Adding a Startup Menu to Win95 [MAKING WIN 95 BEHAVE LIKE WIN 3.1] Why? The default action of Win 95 out of the box is to boot directly into Win 95. This default behavior presupposes that you have only new software and that you are not considering running old DOS software or another operating system like Linux. MOVING SOFTWARE. Using a $6.00 "laplink" cable commonly available at computer stores, together with Microsoft's free InterSvr software program (a part of DOS 6 and 7), it is possible to move software between DOS machines using the DOS commands "xcopy" or "copy". This method works even if win95's Direct Cable Connection fails to work. MENU BOOT. It is possible to have a DOS setup for various boot options, choices like DOS, WIN 3.1, WIN 95, WIN 98, LINUX being normal. This feature is a part of DOS supplied with Win 95, so it's completely a Microsoft idea, available on every machine that runs MS products. RUN WINDOWS 3.1, 95 or 98. It is possible on a machine with two disk partitions to run Windows 3.1, 3.11, 95 or 98 directly from the menu, or as an optional command line directive after booting DOS. In fact, you can run Windows 3.1 from DOS, then exit, run Windows 95, exit, and run Windows 3.1 again, all without rebooting the machine. LINUX. With Linux CDs at $10.00, it is possible for a small investment of money and time to get an Xwindow system running that is completely stable. This includes remote Xwindows, so that you can run expensive applications like Matlab, Maple and SAS from a remote unix account that already has the licenses paid. BOOT SPEED. The business of booting Win 95 is painfully slow. A wait of 2-3 minutes for the boot can be normal on some machines. SHUTDOWN SPEED. To shutdown DOS, turn off the power. Win 95 does not have this feature. It has to be shutdown by software, and that takes time. Some configurations of win95 have a quick shutdown. Others take 20-30 seconds. DOS TASKS. Typical tasks like copying a file can be done in the shortest possible time, provided the Win 95 boot can be avoided. Basically, you would turn on the machine, select DOS from the menu, copy the file and turn off the power. ============================== The Steps =============================== 1. Before doing any of this to Win 95, start Win 95 and make a rescue floppy disk. Choose the control panel and the the Add Programs icon, finally selecting "Make Startup Disk". Especially, do this if it's a new idea, and you are reading this for the first time. Most Win 95 installs were done by computer vendors. They have a habit of not supplying a rescue disk. Hard disks fail. There can be software problems caused later on by a Win 95 install program. Logic says you need a rescue disk in case the Win 95 boot fails. At about $0.50 each, a floppy is **very** cheap insurance! 2. Edit the file c:\msdos.sys, which is a text file in Win 95, and change the line "BootGUI=1" to "BootGUI=0" (that's right, change the "1" to a "0"). To do this, the attributes of the file have to be changed. The mystery syntax in DOS is this: attrib c:\msdos.sys Show attributes attrib -r -s -h c:\msdos.sys Strip attributes attrib +r +s +h c:\msdos.sys Set attributes attrib , c:\msdos.sys Strip all attributes The set of menu changes recommended are below. The "Logo=0" line gets rid of the Microsoft boot logo. [Options] BootGui=0 Network=1 BootMulti=1 Logo=0 Bootdelay=0 On some systems it may be necessary to issue the command "fdisk /mbr" at the DOS prompt on drive C: in order to undo system boot defaults. It doesn't hurt to do this operation. Nothing happens if it turns out the operation was unnecessary. The command rewrites the master boot record to its default. Evidently the "fdisk /mbr" is undone by Win 95 every time you do "sys c:" from a rescue startup floppy. So "fdisk" and "sys" should both be on your startup rescue floppy! Most Win 95 installs