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How would that work? From my recollection the computer booted up in DOS ran through your config.sys and autoexec.bat. The final line typically in the autoexec.b

by rblatz 4y ago

How would that work? From my recollection the computer booted up in DOS ran through your config.sys and autoexec.bat. The final line typically in the autoexec.bat was win. Which would start up windows 95. Also when you shutdown windows 95 it would leave you at a DOS prompt. So no restart was actually needed.

fredoralive 4y ago
Windows 95 didn’t have “win” in the autoexec.bat, it autoloaded it. The behaviour was controlled in msdos.sys, which on 9x had various startup options including BootGUI (DOS was entirely in io.sys). IIRC “MS DOS mode” could either just exit Windows, or reboot the entire system depending on config (presumably if you wanted custom config.sys / autoexec.bat)? But I might be wrong, it’s been years since I used 9x.
- vikingerik 4y ago
  This is correct. msdos.sys was a text file with configuration values, which could be set to either auto-start Windows after running autoexec.bat, or not. In the former case, exiting Windows would stop at the "now safe to turn off your computer" screen. In the latter case, startup would go to a DOS command prompt, and Windows could be started from there, and exiting it would go back to DOS. Those two cases got conflated by the ability to start Windows from within autoexec.bat, which wasn't the Microsoft default but was a fairly common setup from some OEMs. To the OS, that's the case of starting Windows separately, but to the user, it looks like the auto-starting case.
  - int_19h 4y ago
    You could also make it "boot into DOS" by adding command.com as the last thing autoexec.bat would invoke. That way you end up in the shell, and exiting it would boot Windows.
accrual 4y ago
Maybe it just gracefully ends the win.exe process, leaving you in DOS?
- rep_lodsb 4y ago
  Don't know about gracefully (some drivers might not cleanly shut down), but Win95 did indeed exit to DOS. It left the screen in graphics mode with the message "It is now safe to turn off your computer", but you could blindly type some command to reset it to text mode.
Narishma 4y ago
What you describe was before Windows 95.
dragonwriter 4y ago
I think you are thinking of Win 3.x, not 9x; 95 was the first consumer Windows for which that description is wrong.

by rblatz 4y ago

fredoralive 4y ago

Windows 95 didn’t have “win” in the autoexec.bat, it autoloaded it. The behaviour was controlled in msdos.sys, which on 9x had various startup options including BootGUI (DOS was entirely in io.sys). IIRC “MS DOS mode” could either just exit Windows, or reboot the entire system depending on config (presumably if you wanted custom config.sys / autoexec.bat)? But I might be wrong, it’s been years since I used 9x.

vikingerik 4y ago
This is correct. msdos.sys was a text file with configuration values, which could be set to either auto-start Windows after running autoexec.bat, or not. In the former case, exiting Windows would stop at the "now safe to turn off your computer" screen. In the latter case, startup would go to a DOS command prompt, and Windows could be started from there, and exiting it would go back to DOS. Those two cases got conflated by the ability to start Windows from within autoexec.bat, which wasn't the Microsoft default but was a fairly common setup from some OEMs. To the OS, that's the case of starting Windows separately, but to the user, it looks like the auto-starting case.
- int_19h 4y ago
  You could also make it "boot into DOS" by adding command.com as the last thing autoexec.bat would invoke. That way you end up in the shell, and exiting it would boot Windows.

accrual 4y ago

Maybe it just gracefully ends the win.exe process, leaving you in DOS?

rep_lodsb 4y ago
Don't know about gracefully (some drivers might not cleanly shut down), but Win95 did indeed exit to DOS. It left the screen in graphics mode with the message "It is now safe to turn off your computer", but you could blindly type some command to reset it to text mode.

Narishma 4y ago

What you describe was before Windows 95.

dragonwriter 4y ago

I think you are thinking of Win 3.x, not 9x; 95 was the first consumer Windows for which that description is wrong.