Windows Upgrade

[dbbrown]

How do you upgrade a system to Windows 95 OSR2 from Windoes 95 Non OSR2? The system already has the earlier version and when I run "setup" it gets to a certain point and tells me that there already is an operating system installed on my system, and to get the upgrade. The OSR2 CD I have is the full blown version and not the upgrade. Surely there is a way to do this? Isn't it? All help appreciated. Thanks.....

[fishboy]

the most effective way to do this would be to format the drive and then install the new OS. You can try to delete the windows directory and then boot up from a bootdisk (with cd support) but lots of programs write to the windows\system directory and you would have to reinstall these apps as well. I would just back up and format.

[Jin Vitas]

try
setup /C /D /P F

yes caps do count and spaces

[krusty]

This is a copy/Paste
from www.compuclinic.com/osr2faq/#upgrade (http://www.compuclinic.com/osr2faq/#upgrade) .

I have used the "NEW METHOD" described below several times without a problem. You have to realise that this does not give you fat 32 & you MUST uninstall IE4 (or later) if it has been installed.

Can I upgrade my extisting installation of Windows95 to OSR2 with the OSR2 disk?

No. If you attempt to upgrade from an earlier version of Windows95, it will give an error message and not let you proceed. You can only install OSR2 on top of
DOS, and the most you really need are a formatted hard disk, either bootable or with a boot floppy, and your properly configured DOS CDROM drivers.

29 Jun 98 Okay, but there's gotta be a way to fool it into upgrading from an earlier version of Windows95 (or Windows 3.x)!!!!

There are two ways. NOTE: It is impossible to upgrade to OSR2 if Internet Explorer 4.0 is installed. You MUST uninstall IE 4.0 before attempting any
of the upgrade methods listed below. Furthermore, once you upgrade to OSR2, it is impossible to undo. That is, you can't uninstall it and get back to
your pre-OSR2 OS.

Update: I currently think the following: If you are upgrading from OSR2 or OSR2.1 to OSR2.5, uninstalling IE4 shouldn't be necessary. However, if you are
upgrading from retail Win95 or Win95a (OSR1) to OSR2.5, or if you are upgrading from any version TO OSR2 or OSR2.1, then you need to uninstall IE4 first and
then reinstall. And if you want to be perfectly safe, always uninstall IE4 first. Any questions??

If you have any DUN upgrades installed on your pre-OSR2 Win95 (1.1 or 1.2), you will have to reinstall your DUN upgrade after upgrading to OSR2. Also,
depending on your video card, your video card drivers may need to be reinstalled (a must for Matrox cards, recommended for any card that does not have drivers
bundled in Windows 95). It is best to be prepared to have to reinstall all of your device drivers after upgrading to OSR2, but you probably won't have to do this.
As with any install of Windows95, deactivate any memory managers such as EMM386 before upgrading.

You may experience that you are prompted to upgrade to OSR2 when you insert the OSR2 CDROM into an non-OSR2 (Win95) system. However, if you choose
to do so, it won't work. You'll receive an error message a few screens into the "upgrade." Use one of the methods described below instead.

NEW METHOD: Here's a new, simple method of upgrading an older version of Windows (3.x or 95) to OSR2, submitted by Jay Decker:

Probably the easiest method to upgrade from Win95 to OSR2 is to

1) Copy the Win95 source files from the Win95 directory on the OSR2 CD
to a hard drive
2) Create and save an MSBATCH.INF file in the same directory where you
copied the Win95 files to. The file must contain the following lines:
[Setup]
ProductType=1

Follow the last line by a carriage return otherwise you'll get a
Data Control Corrupt error.

The file MUST be called MSBATCH.INF and MUST exist in the same directory
as the Win95 source files. You will still be able to specify another
customized batch file on the SETUP command line or you can add any other
custom information to this MSBATCH.INF.

I now return you to the old, tried & true methods.

Method 1 (easier, but follow the instructions carefully!)

Rename the file "WIN.COM" in the C:\WINDOWS directory. Then run setup on the OSR2 CD from the DOS prompt. This will upgrade your current version of
Win95 to OSR2. Tip: Remove all entries from C:\windows\start menu\programs\startup before you upgrade. Of course, you will need your DOS CDROM drivers
properly configured to read from your CDROM under DOS. Do not attempt this unless you are comfortable mucking around with system files. Finally, once you get
OSR2 setup running, and you get to the screen where you specify which directory to install to, the default will not be C:\WINDOWS\. Manually change the install
directory to C:\WINDOWS\ (or wherever your existing version of Win95 is) to upgrade your existing installation.

