QUIT2DOS Return to the C:\ prompt when exiting from Windows 95 A free utility from Bardon Data Systems http://www.bardon.com CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION 2. HOW TO USE QUIT2DOS 3. WHAT QUIT2DOS DOES, EXACTLY 4. BOOTING TO "SAFE MODE" 5. BOOTING TO DOS 6. HOW TO SET THINGS BACK THE WAY THEY WERE 7. ABOUT BARDON DATA SYSTEMS 8. LEGAL STUFF 9. REVISION HISTORY 1. INTRODUCTION Windows 95 is excellent, no doubt about it. It includes many undeniable improvements over Windows 3. However, its many improvements do not include the elimination of DOS. This is not a weakness in Win95, but rather a useful design consideration. By retaining DOS, Windows 95 attains a level of backwards compatibility that is nothing short of incredible. Microsoft's system designers should be very proud of this almost magical feature. They don't seem to be. They have set up Win95 to hide as many traces of DOS7 as possible. It's as if they don't want you to know it's there. But it is. When you start Windows 95, you are actually first booting DOS7. A big "booting" difference between DOS7+Win95 versus DOS6+Win3 is this: by default when you boot DOS7, after it loads any config.sys and/or autoexec.bat, DOS7 automatically runs the command "win" ... yes, the same command you used to type yourself to run Windows 3.x from DOS6. Later, when you exit from Windows 95, there's another bit of magic which (in the default setup) prevents the C:\ prompt from being displayed. Remember, you have exited from Win95, just like you used to exit from Win3. In both cases, you're back in DOS. So where's the DOS7 prompt? It's under the screen that says "It's now safe to turn off your computer", that's where. It's the same old DOS prompt as before. You can get to it, but it takes a bit of doing. QUIT2DOS is designed to do it all for you. When you run QUIT2DOS from Windows 95, it sets a switch to allow you to boot manually. Then it adds a "win" command to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file to run Windows 95 automatically at startup. Now I can hear you wondering, "why make it boot manually, and then re-make it automatic again?" You're right, it makes little difference at startup. The difference comes when you shut down Win95, because by doing it this way you regain the option of running the C:\ prompt after exiting from Win95. After running QUIT2DOS (and rebooting your system, once, to set everything up), then when you exit from Win95 you can type MODE CO80 at the "safe to turn off your computer" screen, and voila! There's the C:\ prompt. Note that you lose nothing by using this option; it's still "safe to turn off your computer" at that screen. MODE CO80 simply sets your screen back into 80-column color mode, clearing the "safe" bitmap from your screen in the process. 2. HOW TO USE QUIT2DOS Run QUIT2DOS.EXE from Windows 95. It'll do everything automatically. All three QUIT2DOS files (QUIT2DOS.EXE, QUIT2DOS.BMP and QUIT2DOS.TXT) need to be in the same directory. After running QUIT2DOS, reboot your system. Beginning with that reboot, whenever you exit from Win95 you can get back to the DOS prompt if you want. [Note: some laptops are configured to actually power down the computer when exiting from Windows 95. QUIT2DOS does not interfere with this behavior, so it will be of little use for owners of computers configured in this way. To use QUIT2DOS with such a computer, you must first reconfigure the machine so it doesn't turn off the power when you exit from Win95.] QUIT2DOS also makes it easier to boot to the DOS prompt when you start your computer. To do this, answer N to the "Start Windows 95 GUI" prompt that appears at bootup (see below). 3. WHAT QUIT2DOS DOES, EXACTLY Specifically, here's what QUIT2DOS does. First, it sets the BootGUI flag in your MSDOS.SYS file to 0, so DOS7 won't automatically run Windows. Next, it replaces the "safe to turn off your computer" bitmap that Win95 displays at exit. This file is in your Windows directory, and is called LOGOS.SYS although it is actually a BMP file, not a SYS file. The "replacement" bitmap includes instructions on how to get back to the DOS prompt by typing MODE CO80 as described above. Once you're at the DOS prompt you can type "win" at any time to restart Windows 95. Finally, it adds the command WIN, with a CHOICE test around it, at the end of your autoexec.bat file. It'll create an autoexec.bat for you if you don't have one. Here are the lines that QUIT2DOS will add at the end of your AUTOEXEC.BAT file: REM next four lines added by QUIT2DOS choice /C:YN /TY,5 Start Windows 95 GUI if errorlevel 2 goto Q2Dskipwin95 win :Q2Dskipwin95 CHOICE is a DOS7 built-in command (like IF, ECHO, PAUSE, REM, etc) that displays a text prompt, then sets the DOS errorlevel to indicate your response. The /C switch lists valid responses (in this case, Y or N). The /T switch sets the default response (in this case, Y) and the amount of time that CHOICE will wait before using it (in this case, 5 seconds). So, with this in place, you'll see this prompt when you boot: Start Windows 95 GUI [Y,N]? If you hit N within five seconds you'll get the DOS7 command prompt. If you hit Y (or do nothing for five seconds) you'll start Windows 95. 