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MS-DOS 6 and Quarterdeck Products
This QEMM 7 technote is an abridged version of a technical
bulletin that is available through our standard support channels.
The information contained in this version pertains ONLY to QEMM
version 7.0. If you need information relating to earlier versions
of QEMM you can obtain the unabridged version from the following
sources:
Quarterdeck Technical Support BBS: MSDOS6.TEC
CompuServe: MSDOS6.ZIP
Q/FAX: #166
Subject: A discussion of MS-DOS version 6.0 and Quarterdeck
products.
1. IS MS-DOS 6 COMPATIBLE WITH MY QUARTERDECK PRODUCTS?
Absolutely! The Microsoft DOS 6 README.TXT file states, in
Section 6.10: "Quarterdeck's QEMM memory manager is compatible
with MS-DOS 6." In addition, there are no known incompatibilities
between MS DOS 6.0 and Quarterdeck's DESQview or DESQview/X
multitaskers.
2. AS A QEMM USER, WHAT INFORMATION DO I NEED TO INSTALL DOS 6?
As a QEMM user, the most important information that you can take
with you in the installation and configuration of Microsoft DOS 6
is the knowledge that you are already running the most effective
memory management system available for the IBM-compatible
computer. So, if you are already using QEMM:
a. Run the SETUP program from the DOS 6 installation diskette and
follow the instructions on the screen.
b. Install any of the new DOS 6 utilities that you desire. DOS 6
provides you the opportunity to add virus protection and other
utilities to your system. Remember: the default installation of
DOS 6 installs only the MS Windows versions of these utilities;
you have to tell it to install the DOS versions as well. This is
done on the Utilities screen of the SETUP process.
c. Run QEMM's OPTIMIZE to load those drivers into Upper Memory.
If you should desire to experiment with Microsoft DOS 6's
MemMaker (the program that attempts to provide more memory), we
can recommend a couple of safeguards. MemMaker will remove ALL
the QEMM commands from your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files
(with the exception of DOSDATA.SYS and DOS-UP.SYS, which you
would have to remove manually.) We are confident that you will
want to return to Quarterdeck's QEMM, so we urge you to save a
copy of your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files. Before you begin
to experiment, copy these files from the root directory to some
other directory or to floppy diskette. This will allow you to
restore them easily.
Next, be aware that even if you save the configuration created by
MemMaker, you can usually reverse its changes by running MEMMAKER
/UNDO. If the final screen of the MemMaker process is NOT a
numerical breakdown of how MemMaker got you more memory (and
every test that we have run says it will not be), select the
default exit by pressing the <ENTER> key. Do NOT press F3 to
save the current MemMaker configuration.
It may also be helpful to know that MemMaker does NOT handle
CALLed batch files. A CALLed batch file is executed with the DOS
keyword "CALL" which tells DOS to execute the commands in the
"CALLed" batch file and then resume executing the remaining
commands in the current batch file (the AUTOEXEC.BAT in this
case). The significance of this is that Quarterdeck's Optimize
process DOES handle CALLed batch files, loading any TSR's in
those batch files into Upper Memory instead of just ignoring
them. This means that when MemMaker deletes the QEMM commands
from the AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS, it leaves them in the
Optimized, CALLed batch files. These would have to be removed by
editing the CALLed batch files and deleting the LOADHI
information. If NO changes have been made since the last time
that you Optimized your system, you could also run UNOPT.BAT.
UNOPT is a batch file, created by Optimize, that returns your
system to the condition it was in before the most recent
Optimize. If you have Optimized more than once, this may not
remove the LOADHI information.
It is obvious that with the greater selection of features in QEMM
and Optimize MemMaker does not stand a chance of creating more
Upper Memory. QEMM's Stealth ROM feature adds 96K of Upper
Memory, 64K more than MemMaker's best attempt to find unused
space in your System BIOS. Optimize has the ability, through
Quarterdeck's Squeeze technology, to "shoe-horn" TSR's and device
drivers into areas that are large enough for them to reside, but
too small for them to initialize. (It is common for drivers and
resident programs to require larger areas during initialization
than they need once they have loaded.) Optimize has a "What-If"
feature that lets you see the effect that rearranging the loading
order of your programs and drivers will have on your memory usage
WITHOUT making any changes to your configuration. None of this
is possible with MemMaker.
3. ARE ANY OF MY QUARTERDECK PRODUCTS AFFECTED BY DOUBLESPACE?
The most talked-about feature of Microsoft DOS 6 is DoubleSpace.
