If you have been "locked out" out of Win95 OSR2 or Win98 after you have enabled the DMA feature for your
hard/CD/DVD drives, there is still a way to get back into Windows. Just follow these easy steps:
Hold down F8 (in OSR2) or Ctrl (in Win98) to bring up the Startup
Menu.
Use your numeric keys or up/down arrow keys to select the "Command prompt only"
choice, and then press Enter. It is option #5 if not using a Network or TCP/IP, or option #6 if connected to a Network or/and
using TCP/IP protocol.
Run this command from the DOS prompt:REGEDIT
C:\NODMA.REG HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ENUM\ESDIto save (export) the HKLM Registry key above to a plain text file
(NODMA.REG). The .REG extension is necessary in case you would like to reenable the DMA feature again (with
CAUTION!), by merging (registering) the info contained in NODMA.REG back into your Registry.
Edit NODMA.REG with
EDIT.COM (the default MS-DOS text/ASCII editor, located in C:\Windows\Command), by running this command:EDIT C:\NODMA.REG
Change ALL these lines (you probably have more than one, depending on how many
types of drives are installed on your machine):"DMACurrentlyUsed"=hex:01to
read:"DMACurrentlyUsed"=hex:00
Save your file, and then import (merge) it into
your Registry, by running:REGEDIT C:\NODMA.REGThis turns off the DMA support on all your
drives, allowing the Windows 9x GUI to load once again.
Now start Windows by running:WINDone.
To turn on DMA for all (I)IDE/(P)ATA hard disks in Windows 95/98/ME:
This fix was kindly sent in by Ojatex, a frustrated AOL 32-bit client and Windows 98 OS
user.NOTE: This fix affects ALL Windows 95/98/ME 56K modem Internet PPP (Point to Point Protocol)
and Dial-Up Connection (DUN) hookups, no matter what Internet Service Provider (ISP) or Online Service you are using."Hi
Captain,In your MODEMS.TXT file you write:"MaxMTU FixSome people have found that
their Internet file transfers are quite slow, often between 900 - 1,800 characters per second, even on a 56k
modem."This problem was a plague even though I usually connect to AOL at 41,333 - 49,333 bps and browsing is fairly
speedy. However download speed of files was miserable. There is a "fix" that works quite well on my system:
Open Control Panel → Modems.
From General Tab select Properties.
Select Connection Tab →
Advanced.
Under Add Extra Settings, enter the following:ATS27=64S15=128
This
increased my download speed to 4.5 - 5.0 kbps."FYI:
Captain's
MODEMS.TXT is included with W95-11D.EXE for your reading pleasure.
See also "56K MODEMS @ 56K SPEED", also in MYTIPS95.TXT [part of W95-11D.EXE], for more
details using 56K modems to connect to the Internet in Windows 9x/ME.
Windows 95/98 users: When you run WIN /? from a DOS prompt, you get this screen:
"Starts Windows.
WIN [/D:[F][M][S][V][X]]
/D Used for troubleshooting when Windows does not start correctly.
:F Turns off 32-bit disk access.
Equivalent to SYSTEM.INI file setting: 32BitDiskAccess=FALSE.
:M Enables Safe mode.
This is automatically enabled during Safe start (function key F5).
:N Enables Safe mode with networking.
This is automatically enabled during Safe start (function key F6).
:S Specifies that Windows should not use ROM address space between
F000:0000 and 1 MB for a break point.
Equivalent to SYSTEM.INI file setting: SystemROMBreakPoint=FALSE.
:V Specifies that the ROM routine will handle interrupts from the hard
disk controller.
Equivalent to SYSTEM.INI file setting: VirtualHDIRQ=FALSE.
:X Excludes all of the adapter area from the range of memory that
Windows scans to find unused space.
Equivalent to SYSTEM.INI file setting: EMMExclude=A000-FFFF."
Windows/WfWG 3.xx users:
When you run WIN /? from a DOS prompt, you get this screen:
"Starts Windows for Workgroups 3.11 (or Windows 3.1).
WIN [/B] [/N] [/D:[C][F][S][V][X]]
/B Creates a file, BOOTLOG.TXT, that records system messages generated
during system startup (boot).
