How to Install Internet Explorer 6 on Windows 95

[rthdribl]

I found my old custom IE6 install and, inspired by some thread here, decided to write a guide on how to install IE6 on Windows 95.
Few things to say before we start:
- it requires full (offline installer)versions of both IE5.5 and IE6
- it's not perfect and might crash for no reason
- it requires one file from IE 5.5
So, let's begin:

1. Create the directory \IE6 with your MSIE6 offline installation files
2. Find the ie6setup.exe file and extract it with 7-Zip to the directory \IE6\ie6setup
3. Edit the \IE6\ie6setup\homepage.inf file and replace all version references from 6.0 to 5.0
4. Edit the \IE6\ie6setup\iesetup.cif file
4a. Find the lines starting with the "Platform=" string
4b. Among these lines find the ones containing the "Win98" substring.
4c. Replace every occurence of the "Win98" with "Win95,Win98"
4d. You can change the UIVISIBLE=0 string to UIVISIBLE=1 to get more installation options. But be careful, it will only work if your offline installation source is full. And not every available one is. For example, if you enable Uniscribe and have no USP10.CAB, the Active Setup will try to download it from the internet, and fail, terminating the installation proces prematurily.
5. Create the directory \IE5 with your MSIE5 offline installation files
6. Find the ie5setup.exe file and extract it with 7-Zip to the directory \IE5\ie5setup
7. Rename the file \IE6\ie6setup\ie6wzd.exe to ie6wzd.bak
8. Copy the \IE5\ie5setup\ie5wzd.exe to the \IE6\ie6setup directory
9. Rename that ie5wzd.exe file to ie6wzd.exe
10. Extract the CAB files from each \IE5\IE_S*.CAB files. You will get the IE_*.CAB files
11. Extract the IE_1.CAB file to the \IE5\Rescue directory. It's a composite Cabinet file, so extracting it will extract all the files from IE_*.CAB
12. Copy the contents of the \IE6\ie6setup directory to the \IE6 directory itself
13. Start the \IE6\ie6wzd.exe setup file and install Internet Explorer 6. Ignore the warnings, if they show up. They might not.
14. The setup will ask you to reboot your computer. Do it and prepare to get some error messages we'll need to deal with.

After the reboot, you'll see that browseui can't initiate. IEDKCS32.dll and loadwc will also threaten you with crash alerts. To fix this, we need to restore the browseui.dll component from IE 5.5 - this is not the browser engine, but a shell component. Unfortunately, it's quite essential. That's why we prepared the Rescue directory.
15. Copy the browseui.dll file from \IE5\Rescue to the C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory and agree to replace the system file with the older version. Reboot.
16. Loadwc will still complain, but start the IE icon. There might be some weird effects, but more-less it works!


This is not a reliable installation. There really are some points at which IE6 on 95 acts weird or just crashes horribly. But the installation is, as you can see, quite possible.

[LoneCrusader]

Thanks for the tutorial!

From your VM screenshot I assume you were using Windows 95 RTM/A rather than OSR2.x B/C?

It might? work better under OSR2 than under RTM.

[rthdribl]

Common Controls and multiple components got updated in this RTM install, so I don't think it would make a significant difference.
Also, I tried it in OSR 2.5 few years ago with exactly the same effects, so yeah.

[WinPC]

Very interesting tutorial, thanks for this!

I was pretty sure, though, that I saw Internet Explorer 6.0 installed on Windows 95 once, quite a while ago, but I forgot where the web address was (I originally thought that it was WinHistory.de, but I couldn't find it there either, so apparently, it must have been a different website).

But anyway, I'm not really surprised that Internet Explorer 6.0 can be installed on Windows 95 in this setup, due to how it is so close to Internet Explorer 5.5. However, I still find this to be quite interesting for those who are heavily interested in the Windows 9x line, since we need more of those topics in my opinion (just as with topics relating to other operating systems and versions).

[George_528]

Oh, thanks for tutorial! I said told that it is possible install IE6 on W95.

[comeburstingtheconcrete]

You can install IE6 on Windows 95?? Wow. I honestly didn't expect that, but I just tried it in a VM, and it works fine. Thanks for the tip!

[cantasan99]

I don't recommend it, but good tutorial.

[BLASR24]

Haha I will have to try this out someday. Is it possible with later versions like 7.0?

[cantasan99]

Haha I will have to try this out someday. Is it possible with later versions like 7.0?

