MANAGING MS-DOS MODE

To properly use MS-DOS mode, you'll need drivers activated for the mouse, CD-ROM drive and soundcard, AND you'll need to optimize the memory. Furthermore you need to be sure your hardware is compatible with DOS (see below).

PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS

  • The DOS driver for the CD-ROM drive will be on a diskette supplied by the CD-ROM drive manufacturer. If you don't have the diskette, and it is an IDE device, any other IDE CD-ROM driver will probably work. If you don't have a diskette at all, you can download a generic IDE driver. This is a self-extracting zip file (extract under Windows) containing VIDE-CDD.SYS which is the name of the actual driver. Readme instructions are available in 5 languages.
  • The mouse driver is probably a file called mouse.com or something like that and should be on the diskette that came with the mouse. Microsoft-compatible drivers can be interchanged (usually) and so can Logitech drivers for different Logitech mice (usually). Remember that things like a wheel won't work in DOS. The driver from the Microsoft FTP site will work for not only Microsoft mice, but many others as well, including some Logitech mice (many are actually Microsoft compatible). Also, PS2 mice are pretty much interchangeable with each other.
  • Your motherboard should have at least one ISA slot for a soundcard. If you also want an internal modem to work under DOS or Linux, you should have at least TWO ISA slots.
  • Most modern sound cards automatically install an initialization for DOS mode in the C:\WINDOWS\DOSSTART.BAT file when they are installed. Generally, all the ISA cards will work fine, but PCI sound cards have a nasty tendency to not work in MS-DOS mode because DOS can't recognize them. They require translation software to fool DOS into thinking there's an ISA card present. If the card (e. g. Ensoniq-PCI) has the translation software to emulate what the DOS programs want, they may work for SOME programs but at a performance cost. If DOS compatibility is an issue, I recommend the Soundblaster 16 ISA-PNP. This registers with a PNP BIOS (and Linux) as a VibraX16. Other quality ISA cards emulating a SoundBlaster 16 (NOT SOUNDBLASTER PRO, which is an inferior standard) should work well. Anything higher (AWE-32, 64, etc is just overkill for what DOS programs generally want and will NOT improve upon 16-bit CD quality sound.
  • If you're relying upon any DOS software using a modem, you'll need to be sure you're NOT using a Winmodem. If push comes to shove, just install an external modem on COM2. (You can also use COM1 provided you're NOT using a serial mouse on COM1).
  • You'll also need memory-management software. For Microsoft's, you'll need the files HIMEM.SYS and EMM386.EXE, which should already be on the system. You'll need to know the location of the MSCDEX.EXE file. Because of copyright restrictions, only Microsoft can LEGALLY distribute MSCDEX.EXE, which is why it is NOT supplied on the diskettes that come with the CDROM drive. You'll also need three additional files -- MEMMAKER.EXE, CHKSTATE.SYS and SIZER.EXE. These can be found on the ORIGINAL Windows-95 CDROM (copyright date 1981-1995) NOT the OSR-2 version or Windows-98. Alternatively, you can use the three files of that name from DOS 6.x. Althogh the dates are different, they are the same files. Even if you are using Windows-95 OSR-2 or Windows-98, these files will still work.

    TO START MANAGING MS-DOS MODE first start Windows

  • Copy the files MEMMAKER.EXE, CHKSTATE.SYS and SIZER.EXE into the C:\WINDOWS directory. Be sure that HIMEM.SYS and EMM386.EXE are there also. Be sure that MSCDEX.EXE is in the C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND directory.
  • Double-click My Computer. Click View at the top. Click the View tab. Make sure that Show all files is dotted, and that Hide file extensions for known file types is NOT checked. Then click OK and double click C: Look for the file Msdos.sys. Right click it and click Properties. Uncheck the Read-only attribute. Click OK. Right-click the file again. Click Open With. Select NOTEPAD. With Notepad, insert the following lines at the beginning of the Options section
    BootMenu=1
    BootMenuDefault=6
    In Notepad then click on File / Save
  • Click on Start / Shutdown / Restart. When Windows restarts, it will show a menu with several options. It should be on 6-Command Prompt Only. On some systems, this will be number 5. If so, hit the 5 key and when you get the C: prompt, Edit the MSDOS.SYS file to set BootMenuDefault=5.