4. BOOTING TO "SAFE MODE" Occasionally you may need to start your computer in "safe mode." To do this in standard-issue Win95, you hold down the F8 key while booting, and when the menu appears, you choose Safe Mode. Normally, the system then starts Windows 95 in "safe mode." But QUIT2DOS sets up your system so it doesn't automatically start Windows 95. QUIT2DOS compensates for doing this by adding a call to "win" at the end of your AUTOEXEC.BAT, but in "safe mode" the system doesn't run your AUTOEXEC.BAT at startup. Consequently, when you select Safe Mode from the menu, you wind up at the command prompt. Not to worry. Just type WIN at the prompt and hit Enter. You'll start Windows 95 in "safe mode." 5. BOOTING TO DOS Occasionally you may want to start your system at the DOS7 prompt instead of going right into Windows 95. QUIT2DOS makes it much easier to do this. In standard-issue Win95, if you wanted to boot to DOS7 at startup, you'd hold down the F8 key while booting, and when the menu appears you'd choose Command Prompt Only. But after installing QUIT2DOS, there's a better way. Just boot your system as usual, and look for the prompt: Start Windows 95 GUI [Y,N]? If you hit N within five seconds you'll get the DOS7 command prompt. Much easier than going through the F8 menu. [Note: if you want to ALWAYS start at the DOS7 prompt, simply remove the WIN call which QUIT2DOS added to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. You'll boot to DOS7. When you want to run Windows 95, type WIN and hit Enter.] 6. HOW TO SET THINGS BACK THE WAY THEY WERE To undo the QUIT2DOS changes, you need to replace the "safe to turn off" bitmap, change a flag in MSDOS.SYS, and remove five lines (including the "win" call) in your AUTOEXEC.BAT. 1) The original "safe to turn off" bitmap was saved in your Windows directory as LOGOS0.SYS. Delete the replacement LOGOS.SYS and rename LOGOS0.SYS back to LOGOS.SYS. 2) Use Notepad or any text editor to edit MSDOS.SYS (it's in your boot-drive root directory) and set its BootGUI flag to 1. MSDOS.SYS may be set as read- only; if so, right-click on the file in Explorer to change its Properties, and un-check the "Read-only" box. Then you can edit the file. 3) Edit your AUTOEXEC.BAT file (also in your boot-drive root directory) and remove the five lines added by QUIT2DOS: REM next four lines added by QUIT2DOS choice /C:YN /TY,5 Start Windows 95 GUI if errorlevel 2 goto Q2Dskipwin95 win :Q2Dskipwin95 They're at the bottom of the file. As you can see, there's a REM with the lines so you can tell which ones they are. 7. ABOUT BARDON DATA SYSTEMS Bardon Data Systems makes software for all versions of Windows. Products include power-user tools, an entertainment/humor series, a "parental control" security access oversight application, fax enhancement software, and more. Drop by the Bardon home page (http://www.bardon.com) and take a look. Bet you find something you like. There are free gifts there too (such as QUIT2DOS), our "thank you" for stopping by. 8. LEGAL STUFF QUIT2DOS is Copyright 1996 Barry Smiler, Bardon Data Systems. No fee is required for its use. It can be freely distributed through any channel, including online services, BBSs, Internet sites, CD-ROMs, vendor offerings, book/disk sets, or in any other way, as long as all QUIT2DOS files are included unchanged as supplied in this package. QUIT2DOS is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. In no event shall Barry Smiler or Bardon Data Systems be liable for any damages whatsoever including direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, loss of business profits or special damages, even if the author has been advised of the possibility of such damages. 9. REVISION HISTORY QUIT2DOS 1.1 released July 20 1996 QUIT2DOS now surrounds the WIN call with a CHOICE command, making it easier to boot to the command prompt if necessary. QUIT2DOS 1.0 released April 25 1996 Bardon Data Systems 1023 Key Route Blvd. Albany CA 94706 USA (510) 526-8470 72340.375@compuserve.com info@bardon.com http://www.bardon.com