The sad thing about Windows 95 bashing is it's all true.
Okay, so Windows 95 sucks, yadda, yadda, yadda. Regardless, we're stuck with it since so many consumers bit Microcrap's hype, and everything's made for Windows 95 now - software, hardware, the internet, you name it. Might as well make the most of it, that's what I say, or join the revolution and get Linux.
Let's start with software.
Despite it's ability to crash again and again and it's many bugs, IMSI's WinDelete 3.0 has been very useful to me. Other than being an uninstaller, it also finds unused fonts, invalid DLL reference counts, bad entries in my configuration files, etc., thus freeing up resources and making sure there aren't any 'unnecessary' conflicts. Be careful with it, though, because it's very buggy and may identify files as dispensable when the respective file(s) may be critical for an application to run.
I also have Cybermedia's First Aid 95, but I've found that it isn't good for much except fixing file associations and sometimes locating DLL's that Windows 95 decided to move for no apparent reason at all. There's a crash protector that comes with it, but I've found from personal experience that it only works about 15% of the time, and it sometimes crashes other applications.
No crash protector is 100% safe, but Norton Crashguard reportedly is as close as you'll ever get. I've used this before - it is better than First Aid's Crash Protector, but I soon took it off my hard drive because it also crashed my computer, and I couldn't find which application it was conflicting with. It seems anything that remains resident in memory, including Vxd's, can or will conflict with other applications, even or especially crash protectors, ironically enough. But as good as Crashguard is, if it does manage to intercept a crash, at best it will give you just enough time to save your work before you have to reboot your computer. Your best bet is to save your work frequently, like every one or two minutes. You think I'm kidding, don't you?
Memory leaks is the reason I most often reboot my computer (a close second is unrecoverable crashes [which result from the memory leaks], and a far distant third - completing program installations). I'm typically down to 74% resources free when I should be at 98% after about two or three hours of use (I've gone as far down as 26% after about eight hours - but still usable with the assistance of Free Memory Tool), which is a crash zone for my computer. Alright, here's the basic idea: it often takes more memory to start an application than to keep it into memory, and memory gets lost somehow - I'm pretty sure it has to do with what Microsoft calls the Windows 95 kernel and its, or more appropriately lack of, memory management - if you know anything about Linux memory management, then you'll realize how crappy Windows 95 is with managing memory. Many times, however, memory leaks are due to buggy programs, especially VB programs that depend on buggy [and bloated] VB runtimes. These are unavoidable, since there is no program in existence that is bug-free, notably, if not especially, Windows 95 itself. Sure, I know, you can download the updated kernel, but that doesn't really help in this case.
There's a shareware program by the name of APK Windows Memory Compacting Engine that could free up a few hundred KB's of memory, but that was about all one could hope for, and my personal experiences with it haven't necessarily been all good - I also had to take it off my hard drive because it conflicted with some program or another, and several times I was down to 1% or 2% free memory. I saved a lot of memory there! But if you're interested in it, here's the file link.
Update: The program is officially no longer available from the author. The link above is to version 4.0 of the program from the Windows Magazine file archives. The most up-to-date version is now called Ram Charger and is being distributed by Sunbelt Software as a commercial product. However, I have found a freeware alternative called RAM Refiner that's works just as well. Download it here (this download requires VB5 runtimes to be installed. If it doesn't work, then you'll have to download the complete package from the RAM Refiner link above).
Tip: To recover memory without restarting your computer, exit all your programs, press alt-ctrl-del, shutting down all programs, aka 'ending tasks,' with explorer last. Explorer will then restart, because it's necessary for Windows 95 to run, and you'll recover some memory. Note: If you get the It's now safe to turn off your computer dialog, you've gone to far.
