I note that many questions about Windows 3 appear regularly every few weeks in threads on different network. I thought it might be useful to post a summary for beginners and to refresh the memories of other more advanced users (and those who forgot to save the topic!). This list was originally compiled by Tom Happenen of the University of Waterloo - to whom we offer thanks. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT WINDOWS TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Windows newsgroups 2. Free Windows applications 3. Getting Windows video drivers 4. Using a mail server instead of ftp 5. Windows memory requirements 6. Standard mode vs. 386 enhanced mode 7. Running Windows 2.x applications 8. DOS in a window 9. Environment space in DOS sessions 10. Lotus 1-2-3 under Windows 11. QEMM/386 with Windows * 12. Protected-mode software vs. Windows 13. Windows, MKS Korn shell and switchar * 14. Windows network compatability 15. Using COM3 or COM4 from Windows 16. Accessing the mouse in DOS sessions 17. Using TSRs for DOS sessions 18. 256 colors in Windows 19. Windows communications programs 20. Changing an application's icon 21. Creating new icons 22. Icon and bitmap directories 23. Installing new fonts 24. FaceLift, ATM and TrueType * 25. Converting a GIF or MS-Paint file to a bitmap 26. Using a bitmap as wallpaper 27. Permanent swapfiles and using SUBST 28. Installation problems with SHARE 29. Windows and large hard disks 30. Using Windows as "runtime" only 31. Windows Terminal and using the keypad 32. Date/time in Notepad 33. Using x87 math coprocessors with Windows 34. Starting up Windows applications in a different directory 35. Free system resources 36. Automatically opening applications on Windows startup 37. Windows opening logo 38. Using a mouse with DOS applications 1. Why are there two newsgroups for windows? comp.windows.ms.programmer is for discussion about developing Windows software. It is not intended for discussions about Windows software or for questions about the Foobar SVGA drivers. comp.windows.ms is for any Windows discussions that do not concern development of Windows software. 2. Are there free Windows applications available? How can I get them? Yes, there are quite a few. Of course, there is always CompuServe (which has a LOT of them) and your local BBS, but for us net.junkies the Windows Heaven is located at cica.cica.indiana.edu, and is accessed using a program called "ftp". This program is accessible from most Internet sites, but is not usable through uucp links. If you do have ftp available to you, follow the instructions below to connect to cica; do not type in the // comments! $ ftp cica.cica.indiana.edu // make connection Connected to ... blah blah blah // cica responds Userid (user@cica): ftp // enter "ftp" as userid Password: real_userid@site // enter your own userid ftp> tenex // for binary transfers ftp> cd /pub/pc/win3 // where the goodies are ftp> get ls-ltR // get the current index ftp> quit // we're done $ _ Of course, you can get multiple files at a time -- read the ftp man page for more information. Please do not access cica.cica.indiana.edu between 8am and 6pm EST to prevent overloading the system. If your ftp program complains about an unknown site, you can substitute the numeric address, 129.79.20.22, for cica.cica.indiana.edu in the ftp command. Remember that shareware is not free: register the software you use to encourage the development of more low-cost software. 3. Are there Windows drivers available for my Frobozz Super VGA Turbo X clone display card? First, unless the card is one of the major brands (ATI, Orchid, Paradise, Video-7) find out which chipset the card has, either by looking at the manual or the card itself. Then check the /pub/pc/win3/video directory at cica for the appropriate driver. The generic SVGA driver will let you use 800x600x16 on just about any SVGA card as long as you can find out the appropriate video mode number. Finally, if you get desperate, you could call up your video card manufacturer/vendor and ask them why the drivers were not included with the card, and to send them to you. 4. Is it possible to use a mail server instead of ftp? There are a number of sites that archive the Usenet sources newsgroups and make them available via an email query system. You send a message to an automated server saying something like "send comp.sources.unix/fbm", and a few hours or days later you get the file in the mail. There are several sites that will perform general FTP retrievals for you in response to a similar mail query. For information on using one of them, send a message like this to info-server@cs.net : request: info topic: help-ftp request: end (NOTE: this server is currently "down for repairs". No estimate on when or if it will return.) And for info on another one, send this message to bitftp@pucc.bitnet : help Please be considerate, and don't over-use these services. If people start using them to retrieve hundreds of megabytes of GIF files, they will probably disappear. 