/N Causes Windows not to load network drivers.
/D: Used in combination with one or more of the following switches for
troubleshooting when Windows does not start correctly.
C Turns off 32-bit file access.
F Turns off 32-bit disk access.
Equivalent to SYSTEM.INI file setting: 32BitDiskAccess=FALSE.
S Specifies that Windows should not use ROM address space between
F000:0000 and 1 MB for a break point.
Equivalent to SYSTEM.INI file setting: SystemROMBreakPoint=FALSE.
V Specifies that the ROM routine will handle interrupts from the hard
disk controller.
Equivalent to SYSTEM.INI file setting: VirtualHDIRQ=FALSE.
X Excludes all of the adapter area from the range of memory that
Windows scans to find unused space.
Equivalent to SYSTEM.INI file setting: EMMExclude=A000-FFFF."
These switches are meant to
provide you with command line options for starting Win95/98 in special troubleshooting modes (safe, bootlogged, etc) if you
are having problems running and/or loading Windows on your system. Hope you'll never have to use them... For example,
to start Windows in safe mode, run:WIN /D:Mwhich is similar with using boot option 3 (Safe
mode) from the Microsoft Windows 95 (98) Startup Menu. Some of these WIN.COM switches can
also be loaded by adding/modifying SYSTEM.INI lines, under the [386enh] section (see above). SYSTEM.INI resides in your
Windows folder and can be edited using Notepad in Windows or EDIT.COM in DOS, but BACK IT UP FIRST!To be able to
load Windows manually after your PC is done processing your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files, from the DOS prompt, or from
your AUTOEXEC.BAT, you will have to edit MSDOS.SYS (a hidden, read-only, system file, located in C:\
root by default), and add/modify the following line:BootGUI=0under the [Options]
section. To edit MSDOS.SYS in DOS mode run SYS95.BAT [part of W95-11D.EXE] from any DOS prompt.FYI:
To create the "Exit to DOS.pif" (Program Information File) executable:You will
need to shut down Windows and restart in MS-DOS mode, then go back into Win95/98 in order for the "Exit to DOS.pif" file to
be created in your Windows folder. According to this MSKB
article, to define custom CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files to be processed when you restart your computer using the
"Restart the computer in MS-DOS mode" Shut down... option, follow these steps:
Click the Start button →
click Shut Down → click "Restart (the computer) in MS-DOS mode" → click Yes/OK.
At the MS-DOS command prompt
→ type "EXIT" (without quotation marks) → press Enter.NOTE: Steps 1-2 are IMPORTANT if you have never used the "Restart (the computer) in MS-DOS mode" option before. The
"Exit to DOS.pif" file is not created until you perform these steps the first time.
Start Windows
Explorer.
Highlight the "Exit to DOS" file in the Windows folder. Right-click on it → select
Properties.
Click the Program tab → click Advanced → deselect the "Warn before entering MS-DOS mode"
box.
Check the "MS-DOS mode" box → click the Advanced tab → check the "Specify A New MS-DOS
Configuration" option.
Define the custom CONFIG.SYS file in the "CONFIG.SYS For MS-DOS Mode" box. Define the
custom AUTOEXEC.BAT file in the "AUTOEXEC.BAT For MS-DOS Mode" box.
Click OK/Apply to close all dialog
boxes.
From now on, each time when you'll restart your system using the "Restart (the computer) in MS-DOS mode"
option, your custom CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files will be processed.
To shut down Windows 95/98 to the
native/real/true/pure MS-DOS prompt from a Desktop icon, follow the same steps above, except select the "Use current MS-DOS
configuration" instead of "Specify A New MS-DOS Configuration" at step #6. Name this new batch file EXIT2DOS.BAT,
place it in a folder of your choice, and then create a shortcut to it on the Desktop. Also, you can skip steps 1-2 above when
creating EXIT2DOS.BAT.
NOTES:
Read "2
DOS OR NOT 2 DOS", also included in MYTIPS95.TXT [part of W95-11D.EXE], for details on all
Windows 95/98 "Boot to DOS" options.
