At Dos prompt (windows Dos or normal Dos) type mem/p/c and it will tell you where your conventional and upper memory is.

Go to your Dos prompt (Windows Dos or normal Dos) and type mem/f and it will tell what conventional segments and upper memory regions are free. You can use this to your gain and optimize your memory for best performance.

To access the Command Prompt quickly, simply press Start, Run, then type COMMAND and hit OK.

To go directly to a web site, click on the start button and then run. Type in the web address (such as www.windows95.com) and hit enter. Your default browser will load and open the web site.

You can run an application in the background from a DOS prompt to save you time. To do this, create a batch file in the
c:\windows\command directory (or any other directory in the path) called bg.bat with the following lines:
@echo off
start /m %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9
:end
For example, to unzip a file in the background, you would
run:bg pkunzip foo.zip c:\temp.
The DOS prompt will reappear, and the zip file will extract in the background.

If you are having problems loading a Windows 3.1 program in Windows 95, go to run and type Mkcompat and hit enter. This brings up a dialog box that gives you a few choices, such as "lie about windows version". Go to file, choose program, and choose the install or setup.

If you are at a DOS command prompt, and want a visual display of a directory, just type "start .", or "start .." and an open folder pointing to that directory will start on the desktop.

To flip from one application to another using only the keyboard, the old Window 3.1 trick of using Alt+Tab still works, in fact it works better than before. Now, instead of seeing one application's icon at a time, you see them all, along with an outline box highlighting the one you are about to select. Keep your thumb on the Alt key while tabbing. To select an application, release the Alt key.

Hold down the CTRL key while entering Windows. This will keep items in the Startup folder from launching.

For non PnP CD-ROM drives. After Installing Windows95 copy in the StartUp disk the MSCDEX.EXE file and any *.sys files supplied in you CD-ROM Installation disk, then Copy the Autoexec.bat and Config.sys files and delete REM words in this two files related to CD-ROM. This Will keep you safe from loosing you CD-ROM connection if your computer Breaks and be able to reinstall Windows95 form its CD-ROM.

To change the default application of a file type, simply select the file, hold down SHIFT, and click the right mouse button. Select Open With, and choose the program you want to use for this file type. Select "Always use this program to open this type of file" at the bottom of the dialog box.

In your Windows directory there is a file called system.ini, which is system file. The first line in Win95 reads as shell=explorer.exe, which tells the computer to use a Win95 interface. If you are a person who prefers Win3.x interface over the new one, simply change the line until it reads as follows, under you system.ini file, the first line should read shell=progman.exe, and the next time you start Windows you will have the familiar Win3.x interface.

When you print a document, a printer icon appears on the Taskbar. Double-click it to see a list of documents waiting to print.

Do you get into one of those situations when you sound card, modem, gamepads, or any other hardware stops functioning no matter how hard you try to make it work for you? Well, here's one of those tips that will help you get out of those jams. Just go to Start, Settings, Control Panel, Systems, and then remove any of those devices that are not functioning correctly. Now restart your computer. After a few moments, Windows 95's plug and play capabilities will identify your non-functioning device and reactivate it again, making it function again like normal.

Windows 95 does not use Smartdrive to cache the hard drives in your system. Instead, it uses 32bitVCache that dynamically grows and shrinks as the need arises (not to be confused with Swapfile, which operates in a similar manner). If you have more than 32MB of physical memory, VCache may be using more memory than it can efficiently manage. You can limit the maximum amount of physical memory VCache uses by adding the following lines to the System.ini file (instead of the Registry - go figure!):[vcache] MinFileCache=512 MaxFileCache=2048. The above values are in Kbytes. Feel free to experiment, but you must have a value greater than 0 for the MinFileCache value. By limiting the VCache in this manner, you will experience improved system performance.

Your computer is constantly creating new temporary files (.TMP) to help with productivity. To help avoid crashes, delete all the .TMP files that are not current. Using your find feature, search for *.TMP files, sort the files by date, and delete all the .TMP files without today's date.

Emptying the \Windows\Temp folder of all its contents then running a Scandisk and Defrag can cure a lot of intermittent and annoying problems and also speed your system response up. This folder is supposed to be emptyied whenever you shut down your computer, but if you don't shut it down or there are other than ".tmp" Files or folders in there, then they will not be removed. This can cause boot problems, system lockups and shutdown hangups. These files also take up space that could be better used for other things.

