| MSDOS.SYS | Starting with DOS7.0 that is bundled under the Win95 interface, the MSDOS.SYS file is an ASCII file just like the autoexec.bat or config.sys. What this means, of course, is that you can edit this file with your favorite text editor. Just remember to first remove the read-only, system and hidden attributes first. The [Options] segment may contain the following: | |
| BootMulti | 0=Boot only to Windows9x (default) 1=Allows for a dual boot | |
| BootWin | 0=Boot to previous version of DOS 1=Boot to Winders9x (default) | |
| BootGUI | 0=Boot only to the command prompt (ie realmode DOS only) 1=Boot to Windows9x with the GUI (default). | |
| BootMenu | 0=Don't display the Startup Menu (default) 1=Display the Startup menu (my preference) | |
| BootMenuDefault | 1 thru 8; The number corresponds to the Startup menu number | |
| BootMenuDelay | n= Number of seconds before Microsoft consumes your soul. Er, before the default menu item is autoselected. | |
| BootKeys | 0=Disable the F keys during boot (a meager plea to lock a workstation) 1=Allowed to press F4, F5, F6, F8, Shift+F5, CTRL+F5, Shift+F8 or Panic Key during boot (default) | |
| BootDelay | n= Number of seconds before there is another Microsoft Update. Also, the number of seconds your machine will wait for you to press an F key (if you disable bootkeys, make this 0)-default is 2 | |
| Logo | 0=Leave the screen in text mode (note: you can also press ESC during boot up to rid your screen of the logo) 1=Display the splash screen (a bmp file named logo.sys). A neat trick is to replace logo.sys with a bitmap of Linux Wallpaper. And do this to someone else's PC. Or better yet, make it say "Starting Windows 2003.." | |
| Drvspace | 0=Don't load the drvspace.bin 1=Load drvspace.bin if it is there (default, but disable as you should not be compressing your drive. Buy a new drive already...like from domain-logic.com ;) | |
| DoubleBuffer | 0=Don't use double buffering for SCSI drive 1=Enables Double buffering for SCSI drive. | |
| Network | 0=Do not include network option in startup menu 1=Include a SafeMode with networking option in the startmenu. Note:this does not disable networking for Windows | |
| BootFailSafe | 0=Removes Safe Mode from startup menu 1=includes Safe Mode in startup menu (default) | |
| BootWarn | 0=don't warn before booting into Safe Mode 1=Please warn me | |
| LoadTop | 0=Don't load command.com at top of conventional memory (use if you have memory conflict here) 1=Load command.com at top of conventional memory (default) | |
| Config.sys | The role of the config.sys is to load TSRs (terminate and stay resident programs) each time your machine boots. The proper syntax is to say:
device=mtmcdai.sys You can also say devicehigh= if you are looking for more granular control over your memory. Loading drivers in the config.sys is not usually recommended in Win9x (which means Windows 95 or Windows98). Who wants to load real-mode drivers, when protected mode offer twice the performance? You still may want to load a device in cases where that CDRom drive is not recognized. Note: this may happen because of your secondary IDE channel not being recognized properly. | |
| Autoexec.bat | The autoexec.bat file is a batch file that automatically loads each time your PC boots. The autoexec.bat, like any other batch file, is simply a list of commands that you could type at the DOS prompt one at a time. It is like a todo list. You only have to tell the system to run that one file and it has to go line by line and execute each program that you listed out. This initially saved time in DOS so that your mouse and sound card support programs would work automatically. Its use has been depricated in Win9x except to load AntiVirus scans before Windows loads or to run utilities that are not supported in Windows. | |
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Copyright 2001, Randall Perry