WINDOWS TIPS ------------ Hugh Horton January 15, 1995 WINDOWS PERFORMANCE SETTINGS ---------------------------- An area under the user's control that limits Windows' ability to open multiple programs and operate for extended lengths of time without crashing is the available DOS Conventional Memory. The more memory available in the DOS 640K area, the better. You can determine how much DOS Conventional Memory you have by exiting Windows (if necessary) and typing MEM while in DOS. Look at the number given for "Largest executable program size". If this number is well above 600K (614,400 bytes), you're in pretty good shape. Windows will also use any available Upper Memory. You can confirm this by typing MEM from the Windows DOS Prompt and comparing the 0K value given for "Largest free upper memory block" with the value displayed when MEM was executed from DOS. Tips for obtaining all possible Upper Memory and maximizing the amount of DOS Conventional Memory will be posted in a DOSTIPS file in the IBM PC area in a few weeks. I only know of three Windows settings that affect performance and aren't immediately available from a menu (such as the Virtual Memory swap file settings). The first is one I discovered at my new job assignment. The last two below were publicized by InfoWorld. 1. The first concerns DOS memory and a new Windows driver, VSHARE.386. I found that all their Windows SYSTEMS.INI files had the following line in the [386Enh] section. device=vshare.386 The VSHARE.386 file could be found in the \WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory. This enabled the entry for SHARE to be removed from the AUTOEXEC.BAT or CONFIG.SYS file, thus freeing up 16K from Upper Memory or DOS Conventional Memory, depending on whether it was loaded high or not. Freeing up Conventional Memory permits loading larger programs (such as games) in DOS and Windows DOS sessions, and enables Windows to run better and open more programs (if Resources permit). Windows will also make use of any free Upper Memory (to prove this, try running MEM /C/P from a Windows DOS Prompt). When I got home, I found VSHARE.386 in my \WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory and the appropriate entry in my SYSTEM.INI file. However, the LH C:\DOS\SHARE entry was still in my AUTOEXEC.BAT file. After I removed it from my AUTOEXEC, I found that the Windows programs that demanded use of SHARE, such as Excel and Quattro Pro 5.0 for Windows still ran fine. I then dialed up Microsoft Product Support Download Service BBS (1-206- 936-6735 or 1-206-637-9009), and after much searching, found the VSHARE file (named WW1000.EXE with no description except VSHARE!) in the Windows 3.1 Application Notes file area. This file has been recompressed and can now be found as VSHARE.ZIP in the Windows file area of the Computer Edge BBS. If you look at the README.TXT file, it states that VSHARE.386 is the same file distributed with the MS Word 6.0a patch - so that's where I got it! It gives instructions for installing it and explains that it's the same as the Windows for Workgroups VSHARE.386, modified for use with Windows 3.1 and 3.11 Enhanced mode (keep SHARE if you run Windows in Standard mode). 2. The second is placing the following entry in the [386Enh] section of SYSTEM.INI. MaxBPs=768 The Windows Resource Kit states that "This entry specifies the maximum number of break points (a method for transferring control to Windows 386 enhanced mode) that can be used by the VMM. You may need to increase this value if you are using a third-party virtual device driver that requires more break points than the default value. The default is 200." On page 29 of the January 24, 1994 InfoWorld, Brian Livingston's Window Manager column titled "Correct most Windows instability with just a single command" states: "For years, Windows users have been mystified by strange error messages. For no apparent reason, you may be confronted with a dialog box such as 'Out of memory,' 'This application has violated system integrity and will be closed,' or 'Application error.' A quick check of the Help About box in any Windows Applet reveals that you have plenty of memory and Free System Resources. Yet these nonsensical messages appear after which Windows behaves erratically and must be restarted. Breakpoints ... are small chunks of memory (approximately 10 bytes each) that Windows uses to save the state of a Virtual Machine (VM). All Windows applications run in one VM, and each DOS session that is launched from Windows