HINT: This tip is valuable for those who would
like to play a VGA/SVGA/3D DOS game that won't run from a DOS box/session within the Win95/98 GUI. [Sounds familiar?!
:-)]
This tip appears courtesy of Valerio. Many thanks!"This is my tip for fixing the window size
and position Win95 bug. I'm running Win95 with IE 4.01, which allows to store into the registry the size and position of
99 windows, in addition to the "Desktop" window. Nevertheless, my PC sometimes loses my preferred window size and
position. I've solved the problem this way:
Open and resize/re-position all the windows you usually use and
wouldn't like to change: Desktop, My Computer, Control Panel, Network Neighborhood etc.
Launch RegEdit and select:HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Streamsand export it to a file called
"MyWindows1.reg" (don't type the quotes).
Launch RegEdit and select:HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StreamMRUand export it to a file called
"MyWindows2.reg".
In Notepad, open "MyWindows2.reg", select all text except the first line (REGEDIT4), and press
Ctrl+C to copy the selected text to the clipboard.
In Notepad, switch to "MyWindows1.reg", go to the end of the text, and
press Ctrl+V to paste the text copied from "MyWindows2.reg".
In Notepad, save the modified "MyWindows1.reg" to a directory
on the hard disk. Eventually, change its name to "MyWindows.reg", or any other name you like.
From now on,
every time Win95 loses your preferred window size and position, simply (double-)click on "MyWindows.reg", and all of your
windows will return to their (your) best-preferred state.PS: Don't leave any blank spaces within .REG file names,
otherwise Win95 will be unable to restore the information from the file by (double-)clicking on it."NOTE: Read "SAVE SETTINGS - Part 1", also in REGISTRY.TXT [part of W95-11D.EXE], for an alternative Registry fix to keep your most used window positions in Windows
95/OSR1.
This cool Registry tip was sent by Akmal."Use Regedit to go to:HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Outlook ExpressModify or create a new String Value called
"WindowTitle" and give it anything you want as its value, i.e. "My Email Program" (no quotes). This will
change your MS Outlook Express title bar text."FYI: Check out these comprehensive OE User Tips pages.
This cool Registry tweak appears thanks to Akmal."Change the "Current Time Zone" in
Date/Time Properties in Control Panel. The old name for my Current Time Zone was Taipei Standard Time. Well that is far away
from Malaysia. But a little tweak can fix this. Use Regedit to browse to:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\control\TimeZoneInformationModify/create a string called
"StandardName" and give it the value "Malaysian Standard Time" (no quotes please). Next time you open
Control Panel's Date/Time applet it will display "Malaysia Standard Time"."
These Registry tweaks apply to ALL Windows 9x/NT4/2000/ME/XP builds. To make your trusty rodent act in Unix
X-Windows mouse style, without having to install any additional software, start Regedit and go to:HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Mouseor to:HKEY_USERS\.Default\Control
Panel\Mouseif you are the only user on this computer. In the right hand pane, right-click to create a new DWORD
Value (or modify it if already present) named "ActiveWindowTracking" (don't type the quotes) and set its Decimal value
to 1 to enable it. Now create (or modify if already present) another DWORD Value called
"SnapToDefaultButton" (no quotes) and set its Decimal value to 1, to have your mouse "snap" to the active
window default button. In Windows 2000/XP "SnapToDefaultButton" is a String Value. To disable these features set the
Decimal values to 0 or delete these Values altogether.MEANING:
AutoRaise: Your mouse controls window activation by moving the mouse pointer over any open window,
which automatically becomes the active (foreground) window.
Mouse Focus: Your mouse moves automatically
("snaps") to the top of the default (highlighted) button of the active window.
This procedure is similar to using the
Microsoft TweakUI Power Toy
for Windows 9x/NT4/2000/ME X-Mouse settings [110 KB, free, unsupported]. Install TweakUI by right-clicking on
TweakUI.inf and selecting Install. Click TweakUI's Mouse tab and check the "Activation follows mouse
(X-Mouse)" and "Autoraise when activating" boxes. Make sure the "Activation delay (ms)" box is set to
ANY value other than zero (0), otherwise this won't work! Click OK when done. You may have to restart Windows to
see these effects.BUG: Netscape browsers menus may stop working if AutoRaise is turned
ON!FYI: Get XMouse2000 improved
Microsoft XMouse replacement for Windows 98/2000/ME [9 KB, freeware], which sets: Mouse Focus, AutoRaise and proper
Delay.
