Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!maverick.ksu.ksu.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!aries!mcdonald
From: mcdonald@aries.scs.uiuc.edu (Doug McDonald)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms
Subject: Re: How to get extended mem back after a windows session?
Keywords: extendedmemory,  himem.sys
Message-ID: <1990Oct26.214912.19652@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 26 Oct 90 21:49:12 GMT
References: <90297.155820MUHRTH@DB0TUI11.BITNET> <1990Oct26.195130.17719@cs.uoregon.edu>
Sender: news@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (News)
Organization: School of Chemical Sciences, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Lines: 24

In article <1990Oct26.195130.17719@cs.uoregon.edu> akm@cs.uoregon.edu (Anant Kartik Mithal) writes:
>
>I actually don't understand why we need himem.sys at all. After all,
>both 286 and 386 systems can address extended memory without a
>problem (in protected mode), so why do we need to use himem? I
>understood the logic for emm, but not xms.
>

Very simple: Microsoft did it that way to pimp out users of other companies
software. Himem.sys makes it impossible to use any software using
extended memory that was written earlier than it was. This means that
Microsoft is saying "Hah Hah!! You thought it was safe to buy other
companies products? Gotcha!!! We are Microsoft - you use our 
products, then WE will prevent you from running other companies
products! If you buy ONLY ours...... (*)"

Actually, there are ways to fake out himem.sys but they are
rather complicated to describe. Basically, you lose unless your 
are a sneaky programmer.

Doug McDonald

(*) the older ones still will fail for the same reason. But, of course,
send us money and we will send you a new version that does work.