Your multimedia computer is made up of many different components - the hard drive, sound card, video board and speakers just to name a few. All the different hardware components must work together in order to process and present a multimedia application. Different parts of the computer are governed by device drivers that help them work with other parts of the computer. The device driver is a type of software that helps a particular piece of hardware, such a sound card, work with other parts of the computer. It is important that you always have the latest drivers for your device loaded. most video card and sound card manufactures maintain forums on CompuServe. Visiting them regularly is the best way to be sure you have the latest software drivers.
System files like CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT are also need in order for your computer to work properly. Config.sys governs the configuration of your system and is a place where you tell MS-DOS( to load various "low level" pieces of software. This is very important when you are using multimedia, because CONFIG.SYS is normally the place where your CD-ROM driver and sound card driver are loaded. If you have a high performance hard drive controller such as a SCSI controller, you may also need to load some special software for your hard drive and CD-ROM driver to operate at optimum levels.
AUTOEXEC.BAT tells your computer what to do when you turn it on, or boot up.
If you are using multimedia, the autoexec.bat file will load MSCDEX.EXE, an executable file that allows you to use your CD-ROM drive.
You can customize the way your computer works by editing your config.sys and autoexec.bat files with a text editor such as the edit command included in DOS versions 5.0 and higher. For more information about how your computer operating system works, please refer to your DOS user's manual.
