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From: marshall@wind55.seri.gov (Marshall L. Buhl)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: 386max and windows386 (now CONFIG files)
Message-ID: <1990Mar14.170842.21123@seri.gov>
Date: 14 Mar 90 17:08:42 GMT
References: <2562.25fbc856@esat.kuleuven.ac.be>
Sender: news@seri.gov (news [NO CHARGE])
Organization: Solar Energy Research Institute
Lines: 43

maes@esat.kuleuven.ac.be writes:

>I am a user of 386max and of windows386.
>These two combine verry badly.
>386max works very fine for most applications, but i have to use my scanner
>in windows. Turning off 386max is not possible because I have drivers loaded
>outside the 640K of DOS. So I have to edit my config.sys file and leave
>386max out and reboot before I can use windows386. If I want to use SAS a bit
>later (SAS cannot run under windows), I have to do the whole process again.

>Is there an easier way to do this ?

I don't know of a way that's a LOT easier, but I can save you editing time.
I keep a directory called setup.  In it I keep numerous copies of CONFIG.SYS
and AUTOEXEC.BAT.  I use the extension to indicate which setup a file is
for.  I also have a batch file called SETC.BAT for set config.  It looks
like:

COPY C:\SETUP\AUTOEXEC.%1 C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT
COPY C:\SETUP\CONFIG.%1   C:\CONFIG.SYS
C:\UTIL\REBOOT

where REBOOT is a program I got of a bulletin board years ago.

In my AUTOEXEC.ext file I have a prompt statement that includes the
extension so I know which setup is loaded.  A simple example would be
PATH=WIN-$P$G for my Windows AUTOEXEC.WIN file.

When I want to change from my Harvard Graphics setup to Windows, I just
type SETC WIN and it places the proper files in the root and reboots the
machine.

A great side benefit of this system is that when you install new software,
you can let the install program screw up your configuration files without
damaging your originals.

Hopefully, we will someday have an operating system where this sort of 
kludge isn't necessary.  ***  Please, no comments about *NIX  ***
--
Marshall L. Buhl, Jr.                   EMAIL: marshall@wind55.seri.gov
Senior Computer Engineer                VOICE: (303)231-1014
Wind Research Branch                    1617 Cole Blvd., Golden, CO  80401-3393
Solar Energy Research Institute         Solar - safe energy for a healthy future