5. How much memory do I need to run Windows? The more the better! You can run in real mode with 640K (assuming you don't have a lot of device drivers or TSRs), but many large applications will run *very* slowly. Standard mode requires 1 MB, but 2 MB is much better. For 386 enhanced mode, you need a minimum of 2 MB. However, you should really have 3-4 MB available for good 386 enhanced mode performance, especially if you wish to run several DOS sessions. In addition to the memory above, you might wish to have a disk cache (such as SmartDrive, included with Windows) to improve Windows performance. Some applications (such as WingZ, Excel or Word for Windows) are either impossible or impractical to run in real mode due to lack of memory. 6. Is there any advantage to running in standard mode instead of 386 enhanced mode? Yes -- speed. Windows run substantially faster in standard mode than in 386 enhanced mode. You lose virtual memory, but if you have sufficient physical memory and don't have a need to run DOS applications, you may be happier in standard mode. Do remember, though, that some applications require 386 enhanced mode (wdeb386 is one example). 7. Can I run Windows 2.x applications in 3.0? Yes. If you run in real mode, the applications behave just like in 2.x, but have somewhat less memory available to them. If the applications are "well-behaved", they will also run in standard and 386 enhanced modes, but Windows will first warn you with a "nag" message that the application wasn't written for Windows 3.0. If you run a ill-behaned application in standard or 386 enhanced mode, the application will likely crash with Unrecoverable Application Error. If you have a 2.x application that runs well in all modes, you can mark it Windows 3.0-compatible using either the mark3.exe (?) or the nonag.exe utility. Both are available freely by ftp. 8. Can I run DOS in a window? Strictly speaking, you're running DOS even when you're in Windows. However, you can run a command.com session from Windows. In real mode, you are limited to a single session. In standard mode, you can have multiple sessions, but they must still run full-screen. In 386 enhanced mode, you can have multiple sessions, and they can run in a window. You can control the starting up in a window vs. full-screen by setting up a .pif file for the program (command.com or otherwise). You can also switch the state by pressing Alt- Enter. 9. Why do I run out of environment space when I run a batch file in a DOS session? When Windows starts up a DOS session, it by default gives it an environment of 224 bytes, or the space required to hold your current environment, whichever is larger. If you need more space, there are two methods of circumventing this. In order of desirability: 1. Use a .pif file for each DOS application you run. In this you can specify the environment size by using the /e:nnn option (see your DOS manual). You will need a separate DOS file for each program. (You can, however, just create a command.pif with a suitable /e:nnn, and then specify in the win.ini a line such as [Extensions] bat=command.pif ^.ksh With this, you can create batch file icons freely, and still get the options specified in command.pif. 2. Specify a dummy variable such as DUMMY1=xxxxx.... before starting up Windows. Then, as the first thing in each DOS session, do set DUMMY1= to reclaim the space used by DUMMY1 for other environment variables. 10. Does Lotus 1-2-3 work under Windows? Versions 1.x, 2.x and 3.1 run in all modes, but do not support any of the features of the Windows environment. For all intents and purposes, version 3.0 doesn't run under Windows. [Buy Excel or WingZ instead! --ed.] 11. Can I use DesqView/386 or QEMM/386 with Windows? You can use versions 5.0 of QEMM/386 and below with real- mode Windows only. QEMM/386 version 5.1 provides XMS services for Windows, thus allowing Windows to run in all modes under QEMM/386, plus providing compatability with VCPI applications (see below). Windows will run in standard and real modes as a DesqView/386 task. 12. Why won't my protected-mode software run under Windows? Most protected-mode applications currently on the market use an extended-memory interface called VCPI (Virtual Control Program Interface), which is incompatible with Windows' DPMI (DOS Protected Mode Interface (?)). Microsoft went against an established standard in choosing DPMI, but there are valid technical reasons why VCPI was not chosen for Windows. At this point, you have three choices: 1. Run your protected-mode software under DOS. This means that you must NOT use Windows or SmartDrive before running your VCPI software, and may require you to have two different config.sys files. 2. Plead with your software developer to develop a Windows-compatible version. They should already be working on it anyway, given the momentum that Windows 3.0 has. 3. Buy QEMM/386, which provides VCPI. You'll be able to run your protected-mode software as well as Windows 3.0. 