runs in another VM. Windows applications may also spawn VMs for one reason or another ... Ordinarily, Windows allocates 4KB of RAM for breakpoints. Then the default value of 200 is rounded upward to fill the entire 4KB. This means that 358 breakpoints are actually set up. In the process of running its various modules on startup, Windows itself uses about 200 of these. That leaves about 158 for your own operations. Once your BPs are exhausted, the mysterious error messages come fast. Starting a DOS session, for example, causes an 'Application error' dialog box, saying 'WINOLDAP caused a General Protection Fault in WINOA386.MOD.' [I've seen plenty of those! - HH] Any MaxBPs setting of 369 to 768 gives you about 410 more breakpoints, at a cost of 4KB of RAM (well worth it.)" 3. Third, if you are the recipient of unexplained error messages and system crashes while running Windows for Workgroups with 32-Bit File Access (not 32-Bit Disk Access) turned on, disable the 32-Bit File Access and change the SmartDrive line in AUTOEXEC.BAT to read just C:\DOS\SMARTDRV or C:\WINDOWS\SMARTDRV instead of the usual SMARTDRV 2048 128. If Windows for Workgroups reliability improves, leave these changes in effect. We found this greatly increased the time between crashes on computers running WFW on a Novell NetWare 3.12 network. The explanation that I found for this effect is quoted below. On page 28 of the August 1, 1994 InfoWorld, Brian Livingston's Window Manager column titled "Discovering virtual disk drive problems in 32-Bit File Access" states: "I recently got my hands on a printout of other anomalies from Microsoft's Product Support Services (PSS). These are real incompatibilities with VFAT.386 (the virtual disk driver used for 32-Bit File Access) that are unrelated to the problems with earlier DOS disk utilities. Windows for Workgroups hangs when you start it if 32-Bit File Access is enabled and you are using some versions of Hewlett-Packard Co.'s driver for its HP JetDirect card. This driver, HPVNPD.386, redirects Print Manager output across a network to a printer with a Jet Direct card installed. You may receive the following message when you try to read files on a LAN Manager, LANtastic, or OS/2 LAN Server network server (from File Manager of a DOS prompt): 'An Error Occurred Reading Drive N:' where N: is the network drive. You cannot use 32-Bit File Access on Stac Electronics Inc.s Stacker 4.0 compressed drive. Use the SmartDrive command line mentioned above as a disk cache instead. Running the Sun Microsystems Inc. PC-NFS (Network File System) 5.0 may result in the following error message when you exit Windows for Workgroups 3.11: 'Invalid COMMAND.COM.' You must disable 32-Bit File Access, because this combination is incompatible." On page 32 of the July 11, 1994 InfoWorld, Brian Livingston's Window Manager column titled "Dissecting Windows for Workgroups' 32-Bit File Access bugs" states: "32-Bit File Access is a protected-mode disk cache that runs under Windows for Workgroups to improve disk performance. ...This should not be confused with 32-Bit DISK Access, which is configured through the same dialog box. The problem is demonstrated by a virtual device driver (VxD) developed by [Michael] Maurice [of Wilsonville, Ore.-based Firefly Software Systems Corp. (CompuServe: 71171,47)] called Test32F. When the VxD is loaded via SYSTEM.INI, DOS sessions started under Windows for WorkGroups prompt the error 'This Application Has Violated System Integrity.' This VxD causes this error merely by opening, reading and closing a file ... [by] doing a protected-mode INT 21 call If the read operation is left out of the code, no error occurs. Also, if 32-Bit File Access is turned off, no error occurs." On page 25 of the July 4, 1994 InfoWorld, Brian Livingston's Window Manager column titled "32-Bit File Access stirs up trouble with some DOS applications" states: "The issue seems to arise when a user starts a DOS session or application under Windows. In some cases, if 32-Bit File Access is enabled, the DOS session crashes with the message 'This Application Has Violated System Integrity'." On page 28 of the July 25, 1994 InfoWorld, Brian Livingston's Window Manager column titled "Readers offer some tips in the continuing 32-Bit File Access saga" states: "Reader Eric Brewer writes, '... use a DOS directory utility ... three levels down in the tree causes a crash, while being two levels down does not.' ... Two readers [report] 'The program 1dir+ [a DOS file manager program] from