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. 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 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"