NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #19

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Internet Message Format | 1992-09-02 | 56.9 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!sun-barr!cs.utexas.edu!milano!cactus.org!underg!max From: max@underg.UUCP (Max Cray) Newsgroups: comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.win32 Subject: Windows NT Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) - 09/92 Message-ID: <BkXgqB2w164w@underg.UUCP> Date: Wed, 02 Sep 92 05:58:34 EDT Organization: Underground Computing Foundation Lines: 1563 Archive-name: ms-winnt-faq Last-modified: 1992-09-01 Related-archives: ms-windows-faq, ms-winprog-faq ---------------------------------------------------------------- ###### #### ############ Microsoft ####### #### ############ ######## #### #### Windows New Technology (NT) #### #### #### #### #### #### #### #### Frequently Asked Questions #### ######## #### #### ####### #### September 1992 #### ###### #### --------------------------------------------------------------- TABLE OF CONTENTS 0. Index General Information 1. How do I get a copy of the preliminary release? 2. Is this beta software? 3. What are the minimum system requirements to run Windows NT? 4. Will NT run on my hardware? 5. It will not run on my 386 (B0 or B1 step problem). 6. Windows NT will not work on my MIPS machine. 7. Is there a driver for my hardware? 8. How do I make Windows NT cohabit my hard drive with OS/2 2.0? 9. I get Trap 0x0000000E. 10. NT boots, looking for the wrong boot directory. 11. BOOT can not find NTLDR. 12. How can I replace the boot sector/recover from a crash? 13. My SoundBlaster/AudioPro card does not work. 14. I can not print to LPT1. 15. I get error 0x00000069. 16. Dell machine only recognizes 16MB. 17. TCP/IP support. 18. Will it work with my Bernoulli or other removable media? 19. Adaptec AHA 1542B driver problem. 20. Zenith 386/33E lock up problem. 21. Does NT support dual SCSI controllers? 22. Is the system supposed to use 70 threads? 23. I can not print the postscript documentation on my printer. 24. Does NT support stackable file systems? 25. Is there an X Server for NT yet? 26. Is there an Internet ftp site for Windows NT, yet? 27. Is there a version of EMACS available, yet? 28. Why does Microsoft not provide support via the Internet? 29. What is the best way to use CompuServe? Programming Information 30. CVPACK: Fatal error CK1007. 31. Missing C++ header files. 32. Errors from ExitWindows function. 33. Can I use a DLL to implement shared memory? 34. Unicode level of support 35. Sample source code requests. 36. MS Developer Network 37. Where is the Device Driver Kit (DDK)? Appendix A: 0792HW.TXT Latest Hardware Compatibility List (July 92) Appendix B: HWFEED.TXT Form to request MS provide support for hardware. Appendix C: BUGREP.TXT Form to notify MS of Bugs. Appendix D: MIPS specific information. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: How to Get the NT Preliminary Release 1. How do I get my paws on the latest in operating systems? A. The Win32 Preliminary SDK for Windows NT provides you with access to the broader capabilities of the Win32 API with features such as preemptive multitasking, multi-threading, 32-bit flat memory model,and security. By purchasing the Win32 SDK you will receive preliminary and final versions of the Windows NT operating system and SDK tools in addition to preliminary versions of a C/C++ compiler. The cost of the Win32 SDK with printed documentation is $399. A CD-only version containing the documentation in PostScript format is also available for $69. (If you later decide that you want the hard-copy documentation from Microsoft, there is a coupon in the box for you to order it for $359 plus freight.) To order from within the U.S, please call Microsoft Developer Services at (800) 227-4679. In Canada, call (800) 563-9048. In all other countries, contact your local Microsoft representative. [Editor's Note: is the win32sdk@microsoft.com still a good address to request info?] -- Subject: Windows NT is a Preliminary Release, not a Beta: 2. Should I get the beta version of NT now? A. Windows NT is not yet in Beta. The Win32 SDK for Windows NT is a "Preliminary" release, intended for development of 32-bit applications for Windows. Microsoft's focus has been on the Windows NT Kernel and Win32 API. The SDK does not include POSIX support and Microsoft has not yet had an opportunity to complete testing of the 16-bit Windows and MS-DOS applications support. Therefore, the SDK is not appropriate for Beta test and evaluation. There will be a very broad Beta program in the early fall that is intended for end-users. This release will include full support for MS-DOS, 16-bit Windows and POSIX applications. Further information about the beta program will be posted to the WINNT forum on CompuServe when it becomes available. -- Subject: System Requirements 3. What are the minimum hardware requirements to run Windows NT? A. Windows NT operating system: The first preliminary release of the Windows NT operating system requires an Intel 80386 system or higher, or ACE/ARC compatible R4000 systems with at least 8MB of RAM and 55MB available hard disk space (includes 20MB for a swap file). This does not include disk space for applications. Win32 SDK development environment: For Win32 SDK development, an 80386 33 MHz CPU (or higher) and 12MB total of RAM is strongly recommended. A total of 100MB available hard disk space (includes 20MB for a swap file) is required for complete installation of the operating system, SDK tools, and C/C++ compiler. The Win32 SDK is only available on CD-ROM and requires a CD-ROM drive and SCSI adapter. -- Subject: Hardware Compatibility List 4. How do I know if my hardware is compatible with Windows NT? A. Microsoft provides a list of hardware that has been tested and is known to work with Windows NT. It is appendix A of this FAQ, and has been posted on CompuServe, forum MSWin32, Lib 17, filename: 0792HW.TXT. Hardware listed in this file has been preliminarily tested on the July 92 release of Windows NT, and is supported. Microsoft does not claim that hardware not on this list will not run; however, it has not been tested and it is not supported at this time. -- Subject: B0 and B1 Stepping Machines 5. How come Windows NT will not work with my old 386? A. NT will not run on 386 chips that are the B0 or B1 versions (called the B0 or B1 "stepping"). This is true for all releases of NT, so if you're now