Bourbaki Inc. crashes when 32-Bit File Access is turned on.' The best explanation submitted so far is by a technician in a respected testing lab who writes, 'If I'm correct, the problem might be that 32-Bit File Access doesn't reflect all INT 21 requests through the chain. TSRs that expect a coherent picture of INT 21 requests, such as those for monitoring access to specific files, won't get it under 32-Bit File Access'." ======================================================================== WINDOWS RESOURCES ----------------- 4. The Windows Resources consist of three 64K heaps; GDI, User, and User Menu. The GDI and User Resources are reported by Windows Program Manager Help, About and by other utilities, and are usually the limiting factor on how many applications can be opened at one time. Unfortunately, when you exit many programs, they don't completely free up the Resources they use. Eventually, when enough programs are opened and closed, there aren't enough Resources available to perform any useful work. Therefore, when the Resources drop to an unacceptable level, its time to close everything, exit Windows, and then restart Windows again. Here are a couple of problem descriptions that were Resource related. PROBLEM: User couldn't open any more programs or print when Ami Pro, MS Word, and MS Excel were all open. Cause was insufficient Windows Resources - they were down to 26% when all three programs were open. Further investigation revealed culprit was Excel. It was taking 38% Resources! Reinstalling Excel resulted in a program that only required a more normal 16% Resources. PROBLEM: User couldn't open any more programs or print when Ami Pro, Lotus 123, and WordPerfect for Windows 5.2 were all open. This time, WPWin was taking 25% Resources. I noticed she had the WPWin add-on program Button Cube present. When she said she seldom used it, I removed it and WPWin required Resources dropped back to a normal 15%. These problems, plus questions regarding screen savers and bit maps, made me curious about typical program Resource and Memory requirements. I therefore tried opening and closing a number of programs to see how much they required and how much was never returned to Windows after closing. These values were obtained from FREEMEM (available in the Computer Edge Bulletin Board Windows file area as FREEMEM.ZIP) with memory compacting turned on to more accurately show the amount of unreturned memory. The results are presented below for just opening and closing the program. The Resources and Memory used will increase when a file is opened with the amount varying according to the file size, complexity, and included graphics. UNRETURNED PROGRAM USER GDI MEMORY USER GDI MEMORY Freemem 0% 1% 75K Windows Wallpaper 0% 0% 25K Bitmap Wallpaper 0% 1% 464K Screen Saver 0% 1% 109K Lotus Ami Pro 3.0 5% 6% 387K 0% 0% 25K MS Word 6.0a 9% 12% 567K 1% 0% 35K WordPerfect 5.2 15% 8% 807K 0% 0% 1K WordPerfect 6.0a 18% 23% 1,051K 1% 6% 42K Lotus 123 R4 7% 9% 1,679K 0% 0% 0 MS Excel 5.0 9% 15% 457K 1% 1% 32K Quattro Pro 5.0 4% 13% 1,604K 1% 2% 88K Harvard Graphics 2.0 7% 7% 1,042K 1% 0% -2K ! Lotus Freelance 2.01 7% 6% 890K 1% 1% 47K WordPerfect Presentations 2.0 16% 9% 771K 2% 0% 15K MicroGrafx Designer 3.1 6% 10% 174K 0% 0% 5K Visio 6% 6% 444K 1% 0% -4K ! Paint Shop Pro 2% 2% 208K 0% 1% 7K Lotus Approach 2.1 3% 3% 391K 0% 0% 0 Time Line for Windows 1.0.0 4% 0% 102K 0% 0% 37K MathCAD 4.0 5% 18% 3,506K 0% 0% 0 MicroLink 4% 2% 220K 0% 1% 11K CMPQwk Reader 3% 2% 464K 0% 1% 41K DOS Prompt 1% 1% 1,497K 0% 1% 0 As might be expected, WordPerfect for Windows 6.0a, which is a real memory hog (I recommend a system with 16 MB RAM), is also a Resource hog. It's not unusual for an application to require fewer Resources for subsequent openings. In this case, WPWin is able to use most of the Resources it left behind when it was previously closed, so that "only" 16% user and 18% GDI Resources are used when it is opened again. Of course, this second opening starts with a lower Resource level than the first opening! The average clean Windows installation should start with about 80-85% Resources. Your system may have slightly lower values depending on drivers (video, sound card, CD, network, etc.) For instance, my 486/66 with an ATI Turbo Graphics Pro video card (800 x 600 x 256 colors) and a Sound Blaster 16 starts with 79% User Resources and 81% Graphics Resources. The information above shows that complex programs such as word processors, spreadsheets, and graphics applications can limit