Help File Library: Getting Windows Me to Boot with Real DOS Support

Since the advent of Windows Me and XP, many users ask, "how do I get into DOS without being on top of Windows?" Well, things have come 'round and a handful of people have got it figured out. At present, it'll takes a little research, some basic savvy and a little persistence with Google.

That is what this tutorial sets to remedy. I hope that I can help those of you, like myself, who are confined to Me or XP by whatever reason, but would like a little freedom. In preparation of the steps you will need to follow in order to get things going your way, let me tell you the reasons I had for wanting to get into Real DOS mode on my Me system.

• I use Me at work, as do most of the people in my office, so I am bound to that OS.
• I didn't want to go through another partitioning of my hard drive, possibly losing valuable data.
• I also, for reasons beyond my employer's grasp, wanted to run PHATLinux for certain, shall we say valuable, applications--yet again beyond the grasp or need-to-know of my employer.
• I happen to like DOS.

So here we have the dilemma, perhaps yours is different, the same or wholly incomprehensible. But, the concept here is the same.

My objectives were:

• I wanted to get into RealDOS, we know that
• I also wanted the flexibility to choose whether to get into DOS, Linux, or Me at startup. So my method had to include the making of a startup menu.

Now, lets get started...

Re-Enabling Real DOS Mode for Me

First you will need to go to http://www.geocities.com/mfd4life_2000/ and get the Real DOS-Mode Patch for Windows Millennium, By Reines [MFD].

Next follow the instructions in the MFD.nfo file. Be sure to make backups of all your files before changing them, JIC. A suggestion also, is that you change not only your autoexec.bat and config.sys, but all instances therein (.bak, .win) as Me has a funny way of tossing the settings back to the .bak file if your not thorough in this.

Basically what is happening is your setting your system up to reboot, and including config.sys and autoexec.bat before windows starts. This way once you have finished patching your system, you are able to get into Real Dos Mode by hitting CTRL/SHIFT+F8.

You with me? We are about halfway there. The next section will cover configuring your autoexec and config files so that you can setup a customizable menu. In my situation I set it up for Me, DOS and PHATLinux, defaulting to you guessed it, DOS.

Making a Boot Menu

The first step is to go into DOS, either real or on top of Windows, doesn't matter which.

Next, you'll want to type in c:\edit to go to the DOS file editor.

Open the following files:

• autoexec.bat
• autoexec.bak
• autoexec.win
• config.sys
• config.bak

In your config.sys, you will need to make the following additions:

[Menu]
MenuItem = DOS
MenuItem = WINDOWS
//plus any additional MenuItems you may want to include//
MenuDefault DOS, 4
MenuColor 15,1

[DOS]
//DOS drivers here//

[WINDOWS]
//Windows drivers here//

//add any other menu items as it were here//

[Common]
//put everything else here//

Example

[Menu]
MenuItem = DOS
MenuItem = WINDOZE
MenuItem = PHATLinux
MenuDefault DOS,4
MenuColor 15,1

[DOS]
c:\command.com

[WINDOZE]
c:\win

[PHATLinux]
c:\command.com

[COMMON]
device=c:\windows\ifshlp.sys

Next, copy this to the .bak version of the config file. Save and close the changed files.

Finally, you need to make sure these changes will be reflected in the autoexec.bat by making the following changes:

Add at the first line:

@echo off
IF "%CONFIG%"=="WINDOWS" win
IF "%CONFIG%"=="WINDOWS" goto skip
//and so on through the menu Items, making sure you have listed the proper command for each one//

//in this space, add all your DOS autoexec commands (these will be everything already in the unchanged autoexec file)//

:skip

Example

This is how mine looks.

@echo off
IF "%CONFIG%"=="DOS" c:\windows\command.com
IF "%CONFIG%"=="DOS" goto skip
IF "%CONFIG%"=="WINDOZE" win
IF "%CONFIG%"=="WINDOZE" goto skip
IF "%CONFIG%"=="PHATLinux" c:\command.com
IF "%CONFIG%"=="WINDOZE" goto skip

SET COMSPEC=C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM
SET windir=C:\WINDOWS
SET winbootdir=C:\WINDOWS
SET PROMPT=$p$g
SET TEMP=C:\WINDOWS\TEMP
SET TMP=C:\WINDOWS\TEMP
SET PATH=c:\borland\bcc55\bin;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND;C:\ARACHNE"
c:\windows\win.com

:skip

Copy the changes to the .bak and .win versions of the autoexec file. Save and close the changed files.

Now restart your system.

That's it.