write over the master boot record on the hard disk, making Win 95 the favored operating system. =================== Sample Config.sys and Autoexec.bat ================= After these one-time setups, a cold boot will start up on a config.sys menu. There are examples in the DOS help program which show how to set up a menu which triggers after so many seconds to a default item on the menu. That item might be DOS instead of Windows. Below is a config.sys that is known to work in Win 95. You should merge your current one with this one to arrive at a working copy. WARNING. Make backups of your current config.sys and autoexec.bat files on drive c: by copying them to file names config.bak and autoexec.bak. If something goes wrong, then you can boot from a floppy and copy the backups to the changed files, hence restoring the system to its original state. The menu items below allow for a boot to DOS, Win 95, Linux, a special DOS-extender setup for Maple, a special DOS setup for a parallel LapLink cable to another DOS computer, for backup and restore of software. c:\config.sys *--------------------------------------------------------------------* | SWITCHES=/F | | | | [menu] | | menuitem=dos,Normal Dos: MSdos 7.0 /w Himem and Emm386 noems | | menuitem=dos1,Maple Dos: MSdos 7.0 Plain Vanilla for DOSextender | | menuitem=win,Normal Windows: Windows 95 | | menuitem=dos2,InterSrv Dos: MSdos 7.0 /w Himem and Emm386 noems | | menuitem=linux,Linux 1.2.13 on drive c: /w RedHat live CDROM | | menucolor=0,3 | | menudefault=dos,7 | | | | [dos] | | DOS=HIGH | | DOS=umb | | DEVICEHIGH=C:\dos\HIMEM.SYS /TESTMEM:OFF | | DEVICEHIGH=C:\dos\EMM386.EXE noems | | devicehigh=c:\devices\nansi.sys | | DEVICEHIGH=C:\MTM\MTMCDAI.SYS /D:MTMIDE01 | | SHELL=C:\DOS\COMMAND.COM C:\DOS\ /e:1024 /p | | | | [dos1] | | SHELL=C:\DOS\COMMAND.COM C:\DOS\ /e:1024 /p | | | | [dos2] | | include=dos | | lastdrive=n | | device=c:\dos\interlnk.exe /lpt1 /drives:5 /noscan /noprinter | | | | [win] | | include=dos | | | | [linux] | | include=dos1 | | | | [common] | | Files=40 | | lastdrive=n | *--------------------------------------------------------------------* The labels [dos], [dos1], [dos2], [win], [dosemu] are stripped of their enclosing brackets and then become the variable %CONFIG% which is available to autoexec.bat, in order to trace back which menu item was used in config.sys. Therefore, the autoexec.bat below has several paths of execution, only one of which is executed, based upon the contents of the variable %CONFIG%. c:\autoexec.bat *--------------------------------------------------------------------* | @echo off | | goto %config% | | :win | | :dos | | :dos2 | | PATH c:\windows;c:\dos;c:\usr | | LH C:\DOS\MSCDEX.EXE /D:MTMIDE01 /L:D | | goto quit | | | | :dos1 | | path c:\dos;c:\usr;c:\maplev\bin;c:\maplev;c:\windows | | goto quit | | | | :dosemu | | path h:\dos;f:\usr;f:\dos;f:\usr1;f:\usr2;f:\usr3 | | echo "welcome to dosemu 0.60!" | | goto quit | | | | :linux | | rem Boot linux from DOS directory c:\linux with live CD | | c:\linux\boot\loadlin c:\linux\zimage cdrom=hdb root=/dev/hda1 rw | | goto quit | | | | :quit | | prompt $p$g | | c: | | if %config%==win win.com | *--------------------------------------------------------------------* OTHER WIN95 CHANGES. The startup and shutdown screens in Windows 95/98 can be eliminated by renaming some files in \windows LOGOS.* rename to LOGOS.SAV LOGOW.* rename to LOGOW.SAV This is recommended, because a normal WIN95 shutdown leaves the screen in the graphics mode for the logo, but if the logo is missing, then text mode is used instead, which is appropriate for DOS. The file DOSSTART.BAT, which is used as the config.sys for a DOS box in WIN95, can be edited to start programs and set the path each time a DOS box is opened. Typical edits insert a CD driver, PATH command, default directory, environment variables.