Windows 9x (95/98/ME) and the Browser

When you have computers running Windows 9x (95, 98, or ME) on the same network with computers running Windows NT (NT, 2000, XP, Server 2003), you should expect browser problems (such as computers not visible, or "access denied", when trying to use Network Neighborhood). The rules for detecting the absence of the master browser ("Browse Master" in Windows 9x) vary between the 2 platforms. This leads to the problems when a working LAN of Windows 9x computers has a Windows XP computer added.


To stop the Windows 9x Browse Master:

  • Hit OK, and restart the system.





If you wish to diagnose this issue, and confirm that it's a problem first, you can run Browstat from any of the Windows NT (NT, 2000, XP, 2003) computers. Browstat won't run on Windows 9x (95, 98, ME) computers, but if you run browstat twice on each computer running NT, you can compensate for that. Run:

browstat status
browstat listwfw workgroup
where workgroup is the name of the workgroup of which this computer is a member, taken from the "browstat status" log.

For more information about Windows 9x browser issues, read the Microsoft white paper Browsing and Windows 95 Networking, or this Microsoft article (KB246489): Frequent Browser Elections When Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0 Configured in Workgroup.

For more information about the browser in general, read The NT Browser (or Why can't I always see all of the computers on the LAN?).

And for more issues relevant to the various operating systems, see Older Operating Systems - Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT

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