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 Greg De Santis on July 9, 2009 at 3:22pm: Well I just checked both my Windows NT 4.0 Workstation and my Windows NT 4.0 Server CD's and Disks, and they both are bootable / installable CD's and Yes they did come with 4 boot floppies - but those floppies were for those really old PC's that did not have the BIOS to allow for booting from CD drive. Back in 1996 booting from a CD drive was a very brand new concept and not industry standard yet.

I just used two PC's to check / verify this, and they were via Microsoft Virtual PC and an old Pentium 3 650MHz - Both the NT 4.0 Workstation and Server cd's are bootable / installable. I did not need the floppies in my tests.

I also remember installing NT 4.0 from using only the CD and on those troublesome PC's using the floppy setup due to the PC not being able boot from a CD drive.

But I did have to use my boot / setup floppies with my Windows 3.5 Server. The Windows 3.5 Server CD is not a bootable one - not surprising seeing it was a full year and a half before BIOS was even invented / implemented for CD drive booting.

Those were the fun and interesting days. :); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Zune80 on July 9, 2009 at 5:55pm: Fair enough. I must have had a computer at the time that didn't allow me to boot CD's. That would explain it. :); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by jake on July 9, 2009 at 6:25pm: no all nt4 needed or my disk needs is a cd drive and an hard drive. nt 3.1, 3.5 and 3.51 needed 3 floppies
*edit* oh i didnt read the seccond page; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by HonRevJoWazzoo on July 9, 2009 at 4:07pm: Hey Greg ... I think you are right-on there. FWIW, I still have Visicalc v 1.1 disks, Lotus 1-2-3 v 1.0 disks and of course all the DOS disks going back to v. 1.1. [Note to self - must check Ebay.] My ser # on Compaq transportable is 1815 - which, yes, I still have. cheers.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Cookenstein on July 8, 2009 at 9:53pm: I think 98 or ME ?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ian Walker on July 9, 2009 at 6:55pm: Windows 3.11 on CD was not made available to the pubic so Windows 95 is the earliest you can get.

Windows 95 also came on 27 floppy disks :)

Take care.

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