you to about 3 usable programs open at a time. For instance, if you start with 80%, open 3 applications that take an average of 15% each, you are down to 35%. Opening another application can push you well below 30% and put you in the position where you can't print and are in serious risk of an "Application Error" or GPF. Since many of these programs consume a small amount of Resources and Memory every time they are opened and closed, it's a good idea to monitor these quantities and restart Windows whenever they start running too low. It's also a good idea to reset or turn off the computer at the end of each day to insure that the computer memory and hardware are in a clean condition at the start of the next day's activities. In the not so old days of MFM hard drives, we used to recommend turning off the monitor to save electricity, but leave the computer on overnight to avoid stressing the hard drive by starting it again. With current IDE hard drives having MTBFs of hundreds of thousands of hours (Mean Time Between Failures equal to tens of years of continuous operation) and the extensive use of Windows, it's more important to start with an uncorrupted configuration. Another thing I examined is whether having many groups and icons open on the desktop actually used much in the way of Resources. I and many others have heard that these use a fair amount of Resources, and the number of open items on the Desktop should be kept to a minimum. This is something I've ignored, since I'd rather have an application immediately available and not have to find and open a group to access it. I've also found it very annoying to work on a computer where the user has set the Program Manager Options to Minimize on Use. It's a real pain to exit an application, then have to double-click the Program Manager icon in order to open anything else. I was therefore quite surprised and pleased to find that the Resource percentages didn't change whether I had the Program Manager open and the Desktop completely covered with open groups an icons, or all the groups minimized, or even Program Manager minimized. ======================================================================== WINDOWS HINTS ------------- Many of you are probably aware of these, but in my work, I've found the majority of users could benefit from these recommendations. 5. Tired of having your carefully positioned icons and groups getting moved? a. On the Program Manager menu, click on Options, then select Auto Arrange. This causes Windows to continuously arrange the icons automatically. If you accidentally move an icon slightly, it snaps back into position when you release the mouse button. You no longer have to click on Windows, Arrange Icons to get even icon spacing. b. To automatically arrange the Group icons at the lower portion of your Windows Desktop, drag a Group to a slightly different position. This leaves the Group icon highlighted as the active icon. Now click on Windows, Arrange Icons and the Groups will snap to even spacings. c. Now go back to the Options menu again and uncheck Save Settings on Exit. If you accidentally move a Group window or icon from its carefully arranged position, the unwanted position will not be saved when you exit Windows. In order to save the Desktop arrangement after you've made a change, click on File, then HOLD DOWN THE SHIFT KEY while clicking on Exit. Instead of exiting Windows, you'll see the hourglass come on momentarily while the new Desktop settings are saved. Don't forget to repeat this procedure whenever you rearrange the Desktop or add a new program! 6. Want to get more icons on your Desktop? a. Of course, you can run Program Manager Maximized. I like to set it to run in a window, then drag the left and right borders to the far left and right, the top border to the uppermost position, and the bottom border to within 0.25-0.5 inches from the bottom. This lets me get almost as much Desktop area as Maximized mode, while still letting any full screen program show a portion at the bottom. When I get done using Program Manager, I can return to that program by simply clicking on the visible portion of the maximized program at the bottom of the screen. b. Whether you use Program Manager Maximized or windowed to some position, you can still display more icons by changing the icon spacing. Open up the Windows Control Panel (in the Main Group) and double-click the Desktop icon. About two-thirds of the way down on the right, you'll see the Icons settings. Make sure the Wrap Title