Dave,
I think there must be something in your startup.int that makes it
possible for XW to find its speller. I just experimented with installing
XyWin on a Windows 3.11 setup (using my Win31DOSBox system), and the
same problem occurred there. I added C:\XW to the path (I've been adding
things to the path for three decades now), restarted, and, once again,
XyWin couldn't find the speller until I changed the default directory to
C:\XW.
Could you send me a copy of your XWSTART.INT file so that I can see
what's different in your system and mine? I won't ask you to experiment
with installing a new system, but now that I've seen that this same
problem occurs in Windows 3.11 and with otvdm, it's clear that it's
something real. I'll be curious to see what you've done. If I can figure
it out, I'll add the information to my web page on otvdm. Thanks!
Edward