As far as I have been able to figure out, the Companion CD is specifically
designed *not* to be used to do a full install of Windows.  It is, apparently,
only for use when Win95 needs to update drivers or for replacing specific
corrupted files. I, personally, don't know of any way around it.

The big difference between Win95a with all upgrades and Win95B is the FAT32
partitioning file system. That feature is not available as an update, only on
an OEM Win95B CD-ROM.  And the advantage of FAT32 over the FAT16 used by Win95A
and previous versions of DOS is two-fold:  The ability to use very small
cluster sizes on one's hard drive, so there is very little wasted space; the
ability to partition hard drives over 2GB in size in one big partition.  FAT16
will only partition up to 2GB at a time.

But if you are not willing to repartition and reformat your hard drive (or
*perhaps* use some third party partitioning software -- I'm not sure about
that), then FAT32 won't do your current system any good.

Roxanne Pierce
R2 Systems, San Diego
mailto:[log in to unmask]

On Tuesday, March 10, 1998 03:51, Arnie Robuck [SMTP:[log in to unmask]] wrote:
> I have 3 questions: (I save them up)
>
> 1.  I have a Windows 95b Companion CD. Does anyone know how to use this CD
> to do a full install of Windows?
>
> 2. Assuming I can use the Companion CD, will this give me a choice of
> installing an upgrade or will it start right from scratch?
>
> 3.  I am currently running Win95a with Internet Explorer 4.01a installed. I
> have also installed all of the obtainable updates for Windows 95 and
> Internet Explorer. What is the advantage of doing this upgrade and what
> effect will installing Windows 95b have on my already current [?} system?