box has an X. If not, check this box. You'll also see the icon horizontal Spacing set to the default value of 75 pixels. Change it to 69 pixels. Adjust the right border of each group to the narrowest position that does not cause the icons to snap to one more row. (Make sure Auto Arrange is selected as described in 5. above.) If necessary, drag the group bottom border down so that all icons are displayed without having a group vertical scroll bar. (In my opinion, scroll bars just take up valuable Desktop area.) You can make the initial adjustments in large increments and the final adjustments one pixel at a time. This takes a steady hand and a bit of trying, but is well worth it. c. You can move the groups so they just touch without overlapping by dragging on the group title bar. Position the leftmost and topmost groups so that they are as close as possible to the Program Manager borders without creating Program Manager scroll bars. For the usual 640 x 480 VGA resolution, this will let you have two groups side-by-side with 4 icons in one group and 5 icons in the other when the Desktop is set to its maximum horizontal extent with a horizontal Spacing of 69 pixels. This 69 pixel setting also lets you have an extra column of icons with an 800 x 600 SVGA display. For my 800 x 600 display, I set this value to 64 to get still another column of icons for a total of 12 icons horizontally in three groups. d. You can also change the vertical spacing to get more rows of icons. Unfortunately, this cannot be accomplished via a Windows control. Instead it requires editing the WIN.INI file in the \WINDOWS directory. Using a TEXT editor (not a word processor) such as DOS EDIT, the Windows Notepad in the Accessories Group, or Windows SYSEDIT (we'll describe how to obtain access to this program in the next section), open up the \WINDOWS\WIN.INI file. Scroll down to the [Desktop] section and insert an empty line by hitting at the beginning or end of a line. Now type in: IconVerticalSpacing=nn where nn= a number less than the default value of 75. Try an initial value of 64 to 69 and then readjust your Desktop Groups to just encompass the bottom row of icons without creating a vertical scroll bar at the right edge of the group. You'll find that if you highlight an icon having a title that extends farthest down, you can then drag the group bottom border upwards so that there is one pixel spacing (a thin white area) between the group border and the icon title highlight. This is the closest spacing you can achieve without creating a vertical scroll bar. On my SVGA windowed display, I can get 7 rows of icons using IconVerticalSpacing=61. e. If you have program icons with three title rows, you can change them to display only one or two title rows. Click the icon once to highlight the title and make that icon the active object. Now click on File on the Program Manager menu bar. Click on Properties. The first line, Description, contains the icon title. Change this to a shorter title of your choice and click the OK box. If the icon title is still three lines, go back and repeat this procedure. You can also insert a space between long words to change the title line wrapping. 7. Want more Windows Programs? Of course, you can buy more programs to accomplish this. However, Windows and MS-DOS 6.x come with Windows utilities that are often not already installed. a. Perhaps the most useful of these is the Windows System Configuration Editor (SYSEDIT) mentioned earlier. First, click on the group (such as Main) where you want the Sysedit icon to appear. To install an icon that lets you invoke SYSEDIT, click on File on the Program Manager menu bar. Click on the already highlighted New. Click on the OK button for the already selected Program Item. Now click on the Browse button. You'll see that the Windows directory folder is already open. If necessary, scroll down until you see the System directory folder. Double-click this folder or click once and then click the OK button. On the left, you'll now see the files in the \WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory. Scroll down this listing until you see sysedit.exe. Double-click this item, or click once and then click the OK button. Now click OK on the Program Item Properties menu. You'll now see the Sysedit icon available for use. Double-clicking this icon brings up four overlapping edit windows arranged with AUTOEXEC.BAT in front, then CONFIG.SYS, WIN.INI, and SYSTEM.INI at the back. Clicking on any visible portion of an edit