Okay, I have to admit that something good has come out of Microsoft, though it should have shipped with Windows 95. (I personally believe this program was released by the request of MS programmers to help atone for their great sin - allowing the release Windows 95 as it is - the most buggy program in history). RegClean finds and fixes errors in your registry. Why is this important, even the most important piece of software you'll use for Windows 95? Because, for one, if Windows 95 won't start, it's probably a problem with the registry. Actually that's it. Unfortunately, RegClean is far from perfect and only finds a fraction of the errors in the registry, but a fraction is a lot as few people can effectively hack the registry without rendering Windows 95 unbootable, which is by far an easier task. Additionally, there have been reports than RegClean actually screws people's computers. Well, that's inevitable with any program with as large and diverse a user pool there is with as many software and hardware configurations, but I personally haven't had any problems with it and run it almost daily.
This said, I also make sure I back up my registry before I use RegClean. One easy, and for some people necessary, way to automate multiple registry/configuration backups is Emergency Recovery System 32 Pro. For people who install and uninstall software a lot, this can be a lifesaver, as newly installed software can easily render Windows 95 unbootable, e.g. Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0. It's shareware and well worth the $20 registration fee.
RegClean is considered a power user's tool, but I don't know why. Another program that may fall under this category is Clean System Directory. It's a pretty simple program really: it looks for unused DLL's in your windows slash system directory and offers the user the option to move them. Moving them will remove their entries in the registry and free up memory. And the more memory you have, the more efficiently Windows will run. You can also free up a lot of disk space if you choose to delete these unused DLL's: the first time I ran it I found that I had over 8 MB's of unused DLL's!
Okay, so now we have software to prevent crashes, actually just to give you time to save your work before having to reboot your computer (once again you must reboot your computer after an application crashes in Windows 95 - it is simply inevitable - reboot ASAP and you'll decrease the risk of program files getting corrupted), a registry backup tool, and programs to free up physical memory and keep your computer running as efficiently as possible. There are built-in ways to free up resources in Windows 95, but this requires registry hacking. A better way is using X-Setup to change the registry setting regarding memory to:
You can also run memmaker, then take a look at memmaker.sts and the maxsize[s] of each program, then editing autoexec.bat and config.sys to load the programs with the largest maxsize[s] before the smaller ones. If you know the programs on your computer, you can also choose which ones start at startup. For starters, check your windows slash startmenu slash programs slashStartUp directory for entries. Delete any of these if you like. Second, check your win.ini and system.ini files for:
load=
or
run=
lines. Tthese also serve the same function but require more caution and knowledge of your system setup. Autoexec.bat and config.sys can also be hacked accordingly, with slightly different syntax. The last option is to go into your applications themselves, often right clicking on an taskbar icon to check settings. Many applications have their startups buried in the registry, and the only way to ditch these is to go into the registry or go the respective applications setup utility that may or may not exist. Or you can delete or move the application - this often does the job. As a test, press alt-ctrl-del and see how many entries there are. For me, there are only two, CWordPad and Explorer, since I'm smart enough not to multi-task when I actually want to do work in Windows 95. At start up, there's only one entry for me: explorer. There may be two or three necessary ones for you, notably systray and maybe the driver for your intellimouse. Well, anyway, this will help you determine what's really running at startup. Minimizing these to your bare necessities is a wise and prudent choice. In addition, if these don't free up enough resources, you can also kill you're Windows wallpaper. I have!
Freeing up memory will make windows more stable. Before I continue, however, I must inform you of my system setup. I have a Pentium 166 and 32 MB of RAM. That's about it.
X-Setup makes a good registry frontend for a few things, useful things actually, but WinDuh fills in a small gap. By increasing the number of breakpoints with this proggie, you can make Windows 95 more stable.
Alright, it's really very simple, I mean, making Windows 95 as stable as possible. Besides the tips above, run as few programs as possible, meaning, find out what you really need, and just run that. And don't try to run Windows 3.1x or DOS programs - Windows 95 has no backwards compatibility, despite Microsoft claims. Run only 32-bit programs, and if you really care about stability, don't run any betas, especially Microsoft betas. If the cost of upgrading all your programs to 32-bit ones scares you, just remember that you'll also have to upgrade to at least a Pentium and 16 MB's of RAM to actually use Windows 95.
