TECHNICAL BULLETIN 2.26.90 PCTOOLS5 JCR (update 7.17.90) DISK UTILITY SOFTWARE: PC Tools Deluxe 5.5, Central Point Software Installing PC Tools PC Tools can be installed on a server and shared across the network by the workstations. Using this configuration, however, an environment variable must be set to specify where PC Tools should put all user-specific files (PCSHELL.THM, PCSHELL.CFG, PCBACKUP.CFG, etc). This needs to be a directory that is unique for each user and to which the user has write privileges. This variable should be added to the workstation's autoexec.bat..... SET PCTOOLS = drive: \path Where drive is the drive letter and path is the full path where PC Tools should place its user- specific files. All of the currently linked network drives will show up with the local drives on the Drive Command Line. This will show only the active links. NOTE: The customer must purchase a copy of PC Tools Deluxe for every station on the network or contact Central Point for a Network or Site License. The compatibility testing was processed on a 3-node network. PC Tools was installed/configured on a common server (with environment variables set) during one set of tests, and again on all 3 nodes (without environment variables) during a second set of tests. The systems were running DOS 3.3 and DOS 4.01. I selected to load PC Cache, Mirror, PCShell and Desktop memory resident. PC TOOLS then made the following adjustments to the autoexec.bat file: MIRROR C: /TC {To activate Mirror on drive C: PC-CACHE /IA /IB {Activates PC Cache PCSHELL /RT {To load PCShell TSR DESKTOP /R /CS {To load Desktop resident, uses 42064 bytes PC BACKUP The command to load PC Backup is PCBACKUP - for a listing of configurations switches, please refer to the PC Tools Hard Disk Backup manual (p 6). PC Backup does provide attribute exclusion / inclusion by configuration through the Options menu. PC Backup will backup all hidden/system/read only files when configured to do so; the default configuration does not backup hidden or system files. It will not backup the QCONTROL file in LANtastic. PCBackup will backup files onto and from a redirected drive with no problems. FILE AND DISK RECOVERY The following commands in PC TOOLS are not compatible with a network environment: Compress, Rebuild, Mirror, Undelete. These commands handle direct physical access to the drive, which is not possible on a network drive. PC SHELL The following commands in PCSHELL are not available on a network server or a network drive: Directory Maintenance, Prune and Graft, Directory Sort, Disk Info, Disk Map, File Map, Rename Volume, Search Disk, Undelete, Verify Disk, View/Edit Disk (Sector Editor). To print from PCSHELL, a Ctrl-Alt-PrtScrn is required. PC SHELL may be loaded in shell mode by typing PCSHELL at the prompt, or it may be loaded in TSR mode. PC Shell uses EMS (Expanded Memory) when it is resident and active only. When you hotkey into PC Shell, it will automatically load the PCSHELL.THM overlay file into expanded memory (LIM compatible), if available, to hold the image of the underlying application. If EMS memory is insufficient or non-existent, then the image is placed in PCSHELL.THM on disk. The amount of expanded memory required to run PCShell depends on how PCShell is loaded. If one loads PCShell with the TINY configuration (recommended), it will require approx 200KB of expanded memory. To remove from memory, type KILL (Note: This will remove PCShell, Desktop and BackTalk if they are the last TSR utilities to be loaded). When PC Shell is loaded in TSR mode, a configuration switch is required to determine the amount of memory PC Shell will take up. To load in TSR mode, select one of the following - additional switches are available to provide support for various configurations. For a list of those switches, please refer to the PC Tools Data Recovery and DOS Utilities manual. Don't forget to load this after the network! The hotkey to load PC Shell is Ctrl-Esc. PCSHELL /RTINY - Uses 9K (recommended configuration) PCSHELL /RSMALL- Uses 70K PCSHELL /RMEDIUM- Uses 90K PCSHELL /RLARGE- Uses 170K NOTE: PC Shell will work with different versions of DOS across the network. For example, one server can run DOS 3.3 while another runs DOS 4.01. PC Shell can access files on both across the network. DESKTOP MANAGER The Desktop Manager can be loaded stand alone by typing DESKTOP at the prompt. It can also be loaded in TSR mode, by adding the /R switch and typing in DESKTOP /R. The hot key to load Desktop is Ctrl-Space. Just like PC Shell, Desktop uses EMS when it is resident and active only. It will load the DESKTOP.THM overlay file into expanded memory. To remove from memory, type KILL (Note: This will remove PCShell, Desktop and BackTalk, if they are the last TSR utilities loaded). Other switches are available to support various configurations. For a detailed list, please refer to the PC TOOLS Desktop Manager manual (pp 14). PC SECURE NOTE: Due to USA federal regulations, PC Secure is shipped out of the U.S.A. with the encryption/decryption option disabled. The U.S.A. and non-U.S.A. versions of PC Secure are not compatible. You will NOT be able to decrypt a file with the U.S.A. version that was compressed with the non-U.S.A. version and vice-versa. PC Secure does work with the network. However, it's suggested never to place your decrypted files on a file server. Always copy the encrypted file to a private directory or local disk first, then decrypt it. For a list of configuration switches on PCSECURE, please refer to the PC Tools Data Recovery and DOS Utilities manual (p 197). PC-CACHE PC-Cache should be installed after Mirror but before any other memory-resident programs. During one set of these tests, PC-Cache was loaded in the 640K memory and no problems were encountered. Due to various reports by our distributors and dealers indicating the product to be compatible, no further testing was done at this time. For a listing of configuration switches, please refer to the PC Tools Data Recovery and DOS Utilities manual (p 170). To remove PC-Cache from memory, type PC-CACHE /UNLOAD. Quick Reference Here are a few quick tips on operation of PC TOOLS DELUXE 5.5: CTRL-X- Specifies which drive, X (from Drive Command Line), to work with (available in PC Tool and Compress) F10- Activates Menu Bar in PC Shell TAB- Moves between Tree and File List (available in PCShell) ALT-X- Pulls menu down from menu bar the option containing the highlighted X letter Comments PC Tools Deluxe 5.5 has been tested in house with LANtastic NOS 2.57 and 3.00, and has been added to the compatibility list. Central Point Software has confirmed the content and accuracy of this document. Vendor Info Central Point Software 15220 N.W. Greenbrier Parkway, #200 Beaverton, OR 97006 (503) 690-8090