    NOW FOR THE DOS PART

  • Create a subdirectory of of C: (MD BATCH). For safety's sake copy the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files to that directory.
  • If you don't have a CONFIG.SYS file, make one.
    COPY CON CONFIG.SYS
    DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS /TESTMEM:OFF
    DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS
    FILES=30,0
    BUFFERS=30
    DOS=HIGH
    DOS=UMB
     [Hit Ctl-Z (saves the file)]
  • If you don't have an AUTOEXEC.BAT file, make one.
    COPY CON AUTOEXEC.BAT
    @ECHO OFF
    PROMPT $P$G
    PATH=C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND
     [Hit Ctl-Z (saves the file)]
  • Type EDIT C:\WINDOWS\DOSSTART.BAT [Enter]. Arrow the cursor all the way up, then hold the Shift key and press the down arrow key until all the lines are highlighted. Release the shift key and type [Alt] [E] [C] (Alt-Edit-Copy). Type [Alt] [F] [O] (Alt-File-Open). Tab till you see the cursor at the top of the file name list. Hit the Down-arrow key. It should light up the first file name. Arrow down till you see AUTOEXEC.BAT. Hit Enter. In the AUTOEXEC.BAT file, arrow down to the end and type [Alt] [E] [P] (Alt-Edit-Paste). Save the edited AUTOEXEC.BAT file and exit. Next, rename the DOSSTART.BAT file to DOSSTART.OLD (The command is REN DOSSTART.BAT DOSSTART.OLD)
  • Likely you transferred over your soundcard initialization command for DOS. Anyway, restart your system and find out if your mouse and CDROM work. You can test the mouse by typing EDIT [any filename, even a non-existent one] and find out if your mouse works. You can test your CDROM by typing its letter (e. g. D:) and (with a CD in place) type DIR.
  • If your CDROM doesn't work, insert its installation disk and type A:\INSTALL. You might have to tell it where the MSCDEX.EXE file is. Follow directions and reboot. It should now work. If your drive is IDE, and you lost your install diskette, usually any other IDE CDROM driver will work. If you don't have a diskette at all, you can download a generic IDE driver. If per chance your system has more than one hard drive recognized by Windows, you'll also need to edit your CONFIG.SYS file to manually enter the line
    LASTDRIVE=X where X is defined by C: plus the number of extra hard drives PLUS the number of CDROM drives. Otherwise MSCDEX won't have a drive letter available to assign it. (Note -- if your machine is networked, you'll need LASTDRIVE=Z)
  • If your mouse doesn't work, make sure there is a MOUSE.EXE or MOUSE.COM file in the MOUSE subdirectory (get one if you don't have one) and add the line C:\MOUSE\MOUSE at the end of your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. When you restart, your mouse should work.
    If you don't have a mouse driver try downloading one from the Microsoft FTP site

    • NOW FOR MEMMAKER

  • When you start up and execute the MEM command, you'll probably only get about 500K free conventional memory.
  • Type MEMMAKER [Enter]Answer the questions as follows
    Express Setup
    No to the question of whether you have programs using expanded memory
    IT IS IMPORTANT NOT TO ENABLE EXPANDED MEMORY EVEN IF YOU HAVE PROGRAMS REQUIRING IT. DO THIS AFTER YOU HAVE COMPLETED THE STEPS ON THIS PAGE BY CLICKING ON THE LINK AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE.
    Memmaker should restart your system twice, and tell you its changes
  • You should have about 625K available. If not, edit the CONFIG.SYS file, removing all X= references in your EMM386 line, and changing DEVICEHIGH xxxx= lines to DEVICE=. Next edit the AUTOEXEC.BAT file, and change the /M parameter in the MSCDEX line to a lower number (try 10 or 16). This reduces the number of sector buffers used by the CDROM drive. Edit out the LH-xxx in front of the CD and mouse lines. Restart your computer and rerun MEMMAKER
  • IF YOU KNOW YOU WILL BE SETTING UP A MULTIPLE CONFIGURATION FILE SKIP THE STEPS BELOW (they will be done later) and click on the link at the bottom of the page.
  • When finished, move the mouse line, the CDROM line and the Soundcard initialization lines from the AUTOEXEC.BAT to the C:\WINDOWS\DOSSTART.BAT file that you will create anew (remember you saved the old file under the name DOSSTART.OLD). Next, edit the MSDOS.SYS file, removing the BootMenu=1 and BootMenuDefault lines.
  • Windows will now start normally, and you should be able to run almost all MSDOS mode programs when you "Restart in MS-DOS mode". Don't forget to put back the Read-only attribute in the Msdos.sys file.
  • A few older programs (mostly pre-1995) use expanded memory. If you encounter any error messages about expanded memory, set up a multiple configuration file on startup so that you can select whether to enable expanded memory on startup. Instructions on how to do so can be found by clicking on the link at the bottom of this page. DO NOT ALLOW EXPANED MEMORY IN A DEFAULT CONFIGURATION BECAUSE A FEW WINDOWS PROGRAMS WILL CRASH IF EXPANDED MEMORY IS TURNED ON. Most notably I found this to occur when I tried to upgrade a 95 computer from IE3 to IE4. And if you crash during an IE4 install, you'll end up reinstalling Windows from scratch.

    • CLICK HERE TO SET UP A MULTIPLE CONFIGURATION FILE, EITHER TO ALLOW FOR EXPANDED MEMORY OR FOR OTHER REASONS.