If Windows95 gives you the dreaded "Your registry is corrupt" message, DO NOT PACNIC! Instead, reboot the computer. When you see "Starting Windows 95", push the "F8" key. Choose "Safe mode command prompt only" from the menu. You will quickly get a "C:\" prompt. Change to your Windows directory and type "regedit /e savebutt.reg" It will say "exporting file". eventually it will stop with an error message. After this, type "attrib system.dat -r -s -h". Then type "ren system.dat system.old". Lastly you need to type "regedit /c savebutt.reg". These commands will pull only the undamaged sections from your old registry and make a new one based on these. If it fails, reinstall Windows. If it works, some of your programs may no longer function. Reinstall them.

Win95, Service Release 2 (OSR-2) on all new computers has a known problem of loading duplicate device drivers in Win95. If you're getting strange GPFs, etc. and Scandisk, deleting .tmp (temp) files, and Defrag do not solve the problem, go into Windows Safe Mode (hit F5 at Startup). Go into Device Manager (in System-Control Panel) and go through each device listed. If any duplicates are found, delete both devices. Win95 will redetect at startup. This will clear up a lot of problems. If you're having strange problems with a older release of Win95, checking for duplicates will sometimes solve the problem.

Right click on 'Recycle Bin', go to properties and decrease the size of the recycle bin. 10% of a 2GB hard drive is a 200MB recycle bin!

When installing Windows 95 either fresh or over an existing version of Windows it is likely that some hardware will not be detected right the first time. Before going to the Add New Hardware Wizard check the Other Devices listing in System Properties. To do this, right click on My Computer then left click on Properties. Next left click on the Device Manger Tab and then left click again on the + next to Other Devices. If your unfound device is listed here then simply pull up the properties by highlighting the device and clicking on the Properties button then on the Drivers tab and then on Change Driver. Just choose the correct drivers from the list that is presented or click on Have Disk to use drivers provided by the hardware manufacturer.

Windows 95 default setting is 9600 baud for the com port your modem is tied to. To optimize your throughput do the following : Right click "my computer", click on properties. Click on "Device Manager" Find the com port your modem is hooked up to. Click on "properties" Click on "port settings", Increase the port setting to its maximum value. Then make sure the flow control is set to hardware. Then click on "advanced", maximize the receive buffer and transmit buffer. Make sure FIFO buffers is turned on. Click "ok" all the way out.Then reboot your system. This should speed up your bandwidth while surfing the net.

Go to Start and click on Run. Type "sysedit" in the box and click on OK. Under [386Enh] in the file System.ini add the following line: LocalLoadHigh=1 Exit sysedit, saving your work, and restart Windows.

Have Multiple drives or multiple partitions? Create a Quick Defrag Menu on your right mouse click context menu. Here's how: Goto Explorer, View (on Menu) / Options. Click on File Types Tab and scroll down to Drives. Click Edit, Then New. In the Menu Line Print Quick Defrag! In the Command Line Print "c:\windows (or win95)\defrag.exe "%1" /noprompt. This will immediately invoke the Disk Defragmenter with no prompts and will exit as soon as it is done. Then goto My Computer and right mouse select a drive and select the Quick Defrag! and it will begin automatically! It's great if you have several real or DriveSpace Drives on your computer.

In the your Windows directory, edit the system.ini file and create a header that says "[VCache]" (no quotes) and under it put
MinFileCache=0
MaxFileCache=X.
X being what you want the Maximum disk cache to be, in the form 2000 for 2 megs etc.. I recommend 2 megs memory if you have 8-16 megs. and 4 megs if you have over 16 megs. This prevents unneeded disk swapping, because when your using most of your memory for your disk cache (default with Windows95), your using your swap file almost right away.

To operate at top speed, Windows 95 keeps a lot of information in memory instead of on your hard drive. When shutting down your computer, it's always best to use the Shut Down command on the Start menu so your PC gets a chance to save all that information.

If a format is part of your installation scenario why not make C drive for Windows Only. IE make C drive a relatively small partition - 200 MEGS and install only Win95 and perhaps a back-up directory on it and then have all your programs install to another partition/drive. This way if things go awry and a complete erasure of C (Win95) would be advantageous you can DELTREE C without a lot of hassle. Assuming you have a usable back up of your Registry, you would simply reinstall Win95, replace the USER.DAT & SYSTEM.DAT files, re-boot and your in business. Wow - no messy transferring of files you want to save & a minimum hassle with your software and it's settings!