running the December 91 or another release of NT on a particular 386, that PC is OK You can check whether a particular 386-based PC is at the B0 or B1 stepping by downloading isbste.zip from Lib 17 of Compuserve. This is a very small zip file (6 sec 9600 download), and the time to unzip it and run the test is quite small. Isbstep.exe also shipped on the December NT CD. -- Subject: MIPS Installation 6. Windows NT will not work on my MIPS machine. A: The July Preliminary release of Windows NT requires an upgrade to your MIPs machine. All manufacturers are aware of this upgrade. If they have not contacted you already, please contact them regarding it. The machine's CPU must also have an R4000 revision 2.0 or greater. More Info: See Appendix D for MIPS specific info. -- Subject: Device Driver Requests 7. Is there a driver yet for my hardware? A. Microsoft's standard means of releasing drivers is with their CD releases. Although Microsoft is not committed to continue this practice, currently all fixed, updated, or new device drivers are being posted on the CompuServe Forum: WinNT, Lib 2. Microsoft is currently making every attempt to keep this library updated with drivers as they become available. If you have hardware that is not currently supported, or does not have a driver posted in WinNT, Lib 2; please make a device driver request by filling out the hwfeed.txt form (appendix B to this FAQ) and mail it to Microsoft at winnthw@microsoft.com. Please be aware that because of Microsoft's support demands right now, this is a one way alias; Microsoft is not likely to respond directly to you to confirm that they have received your request. The hardware compatibility list is appendix A of this FAQ and can also be found in MSWIN32, Lib 17 on CompuServe as 0792hw.txt. Hwfeed.txt is appendix B of this FAQ, and can also be found on CompuServe in MSWIN32, Lib 17; or WINNT, Lib 1. -- Subject: IBM MOST Not Supported with NT Flexboot 8. How do I make Windows NT cohabit my hard drive with OS/2 2.0? A. As per the release notes, NT is not compatible with IBM's MOST utility. Microsoft does not intend to support IBM's MOST boot scheme with Windows NT's Flexboot, and has no plans to support installation on a drive with MOST installed on it. However, what you can do is install OS/2 using the dual boot capability. Boot DOS, and then boot OS/2. -- Subject: Trap 0x0000000E 9. When using the preferred graphical install method I get a Trap 0xE. What is wrong? A. This is a known problem which has several work-arounds available depending on the hardware configuration. The most common problem is due to a bug in the 3.5 inch BOOT DISK. If you are using this disk to install the kit and observe this problem, simply make a disk copy of the working 5.25 inch disk. You must make an exact duplicate of this disk onto a new 3.5 inch 1.44MB floppy disk. Assuming you have the 3.5 inch disk as your A: drive and the 5.25 inch disk as your B: drive, follow these steps: * Boot into your systems CMOS program. * Change the setting for the 3.5 inch disk to a 1.2 MB 5.25 inch disk. * Boot MS-DOS. * Make a copy of the 1.2 MB disk by inserting a blank disk in A: and the 5.25 BOOT DISK in B: drive. Run 'DISKCOPY B: A:'. * Boot back into your systems CMOS program. * Change the setting for the 3.5 inch disk back to a 1.44 MB disk. * Insert the new 3.5 inch 1.2 MB format BOOT DISK into A: and reboot. Note: You may need to remove any existing \winnt directory found on your hard disk first before running the install. Another common work around is to disable one or more of the following: * All BIOS shadowing. * All video shadowing. * All external CPU caches. * The Turbo switch (i.e. run the system at the slowest speed). -- Subject: NT Boots, Looking for the Wrong Boot Directory: 10. Windows NT looks in the wrong boot directory. Why? A. This can happen for a number of reasons. One being that there has been an installation of the PDC release over an earlier release of Windows NT. The boot.ini file is not updated correctly. Make sure that the boot.ini file contains references to the winnt directory rather than the nt directory i.e. c:\winnt\ rather than c:\nt\ Another cause of this problem can be when the IBM MOST utility for OS/2 2.0 is installed on the hard drive. Windows NT uses logical partitioning. The MOST partition is an unknown partition type. When an unknown partition type sits between the base partition and the Windows NT partition, it can set the logical partitions off by one. MOST is not supported with Windows NT. You should install Windows NT on a machine that does not have the MOST utility on it. -- Subject: Couldn't find NTLDR 11. While doing the trying the alternate boot method (DOS2NT) I get the following error: BOOT: Couldn't find NTLDR Please insert another disk A. From: marc@dwp.la.ca.us (Marc Hall x4735) In the script file dos2nt.bat the in the dos2nt directory on the cd is the line copy .\ntldr c:\ This is attempting to copy dos2nt\ntldr to c drive. On my cd dos2nt\ntldr does not exist but dos2nt\ntldr. does. So I copied it manually to c:\ and I am able to boot in Windows NT. -- Subject: Replacing Boot Sector / Recovering from Crash 12. How do I replace my NT boot sector without reinstalling Windows NT? A. From: rion@Ingres.COM (Rion Cassidy) I posted this before, but a lot of people just tune in for a quick question and didn't see it the first time. The flexboot question keeps coming up so here's the answer again: It's a relatively simple matter to get the boot sector back in the right place, but the files you'll need are on the NT CD, not on your hard disk. I suggest that you put them in a FAT partition NOW so that you can get things fixed quickly after a disk crash. Even if you can reinstall NT quickly, the configuration can be very time consuming. On the NT CD, go to the directory \dos2nt\install. You will need the following files: saveboot.sec ntboot.sec insert.sec debug.exe Create a batch file that contains the following: ren bootsec.dos btsecdos.bak debug < saveboot.sec debug ntboot.sec < insert.sec This similar to what "NT2DOS.BAT" does, but obviously we want to skip copying all those files. This worked for me and saved the time and trouble of having to reinstall all of NT again. Keep in mind that this is designed to work ONLY where the files are all there, but the boot sector is misplaced. -- Subject: SoundBlaster/AudioPro Continually Repeats the Wav File 13. My SoundBlaster/AudioPro card is constantly repeating the wav file with no end. What is