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RUNNING DOS GAMES AND SIMULATIONS WITH WINDOWS 95-ANOTHER APPROACH
Originally published in Volume 1 Issue 3 of "Computer Pilot" magazine.
Special thanks to Robert Ferraro of CP for permission to post.

By: Mark Stotzer
Pacific Grove, California, USA
stotzerm@ix.netcom.com
March 1996-Updated April 1997.

From observing numerous recent FS5 and DOS user postings on the USENET newsgroups rec.aviation.simulators and comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.flight-sim, I would like to offer an alternate way of running FS5 and other DOS game programs with Windows 95.
My preferred method is to boot Windows 95 to a DOS prompt. I have found that if I run DOS applications like ATP and FS5 and the rest of my DOS apps from this bootup "DOS 7.0" (That is what is under Windows 95) prompt I have better performance and less problems. I also still frequently use many DOS applications and utilities and do not want to automatically enter the Windows 95 Graphical User Interface (GUI) upon every bootup.
I realize that by pressing the F8 key when you reboot and see "Starting Windows 95...." will cause the boot menu to pop up and you can select your choice. My intent is to show you how to automate that process.
I run ATP with the 3DAGS enhancement, FS4, FS5.1 and Aces of the Pacific, Over Europe and most other DOS apps with this setup. My hardware is a Pentium 133 with 16MB of RAM, a PAS16 sound card and an NEC 8X IDE CDROM.
In order to make your system boot up as I described above, you have to modify your Win95 MSDOS.SYS file and also your AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files.

Let's then go through the procedures step by step:

STEP1: Reboot your Win95 system. When you see "Loading Windows 95..." on the screen, hit the F8 key. This will cause the Boot Menu to pop up. Select "Command Prompt" and hit Enter. You will soon end up at the C>prompt.
STEP2: Modify your MSDOS.SYS file. It is a read only, hidden, system file. To remove those attributes type:

attrib -r -h -s msdos.sys<Enter>
STEP3: Make a backup copy of your MSDOS.SYS file by typing: copy msdos.sys msdos.old <Enter>
STEP4: Edit MSDOS.SYS. Now type: edit msdos.sys<Enter> You will see a section labeled [Options]. Modify this section and add the lines you do not have as follows (The order does not matter):
[Options]
BootGUI=0 (This line alone will cause Win95 to boot to DOS prompt only)
(Or try these next three or four lines)
BootMenu=1 (This will cause boot menu to always appear on bootup)
BootMenuDelay= 10 (Default is 30 seconds)
BootMenuDefault= Whatever number choice on boot menu you want
BootMulti= 1 (Add this line if you installed Win 95 over an older DOS (-it will allow you to boot up with the older DOS. It adds an additional boot menu choice)
Logo=0 or 1 (Turns the splash graphic off or on)
Network= 0 or 1 (Again, it depends on your system)

STEP5: Reboot and test it. If it's what you want, put the attributes back on MSDOS.SYS by typing:

attrib +r +s +h msdos.sys<Enter>

So, now we are either booting up to a DOS 7.0 prompt automatically or by selecting it off the Boot Menu. Let's continue! Many of you may find that your Windows 95 startup files AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS are rather barren compared to your earlier DOS versions. This is because Windows 95 installs itself assuming you want to always boot directly into the Graphical User Interface (GUI) and run all your programs from there. Well, that's not what we're after here!
Note1: Windows 95 will load HIMEM.SYS, SETVER.EXE and IFSHLP.SYS into upper memory upon bootup even if the DEVICE or DEVICEHIGH= lines are NOT in your CONFIG.SYS file! We will load them the old fashioned way below just in case the memory manager needs to "see" the lines.
Note2: On some OEM systems (Dell, Gateway) editing MSDOS.SYS does not work to force your system to boot to a DOS prompt. In this case, you can force your system to boot to only a DOS prompt by going to your \WINDOWS directory and renaming WIN.COM to WIN95.COM. Your system then can't run WIN by itself. To run the Win95 GUI you merely type "WIN95" at the C:\> prompt.

STEP6: Make backup copies of your system startup files by typing:

copy autoexec.bat *.old<Enter> and
copy config.sys *.old<Enter>

STEP7: Edit your Win95 CONFIG.SYS by typing: edit config.sys<Enter> CONFIG.SYS should contain AT LEAST these lines preferably in this order:
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS (This gives you Extended memory-XMS)
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE RAM HIGHSCAN I=B700-B7FF D=64 H=255
(Note: if you run into problems with above try removing the "HIGHSCAN then I=B700-B7FF)
DOS=HIGH,UMB
FILES=60
BUFFERS=10
LASTDRIVE= (Whatever you need/optional)
SHELL=C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM C:\WINDOWS /P
DEVICEHIGH=C:\CDROM\CDDRV.SYS /D:xxxxxxx (Must agree with /D: in MSCDEX below! It IS NOT the CDROM drive letter but a device name like "MSCD001")
DEVICEHIGH= (Your real mode sound card driver if needed)
DEVICEHIGH=C:\WINDOWS\SETVER.EXE
DEVICEHIGH=C:\WINDOWS\IFSHLP.SYS
DEVICEHIGH=C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\ANSI.SYS (If you need it)
Save it with Alt-F, Exit, Yes.

STEP8: Edit your AUTOEXEC.BAT by typing: edit autoexec.bat<Enter> AUTOEXEC.BAT needs most of the below lines, again preferably in this order:
@ECHO OFF
PROMPT $P$G
SET BLASTER= (If you have ATP you need this in all caps)
SET PATH=C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND; etc.
SET (any other needed SET commands)
LH C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\MSCDEX.EXE /D:xxxxx /E The /D: must agree with CDROM driver in config.sys-the /D: here IS NOT the CDROM drive letter it is a device name like "MSCD001." The /E parameter should ONLY be used in conjunction with using the "RAM" parameter of EMM386.EXE in config.sys above.
LH (Sound card program if needed)
LH C:\WINDOWS\SMARTDRV.EXE /X
LH C:\MOUSE\MOUSE.COM or EXE
Save it with Alt-F, Exit, Yes.

STEP9: Again it's time to test what we've done. Reboot and try running FS5, ATP or other DOS program from the C> prompt and see what happens. If problems occur, restore the backup files we made each time and reboot to get your system back to its original configuration.

Final Notes:

I get over 610KB free conventional memory and 50-100KB free upper memory with the above startup files even after loading my CDROM and PAS16 soundcard drivers.
When you install Windows 95 on a system that was to upgrade from Windows 3.x, it leaves copies of your old DOS startup files in your root directory as AUTOEXEC.DOS and CONFIG.DOS. Sometimes these can be copied and modified for use with Win95 as noted above. Save these and your Win95 startup files on a floppy.
The above startup configuration will allow you to enter the Windows 95 Graphical User Interface or GUI simply by typing "win"<Enter> at the C> prompt. Once you are in the GUI and have the occasion to enter the "MSDOS Mode" or run programs from a "DOS box" you will have your DOS level, real mode CDROM, Sound Card, and mouse available because you already loaded them above.
My recommended way of exiting the GUI with this configuration is to "Shutdown" the computer and reboot with Cntl/Alt/Delete back to my "DOS7.0" prompt.

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