How would I create a DOS (7.1) boot disk from my W95 machine; that is, a boot straight into DOS not just into Win95 without the GUI.

I assume you want to make a bootable floppy disk (otherwise hit the f8 key after POST to go to a menu that will let you boot to a DOS prompt). To make the bootable floppy just open DOS in a window, put a floppy disk in your a: drive and type: format a:/s/u That floppy will boot to DOS but you can't do much until you copy some of the files from c:\windows\command to the floppy - you may need/want to make 2 bootasble disks so you can have access to all of the DOS files Hope this is what you want, Henry

If the floppy is already formatted (most are), a simple sys a: from a dos command line will transfer the core files to the diskette - you'll need a few other files, and autoexec.bat and config.sys will need to be created/edited. If you feel daring, edit your c:\msdos.sys file with notepad (it's just a text file) and adjust the 'bootGUI' line: [Options] BootGUI=0 To boot to the command line - type win for windows. You may need to remove the system or read-only attributes to edit, never hurts to make a backup, either. There's a whole web page devoted to this... can't quite remember the URL, if I do, I'll post it.

If you're uncomfortable editing msdos.sys, find and install TweakUI into win 95, (you'll get an entry in control panel)it'll make the changes for you. Open it and go to the BOOT tab. There you'll find a number of settings, one of which is 'Always show boot menu ', check that box, and select a time to continue booting after if you choose to ' Start GUI automaticly ' above. What you now have is the choices of the full windows boot menu, every time you boot, and no scrambling to get the F8 key just in time, from barebones command prompt only, command prompt with autoexe.bat and config.sys loaded, safe mode, windows full gui , etc. SO , you are booted to DOS, . To play with DOS 7.x , change directory ( cd ) to C:\windows\command\ and off you go, or ,if you have 6.22 for instance in C:\DOS\ cd to there and use accordingly. NONE OF WINDOWS HAS BEEN LOADED if you want ot get to windows use the ' win ' command at C:\, C:\windows\ ,or C:\windows\command\ BTW TweakUI gives you LOTS of other options to customize and even repair some windows functions.

Why not do it the easy way! Open Windows 9X, goto Control Panel, then Add/Remove Programs, click on Startup Disk then create disk. This will create a Windows Startup Disk ofor the correct version of DOS to Windows 9x you have. Edit the contents of disk to match your needs. No need to edit config.sys as this has already been done for you.

There are certain programs that will only work from DOS. It is my understanding that the 7.x versions of DOS are intergral to the 32 bit Win 9.x/Me systems and as such will not provide the proper DOS environment for running certain programs. Whether the difference is 16bit DOS vs 32bit DOS, or something else, I am not certain. It is also my understanding the last stand- alone DOS version is 6.22 and I am not certain whether or not this is a 16 or 32 bit system, although the programs previously mentioned which will not run under the 7.x versions of DOS will run under 6.22. It was my intention here to try to determine exactly what the differences are and I may have been a little optimistic in phrasing such a simple question. However, I would appreciate it if anyone could at least point me to a good detailed explanation of these differences

Well, Win9x is quite a bit different than WinME in its treatment of DOS (as I understand it). "DOS 7" is fairly backwards compatible with the older DOS programs, and can be installed stand alone, I believe, using just the system files and the DOS external commands from c:\windows\command. Some programs may not be compatible with DOS7, more often the problem can be with the FAT32 (large disk) structure, for modern HDDs or partitions larger than 2 Gb. I am not qualified to compare the the two Operating Systems (DOS6xx DOS7) in the detail you seem to require - it would be quite an undertaking, to say the least. Perhaps if you offered a clearer explanation of what you specifically would like to do, a more precise response would be forthcoming. If you just want to make a basic Win9x boot floppy, 'happy helpers' suggestion of creating one within Windows is the simplest route. If you want to experiment with different Windows settings, you should give TweakUI a whirl, as Tink suggests - it is a great little tool.