wrong? A. The SoundBlaster/AudioPro cards are known to have compatibility problems with some fast 486 systems and some system chip sets. You may be unable to run such a device on such a system. Before surrendering this as solely a hardware problem, you may in fact have an IRQ or DMA channel conflict with another device. Either move these setting on the other device or on the sound card. The recommended settings for the sound card is DMA 1, IRQ 7 and port 220h (note however that LPT1 also often uses this IRQ). If you are unable to resolve the conflict you can disable one of the devices in the Registry. The utility REGEDIT can be used to alter the Registry Database. Note: in many cases you must be logged on as 'Administrator' to alter some of the Registry settings. Hardware configuration settings can be altered under the Registry branch 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE->SYSTEM->ControlSet001->Services'. The SoundBlaster can be disabled/enables by changing the entry for the sub-branch Sndblst->Start to 0x4/0x1. Warning: REGEDIT is a very powerful utility which will allow you to directly change your Registry: USE THIS TOOL AT YOUR OWN RISK. The preferred work around to this problem is to reinstall with the correct configuration. Using REGEDIT incorrectly can put your machine in a state in which you will have to reinstall to correct. Microsoft does not support REGEDIT, nor the changes you make with it. Microsoft simply offers it as a faster, but unsupported, fix to this problem. -- From: lothar@cyrcle.uucp (Bob Trembley) From the Program Manager, Run REGEDIT Goto the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE window. Navigate down to System ControlSet001 Services Sndblst Device Make sure the Port, Interrupt, and DmaChannel settings are correct. Reboot. That should do it (at least it did for me...) -- Subject: Cannot Print to LPT1 14. I cannot print to LPT1:! If I issue MODE LPT1: is claims the device is not found. What is wrong? A. Typically LPT1: uses interrupt 7 with is also the default setting of the SoundBlaster sound card. You may be experiencing a IRQ conflict with this or another device. If you are unable to resolve the conflict you can disable one of the devices in the Registry. The utility REGEDIT is provided to alter the Registry Database. Note: in many cases you must be logged on as 'Administrator' to alter some of the Registry settings. Hardware configuration settings can be altered under the Registry branch 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE->SYSTEM- >ControlSet001->Services'. The SoundBlaster can be disabled/enables by changing the entry for the sub-branch Sndblst->Start to 0x4/0x1. Similarly, the parallel driver can be disabled/enables by changing the entry for the sub-branch Parallel->Start to 0x4/0x1. -- Subject: Error 0x00000069 15. I get Error 0x00000069. Is this a joke or what? A. This is a phase one initialization error, which happens when Windows NT tries to talk with the HD controller. It can be caused by any number of things. Things to try: * If the card allows, slow down the DMA transfer rate. * Make sure both ends of the SCSI bus are terminated. * Make sure there are no IRQ, or memory address conflicts. * Make sure you're aren't using a faulty or un-supported driver i.e. the FD 1680 SCSI controller is supported, but there is a problem with that driver which will be fixed and posted on CompuServe in WinNT, Lib 2. -- From: woodwort@piper.cs.colorado.edu (Lee Woodworth) Missing files or missing directories can produce the 0x00000069 error message. I had to compare the files on the disk to the CD-ROM to find out that the copy the batch file performed was not complete. After you get the files copied check the attributes. The CD-ROM is a read only medium and the files are write protected. Some copying methods produce write protected files on the disk. I had problems during the install until I made sure that all the files were writable. See the attrib command for more information. -- Subject: DELL Machine Only Recognize 16 MB of Memory 16. Windows NT does not seem to recognize memory above 16MB on my Dell box. Do I need to buy a memory manager? A. The ISA Dell 486D/50 25/50Mhz has a bios problem which prevents it from seeing greater than 16MB of RAM under NT. The ISA Dell 486D/50 25/50Mhz machine does not see greater than 16Mb of RAM under Windows NT. This is a known problem with the bios of the Dell machine. Dell is producing a upgrade to the bios which should be available August 92. If your machine demonstrates this problem, please contact Dell after July 92 to receive their A08 bios upgrade. -- Subject: TCP/IP Support 17. Hey, where is the rest of that TCP/IP stuff? A. TCP/IP including ftp and some other tcp utilities is included in the July preliminary Win32 development kit for NT Source routing are not included in the July version of TCP/IP, which implies TCP/IP isn't supported on token ring cards for this release, and LM2.1 clients aren't able to access NT servers across TCP/IP, regardless of the net card in the NT server. Source routing will be in later version of NT TCP/IP. Source routing is in the July version of NETBEUI, so some token ring cards are supported (see appendix A - 0792HW.TXT), and LM2.1 clients can access NT servers running the July version of NETBEUI -- Subject: Bernoulli and Removable Media Not Supported 18. Can I use my Bernoulli drive even though it is not listed in the hardware compatibility list? A. Bernoulli boxes and removable SCSI drives were not tested with this release of Windows NT, and do not appear on the hardware compatibility list. Since the release there is evidence that Windows NT has some problems with these devices. Microsoft is aggressively pursuing this matter in hopes of having it resolved by the next release. -- Subject: Adaptec AHA 1542B Driver Can Cause Fatal System Error 19. Help! I am having problems and I have an Adaptec controller. A. There is a known problem with the Adaptec AHA-1542B driver which causes fatal system errors under some circumstances. The problem is triggered by simultaneous I/O with the floppy and the hard disk. This will be corrected in the next release. To avoid this you may want to use an alternative floppy controller and disable he one on the Adaptec. -- Subject: Zenith 386/33E Locks Up During GUI Install. 