window brings that window to the front where you can edit that file. When you're done, click on File on the menu bar and click on Save or Exit. One of the benefits (or drawbacks, depending on your expertise and preferences) is that Sysedit first renames the old version of the edited file(s) with a .SYD extension. Therefore, if you decide you don't want the changes you've just made (or find that you can't start Windows any more!), just delete the new version of the file and rename the .SYD file with it's proper extension; i.e., REN \WINDOWS\SYSTEM.SYD SYSTEM.INI. b. You probably already know that you can check SmartDrive's caching performance by typing SMARTDRV /S at the DOS prompt. How can you check these statistics from Windows? One way would be to double-click the DOS Prompt icon and type the command. Another way would be to create a PIF file with the command and parameter. If you have MS-DOS 6.x, there's an easier way to do this. MS-DOS 6.0 and later comes with a Windows program called SMARTMON.EXE. To make this immediately available for Windows, we'll repeat the procedure performed above for Sysedit. First, click the group where you want Smartmon installed. If you already have an MS Tools group, this is a good place to put it. Then click on Program Manager, File, New and then click on the OK and Browse buttons. Double-click on the open C:\ directory folder. This takes you up to the root (top level) directory of C:. Now scroll down until you see the dos directory and double-click on it (or click once on it and then click the OK button). On the left, you'll see the files in the c:\DOS directory. Scroll down until you see smartmon.exe. Double-click on smartmon.exe (or click once and click OK). Click the OK button in the Program Item Properties menu box. You'll now have a Smartmon icon. Double click this icon to start the SmartDrive Monitor program. I'll leave it up to you to click the Help button and read the Help File for instructions on using it. Whether you run it minimized or maximized, I think you'll find it mildly interesting for a short period of time. I haven't found any long term use for this program, although it might be useful to someone developing a program that interacts with or uses the SmartDrive disk cache. c. Did you know that MS-DOS 6.x comes with Windows versions of the MS Backup, MS Undelete, and MS Anti-Virus programs? These are automatically installed in a MS Tools Group if an MS-DOS 6 upgrade is performed on a computer that already has Windows installed. (This is the default for an upgrade when Windows has been previously installed. If you want both the Windows and DOS versions of these programs installed during an upgrade, you have to select Custom and then specifically select the Windows and DOS installation instead of Windows only.) A new computer, however, will have MS-DOS 6.x installed first, then Windows 3.1/3.11 or Windows for Workgroups 3.1/3.11. Unless the vendor's technicians then go back and install these DOS 6.x Windows programs, you won't have them on your new computer. If you have MS-DOS 6.x upgrade disks (the $49 full upgrade version, not the $10 MS-DOS 6.0 to 6.20/6.22 Step Up version), you can easily install the Windows versions of these programs. Go to a DOS prompt, put the first disk in your floppy drive, and: A: (or B:, depending on the floppy drive) SETUP /E The /E switch instructs Setup to install only the missing programs. (This is documented in the \DOS\README.TXT file.) If you have an OEM original version of MS-DOS, you'll have to install the files one at a time. Go to a DOS prompt, put the first disk in your floppy drive, and then: CD \DOS DIR A:\MW*.* Note the file listing; they'll end with a _. Now, type EXPAND A:MWxxxxxx.xx_ C:MWxxxxxx.xxx where the x's above correspond to the remainder of the Name and Extension. You'll have to repeat this procedure for each one of the installation diskettes. The individual instructions will include the following file names, although they are not necessarily on the installation disks in the sequence shown below. EXPAND A:MWAV.EX_ C:MWAV.EXE EXPAND A:MWAV.HL_ C:MWAV.HLP EXPAND A:MWAVABSI.DL_ C:MWAVABSI.DLL EXPAND A:MWAVDLG.DL_ C:MWAVDLG.DLL EXPAND A:MWAVDOSL.DL_ C:MWAVDOSL.DLL EXPAND A:MWAVDRVL.DL_ C:MWAVDRVL.DLL EXPAND A:MWAVMGR.DL_ C:MWAVMGR.DLL EXPAND A:MWAVSCAN.DL_ C:MWAVSCAN.DLL EXPAND A:MWAVSOS.DL_ C:MWAVSOS.DLL EXPAND A:MWAVTSR.EX_ C:MWAVTSR.EXE EXPAND A:MWBACKF.DL_ C:MWBACKF.DLL EXPAND A:MWBACKR.DL_ C:MWBACKR.DLL EXPAND A:MWBACKR.EX_ C:MWBACKR.EXE EXPAND