Now, with configuration. Create a permanent swap file or limit it's maximum size. This can actually kill your performance, but this has decreased the number of reboots I've had to do. It may or will differ for you, but I have a 50 MB permanent swap. How did I get to this? I found that with a 32 MB swap, I'd run out of resources before I'd crash the whole OS. With a 64 MB swap I found that my swap would get to big, my computer would start thrashing, and I'd have to reboot. So I have a 50 MB swap, best of both worlds, or least of all evils, depending on how you look at it. Back to why you should create a permanent swap. First, if you're swap gets too big, Windows will crash, not just your applications, your whole operating system! Also, if you have a permanent swap, you may experience an increase in performance because your swap file isn't continually changing size. How do you do it? Go to control panel, system, then click virtual memory. Make the minimum and maximum sizes the same number. This will number differ depending on your computer's hardware setup. Use a memory monitoring tool such as FHM-MemInfo to determing the right size for you, meaning, how much memory you actually need to run your applications.
Tip: If you haven't downloaded X-Setup yet, do it now! Go to File System, set minimal to 0 and maximum to 2048. Or you can go to the [vcache] section of your system.ini file and set minfilecache equal to 0 and maxfilecache equal to 2048. If you don't have a lot of RAM, then you can reduce the amount of file caching and improve performance by using this method. However, a better tool for finding the optimal cache settings for your computer is Cacheman.
Tip: If you do have a lot of RAM, like 24 MB's or more, which is a more realistic minimum for running Windows 95, you can improve disk access by going to Control Panel, then System, and setting File System to Network File Server.
By this time, we have a fairly stable Windows 95 environment. Well, at least as stable as Windows 95 can be. That is, unless you do like I do: constantly check newly installed applications to make sure they don't 'break' others and don't cause memory leaks. This takes quite a bit of time, and the process often leads to many crashes, but insures, in the end, that one has the most stable Windows 95 working environment possible. Any offending applications are removed at least temporarily; temporarily, because the offending application may actually work well in the absence of another, at the time, unidentifiable application. Following this procedure has worked very well for me, and uptimes have definitely been higher despite the sixty or so applications I have installed on my computer, all of which I use and more than a few of which are betas, and my 2.7 MB registry. Additionally, I keep my most often used software updated, but this is sometimes not a good idea: Getting an update with bug fixes is better than an update with a new feature you don't need, as the latter may actually give you more problems than the version of the program you are currently using as new features more often than not lead to new bugs. All programs installed on my Windows 95 box, I must emphasize, are 32-bit. I refuse to tempt the Fates any longer by attempting to run 16-bit Windows applications under Windows 95.
Here's one final way of not restarting your computer. If you know an application has locked up, press alt-ctrl-del immediately and end the task that's not responding. This can sometimes extend your system uptime. Better yet, use this excellent task manager by the name of CCTask to kill or destroy the offending application - much more effective. Is that it? No, I lied, get Debian/GNU Linux. If you must have MS-Windows, however, I suggest Windows 3.11 or Windows NT. If just have to have Windows applications, then get Linux and WABI, or even OS2 Warp 4.0, but whatever you do, don't use Windows 95!
If you don't have OSR2, then get OSR1 (Windows 95 bug fixes) if you haven't gotten it already here.
This page is about my way of coping with Windows 95, but if you want a more comprehensive resource for trouble-shooting Windows 95, I suggest you go to the Windows95 Annoyances web site. This site is probably the most comprehensive, as well as entertaining, of its kind.
AXCEL216's MAX Speeed WinDOwS ©Tricks Secrets Bugs Fixes is the most comprehensive DOS and Windows tips and tricks site I have ever seen.
Want to hear more? Then take a look at My take on Why Windows 95 Sucks.
Copyright © 1997 Mark Santos. All rights reserved.