20. Why does my Zenith 386/33E lock up during install? A. This machine sometimes locks up when doing the GUI install with the CPU cache enabled. Disable the CPU cache and the problem will be resolved. -- Subject: No support for Dual SCSI Controllers 21. Does Windows NT support dual SCSI Controllers? A. This release of Windows NT was not tested with 2 or more SCSI cards in the same machine. If you have this in your configuration, and you are experiencing any kinds of problems with your SCSI devices; try an installation with a single card. Microsoft does not support multiple SCSI cards at this time. -- Subject: The System Uses About 70 Threads 22. My system is using a lot of threads? Is this normal? A. With this release of Windows NT, Pview will show that the system running without any active applications will use about 70 threads. This is normal for this release. The majority of theses threads are system threads. -- Subject: Printing Postscript Documentation 23. Why can't I print out the postscript documentation on my printer? A. From: rose@galtee.cs.wisc.edu (Scott Rose) I encountered two problems with these files that I had to solve before I could get more than a few pages at a time to print: 1. There is a ^D embedded in the first few bytes of each file. Don't know why it's there, much less why it is not always in the same place; do know that I got zero pages of output until I used an editor to remove it. 2. The docs use fonts that are not supported by the printers -- three flavors of them -- that are in my shop. For example, Helvetica Narrow and Helvetica Narrow Bold. I could get a number of pages of each doc to print before associated error messages from the printer caused lpd to abort the jobs. The fix? Edit the header of each file to redefine the macros to use other, supported fonts. For example, change /HNB to use Helvetica Bold. After doing these edits, the files printed for me without problem on all of my printers. -- From: stergios@leland.Stanford.EDU (Stergios) Here's the perl script I use to filter out the ^D & ^M when printing through a unix host. Name the file "cdps" and run it as cat file_name | cdps | lpr -Ppostscript_printer #!/usr/local/bin/perl while (<STDIN>) { s/\004//g ; s/\015//g ; print ; } -- From: martin@minster.york.ac.uk Lots of people seem to be having trouble printing the SDK documents that come in postscript on the CDROM. Well I haven't tried this yet, but I did just try reading them using the new version of ghostscript (for Windows), and this appears to work very well! (under 3.1, I HAVEN'T tried it under WOW yet) So now we can at least browse the documents on-line easily (and certainly better than the viewer on compuserve!) -- From: rupertb@is.morgan.com (Rupert Brown) Last week I noticed a new version of Ghostscript (2.5) had been posted to the uploads section at ftp.cica.indiana.edu. This version includes a windows executable gswin.exe which seems to run fine (if slowly) in the PDK's VDM on a 16MB Compaq 386-33L. This may help some of you folks having problems with your postscript docs. No source code was in the uploads when I looked and its only a Win16 app it would be nice to do some work on it to make it Win32 aware and adding MDI, etc. It seems to do its calculation /drawing using the timer at 5-10 second intervals obviously under NT it can be a continuous process. -- From: rupertb@is.morgan.com (Rupert Brown) Several people have mailed me saying they cant find Ghostscript 2.5 on cica or wuarchive. I am trying to find out whether its been deleted for a good reason in the meantime you could try ftp to /pub/gnu on doc.ic.ac.uk where a copy has been spotted. -- Subject: Windows NT Filesystem and I/O Drivers 24. Does NT support a file system switch and stackable files systems similar to vnode based UNIXs? In particular would it be possible to implement something similar to Sun Microsystem's Translucent File System (TFS)? A. From: alistair@microsoft.com (Alistair Banks) Windows NT's driver mechanism allows for the layering of drivers - file systems are drivers which respond to the set of messages that the i/o subsystem generates when requesting file services. They're not "special" and don't have a different set of interfaces. All drivers respond to messages which interest them, and pass them through to the next driver in the chain if they're not interested. So indeed, you could layer any one file system on top of the services of another to implement intelligent archiving systems, Sun TFS-like systems, or simply something that turns a file delete into a rename! You can implement compression file systems or make your 1.4Mb disk image on your C: drive appear to be your I: drive -- Subject: X sever for NT? 25. Is there an X server for Windows NT yet? A. From: alistair@microsoft.com (Alistair Banks) Digital Equip have demoed their Windows NT version of "eXcursion" and NCD (formerly GSS/Spectrographics) have demoed their Windows NT X-Server I know of two other companies that have also started porting their X-Servers, but they haven't made any public announcements. If there are more, please let me know - I'm tracking them -- Alistair -- 26. Is there an Internet FTP site for Windows NT, yet? A. From: RFowler@kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov (Robert A. Fowler) Having just noticed that there is now a NT subdirectory on ftp.cica.indiana. edu, would everyone with internet access upload to cica all the drivers/ updates/bug fixes/proceedures that they down load from CompuServ, when they have time? This procedure seems to work ok for windows hardware/software that is not supported on internet (ATI drivers/Tsung drivers/ WfW patches etc.). [Editor's note: you might also check out ftp.uu.net. /vendor/microsoft I believe]. -- 27. Is there a version of EMACS for Windows NT, yet? A. From: pap@tempel.az05.bull.com (Pierre Perret) I have uploaded mewmi10e.zip to pub/pc/win3/uploads at ftp.cica.indiana.edu (IP: 129.79.20.84). This file contains the executable and accessory files for the pre-release 1.0e of MicroEMACS 3.11c for Windows NT, for MIPS machines. Note: the corresponding files for Windows 3.1 (mew10e.zip) and Windows NT for i386 machines (mewnt10e.zip) have been uploaded to ftp.cica.indiana.edu a month ago and are now located respectively in pub/pc/win3/util and pub/pc/win3/nt. -- Subject: Microsoft Support on CompuServe 28. I hate CompuServe, and I love the net. Why does not Microsoft provide support via the Internet? A. From: alistair@microsoft.com (Alistair Banks) As I've posted many times here and elsewhere - we'd like to treat Internet & netnews connected people better, and we're looking into it. We don't get provided with comparable host facilities on internet & netnews with CompuServe - also, do realize, we don't "log on" to CompuServe to provide support - there are many man years of SQL Server and other systems built up around Online & CompuServe to allow us to provide support, and those systems aren't written for Internet or netnews - so again, (put this in the FAQ! (Editor's note: done!)) we're trying, we put some stuff on ftp.uu.net, but our access isn't easy from our internal net [security reasons] so we only put some public stuff there. We're working towards an ftp.microsoft.com server, but I can't promise any timeframes - until then, CompuServe, or a friend with CompuServe, are the only official support routes. Gripes and flames are not needed - I'm on your side - I'm here, right? -- Alistair -- Subject: Making CompuServe easier to use. 29. Is there any way to make using CompuServe easier? A. From: kevinq@Ingres.COM (Kevin Quinn) Check out 'OzCIS'! It's free, it's hot, and it's very easy to use. Soon a new version is coming out that should just about blow every other navigator and browser away. Look in the OZCIS group in the IBMCOM forum (it's group 12). -- From: darrylo@hpnmdla.sr.hp.com (Darryl Okahata) OzCIS can download and manage databases containing lists of available files for downloading (doing this efficiently -- for the least amount of $$$ -- is somewhat tricky, however). The big advantage of ATO and OzCIS is that they are *FREE*. They are not shareware or commercial programs. Of the two, OzCIS is much more powerful (has lots of features), but ATO is easier to use (for computer novices). -- From: clay+@cs.cmu.edu (Clayton Bridges) A previous article mentioned the use of Compu$erve navigation programs to cut costs, etc. I thought that I should add that OzCIS trounces TAPCIS as far as these programs go. It has a more "modern" pull-down menu interface, and is mouseable, whereas TAPCIS is just plain arcane. Both of these programs, and ATO as well, can be found in the SIMTEL pc archive, or any of its many mirrors (e.g. wuarchive.wustl.edu). Anon ftp is probably a lot cheaper than downloading multimegabytes from CIS @ $12/hr. The directory is something like pub/pc/compuserve. -- ############################################################################## # # # PROGRAMMING # # # ############################################################################## Subject: CVPACK: Fatal error CK1007: invalid Types table in module 30. What do I do about the CVPACK error CK1007? A. In this release of Windows NT, there is a problem with the cvpack utility; which results in the error "CVPACK: Fatal error CK1007: invalid Types table in module". CVPACK is compressing debug information in the executable. This step is required for source level debugging. As a work around to this problem, to create an executable, compile without the /Zi switch. This will result in no debug information in the object modules. Alternatively, you can remove the debug options during linking. The samples default to -debug:full and -debugtype:full. Do not link with either of these options. -- Subject: Missing C++ Header Files: (iostream.h) 31. Hey! How come 'cout << "Hello world!\n";' does not work? A. The iostream.h file was not included on the NT pre-release CD. It is necessary in order for an application to make use of C++ I/O. This file will be posted to Compuserve as soon as it is ready and tested. Until then, the suggested work around is to use printf() and stdio.h. -- Subject: Problems with ExitWindows 32. I get errors when I call ExitWindows, but I know my code is right. A. From: kevin@edscom.demon.co.uk (Kevin Broadey) Please will you change the line in WINUSER.H from #define ExitWindows(dwReserved, Code) ExitWindowsEx(EWX_LOGOFF, (-1)) to #define ExitWindows(dwReserved, Code) ExitWindowsEx(EWX_LOGOFF, (DWORD) (-1)) ^^^^^^^ to stop the compiler complaining about signed/unsigned problems every time I call ExitWindows. It took me bl**dy ages to track this one down! BTW ExitWindowsEx isn't documented in api32wh.hlp. -- 33. Can I use a DLL to implement shared memory, and if so, how? A. From: kevin@edscom.demon.co.uk (Kevin Broadey): Okay! Here's the answer from the horse's mouth via Compu$erve: Put the following in your .DEF file: SECTIONS .data READ WRITE SHARED .bss READ WRITE SHARED Do it for .data to share initialized variables, .bss for uninitialized, but watch out, because Microsoft haven't quite sorted out DLLs that have both shared and unshared sections. -- From: sanzgiri@bombay.metaphor.com (Ajit Sanzgiri) In this connection, the compiler no longer recognizes the /ND option which would allow one to individually name (and manage) data segments. Of course one could use the above to make up a work-around. Break up the DLL (which is to have both shared and instance data) into two DLLs - one for the shared data and the other for the instance data and have the latter be the only client of the former one. -- Subject: Unicode Level of Support 34. What about Unicode support? A. The July Preliminary Release of Windows NT SDK is a full unicode implementation. It supports unicode applications. However, an alternate input editors is not yet available. Glyphs will be suitable for the Roman languages. Glyphs for Kanji are not yet available. -- Subject: Sample Requests 35. Can you provide a source code example program for a Cat and Mouse game that can be played over a TCP/IP connection? A. If you have a sample request for the next release (or possibly to be released on CompuServe) please write out the details of your request and send them to sdksamp@microsoft.com. Also please include any information about your need that might be relevant to tailor the sample to your need. Please note that this is a one way alias, and that Microsoft is not likely to respond by confirming the receipt of the request. And also note that Microsoft may not have the resources to create all the samples requested. -- Subject: MSDN: Microsoft Developers Network CD 36. What is this I hear about a Microsoft Developers Network? A. The MSDN offers a quarterly paper and a CD program. The CD is intended to help developers with writing Microsoft Windows applications. The first pre-release beta CD contains 34,000 pages containing: complete copies of Microsoft Journals (MSJs); samples and source code; MS Press books; tools; and articles covering programming, technical, and strategic information for Windows. This first planned shipping date of pre-release MSDN CD will be in September. Those developers who attended the PDC are already enrolled in the pre-release program, and are on the regular mailing list. They will receive the first two pre-release CDs free of charge. Those developers who receive the Developer Network News should receive a pre-release program offer. For those developers who did not attend the PDC and do not receive the Developer Network News (and the pre-release program offer in the mail) can call the Developer Service Team at 800-227-4679 x11771 to get enrolled in the pre-release program for $30. -- Subject: Requests for DDK or DDK Support 37. How come I can not write device drivers, yet? A. At present a Windows NT DDK is not available. Several people at Microsoft are currently working very hard to get the Windows NT DDK ready for distribution. If you would like to be placed on the mailing list for information about this kit please send mail to: winntddk@microsoft.com Please be aware that this is a one way alias, and that there will be no email response/confirmation to your request. Windows NT Device Driver Kit (DDK) will be available in pre-release form October 26th in conjunction with the Windows NT Device Driver Developers Conference in Anaheim, California. The conference will feature highly technical information needed to write Windows NT drivers for hardware devices including NDIS, SCSI, display, printer, input and communication. Sessions topics at the conference include: * Windows NT Multiprocessing Support * Enhanced Graphics Support * NDIS 3.0 * SCSI Support Developers can register for the conference by calling (800) MS SHOWS (677-4697) or by faxing (800) 936-7329 "Attention Department 747". The registration cost is $795 for developers who attended the Win32 Professional Developers Conference in July. For all others, the registration price before September 21st is $845 and September 21st it will be $895. Registration costs include lunch each day and a copy of the Windows NT DDK. For Press Information: Erin Holland/Waggener Edstrom 503/245-0905 ############################################################################## # # # Appendix A: 0792HW.TXT # # # ############################################################################## The Microsoft(R) Windows NT(TM) operating system is designed to support a broad range of hardware. This is a preliminary list of hardware that we have run Windows NT on to date. This is a subset of the hardware we expect to support in the final product. The following hardware has undergone preliminary testing for this release. We have not tested every machine and/or device in all possible configurations. Microsoft makes no warranties express or implied in this document. Intel 80386/80486 Uniprocessor Systems ACER (R) Power 486/33 ALR (R) BusinessVEISA 386/33 ALR BusinessVEISA 486/33 ALR MPS 486/33 ALR PowerFlex Flyer 386sx/25 ALR PowerPro AST (R) Power Premium 4/33 Model 213V AST Premium 386/33T AST Premium 486/33E AST Premium II 386/33 Model 213V AST Premium II 486/33 AST Premium SE 4/33 Model 333 Compaq (R) Deskpro 386/20e Compaq Deskpro 386/25 Compaq Deskpro 386/25e Compaq Deskpro 386/33 Compaq Deskpro 386/33L Compaq Deskpro 386s/20 Compaq Deskpro 486/25 Compaq Deskpro 486/33L Compaq Deskpro 486/33M Compaq Deskpro 486/50L Compaq Portable 486c Compaq SystemPro 486/33 Compaq SystemPro/LT 486sx/25 CompuAdd (R) 420s CompuAdd 433 CompuAdd 433E Dell (R) PowerLine System 433DE Dell PowerLine System 433SE Dell PowerLine System 450DE Dell PowerLine System 450DE/2 DGX Dell PowerLine System 450SE Dell PowerLine System 486D/50 Dell System 325 Dell System 433e Dell System 486D/33 Dell System 486P/33 Digital Equipment Corp. (R) DECpc 425ST (1) Digital Equipment Corp. DECpc 433ST Digital Equipment Corp. DECpc 433T Digital Equipment Corp. DECpc 450ST (2) Digital Equipment Corp. DECstation 425c Epson (R) Equity EISA 486DX/50 Everex (R) Step 486/33 ISA Everex Tempo 486sx/20 Gateway (R) 2000 386-33 Gateway 2000 386SX-20C Gateway 2000 486/33C Gateway 2000 486/33E Gateway 2000 486DX2/50 Gateway 2000 486DX2/50E GRiD (R) 486ei-33 HP (R) Vectra 386/25 HP Vectra 486/25T HP Vectra 486/33T HP Vectra 486S/20 HP Vectra RS/25C IBM (R) PS/2 Model 70 386 IBM PS/2 Model 70 486 IBM PS/2 Model 80 IBM PS/2 Model 90 XP IBM PS/2 Model 95 XP 486 IBM PS/2 Model P75 ICL (R) Alfaskop DS 458 Eisa ICL CXe486s Intel (R) 486DX Workstation Intel LP 486/33E (3) NCR (R) 3000 Model 3335 NCR 3000 Model 3345 NCR 3000 Model 3445 NCR 3000 Model 3447 NCR StarStation NEC (R) Powermate 386/25S NEC Powermate Express 486sx/25e NEC Powermate Image 486/33 Northgate (R) Elegance 433i Northgate Elegance SP 433 Olivetti (R) LSX5010 Olivetti M400-40 Olivetti M400-60 Tandy (R) 4820SX/T Tandy 4833 LX/T Toshiba (R) T4400SX Wang (R) Microsystems EC 480/33C Wang Microsystems PC 350/40C Zenith (R) Data Systems Z-486/25E Zenith Data Systems Z-486/33ET Zenith Data Systems Z-486/SX 20 Zenith Data Systems Z-486/SX 25 Zenith Data Systems Z386/33 (4) Zenith Data Systems Z386/33E (5) Zenith Data Systems Z486/33E ZEOS (R) 386DX-33CDT (6) ZEOS 486-50CW ZEOS 486DX-33 ISA ZEOS 486DX-33CDT ZEOS 486DX-33EISA ZEOS 486DX-50 ZEOS 486SX-20DT Intel 80486 Multiprocessor Systems ACER (R) AcerFrame 3000 MP ALR (R) PowerPro DMP Compaq (R) SystemPro Dual 486/33 NCR (R) 3000 Model 3450 NCR 3000 Model 3550 Wyse (R) 7000i MIPS ARC/R4000 Systems ACER (R) ARC1 MIPS (R) ARCSystem 100 MIPS ARCSystem 150 Olivetti (R) M700-10 Olivetti PWS4000 Video Controllers Video Mode VGA Class 100% Register Compatible with IBM VGA 640x480x16 Super VGA Class Headland Technology / Video 7 VRAM VGA, VRAM II 1024x768x16 800x600x16 Orchid ProDesigner IIs 1024x768x16 800x600x16 TSENG Labs ET4000 chipset 1024x768x16 800x600x16 Others IBM XGA 1024x768x256 DELL DGX 1280x1024x256 Built-in Video on MIPS ARC/R4000 systems from 1280x1024x256 Acer, MIPS, Olivetti 1024x768x256 Note: Display support will be expanded greatly over time. Microsoft plans to support 8514, S3, ATI, most SVGAs (including hi-res), and coprocessor display boards in an update to the Win32(TM) SDK. Disk Controllers 100% Register Compatible with WD1003 - ESDI, IDE, WD1003 Compaq Intelligent Drive Array SCSI(R) Adaptec AHA-1540b AHA-1542b AHA-1640 AHA-1740 Future Domain TMC-845 TMC-850, TMC-850M(ER) MCS-700 (7) TMC-1660 (8) TMC-1680 (9) TMC-7000EX IBM IBM SCSI Host Adapter (10) Maynard 16 Bit SCSI Adapter (11) NCR NCR 53C700 Olivetti ESC - 1 Adapter Built-in SCSI on MIPS ARC/R4000 systems from : Acer, MIPS and Olivetti Network Adapters (12) 3Com(R) Etherlink II (13) Etherlink II / TP Etherlink / MC Etherlink 