RamGate TSR Internet Version USER Manual NOTE: RamGate and RamGate Sampler only support 16 bit Windows applications operating on a Program Manager Desktop. vbrun300.dll is a required file. It should be on most systems. If you need help on getting, this file if you do not have it, go to our WWW site and check the 'evaluation' page, or e-mail us. Copyright © 1994-95 Ni-Tech Pty Limited http://www.ramgate.com.au E-mail info@ramgate.com.au ftp://ftp.ramgate.com.au NI-TECH Suite 5, Level 12, 88 Pitt Street Sydney NSW 2000 Australia FAX (612) 232 6549 Please Note: Before installing this software, you should read the terms of the Licence Agreement at the end of this file. Installing this software will indicate your acceptance of the terms of this Licence Agreement. If you do not agree to the terms of this Licence Agreement, remove this software from your computer. Copies of this demonstration program may be freely distributed, as long as it is distributed as is i.e. the complete ramgate.zip file. Contents: 1. Introduction Welcome Windows - A Brief Technical Overview Why Windows Crashes Occur How RamGate Works RamGate and RamGate Pro - What's the difference. 2. Installing RamGate System Requirements RamGate Installation 3. FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) Microsoft® and Windows™ are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. 1. Introduction Welcome Welcome to RamGate - System Resource Manager for Windows. RamGate controls the way in which Windows manages system resources and memory. Windows crashes or General Protection Faults (GPFs) as they are most commonly known, can be disastrous. Huge amounts of data can be lost and there is no way of predicting when or where they will strike. Makeshift solutions include running only a few applications and regularly saving your work. One of the primary causes of GPFs is the improper accessing of memory. By managing the way in which Windows and Windows applications use system resources and memory, RamGate is effectively able to stabilise your Windows environment. As more and more resource hungry applications are released by the major software houses, the risk of GPFs occurring when running several applications simultaneously increases significantly. The result of using RamGate is a significant reduction in the occurrence of memory based GPFs. RamGate lets you run many resource hungry applications simultaneously while still providing stability inside Windows. Free Windows System Resources can be minimal without any loss in performance of the applications you are running. Windows - a brief technical overview Windows is a Graphical User Interface (GUI) which allows the user to operate the computer by means of pointing and clicking on functions which are represented by icons. As far as memory management is concerned, there are three key Windows files. KRNL386.EXE is the DOS file in Windows which controls system resources. GDI.EXE is the DOS file in Windows which controls graphics drivers. USER.EXE-is the DOS file in Windows controlling memory. Random Access Memory or RAM is the computer's basic memory or in layman's terms, its ability to process information. Virtual Memory refers to the section of the hard disk drive which is used to simulate RAM in Windows (sometimes called a swap file) when physical RAM is full. There are two important blocks of system resources. These are GDI and USER. In Windows 3.1 and 3.11, each of block is 64 kilobytes in size. In Windows NT and Windows 95, they are 4GB in size. Why Windows Crashes Occur Windows crashes occur because Windows is a multi-tasking environment. A multi-tasking environemnt is one which allows the simultaneous operation of 2 or more functions or applications. In order to multi-task, Windows requires the assistance of a 386 or higher processor. The processor can make applications believe that they are the only application running. It achieves this by creating several "virtual machines". Each virtual machine has its own memory address space. The processor runs in what is known as protected mode and attempts to keep applications from interfering with each other. GPFs occur when an application attempts to use an area of memory which is being used by another piece of software; either another application, a device driver or even Windows itself. There are several conventional techniques which can help minimise your Windows crashes. Determine the nature of the GPF Note the exact error message that Windows gives you. Often, it will indicate which application has caused the problem. It can then be examined and if required, re-installed. Incompatible Hardware Adding a CD-ROM drive, a new monitor or modem can cause driver problems if the new hardware is incompatible. Remove all occurences of any new hardware drivers from your configuration files. Reinstall your software If your GPF is consistent, it is possible that a program file may have got corrupted. Re-installing the software from the original disks may solve the problem. Tidy Up your Hard Disk De-fragment your hard disk drive by running defrag in DOS. Also run CHKDSK and/or SCANDISK to repair any problems with your files. How RamGate Works The basic principle behind RamGate is simple. To use memory and resources contiguously. That is, rather than jumping all over the place to find small blocks of resources and memory, RamGate ensures that when an application makes a request for resources, it is given a block immediately next to the previously allocated block. Additionally, a small buffer zone is built into the request for and subsequent allocation of resources. This basic