Note: There has been some comment on the ThinkPad Forum on Compuserve to the effect that some pcmcia cards or the 32bit cardbuss will not and can not work under Win95b.
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Bill, I note that you state on your web page that OSR2 cannot be used as an upgrade:

That's not strictly correct. I have used it as an upgrade on TP 760CDs and EDs by methods 2 and 3 below. I had no difficulty with the OS, including convering to FAT32, or with any apps. Either of these leaves you with no Product ID number in My Computer Properties, but you can fix that by putting in the CD key to the appropriate registry key (something like Windows\Software\ProductID).

The following is from http://www.users.cts.com/king/s/serwin/osr2.html#upgrade

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Can I upgrade my extisting installation of Windows95 to OSR2 with the OSR2 disk?

No. If you attempt to upgrade from an earlier version of Windows95, it will give an error message and not let you proceed. You can only install OSR2 on top of DOS, and the most you really need are a formatted hard disk, either bootable or with a boot floppy, and your properly configured DOS CDROM drivers.

Okay, but there's gotta be a way to fool it into upgrading from an earlier version of Windows95 (or Windows 3.x)!!!!

There are two ways.

Method 1 (easier, but follow the instructions carefully!)

Rename the file "WIN.COM" in the C:\WINDOWS directory. Then run setup on the OSR2 CD from the DOS prompt. This will upgrade your current version of Win95 to OSR2. Tip: Remove all entries from C:\windows\start menu\programs\startup before you upgrade. Of course, you will need your DOS CDROM drivers properly configured to read from your CDROM under DOS. Do not attempt this unless you are comfortable mucking around with system files. Finally, once you get OSR2 setup running, and you get to the screen where you specify which directory to install to, the default will not be C:\WINDOWS\. Manually change the install directory to C:\WINDOWS\ (or wherever your existing version of Win95 is) to upgrade your existing installation.

17 Mar 97 Method 2: (courtesy Anonymous)

This method is more difficult than method 1, but is preferable in that it tells the setup.exe to perform an upgrade installation. This method can only be used if you have your OEM number from you certificate of authenticity on your manual (format: XXXXX-OEM-XXXXXXX-XXXXX): you will be prompted for this during installation.

1) Start up the OSR2 setup as normal, from within Windows95.

2) When you are presented with the License Agreement dialog box, stop.
Don't click anything yet. Resist the urge to click "Next." Just stop!

3)Open Start Menu (CNTRL + ESC) and click "Run." Type "Notepad" and click "OK".

4) Open the file "setuppp.inf" in the directory WININST0.400. This directory and its associated files were created by the OSR2 setup program.

5) Find the line in the file with the text "[data]". Add the following line after it: "OEMUP=1". The text should look as follows:

[data]

OEMUP=1

6) Save the file and exit Notepad.

7) Switch back to the OSR2 setup (using Alt+Tab) and continue with OSR2 installation.
 
 

16 Apr 97 Method 3:

This method is even more difficult and should only be attempted by highly experienced users. Method 3 also changes OSR2 to an upgrade version, and does not require the input of any CD Keys or numbers from the Certificate of Authenticity. Method 3 is courtesy Chip May.

Prerequsite: You must have at least 100MB free. You will be copying the /Win95/ directory from the CDROM to your hard drive and installing from your hard drive.

1) Make a temp directory on a hard drive - call it Win95.

2) Copy the Win95 directory from the CD to the new directory on your hard drive. From here, we work with the files on your hard drive.

3) Extract from PRECOPY2.CAB the file called SETUPPP.INF. Use extract.exe, or use the CAB file extraction tool PowerToy.

Here's a link to the PowerToy download page. (Note: not included, it is on the MS Win95 web site)

4) Open LAYOUT.INF in a text editor. Search for the string "SETUPPP.INF". (Don't get confused by the many blank lines in this file.) You should find: setuppp.inf=2,,4550

Change the 2 to a 0 to read: setuppp.inf=0,,4550

Save the changes..

This prevents setup from extracting SETUPPP.INF from the CAB file

during installation. Setup will instead use the SETUPPP.INF file we manually extracted in step 3 and will modify in step 5.

5) Open SETUPPP.INF in a text editor. Search for "ProductType". (Again, do a search, it's hard to find just by looking.) You should find: ProductType=9

Change 9 to 1 to read: ProductType=1

Save the changes...

This tells setup to upgrade the previous installation, and to not ask for a CD Key or Certificate number.

There is no need to "put SETUPPP.INF back into PRECOPY2.CAB".

The change we made to LAYOUT.INF in step 4 forces setup to use our modified version of SETUPPP.INF. Just leave SETUPPP.INF out in the directory with all the other setup files & cab files.

6) Run SETUP from Windows95 off your hard drive. Installation will proceed as an upgrade.

NOTES:

on ProductType=X in SETUPPP.INF:

ProductType=1: Upgrades without asking for CD KEY (serial number)

ProductType=2: Asks for 10-digit CD KEY

ProductType=3: Wants a floppy install - doesn't work.

ProductType=4: Fails - Error - previous ops system installed.

ProductType=5: Works - asks for CD KEY, but won't take valid keys- can "ignore"

ProductType=6: Works OK (?) (?)

