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[Rogue]

It seems strange with that ? for used XMS memory. :blink:

Memory Type * * * *Total * * * Used * * * Free
---------------- *-------- * -------- * --------
Conventional * * * * *640K * * * *31K * * * 609K
Upper * * * * * * * * *59K * * * *59K * * * * 0K
Reserved * * * * * * *384K * * * 384K * * * * 0K
Extended (XMS) * * 64,453K * * * * *? * 129,752K
---------------- *-------- * -------- * --------
Total memory * * * 65,536K * * * * *? * 130,361K

Total under 1 MB * * *699K * * * *90K * * * 609K

Total Expanded (EMS) * * * * * * * * * 64M (67,108,864 bytes) *
Free Expanded (EMS) * * * * * * * * * *16M (16,777,216 bytes) *

Largest executable program size * * * 609K (623,104 bytes) *
Largest free upper memory block * * * * 0K * * * (0 bytes) *
MS-DOS is resident in the high memory area.

[DeathDude]

Yeah, what the?

[Rogue]

I figured it out.

Will write tomorrow more about it....

Time to go to bad.

[DeathDude]

Sounds good k:

[Rogue]

I installed windows 98 SE, and after installation I found sound and cd rom dos drivers. Installing those drivers in win98 lowered maximum size of program to run down to 550KB, so I had to load EMM386 to be able to use upper memory block for drivers.

But as soon as I changed config.sys and autexec.bat, some strange things happened with drivers and memory. To make it easy to understand, there is a conflict between windows memory management and DOS memory management.

To run properly DOS game in windows 98, you should not have to change your config and autoexec file, but create an shortcut, and change autoexec and config settings in there (load himem, emm386, cdrom driver, sound driver, mouse driver etc.)

After I created my own DOS shortcut, I copied it, making another be the same, except without CD rom drivers, as some games do not require CD rom drive.

Using this shortcut is similar to restart in MS-DOS mode, but it now loads all needed drivers, and by default it does not loads them.

Still got over 600KB to run DOS games, with sound, mouse and cd rom drivers, which is great for most of the games I like to play.

[Unknown Hero]

Can you explain a bit more how did you do that, please?

[Rogue]

Just for you buddy! k:


Firs of all, after installation, make a copy of your original autoexec.bat and config.sys. Some users might not be able to see system files! In that case you have to open ‘My Computer’, select ‘View’ from the menu toolbar, then select ‘Folder Options…’ at the bottom of the menu. Folder option window will open in ‘General’ tab, so change to ‘View’ tab and under options for hidden files select ‘Show all files’ and click OK.
Now, open C drive and create a copy of autoexec.bat and config.sys.

Both files should be empty, as windows takes care of drivers and memory, which is fine for windows games, but makes silent or unplayable DOS games.

Omit next step if you know exactly what hardware you have!

Get Everest Home Edition ( http://www.lavalys.com/ ), install it and run it. With this software you should be able to find all information about sound card, video card, network card (if any) and CD Rom drive. Use Google to search for DOS/Win95/Win98 drivers. After you install sound card and cd rom driver, most likely your autoexec.bat and config.sys will change. Notice those changes, and make sure you have a copy of new settings.

Now, open again C drive, Windows folder and find: ‘MS-DOS Mode for Games with EMS and XMS Support’. Copy this file to Desktop. Close all folders and select this file by right clicking on it, and go to properties.

New window will open in ‘General’ tab. ‘Font’, ‘Memory’, ‘Screen’ and ‘Misc’ should not have any selectable options! Select ‘Program’ tab. It should say MS-DOS Prompt on the top line, Cmd line should be: ‘C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM’ and Working directory should be ‘C:\WINDOWS’.

Click on ‘Advanced…’ button. New windows will pop-up with checkmark next to ‘MS-DOS mode’ and with selected ‘Specify new MS-DOS configuration’ radio button.