16 Etherlink II / 16 DEC(R) EtherWORKS LC EtherWORKS Turbo / TP IBM Token Ring 16/4 (14) Token Ring 16/4A Novell(R) NE3200 SMC/Western Digital(R) (15) EtherCard Plus Elite/A 8013EP/A (16) Built-In Ethernet on MIPS ARC/R4000 systems from Acer, MIPS and Olivetti Tape Devices Archive Python DAT (Maynstream 1300DAT) Note: The SCSI tape functionality has been successfully tested with the Adaptec 154X/174X, Maynard 16-Bit SCSI adapter and the built-in SCSI adapters in the Acer, MIPS/Silicon Graphics and Olivetti MIPS ARC/R4000. This is known to fail on other SCSI adapters at this time. CD-Rom Devices CD Technology CD Porta-Drive T-3301 Chinon CDX-431 Denon(R) DRD 253 Hitachi(R) CDR-1750S NEC Intersect CDR-73(M) Intersect CDR-84 Pioneer(R) DRM-600 Sony(R) CDU-541 CDU-6211 CDU-7211 Toshiba XM-3201 TXM-3301 MultiMedia Sound Cards Creative Labs SoundBlaster SoundBlaster Pro Printers Every driver that shipped with the Windows(TM) 3.1 retail package. No plotter support included. Keyboards 100% Compatible with : 101/102 key "enhanced" layout 84 key AT(R) layout Mice 100% Compatible with Microsoft Mouse Microsoft and MS-DOS are registered trademarks and Windows, Windows NT and Win32 are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. (1) Requires an updated KEYBOARD.SYS driver to run existing MS-DOS and Windows applications (2) Same as Footnote 1 (3) Same as Footnote 1 (4) These machines currently have problems running existing MS-DOS and Windows applications. (5) Same as Footnote 4 (6) Same as Footnote 1 (7) A driver that supports both Setup and File I/O for the Future Domain MCS-700, and TMC-16X0 series controllers will be posted to CompuServe in the WINNT forum, Lib 2 "Fixes and Updates". (8) Same as Footnote 7 (9) Same as Footnote 7 (10) Earlier versions of this controller have proven to have problems with various CD-Rom drives. The Chinon CDX-431 and NEC Intersect CDR-73 are known to work with this version of controller. (11) The Maynard SCSI Adapter can be used as a general purpose SCSI controller for all tasks but graphical setup. (12) Full NDIS 3.0 conformance testing will be available this fall through Microsoft Compatibility Labs (13) These two adapters have been successfully tested in a Multi-Processor environment. (14) The IBM Token Ring 16/4 adapter has been successfully tested in the MIPS ARC/R4000 systems (15) There will be an updated driver for the SMC/WD 8003EP, 8013WB, 8013EWC net adapters posted on CompuServe in the WINNT forum, Lib 2 "Fixes and Updates" (16) Same as footnote 13 -- Western Digital net and Future Domain SCSI drivers now available! The latest drivers for Future Domain MCS-700 and TMC-16X0 SCSI and Western Digital SMC/WD 8003EP, 8013WB, 8013EWC network cards are ready for download on Compuserve in Library 2 as FD1800.ZIP and WDLAN.ZIP respectively. ############################################################################## # # # Appendix B: HWFEED.TXT # # # ############################################################################## Customer Computer Hardware Input If you are interested in providing us input on computer hardware to the "winnthw" people, we would appreciate you providing us input on you equipment the in the following format. If a particular device of yours does not have an explicit category, please use the "Other Peripheral" entry to categorize it. If there is more than one such device, simply cut and paste on another line as in the example below. Use "N/A" for a category that you do not have hardware for. For your convenience, we have provided the below sample and template. Simply fill in the template and send it via e-mail to the "winnthw" address (Editor's Note: That is winnthw@microsoft.com). Example response : System ------ Computer System manufacturer : CompuAdd Computer System model name : 433EISA Amount of RAM (MB): 8 Total Hard Disk Space (MB) : 120 Video Adapter manufacturer, model : Built in Peripherals ----------- Motherboard manufacturer, model : N/A Video Adapter manufacturer, model : N/A Video Monitor manufacturer, model : NEC 3FGx Hard Drive Adapter manufacturer, model : Western Digital, WD-1009 Mouse device manufacturer, model : Microsoft, Serial Mouse Backup Device manufacturer, model : N/A Ethernet Adapter manufacturer, model : N/A CD-Rom Drive manufacturer, model : NEC, CDR-73M MM SoundCard manufacturer, model : MediaVision, ThunderBoard Printer manufacturer, model : HP, LaserJet Series II Other Peripheral manufacturer, model : Logitech, ScanMan Other Peripheral manufacturer, model : Iomega, Bernoulli Box Other Peripheral manufacturer, model : Intel SatisFAXion Template form : ====================== CUT HERE =========================== System ------ Computer System manufacturer : Computer System model name : Amount of RAM (MB): Hard Disk Size (MB) : Video Adapter manufacturer, model : Peripherals ----------- Motherboard manufacturer, model : Video Adapter manufacturer, model : Video Monitor manufacturer, model : Hard Drive Adapter manufacturer, model : Mouse Device manufacturer, model : Backup Device manufacturer, model : Ethernet Adapter manufacturer, model : CD-Rom Drive manufacturer, model : MultiMedia SoundCard manufacturer, model : Printer manufacturer, model : Other Peripheral Device manufacturer, model : ############################################################################## # # # Appendix C: BUGREP.TXT # # # ############################################################################## [Editor's note: I am not sure where to mail this form if you do not have access to CompuServe...] Microsoft Windows NT Preliminary Test Release Bug Report Template Bug Title: (66 characters maximum) Product: (Windows NT July Preliminary Release) Type "winver" at the command line while Windows NT is running. Description of Bug: (be as specific as possible) Duplication Scenario: (be a specific as possible) Work-around: (if any) Network Environment (e.g., LAN Manager 2.1 with OS/2 1.3) File System: FAT HPFS NTFS Tools, Services or Applications Running/Versions: Machine Configuration : Computer Brand and Model: Processor Type and Speed: Memory (RAM): Peripherals (include make/model): network cards: network type: hard disk size: other disk/controllers: CD-ROM drive: video adapter: Reproducable: Always Intermittent Not reproducable Severity level: Sev 1: System crashes, data corruption error Sev 2: Does not operate correctly Sev 3: Cosmetic or minor usability problem Sev 4: Suggestion or documentation error Date: Customer Name: Customer Company: Area Code and Phone: CompuServe ID: Customer ID (IF no CompuServe ID): ************************************************************************* * Upload this completed report to Library 3 of WINNT for end-user bugs. * * SDK and development bugs should be reported over in MSWIN32 * ************************************************************************* -- ############################################################################## # # # Appendix D: MIPS INFO # # # ############################################################################## Steps for a clean install of Windows NT on a MIPS machine: --------------------------------------------------------- 1) You need at least a MIPS R4000 version 2.0 or greater to run the prerelease version of Windows NT. If you don't have a Rev. 2.0 or greater, contact your system manufacturer. 