How to Reinstall Windows 95/98
I have been watching my log sheets, and I have have seen many requests from the search engines saying "reinstall+windows+95". Microsoft has over 200 pages in their Windows95 Resource Kit about how to install Windows 95, so it is very difficult to boil everything down to a page or two, but I will attempt to do it here. Don't come yelling at me if it does not work right for you. Let it never be said that I am not brave, perhaps stupidly so. If you follow all these instructions, and it still does not work, then it is time to seek professional help. Don't try to do this under a deadline gun, that will guarantee failure.
Before you begin:
Click here for a special Warning for Internet Explorer 4 Users
Take an full inventory of everything that is in the machine or attached
to the machine. This includes you printer, scanner, in some cases your hard drive,
your sound card, your mouse, and most importantly, your . . .
Video Card. To do this, you may have to "pop
the top" to determine what you actually have for a video card in there. Most
video card manufacturers don't make it obvious what chip you have on their card.
They use lots of names like "Stealth", "Velocity" and if you have a
card from one of the major manufacturers then that is all you have to know. If you
purchased a generic card, or you have a major manufacturer's computer then you really have
to look at the chip. It is the 1"x1" square one on the card
or near the video connection on a motherboard. It will have a name like
S3, Trident, Cirrus Logic, Tseng, ATI, or Chips and Technologies on it. If you see
Intel, AMD or Cyrix, you are looking at the CPU chip and that one is too big. You will
notice that it does not say Diamond or STB and that is because neither of those companies
actually make the chips that power their cards, rather they design a card around a chip.
ATI actually makes their own chips and cards. Hewlett Packard, Compaq and Packard
Bell do not make chips either, they take one of these companies chips and solder them to
the motherboard which is a drag if you want to upgrade your video card, but that is
another story.
After you know what company made the chip, then you have to figure out
what model you have. Usually, right under the make, is the model. Look for
GD-xxxx, or CL-xxxx. Go ahead and write all the numbers on the large square chip on
your video card down or in the case of PB, HP or Compaq near where the video connection
is.
Okay, you know your machine, you have all the drivers, you are ready to go, right? Not quite yet. You must determine what kind of Windows95 you have. Look at the CD or floppies if you have an old machine. It helps if you know when you bought the machine. Microsoft has issued about 4 different versions of Windows95. Let us deal with them individually.
OEM three major groupings: original (4.00.950), later (4.00.95B or
4.00.1111) and Companion (could be either)
To determine which one you have look at the license on the certificate. Does is have
the letters -OEM- in it? if you can to a DOS prompt, type in VER <enter>
and the version will pop up. Look at the CD, does it have Companion on it? If
it has Companion on it then Windows95 is actually on your hard drive and you bought it
from a big company which did you no favor by buying a cheaper license from Microsoft.
Upgrade version: As far as I know, Microsoft has only issued one upgrade version, although it has included different versions of Internet Explorer 2, 3 and 4 as they have come out. When you put in VER<enter> at a DOS prompt 4.00.950 should pop up.
You should by now, know you machine and know what version of Windows 95 you have. You should write this all down because you may need it later.
You may now proceed . . .
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