Removing Windows 95 From Your PC
From the WUGNET Forum on CompuServe
WUGNET's Notes
We've added some notes to the Windows 95 Removal Process from the
Windows 95 Resource Kit - Build 345 Help file. You'll know them
since they are all typed in italics as WUGNET's Notes.
Note
The MS-DOS 6.x disk #1 is bootable, but the retail MS-DOS 5.0 disk
#1 is not, and OEM versions may vary.
** To remove Windows 95 when the computer is started with the
** previous operating system.
1. Start the computer and press the F8 key when you see the
Starting Windows message, and choose the option named
Previous Version of MS-DOS.
2. To make it easier to delete files and directories, copy the
Windows 95 version of DELTREE.EXE to the boot drive. At the
command-line prompt, type the following:
copy \windows\command\deltree.exe c:\
WUGNET's Notes
As to Items 3, 4 and 5 below, we chose not to use ScanDisk at all,
since we didn't want it to destroy my long file names. We wanted to
keep the files that I had created with LFNs for use in a later
Windows 95 reinstall. You may want to skip these or not depending
on whether you have created files with LFNs that you want to keep.
3. Copy the Windows 95 version of ScanDisk files from the
Windows COMMAND directory to the root directory, using the
following commands:
copy \windows\command\scandisk.* c:\
4. Edit SCANDISK.INI to change the entries controlling
whether ScanDisk looks for invalid characters in filenames
and volume labels:
Set labelcheck=on
to specify whether ScanDisk should check volume labels for
invalid characters.
Set spacecheck=on
to specify whether ScanDisk should check for invalid spaces
in file names.
5. To remove all entries that your earlier version of MS-DOS may
see as invalid, at the command prompt, type scandisk followed
by the letter identifying the drive containing the Windows 95
installation.
For example:
scandisk c:
If you receive error messages during the ScanDisk process,
refer to the online Help for information to help you resolve
the error.
6. To delete the Windows 95 directory, type the following from
the root directory of the drive containing the Windows 95
installation, where windows is the name of the directory
containing the Windows 95 files:
deltree windows
Caution! All subdirectories of the Windows 95 directory will
be deleted by this command. Before performing this step, make
sure that the Windows 95 directory tree does not contain any
critical data that has not been backed up.
Greg's Notes
Also use Deltree to delete all of the directories, subdirectories and
files for the directory c:\Progra~1 and c:\Recycled. This is where
the WordPad, MSN and other accessory files are located, as well as
the contents of the Recycle bin. Depending on whether you've used
Exchange only with Win 95, you also may want to Deltree the Wgpo0000
directory used as the Post Office. Be sure if you have any messages
stored there that you want to keep, that you save them somewhere.
Enter the following:
deltree progra~1
deltree recycled
Optionally,
deltree wgpo0000
7. Delete the Windows 95 real-mode operating system file named
WINBOOT.SYS, which was renamed from IO.SYS when you started
the computer with your previous operating system. Type the
following command from the boot drive (or from the root
directory of the host drive if the boot drive is compressed):
deltree winboot.*
WUGNET's Notes
With current Builds such as M8 - 347 or 426, these MS removal instructions
haven't quite kept up with all the files currently installed, so you need to
also use Deltree to delete these files on the root of your hard drive (i.e.
c:\) as follows:
deltree suhdlog.dat
deltree system.1st
8. Delete the Windows 95 files MSDOS.W40, COMMAND.W40,
CONFIG.W40, and AUTOEXEC.W40. (The renaming of these
operating system files occurred when command at the command
prompt (if the boot drive is not compressed):
deltree *.w40
If the boot drive is compressed, you must delete MSDOS.W40
from the root directory of the host drive and COMMAND.W40
from the root directories of both the host drive and the boot
drive.
WUGNET's Notes
In Item 9 below, it says to use the Attrib command to change the file
attributes from System, Read-Only and Hidden. You don't need to do
this, since Deltree works on these files regardless of their
attributes. Just follow the Deltree instructions.
9. At the command line, use attrib -h -s -r to change the file
attributes for SETUPLOG.*, BOOTLOG.*, DETLOG.*, IO.SYS,
MSDOS.SYS, D??SPACE.BIN, and COMMAND.COM. Then delete the
Setup, Boot, and Detection log files by typing the following
from the root directory of the boot drive:
deltree setuplog.*
deltree bootlog.*
deltree detlog.*
10. To delete the Windows 95 compression drivers (DBLSPACE.BIN
and DRVSPACE.BIN), if present, type the following from the
root directory of the boot drive (or from the root directory
of the host drive, if the boot drive is compressed):
deltree d??space.bin
If you are using Stacker version 3.1, either skip this step
or back up the STAC DBLSPACE.BIN file before completing this
step.
11. Put a bootable floppy disk with your earlier version of MS-
DOS into drive A, and then restart the computer. After the
computer starts from the floppy disk, put your earlier
version of MS-DOS back on the boot drive (or the host drive,
if the C drive is compressed) by typing sys followed by the
letter identifying the drive and a colon. For example:
sys c:
12. If you have MS-DOS version 6.0 and are using compression,
copy DBLSPACE.BIN to the root directory of the boot drive.
Also, for all versions of MS-DOS, if you have a shell=
statement referencing COMMAND.COM from a different directory,
copy COMMAND.COM to the root directory. Then remove the
floppy disk, and restart the computer from the hard disk.
If you removed Windows 95 from a dual-boot installation, Windows 95
will be completely removed, and the computer will start the same way
it did before installing Windows 95.
If you removed Windows 95 from an upgraded Windows 3.x installation,
you may need to reinstall your previous version of MS-DOS, if needed
files were removed by Windows 95 Setup. Drivers which were located in
the Windows directory (such as HIMEM.SYS, IFSLHLP.SYS and EMM386.EXE)
will be missing until you reinstall Windows 3.x into the Windows
directory. After you have reinstalled Windows 3.x, the computer will
start the same way it did before Windows 95 was installed.
** To remove Windows 95 from a computer with Windows NT installed.
1. Follow the preceding steps for removing Windows 95.
2. Use the Windows NT Setup Disk #1 to restart your
computer.
3. Choose Repair.
4. When prompted, insert the Windows NT Emergency Repair
Disk and choose the option to repair the boot files.
5. Restore your original MS-DOS and Windows 3.x
configuration.