On 17 Feb 2004 at 22:52, howard schwartz wrote:
>Glenn,
>
>You are talking about configuring windows so that it starts up in dos,
>and does not load all the extra drivers and so on for windows, until you
>tell it to, by typing win <ENTER> at the dos prompt. Windows provides
>a version of this ability by allowing you to define special `dos modes'
>for dos programs, each with its own specialized autoexec.bat and config.sys,
>if you want. Windows will exit to dos, leaving only a win stub. But when you
>are done, you must restart windows, which takes almost as much time as a new
>windows boot.
>
>Yes one can work in dos for a while this way, UNTIL you start windows
>(by the win.com command). They you are in my dilemma. Loading windows,
>is a time consuming process.
>
>I want to have windows ALREADY loaded, and execute dos commands, without
>starting another, unnecessary instance of command.com. Then I can return
>to windows instantly, without waiting for all the drivers, dills and so on
>to load. Basically, I want the windows shell to use the command.com already
>loaded to run the dos program, and then return to windows, instantly.
I'm not so sure that what you're looking for is possible. I did a
little playing around last evening with a memory scanner, and it
appears, from my brief testing, that Windows 95/98 replaces
COMMAND.COM, in whole or in part, while loading.
The "MS-DOS Prompt" is your only option, I believe, for running pure
DOS commands / programs from within Windows - and that's what it's
there for.
>I think the other folks are correct that the win OS, and/or command.com
>do not permit reentrant shells, and will always run multiple instances.
>If one starts a dos box, and types, mem /c /p within the box, one easily
>sees 2 instances of command.com running.
Yes, and that's part of the point of being able to run multiple command-
line shells from within Windows - if one crashes, it's not supposed to
take the whole system with it. And you can run multiple DOS programs,
each in its own window, and quickly switch between them.
>Perhaps my goal can be accomplished by using other shells than command.com,
>that can execute dos functions. NT had cmd, norton had its version of
>command.com, etc. Perhaps I can run one of these dos compatible shells,
>and it will run dos commands, as I wish.
Windows NT, 2000, and XP run "cmd.exe" instead of "command.com", but
it's still starting up a command-prompt shell - they are no different
in that respect from starting up the "MS-DOS Prompt" under Win9x. I
don't believe you'll ever get any of them to run under earlier versions
of Windows, either.
Replacements for "Command.com" are possible, but they are pretty much
limited to DOS mode only, and will not work under Windows, so far as I
know.
>The advantage is adding lots of favorite dos programs to the windows
>repitiore, without the extra time, memory, and overhead of an extra shell.
I don't find it takes long (not more than three to five seconds) to
start up the "MS-DOS Prompt" on most machines, especially on any
Pentium-class machine. It doesn't seem to take longer than starting up
most Windows programs, and takes a lot less time to load than any
version of MS-Word!
If you use the command line that much, may I suggest putting in a
shortcut to the "MS-DOS Prompt" in the "Startup" group under Start /
Programs? This should get an MS-DOS prompt up and running just after
Windows finishes loading. By changing its settings, you can even have
it come up maximized, so that the machine looks like it's running DOS,
but ALT-TAB will let you switch, pretty instantaneously, to Windows.
Hope this helps,
Anthony Albert
===========================================================
Anthony J. Albert [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Systems and Software Support Specialist Postmaster
Computer Services - University of Maine, Presque Isle
"This is only temporary, unless it works."
--- Red Green