Courtesy of Muhamad."BUG:This tip is for those PC users who have an
MPEG card and a DVD drive for watching movies in Windows 95/98. Sometimes the PC may hang up. May be the DVD (CD) is
damaged or dirty, or the disk format isn't compatible, the thing is the MPEG player cannot return to the desktop after the
movie is over.SOLUTION:Just eject the DVD or CD manually and insert a new one (also valid for movie CDs). You'll
be returned to the desktop again by the MPEG player, not to a blank screen.If this fails, you'll have to press ALT+TAB
once, then press CTRL+ALT+DEL and ENTER at the blank screen. ALT+TAB will return the desktop to the active program (MPEG
player). And the CRTL+ALT+DEL and ENTER combination will close the MPEG player. The "buggy" program should be highlighted in
the End Task property box. This procedure might just get your desktop back.CAUSE:MPEG cards take over the
monitor from the primary display video card and don't allow it to return to normal operation."
If you work [play ;)] in a multiuser computing environment, and you have full (administrator level) access to your
computer, you might want to restrict unauthorized access to your sensitive/confidential data in Windows 95/98/ME. One way
is to disable the Cancel button/Esc key in the Logon dialog box. Just run Regedit and go to:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Network\LogonCreate the "Logon" subkey if it is not present on your machine:
highlight the Network key → right-click in the left hand Regedit pane → select New → Key → name it "Logon" (no
quotes) → press Enter. Then add/modify a DWORD value and call it "MustBeValidated" (don't type the quotes).
(Double-)click it, check the Decimal box and type 1 for value. Close the Registry Editor when done. Now click the
Start button → Shut Down (Log off UserName) → Log on as a different user, and you'll notice that the Logon Cancel
button/Esc key has been disabled. ;)
You can use the .REG files below to add/change the default Registry keys/values, thus making the Recycle Bin "behave"
the way you want. BUT FIRST (in case you want to restore it later to its default), save the strings between the
"cut & paste" lines below as RECYCLE.REG (using Notepad), and keep it
handy:
Restoring Recycle Bin's icon after deletion
requires a screen refresh: press F5 after left-clicking on an empty Desktop area. Save all Registry edits below between
the "cut & paste" lines as .REG files, using Notepad. Then merge (register) the
information into the Registry by (double-)clicking on the respective .REG file in Explorer or File Manager. And now let's
have some fun:
Add Delete and Rename to Recycle Bin's right-click (context) menu:-----Begin cut & paste here----- REGEDIT4[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}\ShellFolder]
"Attributes"=hex:70,01,00,20------End cut & paste here------Adding Delete and
Rename takes effect instantly.
The Recycle Bin can be deleted or renamed from its own context menu (when you right-click on its desktop icon), but
you have to disable its read-only and system Attributes first. To do this, run the Registry Editor and go to:HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}\ShellFolderIn the right hand pane,
(double-)click on "Attributes" and change its binary value from:40 01 00 20to
read:70 01 00 20Do not type the spaces (they will be automatically inserted). This
Registry edit takes effect immediately.
If you don't use the Recycle Bin to store deleted files [that you may want to recover some day though... :)], you can
get rid of its desktop icon all together. Run Regedit and go to:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Desktop\NameSpaceClick on the
"Recycle Bin" string in the right hand pane. Hit Del, click OK, and say "Good Bye" to the Recycle Bin!
To change the name of the Recycle Bin desktop icon, open Regedit and go to:HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}and change the name "Recycle
Bin" to whatever tickles your fantasy (don't type any quotes).
