Software to copy DMF
Bring back the wild cards
Learning to share CD-ROM drives
PS I Print You
Quick fix for screen-saving slowdowns
Blowing your stacks
Windows Toolbox: a free launch
Thanks to those readers who wrote in with information about software that can copy the DMF diskettes on which Windows 95 and other software products are distributed. In the General Q&A section of our November issue, we told Anthony Chater that there was no way to duplicate these diskettes, and that's certainly what you hear if you ask Microsoft. The DMF (Distribution Media Format) is a 1.68Mb format created by Microsoft to squeeze more onto a 31/2in floppy. The DMF format increases the number of sectors on a diskette, which incidentally slows down the rate at which data can be read from and written to the diskettes, making it less practical for general use. There's no software provided with Windows 95 or any other Microsoft product to copy or back up these diskettes.
However, a number of independent companies have produced diskette copying and formatting software that handles DMF. Ian Lamont wrote in about a product from Sydex called CopyQM. It's a general diskette duplication program that handles all the standard formats, as well as Macintosh high-density disks, DMF and the IBM high-density standard (1.84Mb XDF format), used for OS/2 Warp distribution disks. It also has a blind copy mode that lets you copy non-DOS formats. We tried CopyQM. It's a DOS program, very easy to set up and use, and detects disk formats automatically. You have to specify which disk you want to copy, and after that everything happens automatically. All you have to do is insert and remove disks as required. It copied a 1.68Mb DMF disk in one pass, requiring only two disk insertions.
If you have Internet access you can download CopyQM from http://www.sydex.com/demo.html
Sydex may provide answers to other data copying questions.
Robert Brown, of Sanderson Computers in Sydney, wrote in about a utility called DiskDupe Version 5. Here's his letter:
After reading the November issue of PC World, I have a solution for Anthony Chater's question regarding duplicating Windows 95 diskettes. There is shareware product called DiskDupe 5.0. This will duplicate anything up to 2Mb on a 1.44Mb floppy. This will copy the Windows 95 Distribution Diskettes.
Remember that you should only copy the disks for backup purposes, not piracy.
Secondly, I know of a product that could possibly be an answer to the question from reader Uri George Malaniak regarding a Multiple Boot Utility [page 154, November issue]. The product allows multiple operating systems to exist on one hard drive. Operating systems can be added without reformatting/repartitioning the drive. It is called System Commander ($US99.95) and is from V Communications in San Jose, California. Phone: +1 408 296 4224. Fax: +1 408 296 4441.
Editor's note: Thanks Robert. We tried DiskDupe 5, which is a DOS-based program, with a character-based window and help system. It's elegant but somewhat complex to run. It requires MS-DOS mode, and won't run properly in a Windows 95 DOS window. It recognises disk formats automatically and prompts for disks when required.
If you have Internet access you can download a demo version of DiskDupe from http://www.rahul.net/msd1/dltrial.html
We've heard of System Commander, but thought it was only for combining Unix and DOS systems. At the site http://challenge.tiac.net/users/huffman/jantripl.html there's a detailed description of setting up a triple boot system using System Commander, combining Windows NT, Windows 3.1 and Windows 95.
Q I like Windows 95, but I miss using wild cards for copying and renaming many files at once. It was great how I could select a whole bunch of files in File Manager and then choose File-Copy. Is there any way I can do this in Windows 95?
- Sharon Wilkins
A You could keep a DOS window running all the time, but that would be a waste of memory. Instead, try the Run command - it can take any external DOS command (that is, one that corresponds to a separate DOS executable file). So to copy multiple files with this technique, just choose Start-Run (or press <Ctrl>+<Esc>+R) and type xcopy followed by any parameters you want - for example, xcopy c:\*.bat a:\.
DOS doesn't have an external file for renaming files; to do that you have to create a batch file, which can consist of two lines:
rename %1 %2
cls
Save the file with a name like ren.bat. Now, to rename groups of files, choose Start-Run and type ren, followed by your parameters for wild cards (for example, ren c:\doc\*.txt *.wri).
You can use the Windows 95 Find feature to locate groups of files matching a specification. For example, you can tell it to find files matching the specification *.doc in the \work directory and all its subdirectories.
The Find list window works rather like the file window in the browser or Explorer. You can then select files with the mouse, press <Ctrl>+A to select all files, and drag the selected files to another window. This won't work for mass-renaming, unfortunately.
However, the shareware file management package, Drag and File, from Canyon Software, lets you rename files with wild cards. It also provides a lot of other familiar features from the Windows 3.1 File Manager, and no longer with us in the Windows 95 Browser or Explorer.
Q My Windows for Workgroups network generally performs well, but when I try to share my CD-ROM drive I get the message, "You can only share resources that are on your computer. If you are trying to share a printer, make sure that it is a local printer and that the temp directory is on a local drive." What's happening?
- Dana Simison
A Windows for Workgroups gives you this message when you try to share a CD-ROM drive that has the same drive letter as another drive on the network. You can solve this problem in one of three ways.
First, you can disable the conflicting drive letter. To do so, open a DOS window from within Windows for Workgroups. At the DOS prompt, type net use x: /d where x: is the drive letter of the conflicting drive. Press <Enter>. You may see an error message like "Error 3: The specified path was not found", but the command should work anyway.
