Setting up a Windows 95/98 computer
Installing Windows
You are now ready to install Windows. Most people install it straight off the installation CD. That's okay if you have only one CD and computer, but it's not the best way for a variety of reasons. For one, if you later install another piece of hardware or software which requires the Windows installation files (the "cab" files), you will have to find and insert the CD again. It's far better to copy the installation files to the hard drive and then install Windows from there; they are then immediately available if required. Copying the files across has to be done using Dos.
There is one slight problem though - since you have wiped your hard drive clean, you won't immediately be able to access the CD drive! There are two ways around this: the easiest way is to boot from a Windows 98 boot disk (if you have one available) as this has built-in support for most CD drives; the alternative is to download a universal CD driver and install it on C: drive, after which you will be able to see and use your CD drive under Dos.
Okay, having overcome that hurdle, change to D: drive and create a new directory for your cab files, calling it something meaningful such as win95cab. Insert the Windows installation CD and make it the current drive. Issue the <dir> command and you should see a directory called something like Win95 on the CD - this contains all the cab files. The rest of the files and folders on the CD are not needed, honest! Change to the Win95 directory and issue the command <copy *.* d:\win95cab> and press enter. All the cab files will be copied across to the directory you created on D: drive. When the copying is finished, create a small text file in the folder and type in the CD key so that you don't lose it. Remove the CD from the drive and put it somewhere safe - hopefully you won't need it again.
Custom installation
You can now install Windows from the cab file on your hard drive. Still in Dos, change to the directory containing the cab files, type setup and press enter to start the installation.
After performing a few checks, Setup will ask you what kind of installation to perform. It's tempting to click on "typical" when you're installing new software, especially if you are not sure which options to select, but in this case ignorance is not bliss. With a little effort you can set up your computer with exactly the components you need - keep it mean and lean!
For licensing reasons we have been using Windows 95 on our projects, so you will have to adapt the guidelines below if you are using a later version. Here's what we choose when doing a custom installation:
- Accessibility - deselect
- Accessories - select only Calculator, Character Map, Document Templates, Imaging, Online Users Guide, Paint, Quick View, Windows 95 Tour, Word Pad
- Communications - deselect
- Disk Tools - select only Disk Defragmenter
- Fax - deselect
- Multimedia - select only Audio Compression, CD Player, Media Player, Sample Sounds, Sound Recorder, Video Compression, Volume Control
- Microsoft network - deselect
- Windows messaging - deselect
We made these choices based on what we teach in the classroom. For example, most of our schools don't have a telephone line, let alone Internet access, so we don't install communication components such as Net Meeting which will not be used. Your situation may well be different, so think carefully about your choices.