[Request] Looking for a Retail Windows 95 RTM CD

I am trying to look for a Windows 95 RTM CD copy on WinWorld and many other pages. If anyone has that, please share!

Comments

  • edited March 2021
    Please don't request non exist media type for Windows 95 Retail CD.
    (It is a waste of time or life.)

    Only retail full version of Windows 95 RTM exists as the following media.

    1) 3.5" 1.44MB + 3.5" DMF (Retail Full or Upgrade via Retail Package)
    2) 3.5" 1.44MB (Retail Full or Upgrade via Microsoft Mail Order)
    3) 5.25" 1.2MB (Retail Full or Upgrade via Microsoft Mail Order)
    4) CD-ROM (Retail Upgrade via Retail Package) -- No Retail Full version of Windows 95 RTM
  • I apologize for the invalid question, but for the first listing, I wanted to ask if the 3.5" 1.44MB + 3.5" DMF are two separate products or they are in the same package.

    Since you corrected what I should look for, I want the 5.25" 1.25MB Retail Full and 3.5" 1.44MB Retail Upgrade.
  • I've added a note about that.

    It is believed that there was never an official boxed "Full Retail" CD-ROM version. The CD-ROM version was available as OEM and Upgrades only, because at the time it was not possible to guarantee CDs could be read on a system without vendor-provided drivers.

    If anyone knows otherwise, please correct me.

    We do have the DMF versions here: https://winworldpc.com/product/windows-95/rtm

    Typically with Microsoft DMF installation media sets, the first disk with the setup program is standard 1.44mb, and the additional disks are DMF formatted. I believe the reason for this is some machines may have issues reading DMF until after the setup program. (Also, writing to DMF disks is sometimes error-prone, and most Microsoft DMF installers write serial information back to disk 1).

    I believe 1.2mb media was special-order only, and as such is very uncommon. It looks like we have the upgrade media, but not full retail. It is, however easy enough to modify the install type using a custom MSBATCH.INF.
  • @SomeGuy do you know if there's a 3.5" 1.44 retail upgrade only available. My OEM came with a disc and I don't have any idea what's available and what's not. @ibmpc5150 suggested there's a 3.5" 1.44 retail upgrade available too.
  • edited March 2021
    @SomeGuy I've looked at how the product types in SETUPPP.INF work, as well as the various combinations found on a lot of different installation media, and I've never seen a retail CD release that would allow clean installations to be performed under normal circumstances (there are of course ways to get around that).

    So in the absence of any evidence for full retail CDs, I think it's fairly safe to conclude at this point that they never existed. It's worth noting that OEM CDs came in both full and upgrade variants, though.

    @BEEN_Nath_58 theoretically it can exist, of course, and very likely did in practice as well. Floppy product types are not specifically tied to any of the three disk formats they used, at least as far as I can tell.
  • @DeFacto I have gone through the DMF and the 1.44MB floppy files, and the latter seems to have a MSBATCH.INF file included, set to ProductType=1 which skips the product ID insertion. There's no ProductID line in the file, however when I finished installation the OS had a identification number put in.

    In the DMF files, it didn't have the MSBATCH.INF and the setup asked for the key. So I am confused to why the 1.44MB had the MSBATCH.INF set to skip the product ID insertion. If I look into the dates, all the files are from 11-07-1995, 09:50 suggesting they may not have been edited. Was the 3.5" 1.44MB floppy a uploaded at WinWorldPC a special version of the program? I am sure it's not OEM as the ID doesn't have 'OEM' in it.
  • Type 1 was originally used only for MS internal media and doesn't ask for a key or have any other restrictions. Once people realized this, they started using it as a way to bypass serial and upgrade checks on regular media as well.

    Product ID is hardcoded in some setup file (WINSETUP.BIN?) in retail floppy upgrade (type 3), which is also why this type doesn't ask for a 10-digit key. Meanwhile, retail full floppy (type 4) asks for a 10-digit key and generates a product ID based on that.
  • edited April 2021
    @DeFacto the DMF version doesn't have the MSBATCH.INF at all. However it performs the function as you mentioned for Type 4, I think Type 4 has more functions than only retail install. Otherwise Type 4 have the same function as the media without any MSBATCH.INF
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