and "Show Clock", then click on OK.
  • From Explorer, click on the View menu item, and check Toolbar, Status Bar, and Details. Click on View / Options, then from the View tab select Show All Files, Display The Full MS-DOS Path In The Title Bar, and Include Description Bar For Right And Left Panes. Make sure Hide MS-Dos File Extensions For File Types That Are Registered is unchecked.
  • From the My Computer directory browser window, click View and check ToolBar and Status Bar. Click on View / Options, then from the Folder tab click on Browse Folders By Using A Single Window...

    • Disable Win95 Windows Logo key

    The Win95 Windows Logo key is usually found between your left Ctrl and Alt keys (if you have a 102-key keyboard), and is a shortcut to the Start menu. This accomplishes the same thing as hitting Ctrl+Esc. When playing DOS games from Windows 95, it is easy to accidentally bump this key, throwing you back into Windows 95, since Ctrl and Alt are often used for shoot, jump, strafe, etc. MicroSoft has released a file to disable this key when playing MS-DOS games: DOSWINKEY, included in their Kernel Toys For Win95 Page. Kernel Toys also includes some other useful MS-DOS utilities  for Windows95.
    If anyone out there has any Win95 tips for this page, please Email me,
    I promise I won't flame back, in fact I'll be your best friend.
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