[PaTiNsAnE]

hey, can anyone tell me what a tipical windows 9x machine's config.sys and autoexec.bat should look like?
(i.e. device=blah blah) and what is important?

[Neo20]

This is what they look like on a windows 98 system. But be warned only edit the .bat and .sys files unless you know what your doing.

http://neos.homeworld.hothost.tv/CONFIG.sys.jpg http://neos.homeworld.hothost.tv/Autoexec.bat.jpg you may get a warning aswell click on Click here to get the file you were trying to download.

[adamvjackson]

All you need is this line, in your config.sys:

Device=C:\windows\himem.sys /testmem:off

[pmistry]

Here is how I kept mine

CONFIG.SYS
devicehigh=c:\windows\himem.sys
dos=high, umb

AUTOEXEC.BAT
@ECHO OFF
PROMPT $P$G
SET TEMP=C:\TEMP
SET TMP=C:\TEMP
SET PATH=C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND

[Christianb]

It may depend on which version of Windows 9X, but I know that on Windows 98SE you do not need to load anything. I seem to recall not needing to load anything on Win95 OSR2, but can't speak about earlier versions, because while I've used 95 gold plenty in labs I haven't ever tested dos games professionaly. I was a hardware tester in the Windows Consumer Hardware Lab for Win98SE at Microsoft. Rather than copy what ever these other helpful hearted individuals have sent you why not figure out what you need. #1 for maximum speed and stability don't use any real mode drivers, or dos memory managers (even Microsoft's). Win98SE loads like a dream without anything in either file. You can still run most dos games without issue. If you have a particular Dos application that requires something special then you'll have to account for it. One of those guys wrote:

Quote:

@ECHO OFF
PROMPT $P$G
SET TEMP=C:\TEMP
SET TMP=C:\TEMP
SET PATH=C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND

Definetly use @ECHO OFF if you're going to have any settings. The next thing Pmistry did was Prompt $P$G which is absolutely meaningless. That's the default settings so all that's happening is autoexec.bat is larger and slower to process. After that PMISTRY used set temp and set it to C:\TEMP. That's fine if you have a compatibility issue related to that otherwise it's highly illogical. First off if you don't specify your temp dir, windows automatically chooses %windir%\TEmp. Which is fine, all that usually winds up there is garbage from installation programs and compilers. Specifying C:\ will just cause confusion, because then you wind up having gunk in both C:\Windows (or wherever) \Temp and C:\TEMP. Whereas if you just KISS (keep it simple stupid) there will only be temporary files in C:\WINNT\TEMP. Personally I love to use C:\temp as sort of a testing bed. I will extract programs to C:\TEMP and install from there or try them out at that location. If they are any good then I'll put them in a permanent folder. Then once I'm doing trialing something I'll just empty C:\TEMP. If you do it the PMIStry shows you'd have a bunch of garbage files in there too and it'd be hard to delete the programs your evaluating if there are a bunch of read-only & in use files in the folder. This "SET PATH=C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND" is also default so there's no point in specifying it, because once again all you're doing is slowing things down.

My advice is leaving that thing as close to empty as possible. Things you might want to add would be a set blaster statement if you have a sound blaster compatible sound card
EG:
Set Blaster=A220 I5 D1 T4

another good one is
SET DIRCMD=/o which will automatically sort your files alphabetically when you type in DIR at a commmand prompt.

In terms of the memory settings unless you're running a dos app and it actually says memory of specified type not available you won't need to load Himem or Dos=High, UMB. Windows probably does load dos high anyways. If a dos game needs EMS or XMS or something start by settings those options in the Shortcut, before you even touch your Autoexec or config.sys. Good luck. Also running SysEdit from a command-line is the best way to edit those two files.
Happy Camping,
Christian Blackburn :x

[pmistry]

I just posted what I used in my old config.sys and autoexec.bat files. I specified those temp variables so they wouldn't go into the Windows Temp folders. By doing it no temporary garbage will go into the Windows temp folder, it helps keep the Windows folder clean. The prompt command is useless but I kept it in just for the heck of it. As for the set path command I put a few more in there like my Utility folder with Pkzip and Pkunzip for DOS so if I booted into pure dos mode I would have easy access to them as well. Also for CD Rom drivers and sound card drivers I put them in my dosstart.bat file so I could load those separately if I were playing a dos game. I believe Creative sound card installation programs automatically modify the dosstart.bat to do this, so do not put this in your autoexec.bat.

[Christianb]

Pmistry is absolutely right, the using the dosstart.bat and Creativeloads little util for loading drivers after the system has already been booted is the way to go. I know I have it somewhere, but you might offer to e-mail that utility to the guy who needs it. Of course this will violate Creative's EULA, but somehow I think we will all live happily ever after just the same .

Pmistry you are however wrong about the TEMP file setting it will not keep your windows\TEMP folder clean, that's why I was trying to tell you. Most programs don't even check the environment variable or restiry to see where to place temp files. They just go to %WINDIR%\TEMP and drop 'em. Go ahead check on your own system I bet you have files there if you install programs regularly.

