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[TRLog] Empty AUTOEXEC.BAT

Subject: [TRLog] Empty AUTOEXEC.BAT
From: w2cs@ipass.net (Gary J. Ferdinand W2CS)
Date: Tue, 9 May 2000 09:54:03 -0400
Charlie,

As I recall, Windows 98 is the first release of Windows to remove the
reliance on DOS.  You go thru startup or shutdown menus to boot DOS if you
ever feel a need to.  Otherwise, you use MS-DOS windows or full-screen
sessions while under the Win98 bootup.  The Win98 operating system itself no
longer even requires DOS to be first installed before Windows is installed.
DOS mode compatibility is supplied within Win98; Win98 is no longer a big
application sitting on top of DOS.

While it is still possible to have AUTOEXEC.BATs, etc., most of the "stuff"
you had there is no longer needed, subsumed by Windows 98 registry and
various system files such as win.ini and system.ini.  AUTOEXEC.BAT is, of
course, of interest when booting to DOS instead of to Win98, but that's not
what you're talking about here.

I run TR on my Win98 system.  I did a normal TR install.  Here's what is in
my AUTOEXEC:

SET BLASTER=A220 I7 D1 H7 P330 T6
SET SBPCI=C:\SBPCI

Not a peep regarding TR or any other program that looks DOS-like but runs
under windows.  Only this Sound Blaster stuff so that old DOS games that
need Sound Blaster information will still run.

All my DOS-mode applications work just fine, I might add.

You might be getting fouled up by the way you are executing TR.  There are
several ways to "launch" an application.  My favorite is to use the Windows
Explorer (right click on START to find it) to navigate to the TR directory,
and right-click drag the TR.EXE file to the desktop to create a shortcut.
That shortcut should have been set up by the drag operation to have both the
correct path to the program, as well as the correct path to the operating
subdirectory.  Unless the program has squirreled away code in other
directories, that should suffice.

Or, you can use the windows explorer, navigate to the tr.exe filename and
click on it to launch it directly from there.  Works like a charm for me!

Are you sure you installed TR?  Or did you just do a file-by-file copy?  If
the latter, I'd start over again with the install files, do a TR install,
and then see where you are.

In Bill Turner's response to you (attached below this email) his autoexec
has the command "SET CALLBOOK=C:\"  That command is needed for Bill because
his DOS application needs what is called an environment variable specific to
it.   TR does not use such an environment variable.  (Note only environment
variable definitions are in my AUTOEXEC. No PATH statements, HIMEM
statements or anything else!)  Most of that c..p Windows98 takes care of and
is no longer needed.

Good luck/73,

Gary W2CS
Apex, NC








| -----Original Message-----
| From: owner-trlog@contesting.com [mailto:owner-trlog@contesting.com]On
| Behalf Of Bill Turner
| Sent: Tuesday, May 09, 2000 9:07 AM
| To: trlog@contesting.com; CHARLES P BAKER
| Subject: Re: [TRLog] Empty AUTOEXEC.BAT
|
|
|
| I'm not a programmer but am a fairly heavy DOS user (under Win98).  Here's
| what my AUTOEXEC.BAT file says, :
|
| SET CALLBOOK=C:\
| PROMPT $p$g
| SET DIRCMD=/O/P
| DOSKEY
| CLS
|
| And that's all I need to run all my DOS programs (TR, ELNEC,
| DXP38, RTTY by
| WF1B).  The first line is to point my Windows log program,
| LogWindows to the
| location of my callbook files.  Oddly enough, even though it's a Windows
| program, LogWindows has to have that statement or it can't work with the
| callbook.
|
| W7TI
| ______________________________________________________________
| ----- Original Message -----
| From: CHARLES P BAKER <w2ktf@juno.com>
| To: <trlog@contesting.com>
| Sent: Monday, May 08, 2000 9:44 PM
| Subject: [TRLog] Empty AUTOEXEC.BAT
|
|
| >
| >      I got my computer back from the local repair shop.  The hard
| > drive had been cleared out, and Windows reinstalled.  I had ex-
| > pected that, and had important stuff like TRMASTER  files backed
| > up on floppies.  I was surprised to find that my Windows 95 had
| > been replaced by Windows 98.
| >
| >      I installed my TR rev. 6.44, and copied the TRMASTER files
| > into the TR directory.  Then typed a short LOGCFG.DAT in a
| > CQWW subdirectory, to see that all worked OK.  No!  when I
| > typed TR it would not work.  BAD COMMAND OR FILE NAME.
| >
| >      I found the AUTOEXEC.BAT file was empty.  Zero bytes.
| > During the installation, TR had offered to put in a PATH
| > statement and to save old AUTOEXEC.BAT as AUTOEXEC.OLD.
| > Found AUTOEXEC.OLD - empty; zero bytes.  Found AUTOEXEC.-
| > NS0.  Huh?  What's that?  It was also empty.
| >
| >      So, I put the following in the AUTOEXEC.BAT:
| >
| > PATH C:\DOS;C:\LOG;\C:\PACKET;\C:\DESKMATE
| >
| >      Now, things seem to work OK, but I think a respectable AUTO-
| > EXEC.BAT should have more entries than this.  AND - my CONFIG.-
| > SYS is also empty; zero bytes.  I don't know what should go in it.
| > The young tech who worked on my computer says to forget the
| > DOS;  Windows 98 will work without DOS.   ???
| >
| >      Of course, my DOS programs won't work without DOS.  And
| > it's strange that once when I booted up in Windows and had not
| > yet put the PATH line in the AUTOEXEC., my screen said some-
| > thing like this:  UNABLE TO START WINDOWS.  CAN NOT FIND
| > WINDOWS.COM  (I think that's what it said.)  So maybe Windows
| > needs a DOS path?
| >
| >      Any expert DOSman out there who can tell me what went
| > wrong, and suggest any important statements to add to AUTO-
| > EXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS?
| >
| > Thanks from Charlie, W2KTF
| >
| >
| >
| > ________________________________________________________________
| > YOU'RE PAYING TOO MUCH FOR THE INTERNET!
| > Juno now offers FREE Internet Access!
| > Try it today - there's no risk!  For your FREE software, visit:
| > http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.
| >
| > --
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| >
| >
|
|
| --
| FAQ on WWW:               http://www.contesting.com/trlogfaq.html
| Submissions:              trlog@contesting.com
| Administrative requests:  trlog-REQUEST@contesting.com
| Problems:                 owner-trlog@contesting.com
| Feature Wishlist:       http://web.jzap.com/n6tr/trwish.html
|


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