allocation method is in contrast to that of native Windows which will grab memory from all over the place. Contiguous use of memory will provide for a more efficient operation of Windows as well as improved stability. This is why you will be able to safely run more programs than ever before. Most importantly, RamGate uses no memory or resource compression techniques. This is important as memory and resource compression can lead to unwanted side effects. RamGate and RamGate Pro - What's the Difference. RamGate is a Terminate Stay Resident (TSR) program that once started, will remain active until closed by the user. RamGate puts a protective layer around the system resources and memory and a shield inside Windows itself. It will allow you to open many more applications without crashing than you previously could. To achieve maximum stability, however, each application needs to be protected from every other application. This is what RamGate Pro does. In addition to putting a general protective layer around Windows, RamGate Pro puts an extra protective layer around individual applications for which it has been configured. It is the ideal choice for power users and those who work with critical data. Even if some of the applications that you run under Windows are not supported by RamGate Pro, configuring those of your applications which are supported is well worth the effort. You will notice a marked improvement in the number of applications that you can safely open. Because RamGate Pro pre-defines blocks of system resources and memory to be used by applications, even an application which is not supported will run with greater stability as it will more neatly fit into unused resource and memory addresses. If maximum Windows stability is your goal, RamGate Pro is your product of choice. Happy Computing! 2. INSTALLING RamGate System Requirements 386, 486, Pentium or equivalent PC 4MB RAM or higher 3MB hard disk space Windows 3.1, 3.11, Windows for Workgroups, Windows NT or Windows 95 RamGate Installation The installation procedure assumes that Windows 3.1,3.11, Windows for Workgroups, Windows NT or Windows 95 is already installed on your hard disk. If it is not, you must install it before trying to install RamGate. To install RamGate Sampler on your system: UnZip ramgate.zip into a temporay directory e.g. c:\temp. From the Program Manager, select the File menu and choose Run. Type 'drive:\tempdir\setup' e.g. c:\temp\setup in the Command Line box and click on OK or press Enter. The RamGate setup screen will appear with the default directory displayed. You can accept the default directory or change it to install the program in a different directory. If you wish to change the target directory, type the new directory and press Enter. Click on Continue or press Enter to continue the installation. The status window will appear to indicate how the installation is proceeding. When the installation is complete and all the files are copied to the target directory, the final installation screen will appear. The screen will state that the installation is complete. You do not need to restart Windows. Once RamGate has been loaded, you should place the RamGate icon into your Startup group so that you will immediately get the benefit of RamGate each time you use Windows. The RamGate Resource Monitor (complete version only available with licensed copies of RamGate). RamGate comes with a graphical style interface which lets you see at glance all your important system resource statistics. Unused Memory The unused memory graph indicates the amount of unused memory on your system. The total memory available is a combination of physical RAM and virtual memory. The graph assumes that your total available memory is between 10MB and 100MB. If it is less than 10MB, it will be scaled by a factor of 10. That is, if the total of your physical RAM and virtual memory is 5MB, then The RamGate Resource Monitor will indicate 50 MB. If your total memory is over 100MB then it will be scaled down by a factor of 1:10. That is, if you have 200MB of physical RAM and virtual memory, the RamGate Resource Monitor will show 20MB. USER Resources and GDI Resources These are the two main components of Windows system resources. Indeed, when you take a resource count in Windows, it is the lower of these two figures that constitutes the amount of free system resources. Resource Stability without RamGate Most unprotected Windows systems begin to become unstable when 35%-45% of free system resources have been used. This graph reflects the amount of stable free system resources you would have had available if you were not using RamGate. Resource Stability with RamGate This graph reflects the amount of stable free system resources you have available when you are using RamGate. Note: Choosing the Exit option from the resource Monitor will close RamGate. If you want RamGate to remain open when you are not viewing the Resource Monitor, choose Hide. 3. FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) Q: Does RamGate change any of my system settings? A: No. RamGate will not change any of your system configuration files. In fact, there are no nasty side effects to RamGate. Q: Do I need RamGate or RamGate Pro if I'm running Windows NT or Windows 95? A: Yes. Windows NT and Windows 95 should provide slightly more stability tha n Windows 3.1 and 3.11, but the basic memory addressing architectures are identical. If you're using 16 bit applications you are still susceptible to GPFs just as with Windows 3.1 and 3.11. Q: I'm using RamGate and I'm still getting GPFs. A: If the GPFs are consistent