I have purchased the excellent software tool WinProbe 95 [discontinued!] from the folks at QuarterDeck (makers of the famous QEMM memory manager), now owned by Symantec. Among other features WinProbe 95 has a CD-ROM and Video for Windows (VfW) AVI format testing benchmark utility. But when I tried to play one of the
AVI files from the WinProbe 95 CD-ROM I got garble on the screen and an error message telling me that:"Video unable to play, YUV9 driver not installed"
[?]Can you believe that?! I DO have ALL the components of MS Video for Windows 32-bit installed on my Win95B OSR 2.1 system {look at the [drivers32] and [drivers] sections of your
SYSTEM.INI to see if you do too}, task that was completed successfully when I installed Win95 on my computer. But that stubborn AVI file refused to play, and WAS supposed to play the AVI files
with the default Windows 95 multimedia video drivers installed. :( Well it didn't, but I found a way... read "workaround". I'm still running the old Windows
for WorkGroups 3.11 + MS-DOS 6.22 in a dual-boot setup, [my luck! :)] so I copied and pasted the lines below from my WfWG 3.11 SYSTEM.INI [drivers]
section under the [drivers] section of my OSR2 SYSTEM.INI file, located in the Windows 95 folder. Therefore my entire
[drivers] section of my Win95 SYSTEM.INI looks like this now:[drivers] wavemapper=*.drv MSACM.imaadpcm=*.acm MSACM.msadpcm=*.acm wave=mmsystem.dll
midi=mmsystem.dll VIDC.mvi1=mvicodec.dll VIDC.mvi2=mvicodec.dll ; VfW 1.1e 16-bit AVI support [next 3
lines]: VIDC.YVU9=C:\WIN31\SYSTEM\ir21_r.dll VIDC.RT21=C:\WIN31\SYSTEM\ir21_r.dll
VIDC.IV30=C:\WIN31\SYSTEM\ir32.dllThe line preceded by a semicolon (;) is only a comment. The video drivers listed
under the "; VfW 1.1e 16-bit AVI support..." line are imported from the Win31 SYSTEM.INI [drivers] section, and the
files themselves reside in C:\WIN31\SYSTEM. You NEED Microsoft Video for
Windows (VfW) 1.1e 16-bit Runtime Drivers/Codecs installed in your Windows/WfWG 3.1x \SYSTEM subdirectory to make
this fix work. I actually needed only this line:VIDC.RT21=C:\WIN31\SYSTEM\ir21_r.dllto be
able to play that particular AVI file, but I don't want any more possible video driver incompatibilities/error messages in
the future, so I didn't take any chances, and added those other VfW 1.1e lines to my Win95 SYSTEM.INI [drivers]
section. BEWARE that when you install a new 32-bit video driver in Windows 95/98, i.e. Microsoft Media Player2 v6.4 for Win9x/NT4 [3.5 MB,
free], some of these lines might be DELETED and/or REPLACED, so BACKUP your SYSTEM.INI FIRST! If you don't have an
older 16-bit version of Windows/WfWG 3.1x running on your system, you can still benefit from this fix. Just use the Windows
Explorer Copy + Paste functions to copy your entire Win95 folders, subfolders and files to the same hard drive, but to a
different folder, and name it something like WIN95 (if your original Win95 folder name is WINDOWS), and then modify
these MSDOS.SYS lines, found under its [Paths] section, to read (default Win95
installation example is shown here):[Paths] ; WinDir=C:\WINDOWS ;
WinBootDir=C:\WINDOWS WinDir=C:\WIN95 WinBootDir=C:\WIN95 HostWinBootDrv=CThe old (default) Win95 folder
lines are REMarked here with semicolons (;). MSDOS.SYS is a hidden, read-only, system file located in the root
folder of your boot drive (C:\). You can edit it with a single (double-)click using the SYS95.BAT file [included with W95-11D.EXE], no need to "strip" it of its
attributes to be able to modify it. You also need to copy + paste (or add if not present) a new PATH line in your
AUTOEXEC.BAT file (also found in C:\ root), to show your new Win95 folder location (C:\WIN95 in this example):SET PATH=C:\WIN95;C:\WIN95\COMMAND;etc...Also place a REM (REMark) switch in front of your
original AUTOEXEC.BAT PATH line (this is the default, but it might be different on your system, if you installed Win95 in a
folder other than C:\WINDOWS):REM PATH=C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND;etc...Save your work
and reboot when ready. Then get a copy of Microsoft Video for Windows
