Minimum Hardware Requirements for Windows 95

• Intel 386DX, 20MHz processor or higher

• 4MB RAM

• VGA Video adapter and display

• 20MB free hard disk space

Windows 95 Setup Options

• Typical - Recommeded setup option for minimum user interaction.

• Compact - Minimum installation available, for computers with little hard disk space available.

• Portable - For users with portable computers, includes utilities for remote computing.

• Custom - Lets user choose which features to include in installation.

Detection Log Files Windows 95 has several log files generated to detect and troubleshoot problems.

• SETUPLOG.TXT - Used to log installation of Windows95. Will note last utility run prior to a system halt.

• DETCRASH.LOG - Used to log hardware detection during setup. Readable only by setup to determine which module was running when the system halted.

• DETLOG.TXT - Equivalent of DETCRASH.LOG written in a readable format.

• NETLOG.TXT - Logs detected network component information.

• IOS.LOG - Logs error messages from the SCSI drivers.

• PPPLOG.TXT - Logs PPP and dial-up activity.

The express setup of Windows 3.x does not allow you to choose the location of the Windows directory.

Old system files are not saved when using the Windows 95 custom setup.

SETUP.EXE - File used to install MS-DOS, Windows 3.x, and Windows95.

Pressing F3 during the install of MS-DOS, Windows 3.x, or Windows 95 will terminate the setup.

The default directory for MS-DOS installation is C:\DOS.

Windows 3.x Express setup automatically chooses which applications and utilities will be installed on a system, and automatically creates icons for pre-existing Windows programs.

Network configuration is part of the Windows 95 installation process, but can be done later after the setup is complete.

FDISK is run from DOS to partition a drive. Partitioning increases the efficiency of a computer by reducing disk access time. FDISK destroys all data on the drive.

CONFIG.SYS is run first and is used to setup and configure the systems hardware components.

COMMAND.COM loads next to give the system the ability to interpret user commands.

AUTOEXEC.BAT is used to execute commands and load TSR programs.

It is NOT necessary for config.sys or autoexec.bat to be present for command.com to load into memory.

DOS used two system files to boot. These files were IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS and they provided the system initialization code and configuration information. IO.SYS for WIN 95 replaces IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS

All DEVICE= commands are stored in the CONFIG.SYS file.

OIS.INI contains device drivers. When Windows 95 installs, it looks for real mode drivers that it can safely replace. It is stored in a test file called IOS.INI and is located in the Windows directory.

To enable a dual boot Win 3.1 / Win 95 environment, each OS must be installed in different directories, many programs will have to be dual installed. This requires a great deal of hard drive space.

Windows 95 can be installed without removing WIN 3.1. The advantage of this is that upi will still be able to run old programs that are not WIN 95 compatible. WIN 95 will install clean and WIN 3.1 directories will remain intact. The two systems will need to be installed in separate directories, therefore, they will take up more hard drive space.

When upgrading from WIN 3.1 to WIN 95, you should turn off all TSR's and running programs, check CMOS setup for virus protection programs, backup all of the current data files and check hardware and software compatibility.

A plug and play device must be able to identify itself, and its requirements to the computer. The operating system will then set the device and make any needed adjustments. The System bios, operating system drivers and hardware must be PNP compliant in order to work together.

Pressing F4 when you see the "Starting Windows 95" message is a shortcut key to the choose previous version of MSDOS and is used on a dual boot system.

Incompatible hardware is the #1 problem when upgrading to Windows 95 because the PNP technology requires the hardware to be PNP compatible. You may need to install software for peripheral devices to be compatible with Windows 95 or even upgrade them.

Microsoft recommends that applications be installed from the RUN option of the Start bar. If you are not sure of the command line choose the Browse option to locate the install function.

Windows 95 and Windows NT share the same machine and dual booting is no problem. However the hard drive must have WIN 95 FAT. WIN 95 will not run on NTFS (NT File System). Drive compression for WIN 95 and NT are different and not compatible.

SETUP /I will setup Windows to start without performing (ignore) any automatic hardware detection.

SETUP /A is used to install a shared copy of Windows on a network drive.

Safe mode is the WIN 95 troubleshooting mode. When this option is used CONFIG.SYS, AUTOEXEC.BAT and the registry are bypassed. Only virtula device drives for the keyboard, mouse , and standard VGA monitor are loaded. The SYSTEM.INI and WIN.INI are partially loaded, the desktop is sized to 640x480 and a dialog box appears to indicate that safe mode is in effect.

Real-mode drivers are 16-bit and VxD are 32-bit.

Right clicking on almost any object in WIN 95 will allow you to view or change the objects properties.

The printing subsystem can easily be accessed through Control Panel, My Computer or Explorer.

Hardware Topics: Basic PC Overview
Preventative Maintenance and Safety -|- Basic Troubleshooting -|- PC Architecture Basics -|- PC I/O and Busses
Processors -|- Memory -|- Drives -|- Monitors and Video -|- Modems -|- Printers -|- Portable Systems -|- Networking

Operating System Topics:
DOS basics -|- Windows 3.1 -|- OS Memory Management -|- Installation of DOS and Windows 3.x
Installation of Windows 9X -|- Diagnosis and Troubleshooting -|- Windows 95 Overview -|- Windows 95 Networking
Windows 95 vs Windows NT

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Please Read -DISCLAIMER: Technology changes very rapidly. The information presented here was believed to be accurate at the time it was gathered. No claim is made that this information is up to date, or that it represents the current technology used today.

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