Windows 95 Test Release Candidate Build 347
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Build 347 was created on March 8, 1995. It is the latest version of Windows
95, and is the current candidate for Microsoft's wide test release which will
be made available to the general public. Rumor has it that b347 will become
the wide area release.
To install, unzip all 24 zip files into a subdirectory on your hard drive. It
will take approximately 40 megs for this, plus you should have an extra 60
megabytes free for the Windows 95 operating system installation.
Windows95 now comes with a README.TXT file. You may want to browse this to see
if there is anything of concern for your installation. There is also a
SETUP.TXT which details some possible setup conflicts.
Once you have unzipped the files to a subdirectory, switch to that subdirectory
and run setup.exe. Windows95 will proceed to install.
Windows 95 has come a long way since the early builds, and is now a viable and
(fairly) stable platform for every day use. If you need bonafide dos, you can
hit F4 (or F8) during the bootup (before the Windows95 graphic comes up), and
your old version of DOS will boot. To get this to work, you should boot into
windows, and edit the c:\msdos.sys file. You can do this by running
command.com and:
"attrib -s -h -r c:\msdos.sys"
"edit c:\msdos.sys"
add the line "BootMulti=1" under the [Options] header
save the file
Windows95 does not require your drive to be repartitioned, and runs under the
normal FAT system. It uses a kludge to allow long filenames - you should not
run directory sorting utilities like Norton DS or it will trash your long
filenames. Windows95 runs Windows16 (old windows applications) as well or
better than Windows 3.1x did, and also allows you to run many new full 32-bit
Windows32 applications. It multitasks DOS sessions quite adequately as well.
This Windows95 Beta has been brought to you by the folks at The Lexicon of the
Cabal BBS, which will continue to bring you new and exciting applications,
operating systems, and utilities.