(VfW) extensions v1.1e for Windows/WfWG 3.1x [1.35 MB, free]. The next step is to load Win95 from its new
location, C:\WIN95 in this case, ignoring the eventual error messages at startup due to renaming the Windows folder
(everything is OK, you'll rename it back again when done anyway). Now open Windows Explorer and highlight the folder that
contains your VfW 1.1e executable, assuming you've already downloaded it to your hard disk. :) WV1160.EXE will decompress (it's a self extracting ZIP executable) to copy the
VfW installation files in the current folder. Then (double-)click on SETUP.EXE, which will start installing VfW on your
system. You may need to use an Uninstaller/CleanSweap type of utility to monitor all the changes made to your system during
VfW Setup, and find out EXACTLY the NAMES of the installed files, and WHERE they are located,
C:\Win95\System in this case. Now edit your AUTOEXEC.BAT file again, and reenable your old PATH line, by removing
the REM switch in front of it, and delete the new PATH line, the one pointing to C:\WIN95. You also need to change
MSDOS.SYS back to the original, the same way, using SYS95.BAT. Then you can move ALL
VfW 1.1e files to a new folder you can create, let's say C:\WINDOWS\VFW, and edit your Win95 SYSTEM.INI, to include these lines under the [drivers] section:[drivers] ; VfW 1.1e 16-bit AVI support [next 3
lines]: VIDC.YVU9=C:\WINDOWS\VFW\ir21_r.dll VIDC.RT21=C:\WINDOWS\VFW\ir21_r.dll
VIDC.IV30=C:\WINDOWS\VFW\ir32.dllReboot again to the native/real/true/pure MS-DOS mode, by selecting the "Command prompt
only" option from the Win95/98 Start Menu (press F8 at the beginning of the boot sequence to
bring up the Start Menu). Now exit Windows to the native MS-DOS prompt and safely remove the
C:\WIN95 folder and all its contents (files and subfolders), by running:DELTREE/Y
C:\WIN95Reboot your system once again, and load Win95 from C:\Windows. [Business as usual... :)] Looks
like a long and winding road, but you might need the VfW 1.1e 16-bit drivers one [dark cloudy :(] day to play a weird AVI
file, like I did. So now I CAN PLAY that darn AVI file (even full screen!) under Win95. YES!FYI:
You can turn off window animation ("exploding" windows) displayed when you minimize or maximize open window(s). This makes navigating Windows 9x/NTx a lot quicker and easier on the eyes, especially if you
don't have a fast video controller, or if you got tired of seeing it all the time, like I did. :) You can turn it off (or on) in Control Panel (CP): start ➜ Run... [hold WinKey + press R] ➜ type CONTROL.EXE ➜ press Enter ➜ click System ➜ click Advanced system settings ➜
under Performance click Settings... button ➜ Visual Effects tab ➜ check Custom: box ➜ uncheck "Animate opening and closing windows" (Windows 9x) or "Animate windows when minimizing and
maximizing" (Windows NTx) ➜ uncheck the box ➜ press OK/Apply. The Registry way: run Regedit (or Regedt32) and go
to:HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetricsor if you are the only user of your Windows computer go to:HKEY_USERS\.Default\Control
Panel\Desktop\WindowMetricsRight-click on an empty spot in the right hand pane. Select New → String [REG_SZ] Value. Name it MinAnimate.
Click OK. (Double-)click on "MinAnimate" and type 0 to turn OFF window animation or 1 to turn it ON. Click OK. Close the Registry Editor and restart Windows. Done.TweakUI, the famous Windows 9x Microsoft Power Toy [110 KB, free, unsupported] can also turn off animated windows. Just remove the check mark from the "Window
Animation" box under the General tab.FYI: More info @ MSKB.
If at some point you end up not being able to get back into Windows 95/98 after making changes to your Registry,
there is still a chance: reboot your computer to the native/real/true/pure MS-DOS mode by holding F8 at the beginning of the boot
sequence [immediately after the BIOS POST (Power On Self Test) screen] similar to selecting the "Command prompt only"
option from the "Microsoft Windows 95 (98) Startup Menu". Then type:REGEDITand press Enter. You will be presented with this help screen:
"Imports and exports registry files to and from the registry.
