Reinstalling win 95 without losing installed progs?

Re-Setup Using the "setup  /p f" Switches
X:\setup  /p f
Where X is your CD drive letter
This will cause windows 95 to re-examine your setup. This will clean, read and rewrite
your Win.ini and System.ini, without over-writing your updated dll's vxd's extensions.

f - This switch enables Clean Registry mode. It forces Detection to clean and correct the
root branch of the registry before starting. This switch is ignored when Setup is run in the
Windows 95 graphical user interface (GUI).
When setup prompts you for "Typical or Custom Setup", choose Custom. This allows you
to have control over every step of the setup. This will do a compare and replace missing or
corrupted files and will take you back where you were before the error.
From dos insert your CD and run from your cd this command... (setup  /p f) When setup
prompts you for "Full or Custom Setup",
choose Custom. This allows you to have control over every step of the setup. This will do
a compare and replace missing or corrupted files and will take you back where you were
before the error.

This has Become a; "Standard Procedure". It's not always a fix all, but it never hurts to try
it. I've never seen any ill effects from it yet. The only thing I've seen it do negative is once
in a while an association or two may get lost. Which Is easy to fix. I always recommend a
Registry backup along with this for safety.
ALWAYS BACKUP YOUR REGISTRY FIRST!
Get WRP. WRPV3.ZIP is the Best and easiest Backup/Restore I've Seen. Go To:
http://www.webdev.net/orca/ Search WRP
FOR YOUR CONFIDENCE RESTORE WINDOWS FILES/VERIFY INSTALL OPTION
===========
The "Verify Only Mode"

  v - This switch enables Verify Only mode. Detection has two stages:

  1. Verify existing devices in the registry.

  2. Detect new devices.

  This switch tells Detection to perform only stage 1. This switch is used by the PCMCIA
  Wizard to verify legacy devices in the registry.

  The default is disabled.

  Example: setup /p v

Regards, Bud
http://www.geocities.com/~budallen/

Can you be more specific in answering my question. Will trying to reinstall win 95 by typing in dos setup /p f  ,  erase the programs I currently have installed like MS Ofiice 97 and so forth? I want to reinstall becaue of frequent crashes.

According to the "answer" above, the program will still be intact... However, I wouldn't count on it...  

When you reject the current Non-answer,
I post my thoughts.

Regards, Bud
http://www.geocities.com/~budallen/

Oh well, here's my thoughts anyway.
With Office97 in the equation now????

Please tell us the vitals your system, ie; cpu make and model,
How much ram , pci, type of mouse, video adapter, network, what
kind of Network Adapter, significant software and anything you can
think of. Operating System and version. Updates, Service Packs.
Do you have or did have IE4X and ACTIVE DESKTOP?
Latest installations of programs.
There are many variables and we could spend weeks trying to solve
something while I don't know what we're working with. :)

Regards
Bud
http://www.geocities.com/~budallen/

Smeebud, Sorry to reject your answer. But id didn't feel that you answered it fully. The details of my system are
AMD K5-166, 32 mg of edo ram, Win 95 SR2 with IE4 & the active desktop update, and the most recent prog's I've installed are games and netscape 4.5pr2, and then Netscape 4.07. Anything else you may need to know?

Dis-able active desktop.
It's one of the culprits
==================
METHOD 1
To remove the Windows Desktop Update, go to Control Panel, Add/Remove =
Programs.  Select Internet Explorer 4.0, NOT Internet Explorer 4.0 Setup =
Files.  Click on the Add/Remove button.  Follow the on-screen =
instruction to _only_ uninstall the Windows Desktop Update.

METHOD 2
Click start, select settings, select add/remove software, select MS IE4 and
click remove.  At the top will be three radio buttons.  Select the remove
Active Desktop - keep IE4  and select ok.  This will remove active desktop
but leave IE4 alone.

Disabling the Active Desktop
Right click on the desktop > uncheck "View As Web Page"
Problems with doing so? None that I'm aware of. In fact, I read many, =
many posts where disabling the Active Desktop *solved* problems.

Regards, Bud
http://www.geocities.com/~budallen/

Here is more info I should have posted with my proposed answer. You can just add this as part of my answer.

The Windows95 operating system can be reinstalled with a minimum of problems using the
 following procedure:

 -- Copy the contents of the Win95 folder from the Win95 CD to a folder on your system. (make it something like c:\WinSetUp)
 -- Restart the system in MS-DOS mode.
 -- Go to the new folder with the CAB files etc . .  you created.
 -- Run the SETUP utility there

 This will reinstall Win95 on the system, as well as replace any Win95 related
 support files which may have become corrupt or have been deleted. As in the case
 of any operation such as this, your normal backup of data files is a good practice
 nevertheless.

I have re-installed Win95, original, A, B, and Win98 many times, and never lost a previously installed program.  I never did anything special with switches, and I've done it both from the GUI, and from DOS.  I can understand being a little concerned about it, but I personally have never had a problem doing this.  I just re-installed Win98 last week on my system, and worked perfectly.

Exactly "nddyfool"
Are you there "Atomic212"?
Did you try the proposed answer?

Hello? Are you alive?