Re: Off-topic: Enhanced DOS

["J. R. Fox" jr_fox@xxxxxxxxxx]

Patricia M Godfrey wrote:

>     Here's what I suggest: try to find a copy of Win 95 b or C or 98 a or b
> (unfortunately there were no shrink-wrapped versions of 95 b and c; they
> were stricly OEM releases) on e-bay or from a liquidator.

That's no problem. You can pick these disks up now for about 12 bucks at any
decent computer show. In any case, I have access to other systems running W98.

Maybe it went by another name, but did you know that there was something
called "W98 Lite" ? It had the otherwise integrally interwoven MS I.E. browser
"divested" from the opsys, and used up far less space. It was said to be far more
stable and well-behaved than any other Win from the W95 thru '98 era. I've heard
that some gamers consider this to be the best gaming platform, and it is supposed
to run the vast majority of Win software out there.

> Use the startup disk to create any DOS partitions you want, leaving the rest of
> the disk free for your other opsys-partitions. Format, install Windows,
> then boot to DOS, copy everything in \Windows\commmand to the root, and
> DELTree everything else. MSDOS 9x, sans GUI. You'll need to add the
> 16-bit CD-ROM drivers and a config.sys and autoexec.bat that call them,
> but I'm sure you're used to all that.

Sounds like more trouble that it's worth.

What I'm wondering is, might it be possible to just substitute the other
Command.Com
and two system files (and maybe something else that isn't immediately apparent) for
the
PC-DOS 2000 ones ? Or would that be some hideous mutation ? Particularly on a
test
boot floppy, that should be a low risk experiment. I'm going to try this when I
get a
chance.

Sometimes you get bit on a mix 'n match like that, but I've had some success making
a
few substitutions into the satellite DOS files on a W98 system before. For
example,
MS in its infinite wisdom dropped DISKCOMP at some point. I had to try about 4
or 5 versions from other DOSes, until I found one that wasn't rejected by W98, but
I
did find it. Likewise, they long ago got rid of FC, which had been in the Zenith
implementations of DOS, and maybe even still in DOS 6.22. It was a useful
alternate
to COMP, giving a different type of report. If something could be useful, and was
still
usable, I never liked them just deciding to retire it, with the users having no say
in the matter.

Jordan