A second and more drastic solution is to disconnect all persistent connections. Start by exiting Windows completely. Then, from the DOS prompt, type del c:\windows\connect.dat (adjusting path information as necessary). The next time you start Windows for Workgroups, you must manually re-establish all connections that don't conflict.
But my favourite solution is to choose a different drive letter for the CD-ROM drive by adjusting the command line that loads its driver. To do this, make a copy of your autoexec.bat file for safekeeping. Then open autoexec.bat in a text editor and look for the line that loads mscdex.exe. At the end of the line, add /l:x /s, where x is the letter you want the CD-ROM drive to have (just make sure none of your remote computers use this letter). Save the file and restart your computer, and you should be able to share your CD-ROM drive without problems.
Q I designed some business cards with my Windows word processor, and now I need to print them. The folks at my print shop told me to print a PostScript file to a disk. However, neither I nor they know how to save my document in a PostScript format. Can you help?
- Alexander Taub
A Printing to disk using a PostScript format merely means setting up Windows with a PostScript printer driver, and then "printing" to a file rather than to a printer. This procedure will work fine for most business publishing, as long as you don't try doing complex full-colour work.
First, start Control Panel and double-click the Printers icon to make sure a PostScript driver is available. If you don't see a PostScript printer on the list, or if you're not sure, you should add one. If possible, install the same model of PostScript printer or imagesetter that your print shop uses. To do so, click Add and find that printer in the list. Select it and click Install. Windows will request one of your original Windows disks and prompt you through the installation.
Once the printer is installed, select the PostScript printer in the list of Installed Printers (in the same Control Panel dialogue box), and click Set as Default Printer. Click Connect, select File: in the Ports list, then click OK and Close.
Finally, turn to your word processor. Use the program's print setup command (usually found on the File menu) to make sure the application is set for the PostScript printer. (If it isn't, select that printer and click OK.) Then print as you normally would. Windows will prompt you for a file name; type the complete path so you can later find the file - for example: c:\temp\buscard.ps. Click OK. Then copy the file to a floppy and take it to your print shop. Don't forget to switch back to your regular printer when you're done.
Q I use one of the screen savers that's built into Windows 3.1, and sometimes I want to disable it. But it's a real hassle to go to the Control Panel, open the Desktop section, and then change Screen Saver to None every time I want to turn it off briefly.
Isn't there a faster way to turn off the screen saver temporarily and then enable it again?
- Stan Bauerlein
A Indeed there is, Stan. You can quickly disable a screen saver temporarily by selecting a command on any Windows menu bar. The screen saver will stay on hold until the menu bar is no longer selected. Most of the time, you can make a menu bar active just by pressing <Alt> or <F10>. You could also click a minimised icon once to show its pop-up menu. Incidentally, for a little extra printing speed, try using this trick immediately after sending a file off to your printer.
Unfortunately, this technique can disrupt some communications software, so test its compatibility with your communications packages.
Q Sometimes after I exit and re-enter Windows for Workgroups 3.11 four or five times, I get the error message "Internal stack overflow. System halted" when I type win at the DOS prompt. Can you tell me what's going on? I currently have my config.sys file set for stacks=9,256, buffers=15,0 and files=50. Do any of these settings need to be changed?
- Teddy Cokro
A Stacks are small areas in memory where applications store information temporarily when they're interrupted by a hardware event, such as when you press a key on the keyboard. Information on each such hardware event is stored in the stack. Because applications often do not have enough stack space to store all these events, DOS does a little dance called stack switching to give the applications more stack space.
The number of stacks and their size are indicated, respectively, in the "stacks=" line of your config.sys file (in this case, nine stacks of 256 bytes each). When you install Windows, it normally increases the default stack size from 128 bytes to 256. Windows itself doesn't benefit from the larger stack size, but other DOS software that it uses might - for example, your mouse driver, the SmartDrive cache and the emm386.exe memory manager.
Oddly, you can often solve these problems by preventing DOS from doing any task switching (at least for versions of DOS later than 3.3).
First, make a backup copy of config.sys, and be sure you have a copy of your system files on a floppy disk in case you need to reboot with it. Then open config.sys in a text editor such as Notepad, and edit the "stacks=9,256" line to read stacks=0,0. Save the file and restart your computer.
Although this change should clear up your Windows problem, it could cause trouble for some DOS programs. If you have problems with any of your DOS applications or you see the error message again, try increasing the number of stacks. The maximum number of stacks is 64, and the maximum size is 512.
- Scott Dunn and Neale Morison
You've heard amazing amounts of hype about Windows 95. But if you're not sure you want to upgrade just yet, check out Launch Bar. Like many toolbars, this one lets you drag and drop from File Manager to add buttons that launch individual programs. But you can add entire Program Manager groups as buttons, too. You can even do all your launching from Launch Bar's main toolbar, and use the toolbar buttons as task switchers. Still want more? Launch Bar gives you four virtual desktops for easy switching between apps, plus buttons that show free resources and CPU activity.
You can even configure the start-up size and position of each application, and make any program stay on top of others. Best of all, you won't find a cheaper utility - Launch Bar is free. The brainchild of Lance Klein, Launch Bar is available as klein.zip on our Help Screen shareware page.