Installing Windows 95 for Dual Booting with Windows NT

You can install Windows 95 to dual boot with Windows NT on a computer. This section provides some notes for installing Windows 95 with Windows NT.

Important In order to take advantage of the Windows 95 dual-boot capabilities, the entry BootMulti=1 must be set in the Windows 95 version of MSDOS.SYS file in the root directory of your startup drive. For more information, see "MSDOS.SYS: Special Startup Values" earlier in this chapter.

To install Windows 95 to dual boot with Windows NT

1. Ensure that the computer is configured to dual boot between Windows NT and MS-DOS. Check your Windows NT documentation for details.
2. Start the computer by using the MS-DOS operating system.
3. Run Windows 95 Setup as described in Chapter 3, "Introduction to Windows 95 Setup."

Remember that if your computer has any Windows NT file system (NTFS) partitions, they are not available locally from within Windows 95.

If you run MS-DOS from a floppy disk in order to install Windows 95, you will not be able to start Windows NT afterward. You can restore the multi-boot configuration by starting the computer with your Windows NT emergency repair disk and selecting the Repair option.

To run MS-DOS after Windows 95 has been installed, you must select the MS-DOS option from the Windows NT multiboot menu. Then, from the Windows 95 Startup menu, select the Previous Version of MS-DOS option.

To install Windows NT on a computer where Windows 95 is installed

• At the command prompt, switch to the directory that contains the Windows NT source files, and then type winnt /w

The WINNT program is an MS-DOS – based application that creates the Windows NT Setup startup files and copies the system files to the hard disk from the source files. The /w switch allows WINNT to run under Windows. Using this switch also causes Windows NT Setup to skip the CPU detection process and the automatic restart at the end of Setup. You can also include the /b switch to copy the required startup files for Setup so that you do not have to create floppy disks for Setup.

For more information about the Windows NT operating system and about running computers with Windows 95 on a Windows NT network, see Chapter 8, "Windows 95 on Microsoft Networks."