This two windows are CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files that you will edit. The files should look like this. (Copy them in notepad to edit them, and then from notepad back to this windows)

CONFIG.SYS

REM ******************************************************
REM ** Sample Windows 98 Program Information File
REM ** Optimize Conventional Memory (TPA)
REM ** Expanded (EMS) and Extended Memory (XMS) Support
REM ******************************************************


REM ** This example assumes C:\WINDOWS is the Windows directory
REM ** Modify the path to match your configuration

REM ** Increasing available TPA improves performance in MS-DOS mode
REM ** Load items high to increase available TPA
REM ** The order in which items are loaded may affect utilization of the UMA

REM ** Following are required to load items in upper memory
DOS=HIGH,UMB
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS
REM ** EMM386 can emulate EMS within XMS 
REM ** The RAM switch sets aside 64K of the UMA as a page frame for use with EMS
REM ** Using multiple of 1024, this example reserves an additional 4mb of XMS for EMS emulation
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE 4096 RAM

REM ** DEVICEHIGH= is required to load a device in upper memory
REM ** OAKCDROM.SYS is a IDE/ATAPI CD ROM driver
REM ** Copy OAKCDROM.SYS from Startup disk to C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND
REM DEVICEHIGH=C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\OAKCDROM.SYS /D:mscd001 

REM ** If compressed with DriveSpace
REM DEVICEHIGH=C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\DRVSPACE.SYS /MOVE

REM ** Install MS-DOS support for hardware in this environment

AUTOEXEC.BAT

REM ******************************************************
REM ** Sample Windows 98 Program Information File
REM ******************************************************

REM ** Set environment variables
SET TMP=c:\windows\TEMP
SET TEMP=C:\windows\TEMP
SET PROMPT=MS-DOS Mode $p$g
SET winbootdir=C:\WINDOWS
SET PATH=C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND

REM ** LH is required to load items in upper memory
REM ** MSCDEX is required to access the CD ROM in MS-DOS mode
REM ** Specify a CD ROM drive letter with /L:[drive letter]
REM ** Load MSCDEX file into EMS with /E 
REM LH C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\MSCDEX.EXE /D:mscd001

CLS
ECHO ******************************************************
ECHO ** * * Windows 98 MS-DOS Mode * * * * * * * * * * * **
ECHO ** * * Expanded Memory (EMS) Support * * * * * * * ***
ECHO ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ***
ECHO ** * * Type EXIT to return to Windows 98 * * * * * ***
ECHO ******************************************************

You already have all needed settings, as HIMEM, UMB, etc. Now, I changed emm to use 8MB instead of 4MB, so my line looks like this:

DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE 8192 RAM

As you can see, lines from your Autoexec.bar and Config.sys are not included here, so add them. Add missing lines in config.sys at the bottom of the file, and in autoexec part just above CLS command. When you done, copy configurations back to appropriate windows (if you are using notepad, as I am) and click OK on all windows, till you don’t close them all.

Now it’s time to try your DOS shortcut. Double click shortcut, and click ‘Yes’ on prompt when asked to continue to MS-Dos mode. Your computer will reboot, but instead of loading windows, it will load Windows 98 MS-DOS mode. This mode is different then one when clicking to shot-down to ms-dos mode, as this one loaded different autoexec.bat and config.sys. If you read autoexec.bat and config.sys now (you can open them by typing: ‘type c:\autoexec.bat’ or ‘type c:\config.sys’, you will notice that shortcut replaced empty one with one that we created. When you type EXIT, windows will move back old files with only installed driver lines (you can even remove this, if needed).

This way you can create multiple configuration, for example EMS mode, no EMS mode, with or without CD rom drive, mouse etc. Every mode will have different memory available.

Attached is screen shot what should look like after you run MS-DOS mode.

Using this method, I was able to run games that will not run under default MS-DOS, or with changed Autoexec.bat and Config.sys. As you can see from the first post, memory get messed up if you edit those default files, and windows will be unable to controll memory, and most importantly your system might become unstable. Using this method, I did not have any problems to run any game I hade, and my win98 side was very stable.

Hope this helps.

(It might be nice if I can create another instruction/tutorial from this post – if you guys find this helpful)

[Rogue]

Sorry for double post, but I liked to add another picture with mem command.

This version is withou drivers, just pure installation under VPC.

Oh, and one important NOTE!!!!

If you restart PC, by pressing CTRL + ALT + DEL, or if you turn off/on your PC, it still will load to this mode. You need to type ‘EXIT’ to go back to Windows mode.

If you got stuck for any reason, just edit Autoexec.bat and Config.sys files (delete all lines from them) and restart your computer. If you can’t get to DOS prompt, hit F8 after restart, and select safe mode, then edit those 2 files and reboot the computer again. This might happen only if you load bad driver or something like that.

[Rogue]

Just to add to bottom two posts that best mouse driver to load with this tutorial is Cute Mouse.

[The Fifth Horseman]

I remember that once I had to free up 620 or so KB EMS to run Flashback. Was hard, but I finally got how to do it (and along the way understood the workings of Config.sys and Autoexec.bat way more). :bye: