|
|
|
Enhance the performance of Windows apps in Win-OS/2 by running them in separate sessions. Create an icon for the program on the desktop or the LaunchPad. Right-click on the icon and choose Settings. Under the Session tab, check the Separate Settings box. Performing this trick with a lot of apps can gobble memory, so you should have more than 8MB of RAM if you're going to do this often.
Open your favorite network connections fast with Warp Connect by putting shadows of these resources in your Startup folder. You'll be prompted to log in only once even if different resources reference a particular network several times.
Speed up program loads by creating separate icons for Windows and OS/2 and editing the Win-OS/2 settings in the OS/2 System Setup folder. Once inside the folder, click on the Fast Load box under the 3.1 Session tab. With this enabled, the base Win-OS/2 programs load at boot time and stay loaded. (Don't try this with less than 8MB of RAM or your system will slow to a crawl.)
Windows-based hardware devices that require DOS drivers--scanners and SCSI devices that use ASPI managers--can still do their thing under Win-OS/2. Create an OS/2 desktop or LaunchPad icon for the Windows program that uses the device. If you already have one, edit its Settings. Under Session, click on Win-OS/2 Settings and choose Other DOS Settings. Under the DOS_DEVICE item, type the full path and name of the SCSI ASPI drivers (you don't need to say DEVICE= here), followed by the full path and name of the scanner drivers. Close it up and try it. Now you can load the scanner drivers in only the DOS/Windows session you need them for and they won't hang around eating memory. To provide DOS-level ASPI support regardless of what session you're running, add the following line to your CONFIG.SYS:
DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VASPI.SYS
Never confuse the OS/2 and MS-DOS versions of CHKDSK. Although the two programs are kept in discrete directories, it's still possible to use one instead of the other. The OS/2 version repairs the extended attributes OS/2 keeps on files stored on a FAT-based volume in the *.EA files (don't delete these unless you're uninstalling OS/2 from your system). Running the wrong version of CHKDSK can permanently destroy your extended attributes.
Add the following line to the beginning of CONFIG.SYS if you get a lot of TRAP errors during fine-tuning:
SET DUMPPROCESS=C
Note that the drive letter has no colon. This will dump the data from the TRAP to the root of the C: drive. If you're planning to use another drive, substitute that drive letter instead.
Adobe Photoshop 3.*x* is one of those programs that doesn't work under Win /OS/2 sessions. That's because any programs that require a version of Win32s later than 1.15 won't work. And don't try installing higher versions of Win32s in Win /OS/2 because you can damage your Win /OS/2 installation. You'll need extra VxDs to get it to work, and Windows VxDs don't work under OS/2.
Swap files larger than 50MB create problems on HPFS-formatted hard disks. Either use FAT for your swap file drive or preallocate the largest setting you think you'll need for your swap file by modifying the SWAPPATH line in CONFIG.SYS. To preallocate a swap file that uses no more than 16MB, use this:
SWAPPATH=C:\OS2\SYSTEM 16384 16384
Make jobs that use a group of related applications easier by using Work Areas. Create a folder on the desktop (or inside another folder), place all the related documents and applications in it and edit the folder's settings. Under the File tab, check the box marked Work Area. When you open the folder, all the applications and documents in that folder will launch. When you close the folder, everything associated with it shuts down as well. This can be useful for programs that come in suites, but don't have their own organizer programs.
Back up and restore extended attributes--the long filenames and other OS/2-only information DOS can't see--with DOS backup programs by using EABACKUP and EARESTORE. A recent version of these two OS/2 shareware utilities, EABK23.ZIP, is available at http:/www.os2bbs.com. EABACKUP converts extended attributes into something a DOS backup program can handle. EARESTORE converts them back into something OS/2 can handle. Use EABACKUP, then boot DOS and run your favorite backup program. Restore first in DOS, then boot OS/2 and use EARESTORE to recover the extended attributes. *Never* use DOS backup programs to back up or restore any files with an .SF extension. The extended attributes are stored in these files. If you copy them on top of existing .SF files, you'll end up with a terrible mess.
Win-OS/2 programs that do screen captures can run in seamless Windows mode on the OS/2 desktop. They can also capture what's on the OS/2 desktop, be it a Windows program, an OS/2 program or both. If you already have a Windows graphics programs that does screen captures and want an OS/2-specific program for the same purpose, try using what you already have.
Load your Startup folder items in any order you like (network connections, for instance) by opening the Startup folder and viewing it in flowed icon view. Arrange the contents in the order you want them to start, shut down and reboot.
If a program in your Startup folder is causing the system to hang on boot, reboot the system, and press and hold Ctrl+Shift+F1 just as the clock cursor appears. Keep holding until all the desktop objects appear. Delete the offending object from the Startup group and reboot.
Use KBD_ALTHOME_BYPASS
for a DOS session's settings if you're running a program that uses Alt+Home, and you can't reassign it to use another key combination. (Alt+Home normally toggles between windowed and full-screen DOS sessions.) The same goes for KBD_CNTRL_BYPASS
, which overrides the Ctrl+Esc or Alt+Esc keystrokes. Bear in mind if you change those you'll have trouble getting back to the desktop unless you quit the DOS session.
Keep Windows and OS/2 .HLP files discrete. The two file formats are radically different, and you can't substitute them for each other. If you're thinking of copying Windows .HLP files into a directory that's under OS/2's Master Help Index, forget it.
When you conduct a search on a drive in OS/2 you could accidentally delete files. Delete the unsaved results of such a search, and you're deleting the actual objects. If you save the search you get a folder full of shadows to these objects, which you can delete without harming their targets. OS/2 has an undelete function, but it's restricted in the same way DOS's UNDELETE command is; that is, you have to recover deleted files immediately.
OS/2 version 2.1 has an undelete function that's not explicitly documented in the Shredder's settings because you have to enable it manually. Open the OS/2 System Editor or Enhanced Editor. Edit the CONFIG.SYS for your OS/2 boot drive (it should be in the root directory). You should see the following line in CONFIG.SYS:
REM SET DELDIR=C:\DELETE,512;D:\DELETE,512;
Remove the REM (to enable the statement), save the file, shut down and reboot. After you restart, you'll see a Delete folder in the root directory of all your drives and partitions. Deleted files are moved to the Delete folder of their host drive (which takes longer). The "512" in the settings refers to the size, in kilobytes, of the Delete folder. Increase this number proportionately depending on the size of your volume. To undelete a file, launch a command-line session of OS/2 and type CD *folder*
, where *folder* is the name and path of the folder the deleted file used to be in. Then type UNDELETE *filename*
.
An OS/2-specific version of the MSD utility, called RMVIEW, provides far more technical information than MSD does. Type RMVIEW > OUTPUT
to pipe the results into a text file named OUTPUT, or whatever filename you like.
Tired of the eight typefaces in OS/2's Font Palette? Set up more than one palette by opening the Font Palette System menu and hitting Create Another to make a duplicate. Rename it (pick an appropriate name, like Math Fonts or Really Big Fonts). You can do this with any OS/2 palette, but most of the others support far more choices than the font palette, so it's probably not necessary.
Disable WINOS2 fast start for faster boots. Open the Win-OS/2 Setup object in the Systems Setup folder, and under the 3.1 Session tab remove the check from the Fast Start box. Make sure you disable the archive feature (enable it only when you make a change, then reboot and disable it again). The Desktop Settings notebook has a tab entitled Archive. Under it, uncheck the box labeled Create Archive At Each System Restart. This option should be checked only if you find your system configuration is constantly being munged.
The Warp Connect installation program likes to randomly remove or insert a \TCPIP\DOS\BIN into your AUTOEXEC.BAT file's PATH for Windows and DOS emulation. When it's absent, you won't have access to WINSOCK.DLL for Windows apps. Manually add it to the path or create your own private AUTOEXEC.BAT the install won't touch. Assign it to Windows Internet programs in their settings. It also may remove \OS2\MDOS\WINOS2\SYSTEM from the path, as well as SET ETC=[*drive lettter*]:\tcpip\etc. One symptom of a missing Windows Sockets dynamic link library is nameserver failure.
Adobe Type Manager's install likes to put the old version on top of the more recent one. This is easy to spot, though, because the ATM icon reveals the version number. The new version is 3.01.
By default, OS/2 install chooses a setting of 20 for files. Many
programs will starve with so few handles. Edit CONFIG.SYS and set FILES= to something more appopriate (60 is a good number).
You can use Windows' Media Player instead of the OS/2 Compact Disc program. But before you use the MCI drivers in Windows, especially for things like CD-ROM audio, install the proper support for those devices in OS/2. Then launch a Win-OS/2 session and install the proper MCI drivers from your OS/2 disks.
Use the OS/2 printer queue under Win-OS/2 to manage all printer jobs and keep them from conflicting with one another. Check your printer's port settings in Win-OS/2. One port option should be LPT1.OS2 (provided the spooling is being sent to LPT1). Connect to it and turn off the Win-OS/2 Print Manager to speed things up even more.
To properly delete an OS/2 installation from your system, run ATTRIB -R -H -S
in the root directory and delete all the following files:
EA*.*, OS2*.* and the attendant OS/2 subdirectories (OS2, DESKTOP, MAINTENA, MMOS2, NOWHERE and SPOOL are the most common).
Never mix up Win-OS/2 and genuine Windows display drivers. Win-OS/2 display drivers are specially designed to allow seamless Windows operations on the OS/2 desktop. You can trash your OS/2 installation if you confuse the two.
The single most common culprit for OS/2 install crashes is ROM and memory shadowing. OS/2 requires that all ROM and memory shadowing be turned off before installation. This is so OS/2 can obtain more precise information about the machine's hardware. With the shadowing turned on, the OS/2 installer may crash. Also be warned that some BIOSes have the ability to write-protect the boot sector of a hard drive, to prevent virus infection. This feature must be disabled before a new OS can be installed.
Never try to use a DOS defragmentation program designed for FAT-formatted disks on an OS/2 HPFS-formatted volume. The temptation can be strong, especially since Win-OS/2 and DOS sessions can be run transparently on HPFS drives. You can get an HPFS-only defragmentation tool from GammaTech at 405-947-8080.
|
|
|