A:MWBACKUP.EX_ C:MWBACKUP.EXE EXPAND A:MWBACKUP.HL_ C:MWBACKUP.HLP EXPAND A:MWGRAFIC.DL_ C:MWGRAFIC.DLL EXPAND A:MWUNDEL.EX_ C:MWUNDEL.EXE EXPAND A:MWUNDEL.HL_ C:MWUNDEL.HLP Note that files ending in .EX_ get expanded to names that end in .EXE, .DL_ to .DLL, and .HL_ to .HLP. When you get done, go back into Windows, and if desired, create a new group for these programs. (You can install them into an existing group if you'd rather.) Click on File, New, Program Group, OK. Then type in MS Tools or the name of your choice. With the desired group highlighted, perform the following actions. Click on File, New, OK and to the command Line box. Type C:\DOS\MWAV.EXE and click OK. Click on File, New, OK and to the command Line box. Type C:\DOS\MWBACKUP.EXE and click OK. Click on File, New, OK and to the command Line box. Type C:\DOS\MWUNDEL.EXE and click OK. You now have program icons for running Microsoft Windows Anti-Virus, Backup, and Undelete. 8. What can you do to increase Windows performance and reliability? In addition to the actions described earlier in this text file, there are several other things that will help Windows load and run a little faster and go longer between GPFs and crashes. a. Make sure you have a Permanent Swap File set up. Double-click on the Control Panel icon, then double-click the 386 Enhanced icon. Click the Virtual Memory button and the Change>> button. In the New Settings area, if the Type is Temporary or None, click the arrow at the right and click on Permanent. if you have more than one drive available, select the desired drive (preferably the highest performance drive). If you use a disk compression program such as DoubleSpace or Stacker, MAKE SURE THE SELECTED DRIVE IS THE UNCOMPRESSED HOST DRIVE for a Permanent Swap file! Otherwise, you'll get a "Corrupted Swap File" message every time you start Windows. The New Size box will show a number that is based on the Recommended Size of 3 times the RAM or 50% of the available disk space, whichever is less. I generally recommend a size of at least 10 MB, but not more than 20 MB, depending primarily on the available disk space. If you have several hundred Megabytes of disk space available, a 20 MB Swap File won't keep you from installing new programs. On the other hand, if you only have 15 MB of disk space left, taking half of that and leaving you with only 7.5 MB will very soon cramp your ability to install new programs and save data files. I would recommend in this case a 5 MB Swap File (and purchase of an additional hard drive ASAP). If the Use 32-Bit Disk Access box is present, make sure it is checked. This will have little if any effect on Windows and Windows program disk performance, but it will decrease the time it takes to initiate a DOS program session and switch between multiple DOS sessions. After making the desired changes, click the OK and Yes buttons to exit these menus and select Restart Now when that prompt appears. Windows will exit and then restart with the new swap file settings. Oddly enough, the less RAM you have, the larger your swap file should be. It makes sense, though, when you think about it. If you have 4 MB of RAM and like to open several programs at a time that require (with Windows) a total of 14 MB of memory for operation, you'll need at least a 10 MB swap file. For this configuration, a 12 MB (maximum of 3 times the RAM) swap file would provide you with 16 MB, the largest possible amount of combined RAM and Virtual memory. A system with 8 MB of RAM could have an additional 20 MB swap file for a total of 28 MB. This system would probably run out of Resources (described previously) long before running out of swap file space. My 16 MB system with a 10 MB swap file will also run out of Resources with many Megabytes of RAM and Virtual memory remaining. I know, because I've seen it! The only situation where I can imagine needing very large swap files is if you work with extremely large data bases or spreadsheets - 10 MB or more in size. If the Recommended Size for a Permanent Swap File is considerably smaller than that given for a Temporary Swap File or if it shows only a few MB when you know you have many Megabytes of available disk space, you need to defragment your hard drive. Change the Type to Temporary, and exit back out as described above to save your settings. Exit Windows and run your defragmenting program. If you only have the DEFRAG program that comes with MS-DOS 6.x, use it. If you have access to a commercial defragmenting program such as the ones that