then they are very likely to be driver based GPFs. Remove all occurences of any new hardware drivers from your configuration files. Q: I'm still getting Out of Memory Errors. A: RamGate allows you to run more applications by stabilising your Windows environment. The GDI and USER resource blocks in Windows are a fixed size. RamGate cannot increase these. It can only make them work more efficently. Beware of utilities which make claims to the contrary. Q: Why do I still lose free system resources when I open and close applications? A: RamGate And RamGate Pro allow applications, upon their initialisation, to freeze a portion of memory stack as they normally would. However, once this initial freeze has occured, no additional memory will be frozen by these applications. Removing the memory stack freeze during a current session would introduce the possibility of a crash to DOS. Q: I get Out of Memory messages in my Spreadsheet application. A: This message may appear with or without RamGate . This error is usually caused by too much information being held in a spreadsheet. If more than 64Kb of information is held then these errors become common as the application attempts to use all the free system resources. Q: Does RamGate affect DOS applications run in Windows? A: No. RamGate only works with Windows applications. Q: Does RamGate affect Cooperative multi-tasking? A: Yes. RamGate actually enhances Cooperative multi-tasking. Q: Can I run RamGate and RamGate Pro at the same time? A: Yes. This way you will receive RamGate's general Windows protection and specific protection for particular applications from Ramgate Pro. 4. Uninstalling RamGate Sampler RamGate comes with an uninstall program that can be found in the RamGate Sampler group after installation. To uninstall RamGate double click the uninstall icon and follow the instructions as they appear on screen. You may wish to move the uninstall icons to another group so that you do not inadvetantly remove RamGate. 5. A Note About Bruce Parker Bruce was born in Orange, New South Wales, Australia. A country boy at heart, he had dabbled in a number of fields including photography, restaurants and deer breeding. Having studied computer science at Sydney University (he never got his degree - isn't there another guy who did this?) Bruce likes to program in Pascal, Fortran, C and C++. He also does a bit under sufference in Visual Basic. It was in his capacity as database administrator in a large Australian law firm that Bruce became increasingly frustrated with the inherent instability of Windows applications (and lawyers). It was also here that he met up with lawyer, Peter Havas. In early 1994, Bruce and Peter together founded Ni-Tech Pty Limited (named for the noise made by the Holy Grail knights). Ni-Tech Pty Limited Software Licence Agreement Please Note: Before installing this software, you should read the terms of this Licence Agreement. Installing this software will indicate your acceptance of the terms of this Licence Agreement. If you do not agree to the terms of this Licence Agreement, remove this software from your computer. Licence Grant This Licence Agreement grants to you a non-exclusive right, without right to sub-licence, to use this Software on a single computer at a time for a period of 30 days. You may not reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the Software. Copyright The Software is owned by Ni-Tech Pty Limited ("Ni-Tech") and is protected by Australian copyright laws and international treaty provisions. The Software is also subject to an international PCT patent application. No part of this Software and its accompanying documentation may be copied or reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of Ni-Tech except that you may copy the Software solely for backup purposes. Limited Warranty Ni-Tech warrants that the Software will perform substantially in accordance with the accompanying written materials for a period of thirty (30) days from the date of receipt. Any implied warranties on the Software are limited to thirty (30) days unless such limitation on duration is otherwise prohibited by law. No Other Warranties Ni-Tech does not warrant that the Software is error free. Ni-Tech disclaims all other warranties, either express or implied, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement of third party rights with respect to the Software. Limitation of Liability In no event shall Ni-Tech or its suppliers be liable for any consequential, incidental or indirect damages of any kind whatever (including, without limitation, damages for loss of business profits, business interruption, loss of business information, or other pecuniary loss) arising out of the use of or the inability to use the Software even if Ni-Tech or its suppliers have been advised of the possibility of such damages. In no event shall Ni-Tech's liability for any claims whether in contract, tort or other theory of liability exceed the licence fee paid, unless such limitation of liability is otherwise prohibited by law. Term This Licence Agreement is effective until terminated. You may terminate this Licence Agreement by destroying the Software in all its forms. General This is the entire agreement between you and Ni-Tech and supersedes any prior agreement whether written or oral relating to the subject matter of this agreement. In the event of invalidity of any provision of this agreement, the parties agree that such invalidity shall not affect the remaining portions of the agreement. Governing Law This Licence Agreement shall be governed by the laws of New South Wales, Australia.