WINDOWS 95 and DOS games

                     From Alex van Kaam

It seems that a lot of people have trouble running older DOS games
through Windows 95.

Before I get into that it is I think better to tell you what
happens to your old DOS 6.2/Windows 3.11 setup when you install
Windows 95.

Let's see what happens when you boot up your DOS 6.2/Windows 3.11
system.  (As an example I'll use my bootup files, so your files
may look a bit different)

First DOS loads your Config.sys file:

>Device=c:\dos\himem.sys
>Device=c:\dos\emm386.exe ram highscan
>Dos=umb
>Dos=high
>Buffers=30
>Files=40
>Lastdrive=G
>Devicehigh=c:\cdrom\mtmcdai.sys /d:mtmide01 /a:0
>Devicehigh=c:\e_ide\cmd640x.sys /a50 /l
>Country=031,437,c:\dos\country.sys
>Devicehigh=c:\dos\ansi.sys

After this DOS will load your autoexec.bat file:

>@echo off
>Set blaster=a220 i5 d1 h5 p330 e620 t6
>Set sound=c:\sb16
>Set midi=synth:1 map:e mode:0
>Set dircmd=/o/p
>C:\sb16\diagnose /s
>C:\sb16\aweutil /s
>C:\sb16\sb16set /p
>Prompt [MS-DOS] $P$G
>Path c:\dos;c:\windows;c:\sb16
>Loadhigh c:\dos\mscdex.exe /d:mtmide01
>Loadhigh c:\dos\smartdrv.exe /x
>Loadhigh c:\dos\doskey.com
>Loadhigh c:\mouse\lmouse.com

Once this is done you either run your DOS game or load Windows
3.11.

Now if you install Windows 95 you install a new version of Windows
but also a new version of DOS, DOS 7.

There will also be some files added to your boot up sequence but
these are not important at this point, what is important if you
want to run DOS only games is that Windows 95 will take out
several lines from your Autoexec.bat file.

These lines load drivers that Windows 95 does not need, like your
mouse driver and the ms cd-rom extension (mscdex.exe).



So once Windows 95 is installed the Config.sys and Autoexec.bat
files will look a bit like this:

Config file:

>Device=c:\windows\command\himem.sys
>Device=c:\windows\command\emm386.exe ram highscan
>Dos=umb
>Dos=high
>Buffershigh=30
>Fileshigh=40
>Lastdrive=G
>Devicehigh=c:\cdrom\mtmcdai.sys /d:mtmide01 /a:0
>Devicehigh=c:\e_ide\cmd640x.sys /a50 /l
>Country=031,437,c:\windows\command\country.sys
>Devicehigh=c:\windows\command\ansi.sys


Autoexec.bat file:

>@echo off
>Set blaster=a220 i5 d1 h5 p330 e620 t6
>Set sound=c:\sb16
>Set midi=synth:1 map:e mode:0
>Set dircmd=/o/p
>C:\sb16\diagnose /s
>C:\sb16\aweutil /s
>C:\sb16\sb16set /p
>Prompt [MS-DOS] $P$G
>Path c:\windows;c:\windows\command;c:\dos;c:\sb16
>Loadhigh c:\windows\command\doskey.com
>(loading windows 95 straight away more on this later)

Dosstart.bat file:

>Loadhigh c:\dos\mscdex.exe /d:mtmide01
>Loadhigh c:\dos\smartdrv.exe /x
>Loadhigh c:\mouse\lmouse.com

As you can see several lines are gone, Windows 95 has copied these
lines into a file called Dosstart.bat in the Windows directory.
As you can also see, lines that used to say C:\dos now say
C:\windows\command, This is because most programs/commands in your
C:\dos directory will only run in DOS 6.2 and not 7 so all the
replacement programs/commands are now located in
C:\windows\command.  This is not really a problem to you since in
the path command the C:\windows\commands directory is located
before the C:\dos directory.  Only if you run a program/command
straight from the C:\dos directory you will get a wrong version
error.

So if you want to run a DOS only program there are roughly 3 ways.

1) shut down to DOS:

Press 'Start' ----> 'Shut Down' ----> 'Restart the computer in
MS-DOS mode'

Which will shut down Windows and return you to the real DOS
prompt, so not just a window.  When Windows is loading the real
DOS prompt for you it will also run the Dosstart.bat file in which
it placed the lines it removed from your Autoexec.bat file.

If for some reason Windows 95 did not copy those lines from your
Autoexec.bat file into the Dosstart.bat file or you want to add
some lines yourself, just go to the Windows directory and edit the
Dosstart.bat file, add your lines and save the file.

2) running a DOS only file from desktop:

Right click on Icon ----> 'Properties' ----> 'Program' ---->
'Advanced'

You will now see several options:
- Prevent MS-DOS based program from detecting Windows
- Suggest MS-DOS mode as necessary
- MS-DOS mode

Select MS-DOS mode and press 'OK'

If you now run the program you will get a warning telling you
Windows will shut down, if you press 'OK' Windows will shut down
and load the Dosstart.bat file and then run the DOS program, once
you quit the program Windows will re-start.

3) running DOS only programs from the taskbar:

Press 'Start' ----> 'Settings' ----> 'Taskbar' ----> 'Start menu
programs' ----> 'Advanced'

Locate the short cut and right click on it, from there on it is
the same as in option 2.

This should be enough to get you started, there are a few more
options like setting a specific DOS configuration for each program
but this is not really needed since your old configuration is
enough to run your old DOS programs.
                              - o -