No config.sys with Windows ME

[Mike Doty]

Anyone know how to set FILES=50 or
more easily using Windows ME?
Windows ME doesn't use CONFIG.SYS
without changing the registry.


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[Sebastian Groeneveld]

I don't know anything about Windows NT or ME, but I know of some nice
utilities that come with QEMM, called FILES.COM, BUFFERS.COM and DEVICE.COM
Simply type "FILES 50" at the DOS prompt to change it.
(just for information, you can even load DOS drivers at the DOS
prompt with DEVICE.COM, like "DEVICE c:\win95\command\ansi.sys")

Mail me if you need any of them (only 6k in total)

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Sebastian Groeneveld
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>

[Lance Edmonds]

Are you sure that you can legally give those files away? Surely they require QEMM to operate, and if they are copyright, you'll be breaking the law in distributing them.

PowerBASIC do not condone software piracy!

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

[Gary Akins]

Correct on both counts, Lance. (So I suppose, legality aside, it doesn't matter if he e-mails the files to Mike or not, since they won't work anyway, but...)

Sebastian: When you install QEMM's memory manager system, it overrides DOS's handlers for those functions and takes control itself (with varying degrees of success, I might add). The programs you talk about don't actually change anything themselves; they just send signals to the QEMM memory manager, which attempts to comply with the request and then fool DOS into thinking that it was "always like this", and that nothing has actually changed. Those programs are not independant of QEMM, and will not work without the whole QEMM memory manager package being installed first. And yes, those files are commercial, copyrighted software; you cannot simply hand them around like baseball cards.

And QEMM will not, as far as I know, with Windows-ME anyway, so the whole thing is academic.

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[Mike Doty]

Looking for some PB/DLL or PB/CC to update the registry key.
Without it, programs needing a FILES statement may fail.


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[Tom Hanlin]

If Windows ME functions like Windows 2000 in this regard, you can still use CONFIG.SYS files, it's just that they're run for each DOS box rather than only at boot time. In Windows 2000, the default CONFIG.SYS can be set up through the _DEFAULT.PIF file in the C:\WINNT folder. You right-click on it, select Properties, Program tab, Advanced... button.

The corresponding folder would probably be C:\WINDOWS for Windows ME. Be advised that Explorer seems to hide the .PIF extension, even if you've told Windows not to hide extensions. Microsoft, feh. You might also look in the PIF folder off the Windows folder, if any.

Good luck, and let us know how it works out!

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Tom Hanlin
PowerBASIC Staff

[Mike Doty]

Unfortunately, it is a customers machine and
I may have to go out and buy a copy of ME to
get CONFIG.SYS to work. I'm sure others
will run into this problem soon.

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[Wyman A Belts]

Hi Mike,
My Windows ME has a hidden config.sys and autoexec.bat in the
C:\ Root directory. There's nothing in the config.sys file. I tried
putting in a FILES=50 and all I can tell you is that it didn't bomb.
Is there a way to verify that it worked, short of opening 50 files
from a dos program? If you'd like, we can do some real-time stuff
if you've got AOL Messenger or something. I know what a pain it is
to try and get info from customers like that. By the way, if you know
the registry entry you need to mess with, Semen put out a quick
and dirty registry routine for getting your program to Autoload on
start up. Good Luck, and let me know if there's anything I can do.


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[email protected]

[Alan Earnshaw]

We covered the Registry (and accessing it with PB/CC) in the Sep 99 issue of BASICally Speaking. I recommend you check out our (free) source code archives at http://www.infoms.com/archives.htm for the sample source code. If you need more information, you can purchase a copy of the back issue for $4.00.

Alan


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Alan C. Earnshaw
Information Management Systems, Inc.
http://www.infoms.com

[Mike Doty]

Registry.Bas is exactly what I was looking for!
At least I can ask the users if it is ok to
remove/rename a registry entry. Again, this
has got to be a big problem for many developers.


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[Sebastian Groeneveld]

Those programs are not independant of QEMM, and will not work
without the whole QEMM memory manager package being installed first.
And yes, those files are commercial, copyrighted software; you cannot
simply hand them around like baseball cards.

First of all, the utilities I was referring to (files.com, buffers.com and
device.com) can be used with or without QEMM... and as they do not require
QEMM to be installed I saw them as utilities that came with it, and I was
probably wrong, judging from your replies...
Btw, I never mentioned sharing the entire QEMM package.

Greetings,

------------------
Sebastian Groeneveld
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>

[Mike Doty]

Wyman,
My email address is mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>
and could easily send you a very small test
program to see if changing the hidden
config.sys helps. I've already received an
email that the registry has to be modified.
The machine that was used did not show any
changes to CONFIG.SYS after rebooting the system.

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[Mike Doty]

Bad news.
MSCONFIG does not have a config.sys tab in Windows ME.
Anyone know how to insert a line in CONFIG.SYS that
will stay after reboot like FILES=50

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[This message has been edited by Mike Doty (edited November 27, 2000).]

[Amos Vryhof]

You have a few options for this.

1.

ATTRIB "c:\config.sys", 0
changed%=0

NAME "c:\config.sys" AS "c:\config.bak"

rFil%=FREEFILE
open "c:\config.bak" for input as rFil%

wFil%=FREEFILE
open "c:\config.sys" for output as wFil%

do until eof(rFil%)
line input #rFil%, a$

if lcase$(left$(a$,5))="files" then
a$="files=50"
changed%=1
end if

print #wFil%, a$
loop

if changed%=0 then print #wFil%, "files=50"

close #rFil%
close #wFil%

ATTRIB "c:\config.sys", 7

2.

SHELL "ATTRIB c:\config.sys -r -h -s"
SHELL "echo files=50>>c:\config.sys"
SHELL "ATTRIB c:\config.sys +r +h +s"

I know it's a bit sloppy, but it works...


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Amos

[Mike Doty]

Have you tried this using Windows ME?
My programs already do this.

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[Mike Doty]

http://support.microsoft.com/support...t.com/support/ kb/articles/Q269/0/30.ASP?LN=EN-US&SD=gn&FR=0&qry=ms-dos&rnk=11&src=DHCS_MSPSS_gn_SRCH&SPR=WINME
Click Start
Click Run
Type SYSTEM.INI and press [Enter]
[386Enh]
PerVMFiles = 225 (add this line)

Note: 225 + (default of 30) = maximum of 255
Reboot

I've also posted this in the source code forum.
This is essential for many DOS programs using ME.
Windows ME does not read CONFIG.SYS.

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[This message has been edited by Mike Doty (edited November 28, 2000).]