October 2004
Intermediate to advanced
304 pages
7h 44m
English
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Hack #92. Hack the MS-DOS Configuration File
Tailor DOS's CONFIG.SYS file to optimize memory use, load device drivers, and set the DOS environment.
The CONFIG.SYS file resides in the root directory of your boot drive (typically C:\) and contains commands that configure your computer's hardware components (memory use and device drivers) and operating system during bootup. The contents of the CONFIG.SYS file are read and processed before DOS loads. CONFIG.SYS is a text file you can edit with DOS EDIT.COM, Windows Notepad, or any text editor program. CONFIG.SYS is used by DOS 6.22 and earlier and Windows 95-Me, but is not used by Windows NT, 2000, XP, or 2003.
You can bypass CONFIG.SYS and
AUTOEXEC.BAT files if BootKeys=1 is
configured in MSDOS.SYS [Hack
#91] . To use this feature, press the F5 key when you
see the "Starting MS-DOS..." or "Starting Windows..." notice at
startup.
You can also "walk through" and accept or reject individual CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT commands by pressing the F8 key instead of F5.
Under Windows 95 through Me, a few basic CONFIG.SYS parameters are preset within the IO.SYS boot file. These are:
DOS=HIGH Device=HIMEM.SYS SETVER.EXE FILES=60 BUFFERS=30 LASTDRIVE=Z STACKS=9,256 FCBS=4
These parameters aren't nearly adequate or ideal to get a typical PC with a CD-ROM drive running efficiently, so we need to create or hack our own CONFIG.SYS file to suit our needs. A typical and often more suitable CONFIG.SYS file reads as follows:
Device=HIMEM.SYS /TESTMEM:off ...
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O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.