Earliest Version of Windows that uses Install CD?

What is the earliest version of Windows that uses an install CD? I want to know because I want to partition my HD and try to install it lol. It has been a thought for about a week, but now that I have a chance I want to actually try it.

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Permalink Reply by Zune80 on July 8, 2009 at 4:41pm: Windows has been available on CD even as far back as Windows 3.1 or 3.11. Of course DOS also had to be installed first. The CD was not bootable though and a setup up floppy was still needed to at least start the driver installs etc.

If you're really asking which version of Windows was the first to come on a bootable CD for install without the need for ANY floppy disks...that would be Windows 98 or Windows 98 SE.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by David Justice on July 8, 2009 at 4:59pm: Thanks a bunch! I am going to try to find, burn, and install Windows 98 now!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Maxime J on July 8, 2009 at 5:24pm: Don't forget to take second edition!!! :P
Don't know if you could still find any first edition though..; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ken on July 8, 2009 at 6:48pm: You could go to allbootdisk.com and get a bootable disk

NOTE: This not illegal.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Greg De Santis on July 8, 2009 at 6:54pm: http://www.allbootdisks.com/
You accidentally forgot the "s" after allbootdisk
Yes, these are good guys :-); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ken on July 8, 2009 at 6:55pm: Thanks for correcting me Greg :); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Greg De Santis on July 8, 2009 at 6:01pm: They were not readily available, you had to be an MSDN Developer or a TechNet or MSDN Plus edition subscriber or higher. You would get all of the operating systems on CD's and later DVD's.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by The 64-bit geek on July 8, 2009 at 9:39pm: I have a Windows 95 CD.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Zune80 on July 9, 2009 at 12:54pm: Yes, I have about 4 Windows 95 CD's with the various versions 95a 95b 95c etc. I also have a few CD's for Windows 3.11...that wasn't my point. All the CD's I just mentioned needed a floppy disk to boot before installing the rest of the OS with the CD.

The first Windows OS to boot off the CD without the need of any floppy disks was Windows 98 and Windows 98 SE.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by jake on July 9, 2009 at 6:23pm: windows nt 4.0 was the first to be bootable wasn't it; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Greg De Santis on July 8, 2009 at 5:58pm: Originally the first ones that I remember was the original Windows 95 (and MDSN / TechNet beta disks) back on 24 August 1995, when the first 1x CDROM drives became available for PC's.

And the other one I remember was Windows NT 3.5 also back on September 21, 1994. So I think that Windows NT 3.5 was in fact the first version of Windows to be released on CD. I believe that operating system CD distribution started with MSDN and TechNet CD's back in 1994, probably as a test run for the future consumer CD distributions.

I remember installing both Windows 95 and Windows NT 3.1, along with Windows 3.1 and 3.11 from floppy disks. Later I was able to acquire a cd only for Windows 95, but not for any Windows 3.x. I know much later that Microsoft user groups built .iso cd's with the various versions of Windows 3.x

I still have all of my old install disks for all of those old versions.

I believe that the first bootable / installable version of Windows was Windows NT 4.0 released in 29 July 1996.

I believe that the second bootable / installable version of Windows was the original Windows 98 first edition released on 25 June 1998 (actually it was the upgrade version that was released about two weeks before the Windows 98 full edition was released was the original Windows 98 Upgrade cd - I know because I got it on the day it was released); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Zune80 on July 9, 2009 at 12:56pm: By my memory Windows NT 4.0 needed 4 floppy disks to boot and then install off the CD. I ran it for years after NT 3.5. I'll have to go back and verify this, but I distinctly remember having the 4 boot disks before using the CD. Then again even though I had Windows NT Workstation, I always ran Windows NT 4.0 Server.; ▶ Reply to This