2) You need at least PROM revision # 119 or greater. The PROM version is displayed at the top of the blue ARC multiboot screen. If you have an older version (usually 78) contact your system manufacturer. NOTE: MIPS has shipped several Magnum systems with UNIX (i.e. RISC-OS) big endian PROMS. If you don't get to a blue ARC multiboot screen within a minute or so after power up, contact MIPS. These systems have flash PROM; a new PROM revision can be downloaded in less than a minute from a floppy disk. 3) Jzsetup.exe must be run on your system after a PROM upgrade. The symptom of not running jzsetup.exe is setupldr hangs trying to jump into the GUI portion of setup. The last message that is displayed is "loading... fastfat.sys". You can run jzsetup.exe from the CD-ROM. At the "Run a program" prompt, type "scsi()cdrom(ID)fdisk()\jzsetup.exe", where ID is scsi identifier of your cdrom drive. If you don't know the identifier of your drive, go to the "Execute Monitor" prompt, then type "a". Look for the cdrom() entry that is displayed. If none is displayed, check your SCSI cable or call your system manufacturer. Type "q" to return to the main PROM prompt. From jzsetup.exe, select "Load default configuration" and choose your monitor resolution and floppy size. This is the most important step to avoiding the "fastfat" hang. For a clean install, also select "Load default environment". This will wipe out any previous boot selections that you had. Answer the questions to point to your "system partition", i.e. the FAT partition on your hard drive that will end up holding the osloader.exe and hal.dll. You can find the scsi identifier for your hard disk in the same manner your found the id for the CD-ROM drive, see above. Select the partition number, usually 1 for C:. AUTOBOOT refers to whether the system automatically counts down and boots the default boot selection (YES) or waits for a boot to be selected manually (NO) (the usual preference). You can change the default 5 second countdown by creating an environment variable called COUNTDOWN and giving it a value (seconds). This is a good time to check the date on your system, displayed in the upper right had corner. There is a menu selection to change it. MIPS has been shipping systems with valid ethernet addresses but without correct ethernet address checksums. This causes the network to not work after installing NT. You can reenter the ethernet address with jzsetup.exe, and it will append the correct checksum, if you are having problems getting the network to work. Note: JZSETUP is not a polished user friendly utility. Future versions will correct usage problems and user interface design problems. 4) After jzsetup.exe has been run, the CD-ROM can be accessed from the "Run a program" prompt by typing "cd:<name_of_program>". If you have more than one CD-ROM, the one with the lower scsi id will be selected with this method. 5) Run the arcinstaller: "cd:arcinst.exe". This program will allow you to partition your drive. If you've had an abortive attempt at installing NT, the best thing to do is to delete the system partition and/or the OS partition (you often choose these to be the same partition, see the discussion below) and recreate them (they will be REFORMATTED, don't do this if you want to save any files there). The setup process is fast, so this is not painful unless you have files you want to save. To do this, choose "Configure a System Partition", then "Delete Partition", then "Create System Partition". This is really all you should do with the arcistaller this time, you don't need to update system files or muck with the system partition list. 6) Run the setupldr: "cd:setupldr" (note no extension). You should be off and running. Background on ARC ----------------- The ARC specification defines an operating environment for OS load programs, setup programs, and utilities. There are two interesting parts of this, the System Partition and the boot environment variables. The System Partition is a FAT partition that contains the hal.dll, and in the future will contain other files including vendor specific NT drivers that will ship with the system. The vendor will provide a utility to create the system partition and copy the hal.dll and other files, something like the arcinstaller, and hopefully will ship a preconfigured harddisk. There are two philosophies for system partitions. Some people make a minimal partition (a few megabytes) and use a separate partition for NT. Others make one large partition that is both a system partition and the OS partition. There are six ARC environment variables that control booting: LOADIDENTIFIER - a name for the boot selection SYSTEMPARTITON - the partition containing the hal.dll OSLOADER - a full ARC pathname to the osloader OSLOADPARTITION - the partition containing the Windows NT OSLOADFILENAME - the subdirectory and filename for the NT kernel OSLOADOPTIONS - options for booting These environment variables are multi-valued. You can view all the values with jzsetup.exe ("Change the active (displayed) boot selection"). There needs to be the same number of values in each variable, and there are a maximum of five values per variable. You can use jzsetup.exe to add and delete boot selections. The setup process will add a boot selection for the current install, however, so you should not need to do this. If your install failed, you may want to delete the added boot selection. Playing with these environment variables can be dangerous. It is easy to get them out of whack, at which point it is often better to use jzsetup.exe to load the default environment and start over. -- -= Max =- ...!uunet!underg!max ...!cactus.org!underg!max