Questions tagged [windows-95]

The Microsoft Windows 95 operating system, its OSR re-releases and bundled MS-DOS 7.x.

It is totally understandable but nonetheless feels weird to me that Windows 95 is considered to be retro-computing.
Raymond Chen

This tag is primarily for the operating system itself and software bundled with it. For questions about third-party software that runs on Windows 95, prefer the tag.

For questions about MS-DOS 7.x, feel free to use this tag in conjunction with .

56 questions
31
votes
3 answers

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 hardcoding "Program Files" fraught with peril. The…
Joshua
  • 1,829
  • 14
  • 22
15
votes
2 answers

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 (Certificate of Authenticity) screen, I noticed that it…
Zackary
  • 605
  • 6
  • 14
12
votes
1 answer

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 it is run like a normal program and it is not a setup disk to…
zomega
  • 5,362
  • 4
  • 25
  • 52
7
votes
1 answer

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 process which I've tried searching for and am…
Aaron Lavers
  • 173
  • 5
6
votes
1 answer

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 Internet Explorer 4. The word "simplified" implies there was…
2
votes
1 answer

Windows 95 Protection bootup error?

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 tried to install the Fix95CPU patch on the pc,…
0
votes
2 answers

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 error, which I could try to use fix95cpu for or a…
-1
votes
1 answer

Windows 95 early build's "Windows protection error" on the post-installation boot up

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 to fix the problem?
TAbdiukov
  • 982
  • 9
  • 29