MS-DOS 7.10 Knowledge Base (Article E1)


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How to install and run Win9x on top? 

Last updated on: February 8, 2004


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The information in this article applies to:

Windows 95 (Version: 4.00.950)
Windows 95A (Version: 4.00.950A)
Windows 95B (Version: 4.10.1111)
Windows 98 (Version: 4.10.1998)
Windows 98SE (Version 4.10.2222)
MS-DOS 7.10
SUMMARY

Since Windows 95-98SE (Windows 4.0-4.1) are just GUIs on top of DOS, they must be started from DOS, very similar to Win/WFW 3.x GUI. But there is one main difference: unlike the normal Windows 3.x and Windows for Workgroups 3.x distribution, which only has one GUI part, the full Windows 9x distribution usually includes two parts: the OS (the integrated DOS, or "WinDOS") part and the Windows 9x GUI part, although they can be separated easily. In other words, Windows 2.x, Windows 3.x and Windows 9x (4.x) are all DOS-based Windows, thus GUI programs of DOS.

Note: Windows 95 GUI and Windows 95A GUI can only be started from MS-DOS 7.0 or later, while Windows 95B GUI, Windows 98 GUI, and Windows 98SE GUI can only be started from MS-DOS 7.10 or later. Hence, all versions of Windows 9x (4.0-4.1) GUI will run on top of MS-DOS 7.10, as well as Windows 3.x GUI.

MORE INFORMATION

As mentioned above, unlike Win/WFW 3.x, which consists of only the DOS GUI part so that it has to be installed after DOS, the full Windows 9x distribution contains two parts: DOS part and GUI part. So, if you install Win9x from the full Win9x distribution after installing MS-DOS 7.10, then the MS-DOS 7.10 system files may be overwritten during the full Win9x installation. In this case, or if you only have Win9x installed before, you can just MS-DOS 7.10 again, so that both MS-DOS 7.10 and Windows 9x GUI will work fine. If you answered "YES" when the MS-DOS 7.10 Installer asks you if you want  MS-DOS 7.10 to set up the Win9x path automatically for you, then you can enter this Win9x by simply typing "WIN" on the DOS command line directly at any time after DOS starts, similar to Win3.x. For more information about the Win9x path setup, please read the Knowledge Base Article E2.

Also note that before you start Win9x from MS-DOS 7.10, the correct  HIMEM.SYS and IFSHLP.SYS must be loaded (by default they are automatically loaded in CONFIG.SYS after MS-DOS 7.10/Windows installation), while certain programs (e.g. PC-CACHE) that are incompatible with Win9x should not be loaded before starting Win9x GUI, otherwise some problems may occur.


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