You may crash your system...

[George_528]

Nope, IE7 and later requires stable internet connection.

[LoneCrusader]

IE6 on 95 is one thing. I doubt that there are very many "real incompatibilities" between IE6 and 95. Probably many of the problems are "false incompatibilities" introduced on purpose by Microsoft.

However, as far as I know, it is not even possible to run IE7 on Windows 2000, much less any 9x system.
(Who wants ugly IE7 and later anyway? )

[rthdribl]

IE7 links to NTDLL, so it's next to impossible to make it run on Windows 95. Also, it was compiled with that paranoid switch, introduced in XPSP2 that causes any DLLs to fail at 2000 or XPSP1.

Offtopic Comment

What am I talking about? Look at the QFECHECK in Windows 98 and you'll see that it was possible to use libraries from 2003 to make patches for 98. It stopped after XP SP2 and the switch was, if I remember correctly, /GS.

The browseui error is caused by the lack of Windows Desktop Update, it's not a forced incompatibility. The support for 95 just ended, but I also think that MS should have released IE6 for 95. Versions 5.50 and 6.0 are really similar, the latter was even referenced as 5.60 for some time, so it really wasn't that hard *cough* Office XP *cough*.

[George_528]

So, you make Internet Explorer 6 on Windows 95 named "Internet Explorer 5.6"

[LoneCrusader]

The browseui error is caused by the lack of Windows Desktop Update, it's not a forced incompatibility. The support for 95 just ended, but I also think that MS should have released IE6 for 95. Versions 5.50 and 6.0 are really similar, the latter was even referenced as 5.60 for some time, so it really wasn't that hard *cough* Office XP *cough*.

The Desktop Update can be installed and is supported on 95, so it may in fact prevent that particular error. This is why I suggested OSR2 before, and I would also do sequential installations - IE4.01 SP2 + Desktop Update, then IE5.5 SP2, then attempt to install a modified IE6. Using the most updated version of 95 possible may reduce the chances of error.

Of course unlike most 95 users, I prefer the "Desktop Update" shell to the 95 one. I disable "Active Desktop" junk but I couldn't live without my Quick Launch bar.

[Lukas Marsik]

Cool guide, might experiment one time

[OltScript131]

Would especially need to try Internet Explorer 7.0 and Windows 98 !

[Lukas Marsik]

Would especially need to try Internet Explorer 7.0 and Windows 98 !

Pro-tip: Read the thread before you reply.

[ExplicitNuM5]

1) Isn't it impossible to install IE7 on DOS-based Windows?
2) Which Operating System natively supported IE6 update? Was that Win98 or Win95?
3) Good writeup!!!

[Lukas Marsik]

1) Isn't it impossible to install IE7 on DOS-based Windows?
2) Which Operating System natively supported IE6 update? Was that Win98 or Win95?
3) Good writeup!!!

1. No. It was already mentioned in the topic anything below XPSP2 couldn't work with it.
2. As obviously this topic shows you how to install it on W95, it's using common sense which helps you realize the OS which supported it out-of-box first was W98.

[Anixx]

Is it possible somehow to install IE6 on to Windows 7 x64? Preferably, the x64 IE6 version? I need to use it as a file manager, not as a browser.

[x010]

Is it possible somehow to install IE6 on to Windows 7 x64? Preferably, the x64 IE6 version? I need to use it as a file manager, not as a browser.

That's be difficult , but I think that it's possible... mostly by modification of files for tricking.

[ExplicitNuM5]

1) Are you sure Windows 98 is the first to natively contain IE 6? Don't post without thinking, Lukas. It's XP, and that was my bad that I forgot.

2)Anixx, it is possible to install IE 6 x32 onto Win7, albeit non-directly. Do it via Win7 Pro and Pro VPC. But I don't think there is a IE6 x64.

[Lukas Marsik]

1) Are you sure Windows 98 is the first to natively contain IE 6? Don't post without thinking, Lukas. It's XP, and that was my bad that I forgot.

You said supported, not contained

[ExplicitNuM5]

And I also said NATIVELY. Never mind about that, I don't want to get this thread close.

[x010]

2)Anixx, it is possible to install IE 6 x32 onto Win7, albeit non-directly. Do it via Win7 Pro and Pro VPC. But I don't think there is a IE6 x64.

There is an IE6 x64. For Windows XP x64 editions. However , you cannot install it though VPC as it does not feature 64-bit capability.