[pmistry]

While I no longer use Windows 98, when I did, the temp files did go into C:\Temp, only a few Microsoft programs would dump into C:\Windows\Temp, in any case I stuck with C:\Temp because of my DOS days. If you don't want to specify temp variables then simply don't do it. My understanding was that under Windows 9x a variable in the Autoexec.bat overrides the registry entry, however, some programs like MS Office insist on Windows\Temp, well so be it.

[PaTiNsAnE]

Quote:

Set Blaster=A220 I5 D1 T4

Hey while im at it, will this line work for my Santa Cruz? I want the damn thing to use a DMA. And could ya (if u can) tell me what all that A220 I5 D1 T4 means? i know the D1 is dma

[Admiral LSD]

This is more or less what mine looked like when I ran 98:

Config.sys:

Code:

[menu]
MENUITEM=dos,MS-DOS
MENUITEM=win98,Windows 98
MENUDEFAULT=win98,5

[common]
shell=C:\COMMAND.COM C:\ /e:512 /p
files=40
device=c:\win98\himem.sys
device=c:\win98\emm386.exe ram

[dos]
DEVICE=C:\UTILS\CDROM\AOATAPI.SYS /D:IDECD000
DEVICE=C:\WIN98\setver.exe
Devicehigh=c:\win98\command\ansi.sys
dos=high,umb

[win98]
DEVICE=C:\UTILS\CDROM\AOATAPI.SYS /D:IDECD000

Autoexec.bat:

Code:

@echo off
SET BLASTER=A220 I7 D1 H5 P330  T6
SET CTSYN=C:\WIN98
C:\PROGRA~1\CREATIVE\SBLIVE\DOSDRV\SBEINIT.COM
C:\PROGRA~1\NORTON~5\NAVDX.EXE /Startup
PATH C:\WIN98;C:\WIN98\COMMAND;C:\;C:\UTILS\NC;C:\UTILS\PKZIP;C:\UTILS\AMOUSE;C:\UTILS\ARJ;C:\PROGRA~1\CREATIVE\SBLIVE\DOSDRV
set dircmd=/o:gn
set temp=c:\temp
set tmp=c:\temp
PROMPT $p$g
lh C:\WIN98\COMMAND\doskey
goto %config%
goto end

:dos
rem - By Windows Setup - C:\WIN98\COMMAND\MSCDEX.EXE /S /D:IDECD000 /v /l:e
lh amouse /r2
nc
goto end

:win98
win
goto end

:end

I think I also had a few other Creative related things in there but I've long since lost them.

The SET BLASTER= thing usually works in tandem with a "helper" driver with PCI sound cards (I think thats what "SBEINIT.EXE" used to do but I can't for the life of me remember...) because since they don't use all the same settings ISA cards used to (they lack DMA channels and have default base adresses that are normally too high for most DOS progras to find) they need a program to emulate these so they can be found by the detection routines in DOS games.

edit: btw, you need to disable BOOTGUI in MSDOS.SYS for this setup to work properly otherwise it'll just continue to boot Windows even if you select "DOS" in the menu.

[pmistry]

the set blaster variables stand for the following:

a=I/O address, usually the old Soundblaster 16 set it to 220.

i=irq, default usually at 5 or 7. I would use 5.

d=dma, which you already know, usually set to 1.

h=high dma, this is used for 16-bit audio transfer, the d variable is for low dma or 8-bit transfers,usually set to 5 or 7. Again I would use 5.

p=port, this is for the Wavetable MIDI port for General MIDI music, usually set to 330.

e=620 if you have a SB AWE32/AWE64 or newer cards, this value represents their choice of MIDI port. The P variable is for emulating older sound cards.

t=type of Soundblaster card
1=SoundBlaster v1.0 (8-bit mono) or compatible
2=SoundBlaster v2.0 clone (8-bit stereo) or compatible
3=SoundBlaster Pro (8-bit stereo) or SB Pro compatible
4=SoundBlaster 16/AWE32 or SB16 compatible

SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 E620 T4
This will do the trick most of the time.

[Christianb]

I just want to say that Admiral LSD and PMistry both gave really good answers. Thanks for the top notch help guys. Admiral I love that you put in a multi-boot configuration. Pmistry I thought I knew that command pretty well, but what ever document you referenced from Soundblaster.com had much more. I knew my card was a T4, but I didn't know what all the previous values pertained to. I'm also glad you mentioned the Midi value I had neglected to include that.
-Christian

[Christianb]

The machine I hand-me downed to my mom has a SB32 PNP in it and you can't disable the CD-Rom controller it comes with so it always eats IRQ 10. I wish they had included a jumper to disable that. I mean really, not everyone wants to run their CD-ROM using a slower interface . Although I suppose it would be good if you had too many hard drives (which come to think of it I do) Does anyone know what level of ATAPI it supports and wheter or not it supports DMA Transfers? I would just plug it in and find out (about the DMA transfers), but the card is in a different state and my mom definetly can't help me on this issue. It'd take me two weeks to get her to overcome her I can't do it attitude and try it out. For her opening a computer case is like NASA's rocket launching process.

[R Clodfelter]

Originally posted by PaTiNsAnE:

Quote:

hey, can anyone tell me what a tipical windows 9x machine's config.sys and autoexec.bat should look like?
(i.e. device=blah blah) and what is important?