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1990-05-07
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HITAKEY.SYS
Copyright 1990, Raymond P. Tackett.
Distribution policy:
HITAKEY is the copyrighted property of Raymond P. Tackett. It may be
distributed and used freely provided:
a. it is distributed only as the original, unmodified .ZIP file
containing driver and documentation
b. no fee is charged except reasonable and customary duplication and/or
connect time charges
c. it is not made part of, or included with any other goods or services.
Purpose:
HITAKEY.SYS is a dummy device driver which stops and lets you look at
the screen, then hit a key to continue booting. The effect occurs exactly
once at load time, then the driver aborts its load and disappears.
HITAKEY.SYS was written to meet the particular need of a fellow computer
user, Paul Johnson, who posted a message on Compuserve looking for something
that would stop the boot process long enough to see what the previous
driver's failure message was. Many thanks to Hans Salvisberg for suggesting
a significant improvement and assisting its implementation.
Getting Started:
Invoking the "driver" in config.sys:
device=HITAKEY.SYS [optional message]
When THAT line of your config.sys file is reached, you will see the prompt,
"Hit a key when ready" or the remainder of the command line up to 79
characters. The boot process will stop there until you hit a key.
Typeahead is cleared, so it WILL wait. After the keystroke, HITAKEY will
disappear from memory.
Let's imagine that you have a boot problem, which you believe to be caused
by foo.sys. You think there's an error message, but the screen is cleared
immediately by bar.sys when it loads. Your present config.sys file contains:
device=foo.sys
device=bar.sys
Edit your config.sys file to insert HITAKEY.SYS immediately after the driver
in question:
device=foo.sys
device=hitakey.sys We just loaded foo.sys
device=bar.sys
and copy hitakey.sys to the root of your boot drive. The next time you
boot, HITAKEY.SYS will halt and let you see whatever else is on the screen,
possibly a message from foo.sys. Hitting any key will let the boot
process continue. Read "CAUTIONS", below. HITAKEY.SYS should be used only
as a debugging aid. It should be removed from config.sys once it has served
its purpose and the system rebooted.
You can invoke HITAKEY.SYS any number of times in config.sys.
The driver needs less than 200 bytes of free memory to load. After it has
accomplished its one keystroke mission, it disappears.
DOS translates all command line characters in config.sys to upper case, so
your message will appear in all caps, regardless of how you type it in.
CAUTIONS:
The driver has been tested on a Leading Edge D2 running DOS 3.2 only. I have
credible reports that it works correctly on 4.01 and Compaq DOS 3.31. Your
system may have differences which may cause anything at all to happen,
including loss of data. You use HITAKEY.SYS at your sole option and risk.
Revision history:
Version 2.0: Now disappears instead of taking 80 bytes thanks to Hans
Salvisberg.
Issues a carriage return upon exit to make next screen easier
to read.
Version number embedded in code.
Version 3.0: Added user message on command line capability
Support:
I am available on CompuServe, user ID 76416,276. Although I am generally
friendly and helpful, you must realize you're not paying for and I'm not
earning from HITAKEY.SYS. I'm quite likely to respond to queries, but I
reserve the right not to do so.