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to the Unleashing Windows Index If you're a person who likes to keep up with the latest operating systems offered by Microsoft or other companies, you like to work with all the current offering and see for yourself the advantages and disadvantages of each. Of course, most operating systems go on the premise that they are the primary operating system to be run on a machine. So, you can either buy a new computer for every operating system, which doesn't take long to become very costly, or you can take advantage of the boot options most of the major operating systems allow.
In this column, I'll discuss the boot options for Windows NT, Windows 95, and even OS/2. I'll even discuss how to have all 3 plus MS-DOS/Windows. I've actually tried this and it does work. I'll also mention some of the pitfalls of doing this as well.
First, let's talk about Windows NT. Windows NT has a boot manager that is set up when the product is installed. If you are running MS-DOS on a current machine you will be asked if you want to have the computer dual-boot. If you choose to have the dual-boot option, the boot screen will display 3 options on startup: Windows NT, Windows NT (VGA mode), and MS-DOS. For those who are unaware of the two NT options, the Windows NT selection is used to start NT normally, while the VGA mode is used in case the video driver settings are incorrect or damaged. The default selection is Windows NT and will load after 30 seconds unless a selection is made before then.
There are a few things to note when dual-booting NT. First, you have to have a FAT partition to boot to MS-DOS. If you want to have an NTFS partition, you'll need to create a new partition or add a new drive. Also, the NT installation allows you to install in the current Windows directory or a different directory. If you are running Windows 3.1 or Windows for Workgroups 3.11, you can safely install NT into the Windows directory without affecting the original Windows on booting into MS-DOS. However, if you want to install something in both Windows 3.1 and Windows NT, you'll have to install the program in both environments in order to run the program correctly in both environments. For example, if you wanted to install Excel 5.0 in Windows 3.1 and NT, you'll have to install into Windows 3.1 then reboot and install it in Windows NT. Finally, be aware of how long filenames are displayed and used in MS-DOS mode. Usually a good rule is not to use long filenames in FAT partitions, just to be on the safe side.
Windows 95 doesn't initially create a dual-boot option. However, it is a relatively simple procedure to have Windows 95 dual-boot. In order to do this, you must be installing Windows 95 on a computer with MS-DOS 5.x or 6.x already installed. Then, you can tell Windows 95 to dual-boot two ways. First, if you install Windows 95 in a different directory than the current Windows 3.1 directory is located, Windows 95 will dual-boot. If you've already installed Windows 95 and want to be able to dual-boot into MS-DOS, you can manually create a dual-boot machine.
To manually create a dual-boot Windows 95 machine, you'll have to have a boot disk with the IO.SYS renamed to IO.DOS, the MSDOS.SYS renamed to MSDOS.DOS and COMMAND.COM renamed to COMMAND.DOS. Then, you'll have to copy these renamed files to the root directory of your boot drive. Make sure that the files are renamed BEFORE you copy them to the root directory or you'll have to reinstall Windows 95. If you're using disk-compression, you'll have to copy a renamed CONFIG.DOS (renamed from CONFIG.SYS) and AUTOEXEC.BAT to the root directory as well. Then, you'll have to restart the computer, and now you should have a dual-boot configuration. Be aware that you'll have to reinstall Windows 3.1 in a different directory to use Windows 3.1 on a machine that has been created manually, since the Windows 95 installation has modified files in the Windows directory. Also, files in the DOS directory have been modified or deleted, so you may want to reinstall DOS in a different directory as well.
As with the Windows NT dual-boot, you'll have to install programs in both in order to run the program from both operating systems. Also, the same holds true with long filenames as Windows NT. Be fully aware of how long filenames are handled in MS-DOS and be careful when using them.
OS/2 can also create a dual-boot machine during the OS/2 installation. It works very similar to the Windows NT installation. OS/2 has a proprietary file system called HPFS similar to NTFS for Windows NT. As with NT, you must have a FAT file system on the drive in order to boot into MS-DOS. Again, just like the Windows NT and Windows 95 configurations, OS/2 does allow long filenames and you need to be aware of how they are handled in MS-DOS.
Now, for those of you who are really ambitious, let's see how to install all 3 on a machine and still be able to boot into DOS. First of all, make sure you have a machine that can handle all 3. Windows NT is the most demanding, so be sure to have a machine that is a 486 or better with 12Mb RAM as a minimum. I personally would recommend a Pentium with 16Mb RAM. Plus, you'll need at least 300Mb or more of free disk space for each of the operating systems.
First, install OS/2 on the machine and make sure you allow it to dual-boot. Then, install Windows NT allowing it to dual-boot. Windows NT will automatically install and keep the OS/2 boot manager active. If you restart the machine now, you'll see the boot screen appear for NT, and if you select MS-DOS, the boot screen for OS/2 will appear. Then finally, install Windows 95 and make sure that you install it into a different directory than the current Windows directory. The Windows 95 installation will disable OS/2's boot manager, so you'll need to use an OS/2 boot disk to run the OS/2 FDISK utility to restore the boot manager after Windows 95 is installed. This order of installation is the easiest way to have the machine boot into multiple configurations. If you install the operating systems in a different order, you'll probably have to run the OS/2 FDISK utility or the NT Repair option on NT Setup. I have had a machine set up to run all 3 and it has worked well.
So, if you want to see the latest offerings in operating systems, you can safely run all 3 on your machine! Plus, if you need to maintain a MS-DOS setup to allow programs designed to run on DOS or Windows 3.1 that just don't seem to work in the other operating systems, you can dual-boot all of the 3 other operating systems. And, for once, all of the major operating systems can live in harmony!!!