Questions tagged [windows-95]
The Microsoft Windows 95 operating system, its OSR re-releases and bundled MS-DOS 7.x.
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Does the “It’s now safe to turn off your computer” screen hide a working command prompt underneath?
Is it true that the Windows 95 power-off prompt, "It's now safe to turn off your computer" was just a graphics-mode image over a DOS prompt, and you can type DOS commands at the power-off ...
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How do I change my login username in Windows 9x?
A few years ago, I set up a lot of Windows 9x VMs. During the Windows installation/setup process for several of the VMs, I, in my infinite hubris, ignored the common advice against using your actual ...
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Was the MS-DOS window in Windows 95 an emulator like current DOSBox?
Windows 1.x, 2.x and 3.x required a DOS to be loaded before running them. Later Windows 9.x and ME had similar (?) way of working, but DOS was included with them, 32-bit multitasking and other stuff ...
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Can you write to the GDT on Windows 95 from protected mode? Why, and how?
Can you write to the GDT (Global Descriptor Table) on Windows 95 from protected mode? Why, and how?
In some old notes of mine, I have:
"In Windows 95 the descriptor tables are accessible from ...
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How did the AOL software provide internet access to other applications running on Windows 95/98?
During the late 1990s, I (and countless others) accessed the internet by running software provided by America Online (mailed to my house on free CD-ROMs) and using a dial-up modem to access their ...
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Windows 95 Protection bootup error? [closed]
I'm installing Windows 95 (OSR2.5) on a semi-modern PC.
The PC has ran Windows 3.1 and even a version of 2, but I just can't seem to get 95 to work.
after installing it, then fixing a memory error, I ...
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"Quit all programs, and then restart your computer" in the Windows 95 "Illegal operation" dialog
Back in the Windows 95/98 days, the "illegal operation" dialog was (from here):
but sometimes, in that dialog, it would say "Quit all programs, and then restart your computer" (...
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Windows 95 install help
I have installed Windows 98 on a pc made for windows 7. (it runs) although without audio because its probably not compatible with windows 98. but I would like to install Windows 95.
It's not the CPU ...
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Why did Windows 9x allow ring-3 software to change IDT?
I was researching how old Windows 9x viruses, such as Win95.CIH, got ring 0 access, and it's shown that one of the approaches was to get the Interrupt Descriptor Table, hook the interrupt handler and ...
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Does the kernel of Windows 95/98/ME have a name?
In this question:
Why was the DOS kernel discarded?
I was told that DOS is not a kernel. It runs on CPUs that don't even have kernel mode. So how can it be a kernel? So I think this is right.
Now if ...
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What is a Windows 95 "start" (not setup) CD?
I have this CD here and it does not seem to be a normal setup CD because I cannot boot from it.
Also the text on the CD says "Go to Start > run and then enter d:startimw"
As you can see ...
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How did the Windows 95 'Add New Hardware Wizard' work?
I remember when Windows 95 came out and the 'Add New Hardware Wizard' seemed almost magical! It was able to detect a large amount of hardware on the COM ports and automatically install drivers. It was ...
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Why does Windows 95 not install so well from a Windows XP boot floppy? [closed]
EDIT: And this is why you shouldn't rely purely on memory for these sort of things. After some fiddling with my XP and Win95 disks, I remembered that the problems I was having were more likely related ...
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Managing and deleting users in Windows 95 prior to Internet Explorer 4
Q176059 says that the Users control panel applet, which provides "a simplified way of creating, managing, and deleting user profiles", was only introduced in the update that installs ...
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How were you supposed to recover a forgotten Microsoft "Protect It!" key, or uninstall it altogether?
Microsoft Plus! 95 for Kids included a parental control program called Protect It!, which had you set a key (i.e., a password) to control who could reconfigure it. The help file says "If you ...
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Identify this spaceship fruit collection game starring a levitating fish
Okay this might be a long shot, but I've been looking for this game for over 7 years now and I'm starting to question my sanity. I played this game somewhere between 1998-2003 but it might be a tad ...
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How did installers locate the Program Files directory on Windows 95?
