Emergency Recovery Utility
- There is a very useful utility on the Windows 95 CD, in \OTHER\MISC\ERU, the Emergency Recovery Unit. Copy everything in this folder to your \WINDOWS folder on your hard disk and run the ERU.EXE program.
It makes a backup of all your important files and creates an executable to reset everything back to the state it was in when you backed it up. You can also download these files from Microsoft (65Kb).
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/download/eruzip.exe
Log File Viewer
- There are a number of programs and .exe's in Windows 95 that allow you to create a log file, finding the log file after it is created is a hassle. Try this:
From the Windows 95 CD copy all the files from \OTHER\MISC\LOGVIEW to the \WINDOWS folder on your hard disk. Then when you run LOGVIEW.EXE, it will open up all Windows log files in a single editor. This program is simular as SYSEDIT.EXE
You can also download the files from Microsoft (24Kb).
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/download/logvu.exe
Confirmed Bugs in Windows 95
- See Microsoft's Knowledge Base article no. Q141602. for an overview of Confirmed Bugs in Windows 95
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q141/6/02.asp
Windows 95 Startup Process
- For a description of the Windows 95 Startup Process, see Microsoft's Knowledge Base Article q174018
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q174/0/18.asp
Windows Setup Switches
- Windows 95 has several switches you can use when executing Setup:
/is - Ignores the check of your system check
/id - Ignores the check for whether there is enough disk space
/iq - Ignores the test for cross-linked files and file directory integrity
/in - Runs setup without the Network Setup Module
/iw - Skips the Microsoft legal warnings (i.e., copyright notice, etc.)
You can also specify a filename (.inf.) with setup, that contains information on exactly what to set up.
Windows 95 Cab folders-
You can extract any file contained in a Windows 95 ".cab" folder with a small program from Microsoft called "Power Toys". Inside of this is "cabveiw.inf." right click then install.
You can then double-click on any cab folder and drag the file you want to desktop or any folder in Windows Explorer.
Changing Computer Role
- If you have 32mgs or more of memory you can increase performance by changing the computers 'Role' from 'Desktop Computer' to 'Network Server'. You make this change in Control Panel/System/Performance/File System.
When you use the Desktop Computer setting, VFAT allocates memory to record the 32 most recently accessed folders and the 677 most recently accessed files. This consumes approximately 10K of memory. When you use the Mobile Or Docking System setting,
VFAT allocates memory to record the 16 most recently accessed folders and the 337 most recently accessed files. This consumes approximately 5K of memory. When you use the Network Server setting, VFAT allocates memory to record the 64 most recently
accessed folders and the 2729 most recently accessed files. This consumes approximately 40K of memory.
However, if you have the original Win95 (a) you need to apply a Registry fix before you make this change. There was a Registry transposition error in the original release of Win95. Go to this URL for the fix.
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q138/0/12.asp
Hard Drives: bus mastering
- What bus mastering does is take the load of transferring data from the slow IDE interface off of the CPU. For the technically minded, here is a little more reference:
The traditional PIO (Programmable I/O) IDE requires the CPU to involve in all the activities of the IDE access including waiting for the mechanical parts. When the CPU becomes faster, this CPU load becomes relatively inefficient.
In order to reduce the workload of the CPU, and to use the CPU more efficiently, a bus master logic has been designed in the Triton chip set. This logic will take care of the data transfer between IDE and main memory. The CPU will access data from the main memory
instead of moving data to/from slow IDE interface. The Triton chip set adds two more dedicated DMA channels for Bus Master IDE, and 32 bytes of PCI-IDE buffer. The IDE interface in the Triton chipset also provides the traditional PIO mechanism for backward compatibility.
Okay, so where do we go from here? Well for users of sr2:Windows95 (b)version, it's a relatively simple procedure.
1.Go to device manger. 2. Open Disk drives.3. Select your disk drive.4. Properties. 5.Select the settings tab. 6. Put a check mark in the "DMA" box.7. Repeat for additional drives.8. Plus open your IDE CD-ROM, and do the same for it.9. Reboot when prompted.
It is also worthwhile to note that this process gives you the ability to toggle bus mastering on and off. Especially handy for an old hard-drive or CD-ROM that may not like it. Win95 950 & 950a does not have the bus master driver. Unless your vendor installed the driver,
Win95 950 will not detect the hardware on your MB. There is not a CMOS setting for this. To check go to Control Panel/System/Device Manager. Click on Hard Disk Controllers. If you are using the bus master it will have PCI Bus Master.
CD-ROM-
If you have the CD-ROM as a slave on the same channel with a HDD you are slowing the performance of the hard drive for two reasons.
One is the CD-ROM is a 16 bit device and the HDD is a 32 bit device. When you connect a 16 bit device to a channel the channel can only operate at the slower 16 bit rate.
Just as important is that on one EIDE channel, the 2 devices have to take turns controlling the bus. If you have your hard drive and the CD-ROM on the same channel, the HDD has to wait until a request to the CD-ROM has finished. Because CD-ROM's are relatively slow,
there is a degradation of performance.