13. Why can't I use Windows from the MKS Korn shell? There are two possible problems. First, with versions up to and including 3.1c of the MKS Toolkit, the use of login.exe precludes the use of Windows 3.0 in any but the real mode. To avoid this, have your machine boot directly into the Korn shell or command.com. Second, somebody at Microsoft had a brain fade, and Windows gets confused if it is started with a forward slash path. Thus, if you simply type "win" in Korn shell, the shell invokes Windows with something like "c:/usr/windows/win.com" and Windows doesn't know where to find itself! To cure this, specify an alias for Windows: I use alias -x win='c:\\usr\\windows\\win.com' Note that the double backslashes are necessary for the Korn shell, even inside the single quotes. The newer versions of MKS Toolkit allow (standard and 386 enhanced mode) Windows to run directly from the login: prompt; but they still won't let you run standard/386 enhanced Windows from the shell (if you used login). An updated version of init.exe is available from MKS for users of older versions of the MKS Toolkit. 14. Which networks are compatible with Windows 3.0? The following are known to work; see also networks.txt in your Windows directory Network earliest version -------------- ---------------- 3Com 3 Plus 1.0 3Com 3+Open 1.0 Banyan Vines 4.0 BW NFS ?.? IBM PC LAN 1.1 [except server] LAN Manager 1.0 LANtastic 2.57 [server can not use enhanced mode] Novell Netware 2.15 [shell & utilities must be version 3.01] Sun PC-NFS ?.? 15. How can I use COM3 or COM4 from a Windows communication package? This is a generally a problem only in 386 enhanced mode. To use these ports, you will need to tell Windows where they are located; the instructions for doing this can be found in the Windows readme file sysini2.txt, which should be located in your Windows directory. In summary, what you need to do is tell Windows what memory addresses and interrupts (IRQs) your COM3 and COM4 ports use. This should work, but is not guaranteed to: COM3 and Com4 are not standardized, and this is one of the most difficult things to get working with Windows. If possible, move your devices to COM1 or COM2. 16. Why doesn't my mouse work in a DOS window? If you are running a DOS application in a window, Windows will retain control of the mouse for cutting and pasting. You can use a mouse in a full-screen DOS session if you install a mouse driver by running mouse.com (either before starting Windows, or inside the DOS session), or by including 'device=mouse.sys' in your config.sys file. If you're running WordPerfect 5.1 inside Windows, WordPerfect must be *started* full-screen in order to detect the mouse. Once it has started, you can use Alt-Enter to run in a window, if you wish. 17. Why don't my TSRs work in DOS sessions? Some TSR programs will not work if you install them before running Windows. Some of them will not work if you install them inside a DOS session. Generally the best idea is to avoid TSRs completely unless you really need them. See also the description of winstart.bat in the Windows .txt files. 18. Can I use 256 colors in Windows? Yes, given two caveats: First, your display card and its driver must support 256 colors. Second, your application must know about 256 colors, as this requires palette switching and some additional programming. Most applications currently on the market only support 16 colors. In order to get 256 colors, your video card will need at least 320K (for 640x480), 512K (for 800x600) or 768K (for 1024x768) of RAM. 256-color drivers are also much slower than 16-color drivers. 19. Are there any good communication programs for Windows? Well, maybe. There is not yet a consensus about any of the current products. There are a number of free or shareware ones: Terminal (included with Windows), WinQVT, Unicom and WinKermit, but all have their problems and lack in some features. All of them are also available on cica. Commercial packages include DynaComm ("big brother" of Terminal), MicroPhone, CrossTalk for Windows and Wincomm. Again, none of them stands out as the perfect choice, although several have shown promise. 20. How do I change the icon for a program? Choose the item in Program Manager, and then select File Properties. Click on "Icon...", and then enter the name of the file containing the new icon. If the icon file is a DLL or EXE containing multiple icons, you can cycle through the icons by clicking "Next Icon". Click "OK", and then "OK" again. You can also use icons from other programs by the same method: just specify the name of the .exe file instead of an icon or DLL file. The icon that is displayed by the application when it is minimized is controlled by the application. It is not possible to change that. 21. Can I create my own icons? Yes. You can use either IconDraw (shareware) or SDKPaint (a part of the Windows SDK). Simply draw your icon, and save it as an ".ico" file. 22. Do I have to keep my icons and wallpaper bitmaps in the Windows directory? Wallpaper bitmaps have to be kept in the Windows directory (unless you use a utility such as PaperBoy for changing the wallpaper). Icons may be kept anywhere; it may be convenient to create an ICON subdirectory under the Windows directory. 23. I installed some more fonts using Control Panel. Why can't I access them in Word for Windows (or another application)? Word for Windows shows in its font menu the fonts currently available for the selected *output* device, not the *display* device. You can still use, say, vector fonts that you installed, by typing the name of the font in the edit box. Windows will draw vector fonts on the output device without problems -- you may or may not like the results. Screen fonts are also used for printing on dot-matrix printers. In some cases, you may also need to force the application to refresh its output device font list. The easiest way to do this is to do File Printer Setup, click Setup, then click OK, and finally OK again. 24. Do Bitstream FaceLift, Adobe Type Manager (ATM) and TrueType really work? Are they worth the money? Yes, they work -- except for TrueType, which is not yet available. Both ATM and FaceLift also have some problems with Ami Professional, which does strange things with its screen fonts. On the whole, FaceLift will support more applications and output devices than ATM, but the difference may not be significant. FaceLift also lets you generate soft fonts for the LaserJet series (for faster printing); ATM does not give you that option. Finally, FaceLift is somewhat more flexible than ATM, and uses less memory. However, ATM can use the numerous free Adobe Type 1 fonts available free from places like cica.cica.indiana.edu. Both provide high- quality fonts and much better WYSIWYG at the cost of somewhat slower screen updates and slightly slower printing. And at street prices not much above $50, yes, both of them are worth the money you'll pay for them. They are compatible, so you can run both of them on the same system. 25. How can I convert a GIF or MS-Paint file to a .bmp to use it as a wallpaper in Windows? You can save a .msp file as a .bmp from Windows Paint. You can convert a .gif file to a .bmp using the gif2bmp utility from cica. wingif 0.90 will also do a good conversion, including dithering 256-color images to 16 colors (rescale before dithering!). 26. Why won't my .bmp wallpaper display correctly? Well, it could be a number of reasons. The most likely are: 1. Your .bmp file is corrupted. Try reading it into Paintbrush to verify that it is readable. 2. You are trying to display 256 colors with a 16-color video driver. 3. You have insufficient memory to display the bitmap. A 800x600x16 bitmap requires 256K of memory; 1024x768x256 would require 768K! For 256-to-16 color dithering, you may wish to try using PicLab 1.82 with the help of wincnv.zip (available from cica). 27. I can't create a permanent swapfile. What could be the cause? First of all, you must be running in real mode to be able to create a permanent swapfile. Second, You must not have any SUBSTed drives or Windows won't create the swapfile. Once the swapfile has been created, you can re-SUBST your drives. You also can't create a permanent swapfile on a drive partitioned with third-party software such as SpeedStor (see question 30). If you are installing on a Novell client, you must first disable the "receive network messages" feature (using the network icon in the Control Panel) and reboot. Once you have installed the swapfile, turn messages back on again. 28. Why do I get floppy drive errors installing Windows or Windows apps? If you have SHARE installed, you must rename share.exe (to, something like noshare.exe) and reboot. Once you have completed the installation, you can rename share.exe back to its original name. 29. Are there problems with using Windows 3.0 on large hard disks? Yes, but only in rare cases. Your system is at risk IF: - You are using 3rd-party partitioning software, such as: - Disk Manager (dmdrv.bin) - InnerSpace (edvr.sys) - SpeedStor (sstor.sys or hardrive.sys) - Vfeatures Deluxe (fixt_drv.sys) *AND* you are using SmartDrive as your disk cache *AND* your hard disk has more than 1023 cylinders If your hard disk has fewer than 1024 cylinders, you may still be at risk if the first two conditions hold true, you are using DOS 3.30 or later, *AND* your hard disk is not supported by your BIOS. To avoid problems, you can either stop using SmartDrive, or reformat your disk using the DOS FDISK utility. Note that in 386 enhanced mode, Windows 3.0 supports only ST-506, ESDI and IDE disk controllers. If you have a SCSI controller, you need to load SmartDrive in order to allow Windows to recognize your hard disk. As an alternative, you may insert the following line in your system.ini file, in the [386ENH] section: VirtualHDIRQ=off If you are still having problems, call Microsoft Tech Support at (206) 454-2030. There are no problems with large partitions created by the FDISK program included with MS-DOS 4.0 and some versions of MS-DOS 3.3. 30. How can I make Windows 3.0 act like the runtime versions of 2.x, which exit Windows when you exit your application? You can do this as follows (the example is for Excel; others are similar): 1. Create a new directory called c:\excel (it doesn't have to be distinct; it could be your normal Excel directory, as long as it's not the main Windows 3 directory). 2. Copy the following to the new directory from the Windows directory: win.com win.ini system.ini 3. In the new directory modify the [boot] section of 'system.ini' by changing the shell= line to point to the one-and-only program you want to run. The original line should read: shell=progman.exe and the modified line should be something like: shell=c:\excel\excel.exe Remember to type the complete fileid of the program to be executed, including the '.exe' suffix. 4. To execute the dedicated Windows session just put the new directory ahead of the normal Windows directory in your path and issue the 'win' command, or start Windows with the command 'c:\excel\win'. What we're doing here is making Windows think it's running on a network where the actual executable files etc. are on a network server, and only the basic control files (and win.com) are on the user's local disk. Note that this technique isolates any changes in WIN.INI and SYSTEM.INI made in the dedicated task from any changes made in normal Windows; this may or may not be desirable. If you need to keep the two flavors of Windows in sync you'll have to provide an outboard copy function to refresh the files. 31. How do I use the keypad in Windows Terminal? Press ScrollLock to toggle the keypad between local and remote mode. Default is local mode. 32. Why does F5 in Notepad insert only a date and not the time as well? It's a bug. Maybe Windows 3.1 will fix it... 33. Does Windows take advantage of an 80x87 math coprocessor? And what is this WIN87EM.DLL file in my Windows directory? Windows itself does not take advantage of a math chip. Windows apps, on the other hand, may or may not, depending on the application: Excel will, Word for Windows won't. In general, an 80x87 gives the greates speedup for trig/log type of calculations, and does not improve graphics speed in most cases. The WIN87EM.DLL is a dynamic link library which provides floating-point emulation for Windows applications. Any application which is capable of using an 80x87 will need this library on a machine without an 80x87. 34. How do I start up Excel or Word for Windows in a different directory? To start up a Windows application in a default directory other than the Windows directory, you have two choices: i) Create a auto-execute macro for that application, which will change your directory upon startup. ii) Specify your application's path in Program Manager as something like "d:\u\personal\letters\winword.exe". As long as the application is on your path, it will be started as usual, but with the default directory being the one you specified in Program Manager. 35. What are "free system resources"? How do they differ from free memory? Free system resources are things such as window handles and global memory block handles. You can't increase them by just adding more memory; the only real solution is to close some applications if you are running low. Windows 3.1 is reputed to have higher limits, and a later version will do away with the limits altogether. 36. How can I automatically open applications when I start up Windows, with predefined window sizes and positions? You can load applications automatically in two ways: i. By specifying them on the load= line in win.ini. This will load the specified applications as icons. ii. By specifying them on the run= line in win.ini. This will load the applications with their default window sizes. If you need specific window sizes or positions, you will need to use another utility, either shareware (such as Layout, Command Post or Aporia) or commercial (Batchworks, Bridge or NewWave). 37. How do I get rid of the Windows opening logo? Start Windows with the command line such as "win : ". Be warned, however, that some people have had problems with this. [A work-around has also been posted elsewhere (which involves substituting a logo of your choice using the WINGIF program to save it in RLE format - NG] 38. Why doesn't my mouse work when I run WordPerfect (or another application) inside Windows? To use a mouse with a DOS application, you need to install a mouse driver (such as mouse.sys or mouse.com). Further, the mouse will not work if you are running the DOS application in a window, as Windows will retain the control of the mouse. Finally, some applications (such as WordPerfect) will only detect the mouse if the application starts in full- screen mode.