to have a program run before Windows boots

[Lance Edmonds]

Just to be clear, HPFS and NTFS are not the same thing, although they are "similar" in some respects.

I mentioned that there is no AUTOEXEC.BAT in NT/2000, but I should mention that there is no CONFIG.SYS either!

However, there is an CONFIG.NT and AUTOEXEC.NT that specifies the _default_ settings for a NTVDM (NT Virtual DOS Machine) - that is, a "windowed" DOS session that runs within NT/2000.

A shortcut for a DOS app can also specify customized/application-specific CONFIG.NT and AUTOEXEC.NT files, however, NT/2000 must be running, so they are not revelant to the dream of pre-boot DOS applications.



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Lance
PowerBASIC Support
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>

[Mike Luther]

Originally posted by Lance Edmonds:
Under NT/2000, there is no AUTOEXEC.BAT and since there is no
"boot to DOS option", it would not be possible to run a DOS app
before NT started up. Therefore, unless you were able to use a
boot disk, you'd never have to worry about the NTFS problem... <g>

You did allude to a horse-around in the second bullet! I don't
know anything about NT, but I think there are a couple of very
old DOS utilities on my BBS in the OS/2 stuff that will let you
read a HPFS file partition in DOS! If they work, one would assume
you could boot to DOS, run it, then go from there. Since that
wasn't the thrust of the question, I glossed over it in reference
to HPFS and OS2.

In OS/2, since a much-expanded thingee like this goes on all during
the CONFIG.SYS run, you could, effect what you want simply by
splicing the needed routine directly into the CONFIG.SYS .. That's
where doing the wrong thing can get you into big trouble anyway,
might as well go for more!



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Mike Luther
[email protected]

[Wayne Diamond]

i never said it was, but it runs before Windows sorry i should have stated more clearly


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[Lance Edmonds]

Bzzt! a Native Executable is not a DOS application...


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Lance
PowerBASIC Support
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>

[Wayne Diamond]

Lance,
Bzzt! They're called Native executables and Scandisk is one

There is a hello world Native example with C++ source and compiled executable in the zip at http://www.ntinternals.com
It prints "Hello world" on the blue Windows NT load screen

Wonder if PB/DLL or PB/CC would be able to make a native executable ???
I'd fall off my chair if it could

PS. I tried FirstBASIC while i was waiting for my PB/CC and PB/DLL registrations to go through , it's pretty cute but do I have any need for it now that I've got PBCC and DLL ?
Many thanks again,
Wayne



[This message has been edited by Wayne Diamond (edited October 25, 2000).]

[Lance Edmonds]

Under NT/2000, there is no AUTOEXEC.BAT and since there is no "boot to DOS option", it would not be possible to run a DOS app before NT started up. Therefore, unless you were able to use a boot disk, you'd never have to worry about the NTFS problem... <g>

OTOH, there are utilities around that enable reading {unencrypted?} NTFS partitions... I have no practical advice/experience to offer on these though.

As an experiment Wayne, why not download the shareware version of PowerBASIC 2.1 (it's called FirstBasic) - you can at least evaluate the ability to do what you need on Win9x boxes... you'll find it in the FILES section of the BBS... www.powerbasic.com/files/pub



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Lance
PowerBASIC Support
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>

[Wayne Diamond]

... BUT, just say I can create a program to run on a boot disk ... I can't read any files under NTFS, can I read files under FAT16 or FAT32 ?



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[Mike Luther]

It isn't a stupid question at all. It's a very, very good question.
Now as an OS/2 afficianado, maybe I have less of a 'current' reason
to want to do this than most WIN users might ought to! However,
a good look at how this is implemented can be found, I guess, in
what McAffee is doing if you enable a DISK SCAN for viri as things
come up before WIN loads.

I know the price paid for cleanliness is now up to about 20 minutes
before you ever get to see the WIN desktop on at least one McAffee
enabled such scanner. And, I'm not poking fun at WIN either with
the comment. If, for some reason, my current SCSI box with some
95000 files in about 4GB on it gets a bad shut down and still has the
dirty bit set that forces CHKDSK ... I have about the same 20 minutes
to wait before I'll see the OS2 Work Place Shell either. If I had
to scan for viri each time there .. it would be almost an hour before
I would ever get back to work ..

(Sidebar .. in a hospital. an ER? Geee...)

I've never tried it on any WIN-95/98 box. It seems almost certain,
one would suppose, that a plain old DOS based utility of any kind,
should ought to be able to be "run" in that brief loader window
that AUTOEXEC.BAT gives you before WIN loads! After all, we still,
in the world of DOS, remined of Wynn Waggner's quip in the old OPUS
FidoNet program docs, "Do you need help with trojans?"

GDRFC ...

Yes, I too would like to know the answer to your question... It might, for
example, be yet another way of sealing the bargain as to what is
installed on any WIN box is paid-for code and should be entitled to
run after WIN thinks it can .. Just an idle thought ..

Now I'll go back in my hole and hide to see who all else
posts what to you ...


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Mike Luther
[email protected]

[Wayne Diamond]

I currently am the extremely proud owner of both PB\DLL and PB\CC, but if I want to create a proggy that can run from say, a boot-disk BEFORE Windows loads, I'd need PB/DOS wouldnt I?? Apologies in advance for pathetically stupid question.


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