Installing Windows 95 for Shared Installations

Each computer that starts from a hard disk must run Windows 95 Setup. For remote-boot workstations or floppy disk-based computers, run Windows 95 Setup once for each class of computers — that is, workstations that have identical network adapter configurations. Similar computers can then use their own machine directories with the startup floppy disk or boot image to run Windows 95.

The setup script tells Windows 95 Setup what kind of installation is allowed, based on the installation policy specified in Server-based Setup. The script can force a local hard-disk installation or a shared installation, or allow either. If the script is set to allow either, Setup asks the user to specify a shared or local installation.

Notice, however, that Windows 95 can be installed for remote-boot workstations only by specifying RPLSetup=1 in the [Network] section of a setup script.

For shared installations, you can use the default version of MSBATCH.INF stored on the server plus a list of computer names and machine directories to generate a setup script for each client computer. You can also create custom setup scripts using the MSBATCH.INF format. Also, you can archive setup scripts, in case you need to run Setup again for a particular computer (for example, if the Registry becomes corrupted and cannot be restored).

The appropriate setup script is specified as a command-line parameter when running Windows 95 Setup. You can use the following basic approaches for installing Windows 95 with setup scripts, as described in Chapter 5, "Custom, Automated, and Push Installations":

When Windows 95 Setup runs with a setup script, Setup performs the following for both local hard-disk and shared installations:

For shared installations, the following additional installation tasks are performed: