MDGx Tricks of Past Weeks

Tricks of Past Weeks - Part 3

Go to ALL WinDOwS ©Tricks + Secrets Contents

• 8-28-95 Win9x Original ©Trick in MYTIPS95.TXT, part of W95-11D.EXE:

2 DOS OR NOT 2 DOS

You might need, at some point, to exit Win95/98 to the plain ol' DOS (version 7.xx), to play a stubborn DOS game or to start a weird DOS application, that won't run from inside Win95/98 at a DOS prompt (with the vmm32 module loaded in memory).
That's because Win95/98 takes over your system's memory resources (even if it releases some for DOS programs, but not enough for some of them, and sometimes causes serious conflicts, especially video memory allocation conflicts, even locking up your system).
Example: a DOS game like "Magic Carpet" by Bullfrog, CANNOT BE PLAYED FROM INSIDE WIN95/98, AT A DOS PROMPT (try to use solution C described below, if B doesn't work).
Falcon 3.0 flight simulation on CD-ROM, on the other hand, requires at least 608 KB of free low DOS memory to start (Win95/98's "DOS-in-a-box" mode provides a maximum of 615 KB of free conventional memory, by using MS Win95/98's own memory managers, which could be insufficient for some "memory hungry" DOS programs/games to operate).

This is Microsoft's official list of DOS games that require native/real/true/pure MS-DOS mode to play properly under the Windows 9x OS:

So you have 3 solutions, to be able to run your favorite DOS programs/games under the Win95/98 OS:

Create custom AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files for each DOS program/game you want, replace the regular files with these ones (BUT BACK THEM UP FIRST!) and then reboot your computer with that particular configuration, only to run an app/game, and then reboot again with your old (original) files (time consuming), or:
Other DOS games, like "STNG: A Final Unity" by Spectrum Holobyte and "Magic Carpet" by Bullfrog, can be played through a custom PIF (MS-DOS Program Information File), from inside Win95/98, by allocating all conventional memory (600 KB or more) and at least 8 MB of extended memory to the PIF settings. For this to work you need to start each DOS program/game (after creating custom PIF files for them) from its own MS-DOS shortcut (give them suggestive names).
NOTE: If you'd like to have custom environment variables (SET lines), create a shortcut for WINSET.EXE (located on your Win95 Setup CD-ROM, in the \ADMIN\APPTOOLS\ENVVARS folder), and then enter any PATH= or/and SET <variable>= lines into the WINSET command line (and then restart Windows).
Good news: Bullfrog released the new "Magic Carpet 2" that can be played from within Win95/98's DOS box mode. Warning: this game requires at least 8 MB of free extended RAM to play in plain VGA mode, and 16 MB for high resolution (SVGA) graphics mode!
Lucas Arts' "The Dig" can also be played in a DOS session from inside Win9x/ME (with the appropriate PIF settings, detailed in the game's documentation). Or:
Try to get as much memory as you can, out of the Win95/98 GUI and JUST EXIT WINDOWS and start your DOS program/game, without rebooting.
When you're done with your DOS program/playing your favorite game, you can return anytime to the Win9x GUI interface by typing WIN and pressing Enter.
To make sure you CAN exit Win95/98 to the real/true DOS prompt (when you answered "Yes/OK" to "Restart the computer" from the Start button), you will HAVE to:
1. Add/modify the line below to read:
  SHELL=C:\COMMAND.COM C:\ /E:512 /L:128 /U:128 /P
  or something similar as the LAST line in your CONFIG.SYS. That is provided you have a copy of COMMAND.COM in your boot drive/partition root folder (C:\ is default).
  Copy COMMAND.COM from \WINDOWS\COMMAND to C:\ if it is not present there.
  If the PATH= line in your AUTOEXEC.BAT is pretty long (BTW: in MS-DOS 7.xx you CAN exceed the 127 character long path limit), change "/E:512" to "/E:1024" (in the example above), to make sure you can fit the entire PATH statement into the environment memory pool. You'll need something bigger than "/E:512" ONLY if you have VERY long PATH=, PROMPT= and/or SET WINPMT= and lots of other (lengthy) SET lines in your AUTOEXEC.BAT!
2. Move the files LOGOS.SYS + LOGOW.SYS from your Windows folder to any other location (e.g. create a special folder called C:\WINDOWS\LOGOS).
3. Add/modify these lines under the [Options] section of your MSDOS.SYS file:
  [Options]
  BootGUI=0 → To prevent the automatic start of Win95/98 GUI after processing AUTOEXEC.BAT;
  BootMulti=1 → Allows bootup with your ol' OS (MS-DOS 6.xx) as a choice (if you kept it when you installed Win95/98);
  BootKeys=1 → Startup keys enabled: F4-F8;
  BootWin=1 → Enables Win95/98 as OS;
  BootMenu=1 → Shows Boot menu options;
  BootMenuDefault=5 → To boot with the "Command prompt only" option (see the "Microsoft Windows 95 (98) Startup Menu" for complete details!);
  BootMenuDelay=3 → Delay in seconds until keypress if no option is chosen.
  When you boot with all these MSDOS.SYS options, you will be presented with the following startup screen (you'll have only 7 choices if you're not connected to a Network or to a TCP/IP provider).
  FYI: Microsoft removed the Startup Menu from Windows Millennium Edition (ME), but you can still access most of these options by hitting the "combo" keys at bootup.
  "Normal" (choice 1) allows you to boot into Win95/98 GUI, option 6 "Command prompt only" boots to MS-DOS prompt without loading the "WIN" module into memory (Win95/98 doesn't process the Registry), and if you want to boot with your ol' MS-DOS 6.xx, choose option 8.
  To be able to edit MSDOS.SYS, you need to change its attributes (Hidden, Read-only, System). Run these commands at a DOS prompt:
  ATTRIB +A -H -R -S C:\MSDOS.SYS
  EDIT C:\MSDOS.SYS
  ATTRIB -A +H +R +S C:\MSDOS.SYS
  or better, use my dedicated SYS95.BAT batch file, which automates all above operations.
4. Place all your DOS mode drivers/TSRs that you were running in the ol' DOS version 6.xx (if still using it), and that will be needed to run your DOS games (CD-ROM driver, Mouse driver, Sound driver, Smartdrv etc...) back into your AUTOEXEC.BAT + CONFIG.SYS [load them in upper memory with DEVICEHIGH in CONFIG.SYS and with LOADHIGH (LH for short) in AUTOEXEC.BAT].
  Start Win95/98 from a batch file (or from your AUTOEXEC.BAT), by including these lines:
  WIN.COM
  MODE CO80
  Now you're ready to reboot your system. The line "MODE CO80" above returns the DOS display to the default of 80 columns text video mode after you have shut down Windows.
  You can also create startup files with multiple bootup choices (in MS-DOS 6.xx fashion). For an example of multiple choices bootup, open my CONFIG.SYS file (included) with Notepad in Windows (or with EDIT.COM in MS-DOS). You will notice a difference, after booting straight to DOS mode with the new MSDOS.SYS, when you run "MEM /C/P": the module "WIN" is not in memory anymore, and you have only one instance of the "COMMAND" module loaded in upper memory (therefore you have more low RAM available, and with a little luck you can free up to 625 KB of conventional memory)!
  NOTE: Do NOT use my startup files as they are, you need to modify them to match your custom system settings!
5. Exit Win95/98: click "Shut down", select "Restart the computer" and answer "Yes/OK", for all above changes to take effect.
  From now on (after this first reboot), in order to run/play your favorite DOS programs/games, all you need to do is just "Shut down" Windows 95/98 using the default choice: "Shut down the computer". Then type WIN and press Enter when you're done in the MS-DOS mode.
  IMPORTANT: If running Win95 B/C OSR2 or Win98/98 SE on an ATX (ACPI enabled) motherboard, you need to apply the "WIN98 ATX SHUT DOWN FIX", also in TIPS98.TXT [part of W95-11D.EXE], to be able exit Windows to native MS-DOS, instead of shutting down your PC (default).

