On 20 Jan 99, at 23:05, Elizabeth Boston wrote:

>   Tomorrow I am going to upgrade a computer with Windows 3.1 to
> Windows 95. Since I am also replacing the hard drive, video card, and
> adding memory, I ordered the OEM version of Windows 95 without
> thinking.
>   Now that I am thinking <g>, I have a couple of questions.
>
> 1) I know there is a way to use the OEM CD to upgrade, but don't
> remember what it is.

  The method I'm aware of involves copying the files from the CD, and
then modifying one of them.  [You indicate below that there isn't room
on the current hard drive for that, but (a) I'd install the larger drive
first, and (b) I think I recall setting up an OEM->upgrade version on a
zip disk -- I have an external parallel Zip drive and a "DOS" boot disk
with the Zip drivers.]

  See:

http://www.tmp-houston.com/win95tips/OSR2.htm

> 2) There isn't enough room on the current drive to upgrade to 95 and
> then xcopy the files to the new drive. Since Windows 3.1 doesn't
> support long file names, will the copy command work to copy everything
> to the larger drive?

  There was a version of XCOPY.EXE going back to DOS days (perhaps as far
as the classic 3.3, but maybe it was introduced in 5.0).  It probably,
though, didn't support all of the options that more recent versions do.
  My inclination is to use Partition Magic to copy the whole partition
from the current drive to the new drive, and then resize it to take
advantage of the additional space.

> 3) It would probably be better to do a clean install of Windows 95 on
> the new hard drive anyway, but if I do, can the windows 3.1 programs
> be run by just copying the folders like DOS programs, or do they need
> to be re-installed just like Win95 programs.

  Installation does two things for you that a simple copy doesn't:

1) Create a Program Manager group (3.x) or Start Menu entry(ies) (9x).
I believe I've seen references to something that will turn existing
group files into menu folders, but I'm not sure where.

2) Configure registry entries.  Most 3.x programs use .INI files
instead to hold configuration info; these are often in the Windows
directory rather than in the program directories, and so if you're
trying to merge installed apps with a clean install of 95, you may miss
some of them.


David G

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