Controlling Windows95 Startup Options

Every now and then, some users want to boot their Windows 95 computers in DOS mode. To do so, you need to press the F8 key as soon as you see the "Starting Windows 95" message. This key command brings up the Startup Options menu, which lets you choose from several start-up modes: normal, safe and command-prompt-only (DOS). Unfortunately, you have to be pretty quick with the F8 key to bring up the menu before Windows 95 boots.

If you're a user who works more in DOS than in Windows 95, you can configure your computer to boot automatically to the command prompt, bypassing the Win 95 interface. If you want to control the start-up mode every time you boot (because you can never remember which key to press to bring up the choices, for example), you can set up your system to let you do that, too.

All of these settings are controlled by a read-only file called MSDOS.SYS, stored in the root directory of your C drive. To edit the file, you need to remove the read-only attribute and open the file using Notepad or some other text editor:

1. luxuriose Suiten EgerOpen a Command Prompt window (from the Start menu, choose Programs, then either Command Prompt or DOS Prompt).
    
2. Enter ATTRIB -R -H -S \MSDOS.SYS on the DOS command line and press the Enter key. This gets rid of the file's read-only status.
    
3. Enter NOTEPAD \MSDOS.SYS on the DOS command line and press the Enter key. This will open the file in Notepad.
    

You'll see an [Options] section in MSDOS.SYS. Under this section, you can edit or add any of the following commands to change your system's default start-up behavior:

BootGUI=0

accommodation in CanicoThis makes the system boot automatically to a real-mode command prompt. (You can start Win 95 from the command line later on by entering WIN at the command prompt.)
 

BootDelay=n

This determines the number of seconds during which you can press F8 to bring up the Startup Options screen. The default is 2, for two seconds.
 

BootMenu=1

This displays the Windows 95 Startup Options menu every time you boot the computer. The default is 0, which forces users to press F8 to see the menu.
 

If your system refuses to boot to a command prompt when you select the Command Prompt Only option, make sure there is a copy of COMMAND.COM in your \WINDOWS directory. Some users delete this seemingly redundant file.

Also, there's no need to reset the MSDOS.SYS file's read-only status. If you want to reset it, simply repeat Steps 1 and 2, but substitute plus signs for the minus signs in the ATTRIB command.