Do I still need CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT? Intended For Windows Me Windows 98 Windows 95 For the most part, neither of thes files are needed. Windows 95 and 98: Ideally, you should delete CONFIG.SYS altogether, and should have nothing but your PATH in AUTOEXEC.BAT (Windows 95/98 only). Generally, your CONFIG.SYS file (left over from previous versions of Windows) may include drivers for your disk cache, CD-ROM, sound card, syquest drive, scanner, as well as a myriad of parameters like Files=50, Buffers=20, and so on. If you delete this file, Windows will simply load its own drivers for all these. The exception is a device that doesn't have a Windows driver, although (1) it's unlikely, and (2) it's probably not worth keeping. Windows Me, 2000, and XP: These files aren't used at all in Windows Me, 2000, and XP, and can be safely deleted. This article has been recently supported by and featured on this Internet Webhosting Guide Written by: Annoyances.org Last updated: Friday, August 10, 2001 Care to discuss this article with other Windows users? Select your operating system here, and click Continue to post your question. - Choose your OS -Windows 7Windows Server 2008Windows VistaWindows Server 2003Windows XPWindows 2000Windows MeWindows 98Windows 95 Previous discussions about this article: (open a message to see applicable responses, if any) [Windows ME] Question about 'Do I still need CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT?' (John S Mathwin: Thursday, August 16, 2001) [Windows 98] Question about 'Do I still need CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT?' (David Service: Thursday, September 6, 2001) [Windows ME] Question about 'Do I still need CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT?' (stan: Tuesday, September 11, 2001) [Windows 95] Question about 'Do I still need CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT?' (feroz: Wednesday, September 19, 2001) [Windows 98] Question about 'Do I still need CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT?' (Rick Singleton: Wednesday, October 10, 2001) [Windows 2000] Question about 'Do I still need CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT?' (Changping Xie: Sunday, January 13, 2002) [Windows 95] Question about 'Do I still need CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT?' (Jason: Wednesday, January 16, 2002) [Windows 98] Question about 'Do I still need CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT?' (Melissa Bailey: Saturday, January 19, 2002) [Windows ME] Question about 'Do I still need CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT?' (JohnE: Saturday, January 26, 2002) [Windows 98] Question about 'Do I still need CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT?' (Dave Boehr: Thursday, May 9, 2002) [Windows XP] Question about 'Do I still need CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT?' (ohlord: Friday, May 17, 2002) [Windows XP] Question about 'Do I still need CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT?' (Elvis Pack: Thursday, July 4, 2002) [Windows XP] Info about 2000/XP not quite right (Allen Ziegenfus: Tuesday, August 20, 2002) [Windows XP] Question about 'Do I still need CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT?' (Tom: Wednesday, September 25, 2002) [Windows 98] Question about 'Do I still need CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT?' (Jim Bilow: Saturday, October 19, 2002) [Windows 98] Question about 'Do I still need CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT?' (Mel Walters: Thursday, October 24, 2002) [Windows 98] computer hangs during startup on autoexec.bat file (CHARLES : Thursday, November 14, 2002) [Windows Me] Question about 'Do I still need CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT?' (Rod Gayford: Sunday, November 24, 2002) [Windows 2000] specifying the application programs that should start with system startup? (aruna: Wednesday, November 27, 2002) [Windows 98] Question about 'Do I still need CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT?' (paul: Thursday, December 5, 2002) [Windows 2000] Question about 'Do I still need CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT?' (RiChard Mikobi: Tuesday, January 7, 2003) [Windows Me] Memory Manager in Windows Me (Jean-Jérôme: Wednesday, January 15, 2003) [Windows XP] Question about 'Do I still need CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT?' (Leslie Wilson: Tuesday, January 21, 2003) [Windows XP] Question about 'Do I still need CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT?' (Amit Bajpai: Thursday, March 20, 2003) [Windows Me] Question about 'Do I still need CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT?' (A KUMAR: Tuesday, April 29, 2003) [Windows 98] For those running 95 and 98: Keep these files (Phoenix: Thursday, May 8, 2003) [Windows 98] Question about 'Do I still need CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT?' (Bernie Reilly: Saturday, August 2, 2003) [Windows 98] Question about 'Do I still need CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT?' (B. Stone: Thursday, September 4, 2003) [Windows Me] Question about 'Do I still need CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT?' (Charles Kunz: Thursday, September 11, 2003) [Windows 2000] Question about 'Do I still need CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT?' (John: Friday, October 24, 2003) [Windows 98] Question about 'Do I still need CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT?' (Steve: Saturday, December 27, 2003) [Windows Me] Question about 'Do I still need CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT?' (steve medley: Tuesday, February 17, 2004) [Windows 98] I can only get win98 to load in safe mode. I need advice? (Diana: Monday, June 7, 2004) [Windows 98] Question about 'Do I still need CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT?' (marc paskvan: Tuesday, September 21, 2004) [Windows XP] Formated computer and tried to install windows XP but got the error "Invalid System Disk" CONFIG.SYS missing, what to do (Ronald: Wednesday, December 8, 2004) [Windows XP] Question about 'Do I still need CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT?' (punkerjim: Tuesday, March 22, 2005) [Windows 98] i can't find the right driver for sound. (john l howe: Sunday, October 23, 2005) [Windows 98] I deleted files necesary to start windows (Eric: Tuesday, April 11, 2006) [Windows XP] Where do I set the FILES and BUFFER parameters in Windows 2000/XP (adeola: Wednesday, October 18, 2006) Return to "Troubleshooting"