DoubleSpace was designed to be compatible with QEMM's Stealth ROM
feature. Disk compression utilities, including Stacker,
XtraDrive, and now DoubleSpace, have gone to great lengths to be
compatible with Stealth ROM as well as Optimize.
DBLSPACE.BIN is a driver that allows your system to recognize
your DoubleSpace drive. It is loaded by IO.SYS during boot time,
BEFORE DOS has even thought about loading QEMM. DBLSPACE.BIN
uses about 43K of your memory, and when the CONFIG.SYS has
completed, the memory used by the resident portion of
DBLSPACE.BIN appears to be added to the memory used by the LAST
driver loaded in the CONFIG.SYS. In other words, the last driver
loaded appears to be 43K larger than it actually is. When you
install DoubleSpace, the following line is added to your
CONFIG.SYS file:
DEVICE=C:\DOS\DBLSPACE.SYS /MOVE
DBLSPACE.SYS has only one purpose, and that is to make
DBLSPACE.BIN appear as a "real" driver, separate in memory.
DoubleSpace REQUIRES that DBLSPACE.SYS be loaded in order for any
memory manager to load DBLSPACE.BIN into upper memory.
QEMM includes a feature called "Stealth DoubleSpace" which moves
the DoubleSpace driver out of conventional or upper memory and
maps it into the expanded memory Page Frame whenever it is
needed. By using Stealth DoubleSpace you save approximately 41K
of memory. If DoubleSpace is installed on your system when you
install QEMM 7 the following line will be added to your
CONFIG.SYS file:
DEVICE=C:\QEMM\ST-DBL.SYS
If you install DoubleSpace AFTER installing QEMM 7, you should
run QEMM's QSETUP program (by typing QSETUP at the DOS prompt.)
QSETUP will remove the DBLSPACE.SYS line in your CONFIG.SYS and
replace it with the ST-DBL.SYS line shown above.
The Stealth DoubleSpace feature, like the Stealth ROM feature,
requires the EMS page frame to work. If you have used
QEMM386.SYS's FRAME=NONE; FRAMELENGTH=0, 1, 2 or 3; or EMS:N
parameter to eliminate the page frame, the ST-DBL.SYS program
will act exactly like the DOS 6 driver DBLSPACE.SYS with its
/MOVE parameter: in other words, it will move DBLSPACE.BIN from
the top of conventional memory to low conventional memory. If
you choose to leave ST-DBL.SYS in your CONFIG.SYS file without a
page frame, you can use Optimize to load the DoubleSpace driver
into High RAM, just as you could with DBLSPACE.SYS /MOVE.
DESQview or DESQview/X users should be aware that the
DBLSPACE.EXE program cannot be run from inside of DESQview or
DESQview/X. DBLSPACE.EXE detects the presence of DESQview and
refuses to run. This program is used mainly for the creation and
maintenance of DoubleSpace drives.
Quarterdeck has a program called NODESQ.COM that can be run in a
DESQview window, before a program that detects DESQview. NODESQ
defeats the DESQview detection of DESQview-aware applications,
like DBLSPACE.EXE. You can add NODESQ.COM (available from the
Quarterdeck BBS) and run DBLSPACE.EXE (as is the case for most of
the DESQview-sensitive DOS 6 programs), but you may run some
risk. You should see that all DoubleSpace drives are mounted
before entering any multitasking environment. You should not
mount drives using DBLSPACE.EXE inside of DESQview. This may
make working with DoubleSpaced floppies slightly awkward.
4. HOW CAN I RESTORE MY QEMM CONFIGURATION AFTER MEMMAKER HAS
REMOVED QEMM FROM MY CONFIG.SYS AND AUTOEXEC.BAT FILES?
The steps that you must follow in order to return to QEMM after
running MemMaker depend on whether you have:
1. Not yet completed MemMaker;
2. Just finished running MemMaker for the first time;
3. Run MemMaker more than once OR
made numerous post-MemMaker changes to your configuration.
For the Number 1's who have not yet completed MemMaker:
When MemMaker completes and DOES NOT provide a better
configuration than the one you already had, it will tell you
"Your computer's memory was optimally configured before you ran
MemMaker". At this juncture you can press <ENTER> to restore
your original configuration or F3 to save the MemMaker
configuration. Your choice at this time will be <ENTER>. Your
existing QEMM configuration will be restored.
For the Number 2's who just completed MemMaker:
Since you have completed the MemMaker process, it has probably
become evident to you that nothing provides more Upper Memory for
loading your TSR's and device drivers than QEMM. Hopefully, you
followed our advice and made copies of your QEMM Optimized
CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT. You can now just copy them back.
If you did not, and MemMaker has completed, you may be able to
recover your configuration by using DOS 6's MEMMAKER /UNDO
command. This restores your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files to
the state they were in before the last time you completed
MemMaker.
However, this is not possible if you have deleted the backup
copies of the AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files that MemMaker
puts in the same directory as MEMMAKER.EXE. These files are
named AUTOEXEC.UMB and CONFIG.UMB (and sometimes SYSTEM.UMB; this
is a copy of your MS Windows SYSTEM.INI file). It is also not
possible to restore the QEMM information and remove all the
MemMaker information if you have run MemMaker MORE than ONCE.
This would mean that the *.UMB files created by MemMaker would
NOT have the QEMM information in them, but would still have ONLY
MemMaker's options installed.
If for some reason MEMMAKER /UNDO does not restore your QEMM
configuration, do not be concerned. Simply follow the simple
instructions in the next section intended for Number 3's.
For the Number 3's who made further changes after MemMaker:
Whether you just finished running Memmaker (but are unable to
restore your system with /UNDO) or have made extensive changes to
your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files since running MemMaker,
restoring your QEMM configuration is a simple matter. Just type
QSETUP from the DOS prompt. QEMM's QSETUP program will remove
HIMEM.SYS and EMM386.EXE from your CONFIG.SYS file and replace
them with a QEMM386.SYS device line. From the QSETUP menu you
can also enable other options (such as QDPMI and DOS-UP.) Once
QSETUP has enabled the options you choose, run QEMM's Optimize
program to load your device drivers and TSR's into upper memory.
That is all there is to it.
WILL I HAVE ANY PROBLEMS WITH DESQVIEW OR DESQVIEW/X?
Very few Microsoft DOS 6 issues confront the DESQview or
DESQview/X user. Any of the MS-DOS 6 utilities that might, in
ANY way, cause a problem when run in a multitasking environment
are DESQview-aware. These particular programs will post a
message reminding you that you are currently multitasking. DOS 6
uses portions of the DESQview API (Application Programming
Interface) to detect if DESQview or DESQview/X is running. You
will have no problem running these programs outside of the
multitasking environment.
Available from Quarterdeck (via BBS, CompuServe, or other
standard support channels), is a program called NODESQ.COM. If
NODESQ is run in the window, before running a DESQview-aware
program, that program will not detect the presence of DESQview.
You can add NODESQ.COM to a batch file that runs DBLSPACE.EXE.
You should mount all possible drives before starting DESQview or
DESQview/X. You should not mount drives using DBLSPACE.EXE
inside of DESQview. This may make working with DoubleSpaced
floppies slightly awkward.
VSAFE is the resident virus protection program that watches for
certain acts of virii and provides a warning when it finds one.
VSAFE can be loaded in XMS (23K conventional, 23K XMS) or EMS
(6.5K conventional, 64K EMS) before DESQview loads. If you do
this, then you CANNOT ALWAYS pop it up over DESQview. If you
try, most of the time DESQview will appear to lose control over
the keyboard. The DESQ key will NOT pull up the menu, etc. This
is because VSAFE is up; you just can't see it. You have to hit
ESC to make it go away. Then all will function as normal. If
VSAFE is forced into Conventional memory (44K) it will pop up
inside of DESQview. VSAFE cannot be unloaded while inside of
DESQview, if it was loaded before DESQview.
THE DOS 6 INTERACTIVE BOOT PROCESS:
DOS 6 now has an "interactive" boot process. You can program the
CONFIG.SYS to query you, every time the system boots, before
loading a particular command in the CONFIG.SYS. This is done by
adding a "?" to the command before the "=" in the command. The
line: "DOS?=HIGH" would produce the following on the screen:
"DOS=HIGH [Y,N]?" and you can make a choice as to load it or not.
Optimize removes the "?" from any line that is edited by
Optimize. These include the lines in the CONFIG.SYS that begin
with BUFFERS=, DEVICE=, or INSTALL=.
Another feature in the interactive boot process is the ability to
build menus of configurations in the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT.
This is accomplished by building "blocks" in the CONFIG.SYS, and
having the name of the block selection that you make on boot
passed to the AUTOEXEC.BAT as an environment variable -%config%.
The use of the environment variable, for IF's and GOTO's, will
then process a particular portion of the AUTOEXEC.BAT file that
is appropriate to that portion of the CONFIG.SYS.
DOS 6 MULTIPLE CONFIGURATIONS AND QEMM:
Multiple configurations (as implemented via the CONFIG.SYS
blocks) have to be MemMakered one configuration at a time. The
DOS 6 documentation discusses the process of converting your
CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT into multiple copies and then
MemMakering them one at a time. Microsoft warns users to avoid
[common] blocks and "first entries" in the AUTOEXEC.BAT.
Unlike MemMaker, QEMM's Optimize program handles multiple
configurations with ease. When you run Optimize, it will detect
any multiple configurations you have set up and will post a
message prompting you to choose the CONFIG.SYS configuration you
want to Optimize. (If Optimize is launched automatically by the
Install program or by QEMM Setup, these programs will also detect
multiple configurations and pass the information along to the
Optimize program.) Optimize will then execute normally, booting
the system with the configuration that you have chosen.
When you are not using multiple configurations, Optimize places
the /R:n (REGION:n) parameter on lines that load TSRs and device
drivers to specify which High RAM region the driver or TSR will
load into. When you are using multiple configurations, instead of
placing /R:n parameters on the QEMM386.SYS and LOADHI lines,
Optimize will place /RF (/RESPONSEFILE) parameters. The /R:n
parameters would not work in a multiple configuration situation,
because a program might be part of two or more CONFIG.SYS
configurations, each requiring a different region number.
The /RF parameter gets around this problem by directing
QEMM386.SYS and the LOADHI programs to look in a resource file
called LOADHI.RF that Optimize has created in the \QEMM
directory. (Optimize places a LOADHIDATA environment variable in
the CONFIG.SYS file that tells QEMM386.SYS and the LOADHI
programs the name and location of this resource file.) LOADHI.RF
will contain several "config blocks," each corresponding to a
CONFIG.SYS configuration and containing the appropriate /R:n
statements for that configuration. QEMM386.SYS and the LOADHI
programs check the current CONFIG environment variable (created
at boot time by DOS 6 to indicate which CONFIG.SYS configuration
is being used), and then choose the appropriate config block to
get information about what High RAM region they should use to
load high.
Here is an example of a resource file:
[Vanilla]
QEMM386.SYS /R:1
C:\DOS\SETVER.EXE /R:1
C:\DOS\COMMAND.COM /R:1
[Development]
QEMM386.SYS /R:1
C:\DOS\SETVER.EXE /R:1
C:\QEMM\QDPMI.SYS /R:1
C:\DOS\COMMAND.COM /R:1
[Full]
QEMM386.SYS /R:2
C:\DOS\SETVER.EXE /R:3
C:\QEMM\QDPMI.SYS /R:3
C:\DOS\COMMAND.COM /R:2
C:\PCKWIK\SUPERPCK.EXE /R:2
C:\NET\IPX.COM /R:1
C:\NET\EMSNETX.COM /R:2
[All Others]
QEMM386.SYS /R:1
C:\DOS\SETVER.EXE /R:1
C:\QEMM\QDPMI.SYS /R:1
C:\DOS\COMMAND.COM /R:1
C:\PCKWIK\SUPERPCK.EXE /R:2
In this example, the blocks named Vanilla, Development, and Full
will be used only when you choose their names off the menu that
DOS 6 offers when you boot with multiple configurations. The All
Others section will be used only if none of the blocks before it
were chosen. If you place a line before the first block, it will
be used no matter what configuration name you choose.
This file format is also supported by QEMM's parameter files (see
Chapter 7 of the QEMM manual for information) and by the DOS-Up
resource file DOS-UP.DAT, which the driver DOS-UP.SYS uses to
determine where different parts of DOS go in High RAM. Normally,
you do not need to edit these files yourself. Optimize creates
and maintain the files.
6. WHAT ELSE IS QUARTERDECK DOING FOR MS-DOS 6?
Quarterdeck's commitment to adding functionality to DOS, and DOS-
based programs, has kept our products at the forefront of memory
management and multitasking technology. With each new version of
DOS comes an opportunity for Quarterdeck to design new features
and offer the DOS user an even greater implementation of the
world's most widely used operating system. Rest assured that
Quarterdeck intends to continue this pattern.
*************************************************************** *
This technical note may be copied and distributed freely as long
as it is distributed in its entirety and it is not distributed
for profit. Copyright (C) 1993 by Quarterdeck Office Systems
****************** E N D O F F I L E ***********************