Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.programmer
Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!maytag!watstat.waterloo.edu!dmurdoch
From: dmurdoch@watstat.waterloo.edu (Duncan Murdoch)
Subject: Re: Autoexec.bat prob: take two
Message-ID: <1990Oct14.030040.715@maytag.waterloo.edu>
Sender: daemon@maytag.waterloo.edu (Admin)
Organization: University of Waterloo
References: <3936.27135c52@cc.curtin.edu.au> <744@demott.COM> <10889@hubcap.clemson.edu> <783@aeshq.UUCP> <4588@sage.cc.purdue.edu>
Date: Sun, 14 Oct 90 03:00:40 GMT
Lines: 34

I think the original question on this thread was how to put a pause in an
autoexec.bat file, in order to allow the user to abort Windows before it got
loaded.  A different approach, which I think is better, is as follows.

Maintain several directories of autoexec.bat/config.sys pairs, with names
evocative of what they intend to do.  For example, the original poster might
have a c:\BOOT\WINDOWS directory and a c:\BOOT\PLAIN directory.  Then, write a 
small batch file BOOT.BAT something like this:

  copy c:\boot\%1\*.* c:\
  warmboot

where "warmboot" is one of those tiny .COM utilities to do a warm boot.

Now, anytime you want to boot without Windows, you just type

  BOOT PLAIN

and you will!

A nice side effect of this approach is that it protects your configuration files
from rude installation programs that try to change them.  A nasty side effect
is that it's easy to make a change to the files in the root, and lose it a few
days later when you run BOOT.BAT.

Duncan Murdoch
dmurdoch@watstat.waterloo.edu

P.S.  A nice enhancement that can't easily be added without programming is to
have it save your current directory before it reboots, and have your AUTOEXEC
change to that directory as its last action.  That way it's a little less 
irritating to work on projects that need a couple of different configurations
at different times.  I do this to load the TD386 debugger which is incompatible
with my usual environment in Desqview.