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- * T E M P O R A R Y *
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- B O O T M E S S A G E U T I L I T Y
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- D O C U M E N T A T I O N
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- Copyright (c) 1990 by Falk Data Systems.
- All rights reserved.
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- Last updated: November, 1990
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- Falk Data Systems Orders: (800) 326-5615
- 5322 Rockwood Court Tech Supt: (915) 584-7670
- El Paso, Texas 79932-2412 FAX: (915) 584-1540
- U.S.A. CompuServe: 71420,2431
-
-
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- Introduction:
- -------------
-
- Several people have been asking for more control over their
- custom boot messages. They wanted to be able to completely
- change the boot message, and they wanted more room in which to do
- it. I wanted to see how it would work out, so I sat down one
- morning and wrote a quick test program called "BootUtil". I
- looked into adding this feature to EzFormat.EXE and decided that
- since a major upgrade was planned anyway, it wouldn't make sense
- to go through the cost of translations (EzFormat.EXE is in three
- languages) right now. But I also realized that people wanted the
- capabilities of BootUtil. So, like a politician, I compromised.
- I decided to add BootUtil to the Easy Format package, until the
- next major upgrade.
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- Falk Data Systems: BootUtil.DOC Page 1 of 4
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- - TEMPORARY Boot Message Utility -
-
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- BootUtil is intended to help you produce your master disk prior
- to duplication. BootUtil enables you to place custom boot
- messages on a diskette. This custom boot message will appear
- anytime someone boots their computer with that disk in their A:
- drive.
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- BootUtil uses BIOS calls to update the boot sector on an already
- formatted diskette. If you have one of the newer drives that is
- not supported by the BIOS then BootUtil will not work for you.
- The next major update to Easy Format will support your drives.
-
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- Documentation:
- --------------
-
- In keeping with the temporary nature of BootUtil, this
- documentation is very rough and to the point.
-
-
- Memory Usage:
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- BootUtil requires about 110K of free memory to run.
-
-
- Boot Message Display Attribute:
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- When choosing the display attribute for your boot sector message,
- be sure to pick an attribute that is visible on both color and
- monochrome systems. You can use the pop up Color Attribute Chart
- in the Programmer's Productivity Pack for reference.
-
-
- DOS Version 4 Boot Sectors:
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- The DOS version number defaults to the version of DOS that the
- program is running under. At the request of Hans Salvisberg
- (Switzerland), BootUtil allows you to override the version number
- which is written into the boot sector. This is useful if, for
- instance, your program supports all versions of DOS from 2.0 on,
- you can set the DOS version number in the boot sector to 2.0.
- This doesn't have any major effects and using the default will
- work just fine. One important consideration is DOS versions 4.00
- and above. DOS version 4.00 adds extra parameters to the BPB and
- will eat up some of the space (32 bytes) that would normally be
- used for your custom boot sector message. BootUtil was not
- designed to produce diskettes intended only for DOS versions 4.xx
- and above. I recommend NOT using DOS 4.x for the version number.
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- Falk Data Systems: BootUtil.DOC Page 2 of 4
-
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- - TEMPORARY Boot Message Utility -
-
-
- When the next major update to Easy Format is released it will
- include the capability of producing diskettes intended only for
- DOS 4.00 or higher - although I can't think of a reason why
- someone would want to exclude all prior versions of DOS.
-
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- Technical Support:
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- I hope some of you find this *TEMPORARY* utility to be useful.
- If you have any questions or comments please feel free to send me
- (Bob Falk [71420,2431]) messages via CompuServe Mail.
-
-
- Custom Boot Message Editor:
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- The boot message editor uses standard WordStar commands (like you
- find in most of Borland's editors). It defaults to overwrite
- (not insert) mode. If you plan on making major changes to the
- default boot message then I recommend that you delete each line
- by pressing <Ctrl><Y>, then switch the editor into insert mode by
- pressing the <Ins> key.
-
- Editing commands Key(s)
- -------------------------------------- ------------------------
-
- Left Left, Ctrl-S
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- Right Right, Ctrl-D
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- Word Left Ctrl-Left, Ctrl-A
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- Word Right Ctrl-Right, Ctrl-F
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- Beginning of Line Home, Ctrl-QS
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- End of Line End, Ctrl-QD
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- Up Up, Ctrl-E
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- Down Down, Ctrl-X
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- Scroll Up Ctrl-W
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- Scroll Down Ctrl-Z
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- Page Up PgUp, Ctrl-R
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- Page Down PgDn, Ctrl-C
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- Top of Window Ctrl-Home, Ctrl-QE
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- Falk Data Systems: BootUtil.DOC Page 3 of 4
-
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- - TEMPORARY Boot Message Utility -
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- Bottom of Window Ctrl-End, Ctrl-QX
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- Top of Message Ctrl-PgUp, Ctrl-QR
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- Bottom of Message Ctrl-PgDn, Ctrl-QC
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- Delete Del, Ctrl-G
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- Back Space Bksp, Ctrl-H, Ctrl-BkSp
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- Delete Line Ctrl-Y
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- Delete to End of Line Ctrl-QY
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- Delete word right Ctrl-T
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- New Line Enter, Ctrl-M
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- Insert Line Ctrl-N
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- Tab (8 spaces) Tab, Ctrl-I
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- Quote (enter control character) Ctrl-P
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- Insert toggle Ins, Ctrl-V
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- Auto indent toggle Ctrl-OI
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- Word Wrap toggle Ctrl-OW
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- Reformat paragraph (word wrap on) Ctrl-B
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- Reformat entire buffer (word wrap on) Ctrl-KG
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- Restore current line Ctrl-QL
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- Quit (Finished) Esc, Ctrl-Break
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- ** Thank you for your support! **
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- Falk Data Systems: BootUtil.DOC Page 4 of 4
-