17 Mar 97 Method 2: (courtesy Tom Porterfield)

This method is more difficult than method 1, but is preferable in that it tells the setup.exe to perform an upgrade installation. This method can only be used if you have
your OEM number from you certificate of authenticity on your manual (format: XXXXX-OEM-XXXXXXX-XXXXX): you will be prompted for this during
installation.

1) Start up the OSR2 setup as normal, from within Windows95.

2) When you are presented with the License Agreement dialog box, stop.
Don't click anything yet. Resist the urge to click "Next." Just stop!

3)Open Start Menu (CNTRL + ESC) and click "Run." Type "Notepad" and click "OK".

4) Open the file "setuppp.inf" in the directory WININST0.400. This
directory and its associated files were created by the OSR2 setup program.

5) Find the line in the file with the text "[data]". Add the
following line after it: "OEMUP=1". The text should look as follows:

[data]
OEMUP=1

6) Save the file and exit Notepad.

7) Switch back to the OSR2 setup (using Alt+Tab) and continue with OSR2
installation.

29 Jun 98 Method 3 (Includes how to prevent Internet Explorer 3 from automatically installing):

This method is even more difficult and should only be attempted by highly experienced users. Method 3 also changes OSR2 to an upgrade version, and does not
require the input of any CD Keys or numbers from the Certificate of Authenticity. Method 3 is courtesy Chip May.

Prerequsite: You must have at least 100MB free. You will be copying the /Win95/ directory from the CDROM to your hard drive and installing from your hard
drive.

1) Make a temp directory on a hard drive - the standard
directory for this is C:\WINDOWS\OPTIONS\CABS.

2) Copy the Win95 directory from the CD to the new
directory on your hard drive. From here, we work
with the files on your hard drive.

3) Extract from PRECOPY2.CAB the file called SETUPPP.INF. Use
extract.exe, or use the CAB file extraction tool PowerToy.

Here's a link to the PowerToy download page.


4) Open LAYOUT.INF in a text editor. Search for the string "SETUPPP.INF".
(Don't get confused by the many blank lines in this file.)
You should find: setuppp.inf=2,,4550

Change the 2 to a 0 to read:

setuppp.inf=0,,4550

Save the changes..

This prevents setup from extracting SETUPPP.INF from the CAB file
during installation. Setup will instead use the SETUPPP.INF file
file we manually extracted in step 3 and will modify in step 5.

5) Open SETUPPP.INF in a text editor. Search for "ProductType".
(Again, do a search, it's hard to find just by looking.)
You should find: ProductType=9

Change 9 to 1 to read: ProductType=1

Save the changes...

This tells setup to upgrade the previous installation, and to not
ask for a CD Key or Certificate number.

There is no need to "put SETUPPP.INF back into PRECOPY2.CAB".
The change we made to LAYOUT.INF in step 4 forces setup to use
our modified version of SETUPPP.INF. Just leave SETUPPP.INF out in the
directory with all the other setup files & cab files.

NOTE: If you wish to prevent Internet Explorer 3.0, Online Services, MSN, Internet Mail and News, and Internet Connection Wizard,
from automatically installing, then at this point remove all references to OHARE.INF, INETMAIL.INF, MOS.INF, ATHENA.INF,
MSINFO.INF in SETUPPP.INF (courtesy John Eccles). Note that Microsoft Corporation maintains that OSR2 will not function without
Internet Explorer 3. If you don't want ActiveMovie, then also remove all references to QUARTZ.INF. Note that removing
INETMAIL.INF also removes the Internet Mail service for Windows Messaging. Now you can disprove this at home in your spare
time! Absurdly, Microsoft's main arguments to the DOJ that OSR2 "is broken" without IE 3 center around the fact that if the IE 3 dlls
are removed/not installed (as this procedure will accomplish), then the "Online Services" and MSN won't work (as if these were crucial
components of the operating system). MS admits that IE 3 dlls that are needed by other applications are installed by the application if
they are not already on the hard drive. Read it all in MS VP David Cole's sworn declaration to the US District Court.

FOR OSR2.5: This also works for OSR2.5. Do as above, but also delete the following files from your source install directory (courtesy Jason Sweeney):

CH*.*
IE*.*
ACTSETUP.CAB
AMOV4IE.CAB
AOL*.*
AXA.CAB
CS3KIT.EXE
ICW*.*
JAV*.*
MAILNEWS.CAB
MOS.INF
MSCHAT2.CAB
MSINFO.INF
MSN251.EXE
NM21.CAB
NSIE4.CAB
OHARE.INF
PCVKIT.EXE
PRO*.*
SWINST4.EXE
VDOLIVE.EXE

And the CONTENTS directory.

6) Run SETUP from Windows95 off your hard drive. Installation will
proceed as an upgrade. Make sure that you CHANGE the install location
from C:\WINDOWS.000 to C:\WINDOWS.

NOTES:

on ProductType=X in SETUPPP.INF:

ProductType=1: Upgrades without asking for CD KEY (serial number)
ProductType=2: Asks for 10-digit CD KEY
ProductType=3: Wants a floppy install - doesn't work.
ProductType=4: Fails - Error - previous ops system installed.
ProductType=5: Works - asks for CD KEY, but won't take valid keys- can
"ignore"
ProductType=6: Works OK (?) (?)
ProductType=7: Fails - Error - previous op system
ProductType=8: Fails - Error - previous op system
ProductType=9: OEM non upgrade version: Asks for OEM certificate
number.

on conserving disk space:

To use a little less disk space, do as in Method 2 except:

Copy everything from the \WIN95 directory *except* the WIN95*.CAB files,
and the online service setup files: CS3KIT.EXE, SETUP25I.EXE, SETUP32.EXE,
and WOWKIT.EXE -- the only CABs you need are MINI.CAB, PRECOPY1.CAB and
PRECOPY2.CAB. With this technique Windows95 Setup will ask for a file at some
point during the file copy stage -- at that time you type in X:\WIN95 (where
X=CDROM drive letter) and installation will continue, taking the rest of the
files from the CD. Unfortunately, this creates the problem of Windows95
looking for the Win95 install files on the hard disk rather than the CDROM.
However, this can be fixed by editing the SOURCEPATH value in the following
registry entry:
MyComputer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\W indows\CurrentVersion\SETUP



Jeff Shao also notes, for you advanced tweakers out there:

For people who want to install with their own startup screen, they
need to edit the layout.inf and do the edit the section where it says
logo2_0.sys=5,,129078 to logo2_0.sys=0,,129078 and place the customized
logo2_0.sys in the directory where the cab files are... (this can be done
after install by renaming any .bmp file to C:\LOGO.SYS).

Welcome (that tip screen) ran everytime you install Win95 first also.. To
remove it basically
do the same to layout.inf for shell.inf, extract and edit it.
Find the section that says [shell.files.win.shared] under it you will see
welcome.exe, rem it out by putting a semicolon infront of it.. it will prevent
it from running the first time you launch w95.

WARNING: If you currently have set Windows 95 (release version) up to dual boot with Windows 3.1. or DOS, and you force OSR2 to "upgrade" in the manner
described above, you will lose the ability to dual boot. That is, you will no longer be able to choose to boot to DOS or Windows3.x. Microsoft has removed this
ability from OSR2. For more information on this, see Microsoft's Knowledge Base Article on the subject.

After the installation is complete, you can convert the file system from FAT16 to FAT32 using Partition Magic 3.0, if desired.


[This message has been edited by krusty (edited 05-20-99).]

[This message has been edited by krusty (edited 05-20-99).]

[jayzad]

I'm not much help but you can go to zdtv @ http://www.zdnet.com/zdtv/callforhelp/
And go down the right side of the page to the 9th topic. It has what seems to me to be a good section on window re-install. Try to high light the text and copy each page of the article into the same word program file and then print out and read. Good luck
jayzad

[kwai]

dang krusty, that wasn't a post, that was a whole web page. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

i would really recommend that you backup and reinstall from scratch. copy the install files (win95 directory) over from the cd and you don't even have to worry about the cd driver (which you should have on hand anyway).

the benefits: you got a recent backup, and you got a clean install (good for another couple months at least).

[fishboy]

holy cow krusty, your post was like a term paper!! I still think backing up and formatting would be the best way to do this. You also are practically guaranteed there will be no driver conflicts.

[Titan]

It would be a whole hell of a lot quicker to backup, format, and reinstall, than read the novel Krusty posted, no offense Krusty.

[reboot]

It's even easier than that. Rename win.com to win.bak in the C:\Windows dir, and reinstall. Done.

[krusty]

Sorry my post was so long, but the last time this topic came up & I gave the short version I had a bunch of tossers continually putting me down saying it could not be done. Here I have given 4 of the methods that do work.

The method described as "NEW METHOD" is simple & works well. Reboot, Can you just rename win.com without uninstalling IE4?

Fishboy, Kwai & Co. I know the best way is to reformat but that was not the question so why answer it that way.

krusty krusty



[This message has been edited by krusty (edited 05-20-99).]