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From: mmshah@athena.mit.edu (Milan M Shah)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms
Subject: Re: Re: 386 Enhanced Problem.
Message-ID: <1991Mar23.070323.9582@athena.mit.edu>
Date: 23 Mar 91 07:03:23 GMT
References: <13479@helios.TAMU.EDU> <37140010@hpopd.pwd.hp.com> <1387@macuni.mqcc.mq.oz>
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Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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>>
>	Just exactly why can't these be used? I use "SUBST" and it *seems*
>    to work fine with no problems whatever? I use it because otherwise
>    my paths would be horrorendously long. So what's the game?
>

Well, there's two reasons why using subst might be a bad idea. Windows
executable files don't entirely have to be in memory; for example, the code
for the "About..." dialog box might be marked as "load only on demand." Now,
suppose you launch something like Excel from a subst drive, then go into the
DOS box and change your subst drives around. Now, if win 3 wants to load in
some part of excel, it will go to the original subst drive letter and not 
even find the file there! Thus, as long as you don't *change* your subst
drive letters around, you should be fine.

The second reason is really what I believe to be a bug in Windows 3.0. Try
this: instead of include c:\win3 (or equivalent) in your path, first subst
it to some letter like w: and include w: in your path. Next, try to start up
sysedit - it should complain with "Unable to open W:\\system.ini" etc. 
Moreover, if you change settings, for example in File Manager or Program
Manager, they will be unable to find their .ini files because they are 
probably looking for W:\\xxx.ini. I don't know why windows attaches the 
double backslash to these pathnames. In any case, your settings will not be
saved and will generally lead to confusion. So, don't subst your windows
directory.

But as far as other subst drives go, I don't think windows 3 cares two hoots.

Milan
.