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Dual Boot Setup for Win95/Win 3.1-WfWG

Here is a way to maintain both DOS/Win 3.11 and Windows95 operating systems on your computer and choose between them at boot-up. This is a useful method for to continuing to run programs under your old DOS/Win system while testing Win95. Doublespace and Drivespace drives can also be handled with this configuration.

1. Copy (not move) the whole Windows directory and all its sub directories to another directory like \WIN31. Copy the whole \DOS directory to another directory like \DOS6.
2. Edit all the INI files in the WIN31 directory to change all path statements from \WINDOWS to \WIN31. The "find and replace" command in most word processors makes this easier, but be sure you save as text files.
3. Boot your PC and install Win95 SETUP through Window's Program Manager "FILE-RUN." As you install Win95 it will rename your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files to CONFIG.DOS and AUTOEXEC.DOS. (When you dual boot it renames them back to CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT and then backups the Win95 versions as .W40 files).
4. After Win95 finishes installing and you are on the desktop, use notepad with "select all files *.*" to edit the CONFIG.DOS and AUTOEXEC.DOS files and change all \WINDOWS references in them to \WIN31, and all \DOS references to \DOS6 .
5. In order for the dual boot menu to work, the following lines must appear in the [Options] section of your MSDOS.SYS. (If you use Doublespace or Drivespace disk compression you must change both MSDOS.SYS files - one on the boot drive and one in the compressed drive)

   
   [Options]
   BootGUI=1
   Network=0
   BootMulti=1
   BootMenu=1
   BootMenuDefault=7 (Use 7 for DOS, use 1 for Win95)
   BootMenuDelay=5 (# seconds to select something else)
   
   

   To add these lines, first, open "My Computer." Select OPTIONS from the VIEW drop-down menu. Then select the VIEW tab. Click "Show All Files," and deselect "hide MS-DOS file extensions." Edit MSDOS.SYS with notepad to make sure you have all the above lines. When done, protect the file by restoring the "My Computer" VIEW/OPTIONS to the the original settings.
   
   To change the attributes, click on the MSDOS.SYS icon using your RIGHT mouse button. Select Properties and uncheck the attribute blocks. Exit and make your text changes, then save the file. Then put the attribute check marks back where they were.
6. Exit Win95 and reboot. You should now see the boot menu and be able to select which mode you want to boot into.
   Remember, any programs you install after this will only appear in the system you were running at install time. For example, if you install MS Word under Win95 you will have to install it again under old DOS/Windows if you want to run it both ways. You can install the program to the same directory both times and you'll simply overwrite the files and avoid having two sets of the new program on your hard drive.