REGEDIT [/L:system] [/R:user] filename1
REGEDIT [/L:system] [/R:user] /C filename2
REGEDIT [/L:system] [/R:user] /E filename3 [regpath1]
REGEDIT [/L:system] [/R:user] /D regpath2
/L:system Specifies the location of the SYSTEM.DAT file.
/R:user Specifies the location of the USER.DAT file.
filename1 Specifies the file(s) to import into the registry.
/C filename2 Specifies the file to create the registry from.
/E filename3 Specifies the file to export the registry to.
regpath1 Specifies the starting registry key to export from.
(Defaults to exporting the entire registry).
/D regpath2 Specifies the registry key to delete." Win98/ME ONLY!
... Which means YOU ARE SAVED, but ONLY IF YOU HAVE BACKED UP your Registry
files BEFOREHAND!IMPORTANT: Download the FIXed REGEDIT.EXE [53 KB, free], modified to work
properly with ALL Win95/98 releases (NOT WinME!), and then replace the one in your main Windows folder (default is
C:\WINDOWS) with this one.Microsoft designed the Registry Editor to work also in native MS-DOS mode to be able to back up
and restore the Registry OUTSIDE Windows GUI, when everything else fails. To make this work: load the Windows GUI → run
Regedit → click Registry → click "Export Registry File" → select/create your backup folder (let's say E:\REGBAKUP)
→ type in a name (let's say 9XREGBAK) for the exported file → save it (your file will be saved by default with the
.REG extension, even if you typed only the file name). Now go ahead and mess with the Registry to your heart content.
:) If Windows doesn't restart or work properly after you have made changes to your Registry, exit Windows or reboot to
native MS-DOS, and then run:IF NOT EXIST E:\REGBAKUP\NUL MD E:\REGBAKUP REGEDIT /E
E:\REGBAKUP\9XREGBAK.REGto backup your entire Registry to 9XREGBAK.REG. To recreate the Registry from
9XREGBAK.REG, run (only from native MS-DOS):REGEDIT /C
E:\REGBAKUP\9XREGBAK.REGWin95, OSR1 and OSR2 also save a backup copy of the last working Registry as
SYSTEM.DA0 + USER.DA0 in the Windows folder, and you can use them as alternate [11th hour :)] backups: exit Windows
GUI or reboot to native MS-DOS → first remove your existing SYSTEM.DAT + USER.DAT files Hidden and Read-only attributes →
move/delete them → rename the *.DA0 files to *.DAT→ reboot. Win98 and WinME backup the Registry
automatically upon the first boot of each new day: see "SCANREGW, SCANREG +
SCANREG.INI", also in TIPS98.TXT [part of W95-11D.EXE], for details. If you haven't backed up
the Registry (recently or never) prior to a disaster, you have NO SAVED REG FILE to recreate the Registry from, and/or there
is NO VALID BACKUP made by Windows, there is still a LAST CHANCE: in your boot drive/partition root directory (default
is C:\), you can find a Hidden, Read-only file called SYSTEM.1ST, which contains all the original Registry settings
you started Windows with when you first installed it. Copy it as SYSTEM.DAT to your Windows folder, using the command
lines below (example), which you can copy & paste into Notepad, and save them as a DOS batch file I called
1STREG.BAT:@ECHO OFF ATTRIB -H -R -S %winbootdir%\SYSTEM.DAT IF NOT EXIST E:\REGBAKUP\NUL
MD E:\REGBAKUP MOVE/Y %winbootdir%\SYSTEM.DAT E:\REGBAKUP ATTRIB -H -R -S C:\SYSTEM.1ST COPY/Y C:\SYSTEM.1ST
%winbootdir%\SYSTEM.DATChange the backup drive/partition letter and/or folder name if different on your
computer. Run 1STREG.BAT ONLY from native MS-DOS mode! After restoring your Registry this way, you'll have to
reinstall all your apps/games/drivers/updates/etc and restart customizing Windows from ground up in order to bring it up to
"speed", but at least NOW it's working again. :)FYI: