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-
- MAXIMIZING THE SIZE OF YOUR DESQview WINDOWS
-
-
- This QEMM 7 technote is an abridged version of a technical
- bulletin that is available through our standard support channels.
- The information contained in this version pertains ONLY to QEMM
- version 7.0. If you need information relating to earlier versions
- of QEMM you can obtain the unabridged version from the following
- sources:
-
- Quarterdeck Technical Support BBS: WINSIZE.TEC
- CompuServe: WINSIZ.TEC
- Q/FAX: #161
-
-
- Subject: How to increase the size of your DESQview windows.
-
-
- HOW CAN I GET BIGGER WINDOW SIZES IN DESQVIEW?
-
- DESQview may require 170K of your first megabyte of memory or
- more than 200K, depending on your specific configuration.
- DESQview can load over 63K of its code into the HMA (High Memory
- Area, the first 64K of extended memory) if this area is
- available. It can also load its data into unused areas of High
- RAM between 640K and 1024K. The remaining portion of DESQview's
- code will load into conventional memory. Regardless of the amount
- of RAM on your system, DESQview (like most programs) can ONLY
- load into these three areas. It is important that you find the
- best ways of utilizing the HMA and your areas of High RAM if you
- are to maximize your DV windows.
-
- First, make sure that the file DV.COM exists in your DV
- directory. After verifying its presence, follow the suggestions
- listed below.
-
- 1. USING STEALTH ROM TO FREE CONVENTIONAL MEMORY:
-
- With version 6.00 of QEMM, Quarterdeck introduced its Stealth ROM
- technology which reclaims some of the upper memory addresses used
- by ROMs, gaining its users nearly 100K of additional High RAM.
- If you are using Stealth ROM, the QEMM device line in your
- CONFIG.SYS file will contain either the ST:M or ST:F parameter.
- If you do not have one of these parameters on the QEMM line, you
- can enable Stealth ROM by typing the following command at the DOS
- prompt:
-
- OPTIMIZE /ST
-
- This runs QEMM's Optimize program and instructs it to test your
- system for Stealth ROM compatibility. Stealth ROM can do more to
- increase the size of your DESQview windows than any other
- suggestion in this technote.
-
- If you notice anything unusual about the way your system
- functions after enabling Stealth ROM, refer to our technical
- bulletin STEALTH.TEC for troubleshooting suggestions. This
- technote was installed in your QEMM\TECHNOTE directory when you
- installed QEMM 7.
-
- 2. USING QEMM's ANALYSIS PROGRAM TO INCREASE AREAS OF HIGH RAM:
-
- Before loading into conventional memory DESQview fills up all
- available areas of High RAM. It is to your advantage, therefore,
- to configure QEMM to give you the most High RAM possible. One
- way to gain additional High RAM is by performing an ANALYSIS.
- With this procedure QEMM determines what areas of upper memory
- are not currently being accessed by your hardware and software
- and suggests ranges of addresses that you can try "INCLUDING" for
- QEMM's use. In order for the results of ANALYSIS to be accurate,
- you must follow the instructions precisely. For complete
- details, refer to your QEMM or Manifest manual or read our
- technical bulletin EXCLUDE.TEC. This technote was also installed
- in your QEMM\TECHNOTE directory.
-
- 3. USING ST-DBL TO STEALTH DOUBLESPACE:
-
- If you are using DoubleSpace (the disk compression program
- included with MS-DOS 6.0), you can use QEMM's ST-DBL.SYS to free
- even more conventional memory for DESQview. Normally,
- DoubleSpace uses 43K of your first megabyte of memory. This can
- heavily tax your window sizes in DESQview. The new ST-DBL
- technology will stealth the DoubleSpace driver into expanded
- memory. ST-DBL uses 2K of memory for itself and can be loaded
- high for a net savings of 41K.
-
- In order to use "ST-DBL" you must be using DoubleSpace from MS-
- DOS 6 and have QEMM configured to provide expanded memory through
- a 64K EMS page frame.
-
- If you install DoubleSpace AFTER installing QEMM 7, you should
- run QEMM's QSETUP program (by typing QSETUP at the DOS prompt.)
- QSETUP will remove the DBLSPACE.SYS line in your CONFIG.SYS and
- replace it with the following line:
-
- DEVICE=C:\QEMM\ST-DBL.SYS
-
- 4. GETTING QEMM TO BACKFILL MORE MEMORY:
-
- By default QEMM backfills only 576k of conventional memory on
- 80386 systems. (This is not the case with 80486 and higher
- processors.) The first 64K of conventional memory is not
- backfilled, allowing a maximum of 576K of conventional memory in
- a DESQview window. If you are running QEMM on a 386 system, you
- can try to reclaim some of this memory by adding I=0C00-0FFF or
- I=0800-0FFF to the QEMM386.SYS line in your CONFIG.SYS file.
-
- Including 0C00-0FFF reclaims 32K of conventional memory. On some
- systems these addresses are used for such things as I/O
- addresses. If your computer does not function normally after
- adding this include statement, try reducing the range by using
- the I=0800-0FFF parameter.
-
- One of these two include statements will work for most systems.
- If you experience a problem that is not resolved by using the
- second, smaller, include statement, you should remove the include
- statement altogether.
-
- 5. GETTING DESQVIEW TO USE THE HMA:
-
- With QEMM loaded, DESQview is able to load 63K of its data into
- the HMA (High Memory Area, the first 64K of extended memory.)
- Only one program can use the HMA, however, so DESQview cannot use
- it if another program is already using it. If you have DOS 5 or
- 6, you may have a line in your CONFIG.SYS file that says
- "DOS=HIGH." This line instructs DOS to load part of itself into
- the HMA. DOS normally uses only 35K to 45K of the HMA, so most
- DESQview users obtain larger windows if they remove the DOS=HIGH
- line and allow DV to load into this area.
-
- In some cases it may be to your advantage to use the DOS=HIGH
- line in your CONFIG.SYS file rather than letting DESQview load
- into the HMA. Try it both ways and then determine which gives
- you more memory by running Optimize, then checking "Largest
- Available Expanded Memory" in Memory Status while in DESQview.
- Use the configuration that gives you the best results.
-
- If you are using DR-DOS 6, you may get bigger window sizes in
- DESQview by loading the DOS kernel into High RAM. You do this by
- placing the following lines in the CONFIG.SYS file:
-
- SHELL=C:\COMMAND.COM C:\ /P /MU
- HIDOS=ON
- DEVICE=C:\DRDOS\HIDOS.SYS /BDOS=AUTO
-
- Another option you can try if you have DR-DOS 6 is loading the
- DOS kernel into the HMA with the following lines:
-
- SHELL=C:\COMMAND.COM C:\ /P /MH
- HIDOS=ON
- DEVICE=C:\DRDOS\HIDOS.SYS /BDOS=FFFF
-
- 6. REMOVING DEVICE DRIVERS AND TSRs FROM CONFIG.SYS AND
- AUTOEXEC.BAT:
-
- The number of device drivers and TSRs you load during bootup
- directly impacts your maximum window size. Many TSRs (like
- DOSKEY or Sidekick) can be removed from your AUTOEXEC.BAT and
- loaded in a DESQview window as needed. Programs and drivers
- loaded in this manner do not detract from the size of EACH window
- but, rather, affect ONLY the size of the window in which they are
- run.
-
- Device drivers such as disk caches or ramdrives also use memory
- in the first megabyte. Try removing such drivers one at a time
- in order to judge any performance gain resulting from their use.
- You may decide the performance gain is not worth the memory it
- costs you. Because memory is a finite resource, you must make
- decisions as to how you use it.
-
- Network drivers can also be changed to save memory. As an
- example, Novell's NETX.COM can be replaced with EMSNETX.COM which
- uses expanded memory and, as a result, uses much less
- conventional memory or High RAM. Contact your network
- administrator for more information on alternative network
- drivers.
-
- 7. USING QEMM'S VIDRAM TO INCREASE CONVENTIONAL MEMORY:
-
- If your system is equipped with an EGA or VGA card and you use
- mainly text based applications, you can use VIDRAM to increase
- your conventional memory up to 96K. When VIDRAM is enabled you
- will not be able to run graphics programs but you will be able to
- run larger text-based applications inside DV than you would
- otherwise be able to do. For further information on enabling
- VIDRAM, refer to your QEMM manual.
-
- 8. CONFIGURING DESQVIEW TO USE LESS MEMORY VIA ITS SETUP
- PROGRAM.
-
- A number of settings in DESQview's SETUP program can be
- configured to save memory, and experimenting with them can prove
- well worth the time spent.
-
- COMMON MEMORY is used by DESQview to manage its windows, and the
- amount you need is dependent upon the number of windows you open.
- The default value is 17K; the minimum value of 14K may suffice
- for users who open only a few windows at a time. Rarely do DV
- users need more than 25K of common memory.
-
- DOS BUFFERS FOR EMS refers to memory used by DESQview to manage
- file operations into expanded memory. The default value is 2K;
- QEMM users who are not on a network can set this figure to 0K
- with no loss of performance, saving about 5K. The value of this
- field can affect the speed of disk access, but rarely will a
- value higher than 10K or 15K prove worthwhile.
-
- If you are willing to do without a few of DESQview features, you
- can probably scrimp a few more K from the Setup program:
-
- On the KEYBOARD option you can save as much as 12K by telling
- DESQview that you do not want to use the Learn feature. By doing
- so, however, you disable DESQview's very useful macro system. If
- you are not aware of the capabilities of DV's LEARN feature, you
- may want to refer to the manual for information before disabling
- it.
-
- On the VIDEO MONITOR option you may be able to save up to 16K by
- telling DESQview not to display text and graphics at the same
- time. This disables DESQview's Video Options menu, prevents
- graphics programs from being seen when in background, and
- prevents virtualization of graphics. You can save another 2-9K
- by choosing 0 for "What Display Adapter do you have?". This
- causes DESQview not to load a video driver and keeps DESQview
- from saving and restoring graphics screens or virtualizing
- graphics.
-
- On the PERFORMANCE option you can save 2K by changing "Manage
- Printer Contention?" to N(o) if it is set to Y(es.) By default
- this field is set to N, in which case DESQview does nothing to
- prevent two programs from attempting to print at the same time.
-
- On the NETWORK option you may disable the network support or
- decrease the size of the buffer. Network support is ONLY needed
- for certain network-specific programs. It is NOT required for
- most normal DOS applications that are merely being run from a
- network hard drive. The amount of memory you save by disabling
- network support is about 5K plus the size of the buffer reserved
- in the second field. Unless you are certain that you need this
- service, try running without it. If you encounter a problem when
- network support is disabled that you DO NOT encounter with such
- support, simply run DESQview Setup and change the settings back
- as they were. You can also try decreasing the size of the buffer
- which, by default, is set to 8K.
-
- *************************************************************
- This technical note may be copied and distributed freely as long
- as it is distributed in its entirety and it is not distributed
- for profit. Copyright (C) 1990-3 by Quarterdeck Office Systems
- ******************** E N D O F F I L E *******************