come with Norton Utilities (SPEEDISK or SD) or PC Tools (COMPRESS), they have more options for arranging files and SPEEDISK, at least, seems to defragment faster than DEGRAG. b. Monitor the Windows Resources. You can do this by clicking on Program Manager's Help, About to see the Resource % and the remaining memory (combined RAM and hard drive Virtual Memory in the Windows Swap File). Windows starts running into problems and you start getting GPFs when the Resources drop below 20 to 30%. Therefore, it's probably time to start closing applications when the resources start getting much below 40%. It gets to be quite time consuming to click on Program Manager, Help, About at frequent intervals. Fortunately, there are some utilities that continuously display the Resources and memory. One is the System Resource Monitor that comes with the Microsoft Windows Resource Kit (also available for downloading from the Microsoft Download Service). The one I prefer is Metz Software's FREEMEM which is available for downloading from the Windows file area of the ComputerEdge BBS as FREEMEM.ZIP. ======================================================================== CHANGING WINDOWS SYSTEM FONTS ----------------------------- 9. There are two ways to select fonts for icons. If you are using a SVGA driver, Windows or OEM, they usually can be selected with a choice of small fonts (typical) or large fonts. You can also edit WIN.INI to select the font and size of your choice. Under [desktop], add (or edit): IconTitleFaceName= IconTitleSize= For the Name, you can enter any valid font name (double-click the Fonts icon in Control Panel to get a list of installed font names) such as "MS Sans Serif" which is the default. For the Size, enter the desired point size (the default is 8). 10. It's happened again. No sooner do I become interested in a question, than I receive a magazine that has the answer. I just received the January 10, 1995 issue of PC Magazine today. On page 268 in the PC Solutions section, Neil J. Rubenking answers a question about Windows display fonts. For icon titles, in addition to the two WIN.INI [Desktop] entries that are described above, he describes a third, undocumented entry. IconTitleStyle=1 Where =1 for bold and =0 for normal. 11. He also tells how to change the system font, which is used for menu items and window titles, by creating the entry below in the [Windows] section: SystemFont= and inserting the name of any raster font in the \WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory with the extension .FON. He goes on to say that the raster fonts are the ones in the [Fonts] section of WIN.INI that include "(VGA Res)". In my WIN.INI, I found: MS Sans Serif 8,10,12,14,18,24 (VGA res)=SSERIFE.FON MS Serif 8,10,12,14,18,24 (VGA res)=SERIFE.FON Symbol 8,10,12,14,18,24 (VGA res)=SYMBOLE.FON Small Fonts (VGA res)=SMALLE.FON Therefore, I could change the system font by using: SystemFont=SSERIFE.FON or SystemFont=SMALLE.FON My Windows Resource Kit doesn't mention the SystemFont= entry (some of the "Undocumented Windows Secrets" I assume), but it does talk a bit about the raster fonts. It defines the last letter in the file name (before the period) as A=CGA, B=EGA, E=VGA, and F=8514/a. Therefore the fonts above are VGA fonts, i.e., SSERIFE; while the same font name for EGA would be SSERIFB. As you might deduce from the font descriptions, they are bitmap fonts with specific sizes. The SMALLx.FON is designed to provide a readable display for font sizes under 6 points. The default system screen font is System. Another default font is Terminal, "a fixed-width font used to display the OEM text in the Windows Clipboard Viewer. The OEM font also provides an OEM character set used by some Windows applications." I also found both these in the [Fonts] section. These are for an ATI graphics board operating in 800 x 600 resolution. Yours may differ, i.e., =VGASYS.FON. System (Set #6)=8514SYS.FON Terminal (US) (Set #6)=VGAOEM.FON Now you can go ahead and experiment with different menu and title appearances. You can preview the raster fonts by going into Control Panel and double-clicking on the Fonts icon. Highlighting the font name provides a window that shows what the font looks like. After trying this, I can imagine the double takes you'd get if you changed the System font to Symbol! ======================================================================== I hope you find these tips useful. If so, please also check out the DOSTIPS file after I upload it. Hugh Horton