Q We have several hundred dollars' worth of DOS software that can't get enough conventional memory to run in Windows 9x. These are all programs that require 640KB and ran fine in DOS 6.22. What can we do?

A The version of DOS that comes with Windows 9x should give you as much free conventional memory (the lower 640KB) as version 6.22 did. You may not have your programs configured correctly. Here are a few strategies to try.

If a DOS program is giving you trouble, set it up to exit Windows and run in MS-DOS mode: right-click the Shortcut you use to launch the program, and select Properties from the pop-up menu. Click the Program tab, then the Advanced button. If the 'MS-DOS mode' option isn't checked, check it now. Then select Specify a new MS-DOS configuration. The commands listed below that selection should be the same ones that were in your old DOS config.sys and autoexec.bat files.

The commands you need depend on your hardware and the DOS program's requirements. For instance, if the DOS program doesn't use a mouse, you can delete any lines with the word "mouse".

You can do some additional tweaking to free up more RAM:

1. In the config.sys window, turn every instance of device= into devicehigh=.

2. In autoexec.bat, look for lines that load a program (not ones that begin with "set") and add lh (for load high) and a space to each of them. For instance, 'c:\windows\mouse' would become lh c:\windows\mouse.

3. Add these lines to the beginning of config.sys (or move them there if they're already in your file), in this order:

(Yes, that's device=, not devicehigh=. You don't need the "high" here.) One more thing: your DOS program may need expanded memory ù an old trick to get around DOS's 640KB RAM barrier. Check the program's documentation. If it does, change the third line above to device=c:\windows\emm386.exe ram.