Program Files is typically C:\Program Files; however it is not always; famously on German installs it was C:\Programme, the installation drive was not guaranteed to be C, and other things would make ...
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Did INI files work in a different way on Windows 3.x than today?
I am dealing with an application that still uses INI files for configuration. I wanted to make a temporary change to an INI file, but the result was not what I expected.
Let's say the original INI ...
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Booting from SD card on a Compaq LTE 4/75 – DOS 6 works, Windows 95 doesn't
I'm in the process of restoring an old Compaq LTE Elite 4/75 laptop, which was missing its hard drive, so I thought I'd try booting using an SD-to-IDE adapter.
On my main workstation I created an ...
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How can I get Windows 95 to run in DOSBox?
When booting Win95, DOSBox suddenly closes before even the "Starting Windows 95..." dialog shows up. I entered these commands in DOSBox:
mount C C:\dos
C:\
cd WINDOWS
win
After entering win,...
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Why didn't Windows 98 need the "Starting Windows 98..." screen?
In Windows 95, when you start up your computer, you see this message:
Starting Windows 95...
But in Windows 98, this is replaced entirely by the boot logo.
Was this just for a better appearance, or ...
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What technical reasons prevented the Win9x Virtual Machine Monitor from running multiple threads simultaneously?
Were there any inherent limitations in the way the VMM for Win9x was designed that prevented it from being able to run threads simultaneously if the underlying hardware had multiple cores/processors? ...
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How can I install debug VXDs from the Windows 98 DDK?
The core OS debug VXDs are provided in the DDK as separate VXDs, as opposed to being packed into a single VMM32.VXD file. Furthermore the readme file with the DDK indicates that copying all the ...
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Was there a hard disk format countdown easter egg hidden in the Windows 95 installer?
Back when I was a fair bit younger, my father and I upgraded our old 286/486 to a snazzy Pentium and a fresh copy of the just-released Windows 95. I seem to recall a strange Easter egg on the upgrade ...
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How can I visit HTTPS websites in old web browsers?
I'm having trouble accessing HTTPS websites using Netscape Communicator 4.8. This is the error message I get:
Is there a way I can configure some sort of proxy that will allow me to access HTTPS ...
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Windows 95 early build's "Windows protection error" on the post-installation boot up [closed]
On the first boot up, the early builds of Windows 95 (pre-OSR2) would commonly show the following error screen during the post-installation boot-up,
Restarting the computer doesn't fix the issue. How ...
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Was Windows 95 really released in 1995?
Here's a recent Microsoft article claiming, "Windows 95 was launched on August 24, 1995".
https://blogs.windows.com/windows-insider/2020/08/24/looking-back-the-25th-anniversary-of-windows-95/...
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Why are there three different settings in the [Paths] section of MSDOS.SYS?
In Windows 9x, the MSDOS.SYS configuration file contains a [Paths] section whose contents usually look like this:
[Paths]
WinDir=C:\WINDOWS
WinBootDir=C:\WINDOWS
HostWinBootDrv=C
Both WinDir and ...
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Disassembling Windows IO.SYS
Under the question How did Windows ME "cripple" DOS?, Ross Ridge's answer showed a section of his disassembly.
I would like to know, a) what disassembler was used and b) what adjustment or ...
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How do I install Windows 9x on an older machine from a flash drive (or any other unconventional device)
Windows 9x is no longer common, and isn't commonly supported. While there exist many solutions to burning ISO to USB or other storage device, most fail at some point, with commonly useless if any ...
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Why would installing Windows 9x on a Sager NP8200 or Wedge 466/DX2 laptop brick the system?
In the setup.txt file on the Windows 95 and 98 CDs (located in the \WIN95 [Windows 95] / \win98 [Windows 98] folder), which contains important information on setting up Windows and solving or working ...
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When will the copyrights on various versions of Windows and DOS expire?
Related to question
What is the best way to obtain old versions of MS-DOS and Windows?
When will the copyrights on various versions of Windows and DOS expire?
Once they expire I presume one could ...
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Did the Windows 95 screensavers use hardware acceleration APIs?
The windows 95 is known for introducing a couple of classic screensavers including: Maze, Pipes and starfield among others. It looks like DirectX is a collection of multimedia APIs but for this ...