ProductType=7: Fails - Error - previous op system

ProductType=8: Fails - Error - previous op system

ProductType=9: OEM non upgrade version: Asks for OEM certificate number.

on conserving disk space:

To use a little less disk space, do as in Method 2 except:

Copy everything from the \WIN95 directory *except* the WIN95*.CAB files, and the online service setup files: CS3KIT.EXE, SETUP25I.EXE, SETUP32.EXE, and WOWKIT.EXE -- the only CABs you need are MINI.CAB, PRECOPY1.CAB and PRECOPY2.CAB. With this technique Windows95 Setup will ask for a file at some point during the file copy stage -- at that time you type in X:\WIN95 (where X=CDROM drive letter) and installation will continue, taking the rest of the files from the CD. Unfortunately, this creates the problem of Windows95 looking for the Win95 install files on the hard disk rather than the CDROM.

However, this can be fixed by editing the SOURCEPATH value in the following registry entry:

MyComputer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SETUP

on installing without "Online Services":

On installing OSR2, a folder is placed on the desktop called "Online Services," which contains install and signup software for AOL, Compuserve, ATT Worldnet, and the now-defunct WOW!, as well as create a shortcut in the Start Menu and copy all the Online Services Kits into C:\Program Files\Online Services. If you would rather that none of this occurred whilst installing your OSR2, then do as in method 3 above, but also add these steps (courtesy Anonymous):

1. Edit layout.inf (after you have copied the OSR2 install files to your hard disk).

2. Find msinfo.inf

3. Change 2,,6559 to 0,,6559

4. Extract msinfo.inf from precopy2.cab

5. Edit the msinfo.inf file. Delete EVERYTHING EXCEPT the following:
; MSINFO INF file

[version]

signature="$CHICAGO$"

SetupClass=BASE

LayoutFile=layout.inf

; Base options only happen during Windows Setup

; Setting up the registry settings and INF file locations

[BaseWinOptions]

Msinfo.reg

[Msinfo.reg]

CopyFiles =msinfo.copyfiles.inf, citCopy.sys, logo.copy.sys

AddReg =Online.reg

[destinationdirs]

CitCopy.sys =11 ; windows\system

Msinfo.copyfiles.inf =17 ; windows\inf

logo.copy.sys =30

[Msinfo.copyfiles.inf]

msinfo.inf

[CitCopy.sys]

drwatson.exe

[logo.copy.sys]

logo2_0.sys

[Online.reg]

HKLM,Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RenameFiles\OSR2logo,,,%30%

HKLM,Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RenameFiles\OSR2logo,logo2_0.sys,,"logo.sys,2"
 
 

Anonymous also notes, for you advanced tweakers out there:

This version of MSINFO.INF will still copy drwatson.exe to c:\windows\system and copy logo2_0.sys to c:\ and rename it to logo.sys (the OSR2 logo with Internet Explorer on the bottom), but does not copy SWINST4.EXE, the Shockwave plug in for IE 3.

And for people who want to install with their own startup screen, they need to edit the layout.inf and do the edit the section where it says logo2_0.sys=5,,129078 to logo2_0.sys=0,,129078 and place the customized logo2_0.sys in the directory where the cab files are... (this can be done after install by renaming any .bmp file to C:\LOGO.SYS).

MOS.INF creates link on desktop to MSN (someting I always do is drag that into the recycle bin everytime I install 95..)

Welcome (that tip screen) ran everytime you install Win95 first also.. To remove it basically do the same to layout.inf for shell.inf, extract and edit it.
Find the section that says [shell.files.win.shared] under it you will see welcome.exe, rem it out by putting a semicolon infront of it.. it will prevent it from running the first time you launch w95.

WARNING: If you currently have set Windows 95 (release version) up to dual boot with Windows 3.1. or DOS, and you force OSR2 to "upgrade" in the manner described above, you will lose the ability to dual boot. That is, you will no longer be able to choose to boot to DOS or Windows3.x. Microsoft has removed this ability from OSR2. For more information on this, see Microsoft's Knowledge Base Article on the subject.

After the installation is complete, you can convert the file system from FAT16 to FAT32 using Partition Magic 3.0, if desired.

16 Apr 97 Let's say I do all of this. Will I have to reinstall all my applications? Will my registry settings be retained? Will my Desktop be the way it was before I upgraded?

Your applications will be left intact, no reinstallations will be necessary. Your desktop will be as it was. As far as the registry goes, some changes will be made, but these changes will mainly reflect changes in the operating system. As far as drivers go, generally upon installation OSR2 will detect newer 3rd party drivers than the default OSR2 drivers, and prompt you to keep the newer ones. However, this process depends on how well the particular driver identifies itself as "newer" than the default OSR2 driver, either by .dll date or version. If the driver does not self-document itself well to OSR2, it may be replaced, and you may need to reinstall the newer 3rd party driver.

Finally, you must install all Windows 95 components that you previously had installed. Example: If you have Microsoft Exchange/Windows Messaging installed, and you upgrade to OSR2, but do not install Microsoft Exchange/Windows Messaging in OSR2, Microsoft Exchange will be uninstalled during the upgrade process. On the whole, your system should look and act much like it did before the upgrade. I am not aware of any differences in the final result of Method 1 vs Method 2 in terms of the registry, but I would not be surprised if there are differences. This is a matter for further research :)

I've tried Method 1 and it still won't upgrade!

For Method 1, you must rename all instances of WIN.COM present on any hard drive/partition in your system before this will work. This includes any WIN.COM from a Windows3.x installation. If this applies to you, and you currently dual boot by using F4 on Windows95 startup, be warned that you will no longer be able to do this after you "upgrade" to OSR2.

9 May 97 Does Microsoft have any comment on these "upgrade" methods in your FAQ?

"According to a Microsoft representative, performing the upgrade does not violate any of Microsoft's license agreements as long as the Windows 95 CD you use to perform the upgrade was obtained in purchasing new hardware, such as a hard disk."

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