Windows NT 3.5 and Windows 95 on the Same Computer

• Microsoft Windows NT Workstation version 3.5
• Microsoft Windows NT Server version 3.5
• Microsoft Windows 95

SUMMARY

Windows NT version 3.5 and Windows 95 can reside on the same computer, but they will not work properly if they are installed into the same directory. If Windows NT is installed over Windows 95, the Windows 95 installation will be unusable.

Installing these operating systems in the same directory is not supported.

MORE INFORMATION

Windows NT version 3.5 installed into the same directory as Windows 95

Windows NT cannot be installed into the same directory as Windows 95. Doing so will render the Windows 95 installation un-bootable. Windows NT will replace some of the new Windows 95 .DLL files (version 4.x) in the \SYSTEM directory with old Windows 3.x .DLL files which are needed for the WOW subsystem. Without the newer .DLL files, Windows 95 will not boot.

Windows 95 installed into the same directory as Windows NT version 3.5

Windows 95 detects the presence of a Windows NT boot sector and it will not overwrite it, if you select MS-DOS from the Windows NT Boot menu, Windows 95 will then load. However, Windows 95 will make several changes to the directory structure and the files in the \SYSTEM directory which will affect the operation of Windows NT.

Windows 95 rewrites the Windows 3.x default .DLL files (such as SHELL.DLL) in the SYSTEM directory. This is by design so that Windows 95 can run both 16 and 32-bit Windows applications. However, Windows NT Windows on Windows (WOW) subsystem relies on the original Win16 DLL's to run Win16 applications. If Windows 95 is installed, some Win16 applications may not run under Windows NT, such as some of Microsoft's Setup programs and WinBUG.

Windows 95 moves all the screen fonts to a newly created \FONTS directory. Since Windows NT uses the screen fonts normally present in the \SYSTEM directory, it will be forced to use a default Courier-type font rather than the normal system font. This default font is not proportioned correctly for Windows NT's dialog boxes, and some text will be unreadable.