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Is there a prebuilt git binary available for Windows 9x? [closed]
Obviously, given age, doesn't have to be as secure and fancy and the modern builds, but is there there a git build for Windows 9x, just like there is for Windows XP? Also wondering whether there is a ...
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Can a bootable Win9x HDD be made interchangeable between PCs?
Normally, Windows 9x must be installed on each PC individually so that it can be loaded/configured with the appropriate set of drivers. I'm wondering if there is any way to make a boot HDD that can be ...
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Why did moving the mouse cursor cause Windows 95 to run more quickly?
I was playing Hypnospace Outlaw, a game about a retro-themed OS. This OS has a peculiar behavior that when loading a webpage, wiggling the mouse cursor will load the page faster.
That reminded me of ...
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Latest web browser compatible with Windows 95 / 98
Do you know which is the latest web browser compatible with Windows 95 / 98?
At the moment I have an Opera 10 working fine; it is very lightweight but very outdated.
I assume that software that works ...
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Logitech drivers from Windows 95 Installer on the actual disk
I'm attempting something that might seem crazy but I got stuck at the end. I am installing Windows 95, on a flash drive, using a PC with modern hardware (Not a virtual machine!). I got around the ...
user11708
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USB ports for a 486 laptop (pccard 16bits)
I have an old laptop 486 with PhoenixBIOS which supports PC card 16bits( PCMCIA II/III).
I am thinking about the possibility of adding a pccard 16bits with USB ports, mainly to read usbsticks or ...
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Why did Windows pick 260 characters as the maximum path length?
I just got burned by the 260 character path limitation in Windows. Why did Microsoft decided to limit paths to 3 characters for drive + 256 characters + 1 character for the terminator? Mac OS of the ...
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What did Microsoft customize on Windows 95 installation floppy disks?
I have a Windows 95 Upgrade 3.5" DMF installation disk set where several disks were infected by the boot sector virus known as "Chance.A". I'm interested in restoring these to their original contents.
...
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Combination of processor and Windows version
Have an old(ish) laptop with a Pentium T4400 @ 2.20 GHz processor, and some old software1 that requires Windows 95 or NT.
With a view to running this software on that hardware, I tried installing ...
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"Your program is testing for optimal display performance" in older Windows games
I remember seeing the following a lot when I was younger, and recently saw it again in a DOSbox setting:
For those that haven't seen it, the squiggly red lines shift and undulate quite a bit, and it ...
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Windows 95 installation floppy images are larger than 1440 KiB. How can I fit their contents on standard floppies?
I have an old laptop with only a floppy drive. It came with Windows 95 on it but suffered from some terrible BSoDs that I could not resolve. I figured I would just download some Windows 95 install ...
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How did Windows 95 verify the Certificate of Authenticity?
After setting up Windows 95 in a virtual machine, I noticed that it could verify the product key without internet (no serial ports or network adapters).
From modifying a genuine key at the CoA (...
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How does Notepad store text files in memory?
Before I knew about line endings, I used to open small executables in Notepad and ruin them completely. However, some more complex executables (e.g. Paint Shop) were too big for Notepad, and I was ...
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Where can I get icons for Windows 3.1/95-style GUIs?
Consider for instance the GUI for Microsoft Word 97:
I am interested in getting the tiny icons used for the "Open", "Save", "Print" operations below the menu bar. Is there a good source for these and ...
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How to open a CorelDraw WI wavelet-compressed image
I have a large sample of .WI images I need to convert to e.g. JPEGs, but the format now seems defunct.
The mimetype is image/wavelet.
The compression algorithm was developed by Summus, a US company ...
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Submarine diver game where you had to collect fish and other things for your aquarium
I've been searching for a game that I used to play a ton when I was a kid on the Windows 95/98, but I can't find it for the life of me!
From what I remember, you were a deep-sea diver that collected ...
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Windows 95 boot disk cannot detect my CD-ROM drive
I have an IBM 466 DX2 with the default CD-ROM drive installed like normal. I wanted to install Windows 95, so I first tried to install on top of the version of DOS already on the hard drive. It had ...
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