Installing Windows 95 on a Compaq Concerto

Windows 95 does not include support for the Pen, and will remove Pen Services 1.0 during the install phase. In order to retain the use of the pen, you need the Win95 Pen 2.0 Drivers. There are currently three possibilities:

1. Wait for COMPAQ to release their own version. They claim to be working on it, but who knows how long it will take before it becomes available.
2. Wait for Microsoft to decide whether or not to release their own version of Pen Services 2.0. There has been some rumors that Microsoft is considering this, but I have been unable to get any information from them.
3. Try out the beta version of the drivers, available on Microsoft's "Preview Program" CD, or with early beta releases of Win95.

The best procedure for installing Windows 95 on a concerto is to first make a backup copy of the old windows dir:

  c:
  cd \
  move windows windows.31 (or .311)
  md saveroot
  copy *.* saveroot
  

Then install Windows 95 to the c:\windows directory. Do *not* attempt to install it to the same directory as a previous version of windows, as setup wants to do by default. There are numerous conflicts between Compaq's drivers and Win95.

Suggestion: plug in a Microsoft or Logitech compatible mouse before performing the installation.

After about an hour, you should have Windows 95 up and running, and you can install the pen drivers. To do this, start at the control panel, double-click "Add/Remove Programs", select the "Windows Setup" tab, then press "Have Disk" and specify the directory containing the pen driver. It will reboot after installing the driver, then the pen driver applet will prompt you for which type of pen system (select Compaq of course), then it will reboot again. Your pen should then work somewhat like before.

You may find it necessary to either re-install some applications, or copy (from windows.3x) certain .ini's and .dll's to make them work in W95.

If you have any problems or questions, please don't hesitate to drop me e-mail: stg@stg.net