I found out that in this configuration, I can start ANY DOS program/game, and NOT run out of memory (625 KB of free low RAM is theoretically enough to run ANY DOS program/game), with ALL drivers/devices/TSRs loaded in upper memory (above the 640 KB limit), using Win95/98's own HIMEM.SYS + EMM386.EXE to dynamically allocate up to 32 MB of extended memory as expanded only when necessary (with the "AUTO" switch), and to provide all available Upper Memory Blocks (UMBs) for loading devices/TSRs in the Upper Memory Area (UMA), with the "RAM" switch. Example of such MS-DOS 7.xx memory management lines in CONFIG.SYS:

DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS /TESTMEM:OFF
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE I=B000-B7FF M3 D=256 RAM AUTO NOTR

The switch "NOTR" is not documented (prevents EMM386 from detecting a Token Ring Network Adapter, which detection may hang some machines at bootup).
"NOTR" is NOT enabled by default: you need to add it to the EMM386.EXE line yourself.

WARNING: Avoid the "HIGHSCAN" switch on the EMM386.EXE line! It could prove dangerous to your health: it may lockup your machine at bootup!
The "RAM" switch does the same job searching the Upper Memory Area (UMA) for unused UMBs (Upper Memory Blocks), and providing the system with all available UMBs, for loading devices high.

NOTE: For more info on HIMEM.SYS + EMM386.EXE parameters, read the text files CONFIG.TXT + MSDOSDRV.TXT located in your Windows folder, if you want to "mess" with your CONFIG.SYS + AUTOEXEC.BAT files, to adapt/tweak them to your system's needs.

STRONGLY RECOMMENDED: Read MEMORY.TXT [part of W95-11D.EXE], for complete details and memory management guidelines, to be able to MAXimize your free DOS memory!

LAST, BUT NOT LEAST: ALWAYS BACKUP YOUR FILES BEFORE MAKING ANY CHANGES!

More info: