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CD ROM Paradise Collection 4
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CD ROM Paradise Collection 4 1995 Nov.iso
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jpwin95.zip
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WIN95.TXT
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1995-05-01
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16KB
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338 lines
May 1, 1995
Using JP Software Products
with Microsoft Windows 95 (Preview)
This document explains JP Software's current product strategy for
Windows 95 and answers a variety of common questions which Windows 95
Preview users have asked.
To the best of our knowledge the comments in this document apply to
Windows 95 Preview (build 347) and all subsequent builds through build
440. They may apply to subsequent builds as well, but have not been
tested there.
Windows 95 is a new version of Windows capable of running 32-bit
applications. According to Microsoft it is due to be released
sometime in 1995. The product is currently available to some users in
a limited "preview" version.
Windows 95 supports 16-bit real-mode DOS applications, "DOS-extended"
applications, and 16-bit and 32-bit Windows applications. This means
four JP Software products are theoretically compatible with Windows
95:
Character-mode command processors:
*4DOS 16-bit DOS
4DOS for Windows NT 32-bit Windows
Windows (graphical) command processors:
Take Command for Windows 16-bit Windows
*Take Command/32 for Windows NT 32-bit Windows
*After reviewing Windows 95 and the needs of our customers, we have
decided to officially support two products under Windows 95: 4DOS and
Take Command/32.
We chose 4DOS because it offers full 16-bit DOS compatibility,
including the ability to separately boot the "MS-DOS 7" portion of
Windows 95, and will provide a complete character-mode command line
when run from the Windows 95 GUI. 4DOS/NT will not be supported under
Windows 95 because it offers no real advantage over 4DOS in this
environment, and various problems in Windows 95 console mode support
can make it difficult to use.
Take Command/32 was chosen because it can take advantage of the new
32-bit Windows APIs, and offers more robust support for character-mode
applications (DOS products and Windows NT console-mode products) than
can currently be achieved with Take Command/16.
The other two products will run under Windows 95, and will of course
continue to be fully supported in their native environments (Windows
NT for 4DOS/NT; Windows 3.1x for Take Command). The lack of support
for these products under Windows 95 simply means that we do not
recommend their use in that environment, and may not devote resources
to solving compatibility problems that arise.
We are considering the possibility of porting the "Caveman" technology
currently available in Take Command/16 to the Windows 95 environment.
No decision has been made on this and for now we feel that the
console-mode support in Take Command/32 provides similar functionality
which will accommodate the needs of most users. Caveman will continue
to be supported under Windows 3.1x.
If you choose to try 4DOS/NT under Windows 95 Preview you will find
that it offers long filename support and works moderately well, but
that there are quite a few glitches. Most of the glitches are due to
bugs in the console-mode support in Win95 itself. If you choose to
try Take Command for Windows under Windows 95 Preview you will
probably find that it works quite well, but it does not support long
filenames. We do not recommend installation of the CAVEMAN.386 VxD,
though some users have reported that it does work.
The following sections explain the use of 4DOS and Take Command/32
under Windows 95, and how to get support for these products while
using the Windows 95 Preview.
The Windows 95 Boot Sequence
----------------------------
In order to understand the different methods for installing 4DOS you
may find it helpful to learn a little about the Windows 95 boot
sequence (if you are not interested in these details, skip to the next
section).
Modified versions of the standard MS-DOS startup programs are used to
boot Windows 95. These programs look for CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT
just as under previous versions of MS-DOS. If CONFIG.SYS is not
present, Windows 95 will load the appropriate real-mode DOS device
drivers automatically, then start WIN.COM, which loads the Windows 32-
bit drivers and GUI. If CONFIG.SYS is present, the MS-DOS startup
portion of Windows 95 will process it (while displaying a graphical
Windows 95 startup screen). Certain drivers required by Windows 95
(e.g. HIMEM.SYS) will be loaded automatically even if they are not
listed in CONFIG.SYS, but otherwise CONFIG.SYS works just as it does
under previous versions of MS-DOS (with the exception that multiple
configuration menus within CONFIG.SYS apparently are not supported).
If you use the default command processor, COMMAND.COM, it will be
loaded automatically at the end of CONFIG.SYS if needed to process
AUTOEXEC.BAT, then the GUI is loaded as described above. If you use a
SHELL command in CONFIG.SYS to load a different command processor
(like 4DOS), it will be loaded just as under previous versions of MS-
DOS, and can then invoke the Windows GUI if desired (see below for
details). However the SHELL command is ignored if AUTOEXEC.BAT is not
present.
Some aspects of the boot process are controlled by the file MSDOS.SYS,
which is now an ASCII which functions as a .INI file for DOS itself.
For example you can control whether the GUI is automatically loaded
with the BootGUI setting in the [Options] section of MSDOS.SYS, and
you can automatically display a standard startup options menu by
setting BootMenu=1 in the [Options] section (you can also display this
menu by pressing F8 when you see the "Starting Windows 95 ..."
prompt). MSDOS.SYS is a hidden, system, read-only file; to edit it
from 4DOS use a sequence like this:
c:\> attrib -rhs msdos.sys
c:\> edit msdos.sys
c:\> attrib +rhs msdos.sys
How Do I Run 4DOS Under Windows 95 Preview?
-------------------------------------------
The simplest method is to create a new shortcut on the Windows 95
desktop. To do so click with mouse button 2 in any open area of the
desktop. On the popup menu click New, then Shortcut. Fill in the
drive and path for 4DOS.COM, and any other items you wish to set (no
specific settings are required for 4DOS). Use the Change Icon button
to assign the standard 4DOS icon, in the file 4DOS.ICO, to the
shortcut.
Once the shortcut is created 4DOS will start when you double-click the
corresponding icon on the desktop. You can place any necessary
commands or other directives (e.g. @ininame to name a specific INI
file) on the startup command line just as you would under DOS or
Windows 3.1.
If 4DOS is started in this way, and is not installed as the primary
shell started before Windows 95 (whether because you have no
CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT and therefore do not load a primary shell,
or because you use COMMAND.COM), it will not inherit aliases or other
startup settings. In this case you must use the 4START file (see your
4DOS manual) to load aliases and perform other startup tasks. We
recommend that you install 4DOS as the primary shell (see below) and
load your aliases etc. at system startup, just as you would under DOS.
We do not recommend the use of disk swapping under Windows 95. If you
do use disk swapping aliases and other settings may not be inherited
properly in some cases, especially when 4DOS is the primary shell.
The best setup is to install 4DOS as the primary shell, and to use XMS
swapping for all shells. You can set this swapping type with the
following line in 4DOS.INI:
Swapping = XMS
4DOS will not work properly if you load Windows 95 in "safe mode"
(safe mode is for troubleshooting and is selected by pressing F5
during startup, or by pressing F8 and selecting a safe mode boot from
the menu).
How Do I Install 4DOS as the Primary Shell Under Windows 95 Preview?
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The best way to configure 4DOS for the preview version of Windows 95
is to add a standard SHELL command as shown in the 4DOS manual to the
end of the Windows 95 CONFIG.SYS file. For example:
SHELL=C:\4DOS55\4DOS.COM C:\4DOS55 /P
The second directory name and the /P should always be used.
If you reinstall Windows 95 or install a later build over an earlier
one, your SHELL line will be removed from CONFIG.SYS by the
installation process. To correct this simply boot the new version, go
to a 4DOS prompt (your desktop with its 4DOS icon is typically
preserved when you upgrade), and use EDIT or another ASCII editor to
put the SHELL line back in CONFIG.SYS.
When 4DOS is loaded as the primary shell in CONFIG.SYS it will start
and display a prompt; the Windows 95 GUI will no longer start
automatically (regardless of the BootGUI setting in MSDOS.SYS). To
start the GUI type WIN at the 4DOS prompt. To automate this process
add the command WIN at the end of your AUTOEXEC.BAT file (remove this
command if you return to a previous setup which does not use the SHELL
command). We may add a 4DOS.INI option to start the GUI automatically
(i.e. without an explicit WIN command in AUTOEXEC) in a future version
of 4DOS.
4DOS will not work properly if you load Windows 95 in "safe mode"
(safe mode is for troubleshooting and is selected by pressing F5
during the boot process, or by pressing F8 and selecting a safe mode
boot from the menu). If you select other boot modes from the F8 menu
(e.g. "step by step" or "command prompt only" modes) the 4DOS primary
shell will load. The only exception is that if you select step by
step mode and then answer "N" (or Esc) when prompted whether to
process AUTOEXEC.BAT, the SHELL line will also be ignored and
COMMAND.COM will be loaded rather than 4DOS (this is apparently a
Windows 95 bug).
Where Do I Install the KSTACK Program?
--------------------------------------
If you want to load KSTACK.COM (required for the KEYSTACK command) it
should be loaded separately for each 4DOS window. To do so, include
the KSTACK command on the startup command line when you set up the
corresponding shortcut(s). For example, the command line for your
shortcut might read:
c:\4dos55\4dos.com c:\4dos55\kstack.com
This will load KSTACK when the 4DOS window is opened, then display a
prompt.
If you install KSTACK in AUTOEXEC.BAT it will not work properly when
multiple 4DOS windows are open -- stacked keystrokes will "bleed
through" from one window to another.
Will 4DOS Support Files with Long File Names?
---------------------------------------------
Windows 95 supports filename up to 255 characters long and which
include spaces and other characters previously not allowed in
filenames. Names which meet these restrictions but do not fit in the
original DOS "8.3" naming convention (8 character name plus 3
character extension) are often called "long filenames".
The current released version of 4DOS does not support long filenames
under Windows 95 Preview (however the current version of Take
Command/32 does support long filenames, see below for details). This
feature will be added to a future 4DOS release. No specific date is
available at this time but we expect this support to be available well
before the release of Windows 95.
4DOS will properly handle all files on your disks which do not have
long filenames. Files which do have long filenames will be visible
from 4DOS, but you must refer to them by the corresponding short name
provided by Windows 95. For example, a file with the long name
"LETTERS9495.TXT" might appear in your directory as "LETTER~1.TXT" and
would then have to be processed under that name in 4DOS (until a
version is released with long filename support).
Note that if you rename such a file with 4DOS the new name will
overwrite the old long name, not just the shortened name visible under
4DOS. For example if you have the file LETTERS9495.TXT as described
above, and it appears as LETTER~1.TXT in your 4DOS directory, the
command:
ren letter~1.txt let.txt
will change the full name of the file to LET.TXT; the old long name of
LETTERS9495.TXT will be lost.
How Do I Run Take Command/32 Under Windows 95 Preview?
------------------------------------------------------
Simply install Take Command/32 just as you would any Windows
application.
The quickest method is to create a shortcut for TCMD32.EXE. The steps
to do so are described above for 4DOS, and are the same for Take
Command/32 except that the icon is built in and does not need to be
assigned manually.
Use the TCSTART.BTM file to load any aliases and perform any other
startup commands.
Take Command/32 fully supports long filenames just as it does under
Windows NT, and as described in the Take Command/32 help files.
The Take Command/32 documentation and help files describe it as a
product "for Windows NT". However it runs properly under Windows 95
just as it does under Windows NT.
Notes on Using Take Command/32
------------------------------
When using the console window (accessible via Alt-V) to run or view
output from DOS or Windows NT console applications, you may see the
output disappear after the application has run. This is due to bugs
in Windows 95's console mode support; in a future version of Take
Command/32 we will include an internal workaround which eliminates
this annoyance. You can make the output in the console window visible
again at any time by running another console-mode program, and any
program which waits for input will leave the preceding output visible
as well.
Because Windows 95 supports long filenames, DIR and SELECT use the
long filename (HPFS / NTFS) display format by default. This format
leaves more room for the file name and eliminates the file
description. To use the old format which shows file descriptions, use
the /Z switch for either command. You can make this switch the
default with an alias, for example:
alias dir *dir /z
When the old format is used and the filename to be displayed is more
than 12 characters long, the first 11 characters are displayed
followed by a right "arrow" to show that the displayed name has been
truncated.
Support for 4DOS and Take Command/32 Under Windows 95 Preview
-------------------------------------------------------------
Limited electronic support via public conferences is available for
customers running 4DOS or Take Command/32 under Windows 95 Preview
(full support will be available once Windows 95 is released).
Telephone and private email support is not available at this time.
To obtain support leave a message in our public support forum on
CompuServe (GO PCVENB or GO JPSOFT, message section 10, JP Software).
We will answer your message as time permits (typically within 1-2
business days).
You may also leave a message in the 4DOS support conference on the
RIME or ILink BBS networks, or in the Usenet comp.os.msdos.4dos
newsgroup available via the Internet. We will answer such messages
when we see them and as time permits, but we cannot promise to see or
answer every message due to the complexities of the networks involved
(this applies particularly to the Internet newsgroup).
Please note that Windows 95 is a beta product which changes from build
to build. We cannot be sure that the build(s) we are running will
match yours or that we can test or fix problems which occur under any
specific beta build of Windows 95. We do accept all problem reports
and will answer questions to the best of our ability but we cannot
promise specific responses or fixes for particular problems.