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Thousand Oaks
Personal Computer Club

How to Share CD-ROM Drives in Windows 95/98

If your CD-ROM drive breaks down, you can still install programs using someone else's drive (assuming both computers are on the network). Here are the steps to follow:

On your friend's computer:

  1. Put the CD-ROM into your friend's CD-ROM drive.
  2. Double-click on the "My Computer" icon on the desktop.
  3. Right-click on the CD-ROM icon.
  4. On the context menu, click "Sharing...;"
  5. To enable sharing, click "Shared As:"
  6. In the "Share Name", you can either leave it at the default (usually "D"), or give it a name like "CD-ROM". In this example, we'll leave it at "D".
  7. Click the OK button. Close "My Computer".

One more thing you need to know before going back to your computer is the name of your friend's computer. To find out:

  1. Right-click on the Network Neighborhood icon on the desktop.
  2. Click "Properties".
  3. Click on the "Identification" tab.
  4. The computer name is displayed in the "Computer Name" box. Write this down and close the Properties box.

On Your Computer:

Go back to your own computer. To run the setup program off the CD-ROM that's loaded on your friend's computer, do this:

  1. Click the "Start" button.
  2. Click on "Run..." Type the following (replacing "computer name" and "share name" as appropriate):
              \\<computer name>\<share name>\SETUP.EXE
    For example, if your friend's computer is named "MSMITH", and you shared the CD-ROM drive as "D", you would type:
              \\MSMITH\D\SETUP.EXE

Another way to access the CD-ROM on your friend's computer is to double-click the Network Neighborhood icon on the desktop. You should see a list of computers in your workgroup. Double-click your friend's computer. Then, double-click the shared CD-ROM drive. A list of files on the CD-ROM will be displayed. You can run a program by double-clicking on it. You can open other folders by double-clicking on them. Or, you can copy files to your computer by dragging them onto your desktop or into an open folder.

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