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ABOUT WINDOWS 95

Microsoft would have you believe that Windows is now an operating system that no longer runs under DOS. It's a LIE! There is almost no difference in the relationship between Windows 95 and it's hidden DOS 7.0 and Windows 3 and DOS 6. In fact, Windows 95 is much easier to deal with as DOS running Windows and it's not hard to separate the DOS 7 out so that you can run Windows 95 or Windows 3.11 under it when you're in the mood to play. And here's the secret trick Microsoft doesn't want you to know about.

There is a file in your root directory called MSDOS.SYS. This file used to be a binary file, but now it's a text file. First you have to get rid of the Hidden, System, and Read-Only file attributes. If you don't have a file manager that can do that, download Directory Master from my web site.

Then you bring up an editor on this file and make two changes. Change the line BootGUI=1 to BootGUI=0. Then add a line LOGO=0. It's that easy! Here's my MSDOS.SYS file:

   [Paths]
   WinDir=C:\WINDOWS
   WinBootDir=C:\WINDOWS
   HostWinBootDrv=C

   [Options]
   BootMulti=1
   BootGUI=0
   Network=1
   Logo=0
   LoadTop=0

As a DOS, MsDos 7 is just like MsDos 6 except that you have support for long file names. If you get Qemm 8 you get a little more free memory under 640k than you did with MsDos 6. The MsDos utilities programs are hidden in two places. Most of them are in the C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND directory. The rest of them are on your Windows 95 CD in the \OTHER\OLDMSDOS directory. I just copy these two directories into a C:\DOS directory to be consistent with the way I set up MsDos 6.

If you want to get rid of the shutdown logos on exiting Windows 95, go into the C:\WINDOWS directory and get rid of the files LOGOS.SYS and LOGOW.SYS. You can just move then to another directory if you don't want to delete them. This will put you on an MsDos command line when exiting windows.

For those of you who are running Windows 3 on a network and are scared of running Windows 95 because you are used to running Windows from DOS, separating the DOS should make things easier for you. It allows you to run Windows 95 just like you run Windows 3 now and put you in an environment that you are familiar with. You can load up your VLM shells and run your network login scripts just like you are doing now. It allows you to upgrade to Windows 95 with less fear and loathing.

Some of you may be using a dual boot system so that you can boot your old MsDos 6 and run programs without having Windows loaded. This is no longer necessary. Once you separate out the MsDos 7 you can get rid of MsDos 6 and your dual boot. MsDos 7 will replace your MsDos 6.

I'm no Windoze fan, but I'm getting to like Windows 95. I find myself running it about two thirds of the time, which is a big step up from Windows 3 which I never ran unless I had to.

Windows 95 is more stable than 3.11. So yes, it's time to upgrade to it. You don't need to wait for it to be fixed because it's never going to be right. However, it is very usable. I like the fact that I only lock it up about once a day on the average instead of continuously. It's a lot faster than 3.11 especially on the web, which is what I really use it for.

Windows 95 has a feature that if you are running DOS under Windows and from the command line you run a Windows application, it actually works! This allows you to hunt for things with your handy dandy DOS utilities and when you find it you can just run it. I like that. You can also start Windows programs from a batch file.

To run Windows 95 you need at least a 486 80 with 16 megs of ram. Microsoft says it will run in 8 megs. But they have a different meaning for the word "run" than I do. In fact, if you are a serious user, (or abuser) you're going to want to put 24 megs of ram in and get a Pentium 120. That's what I'm running. If you want to run Netscape 2, better have 24 megs of ram. But with ram getting cheaper all the time, 24 megs is not a lot of memory.

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