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 Function,
Structure, Operation and File Management
MS-DOS filenames must have 1 to 8 characters. There
can be no spaces or punctuation in the filename.
The file extension can have up to 3 characters,
allowing 11 total characters in the filename.
Long
File Names - Win95 supports extended file names
which can contain up to 255 characters. In Win95,
each long file name has a duplicate 8.3 file name
for backwards compatibility.
PROGMAN.EXE
- is the program that starts Windows 3.x sessions
during the loading process. Located in the C:\WINDOWS
(unless directory is specified otherwise in installation)
directory.
CONTROL.INI
- Contains desktop settings and is located in
the C:\WINDOWS directory.
386SPART.PAR
- Permanent swap file in Windows 3.x.
WIN386.SWP
- Temporary swap file in Windows 3.x.
Windows 95 is a true operating system, but Windows 3.x is only a graphical interface to MS-DOS. Windows 95 can run either 32 or 16 bit applications. Windows 3.x can only run 16 bit applications. COMMAND.COM - Acts as a "translator" for processing requests before they are sent directly to the processor. The Control Panel in both Windows 3.x and Windows95 only configures system settings. MSDOS.SYS
- Only used by MS-DOS, not Windows 95.
WIN.COM
- Starts Windows 3.x
Windows 95 uses the fat32 file system. MS-DOS uses the fat16 file system. Loading
order of MS-DOS:
2) MSDOS.SYS 3) CONFIG.SYS 4) COMMAND.COM 5) AUTOEXEC.BAT Minimum files that MS-DOS needs to load:
IO.SYS
MSDOS.SYS COMMAND.COM BUFFERS= and Smartdrv both have to do with caching in MS-DOS. The DEVICE= command in CONFIG.SYS loads device drivers into the memory. INTERNAL dos commands are in COMMAND.COM. PIF is a Program Information File for DOS programs. DLL files are shared executable pieces of code that help reduce the size of applications that use them. The Add/Remove Programs applet in Control Panel can be used to create startup disks. The F4 key allows you to boot into an old operating system in a system that has Windows 95 as the default OS. SHARE.EXE
- allows file locking in MS-DOS.
MSD
- MS-DOS utility that allows you to view the system's
processor type.
DIR and CHKDSK can both give the total disk space on an MS-DOS system. The ROM BIOS is programming that communicates directly with a computer's hardware. Giving an application the Execute in Foreground option from the 386 Control Panel applet in Windows 3.x helps to speed up the application. SYSTEM.INI - Contains drivers and VXD's for Windows devices in Windows 3.x and Windows 95. SYSEDIT - Used to edit AUTOEXEC.BAT, CONFIG.SYS, WIN.INI, and the SYSTEM.INI. The [boot] portion of the SYSTEM.INI has the drivers that are loaded at startup. Windows 95 detection log files:
SETUPLOG.TXT
- Used to log installation of Windows95. Will
note last utility run prior to a system halt.
DETCRASH.LOG - Used to log hardware detection during setup. Readable only by setup to determine which module was running when the system halted. DETLOG.TXT - Equivalent of DETCRASH.LOG written in a readable format. NETLOG.TXT - Logs detected network component information. The Windows 95 Registry is designed as a database used by OLE to store information on OLE servers. It is used by Windows 95 to store the information typically found in Windows 3.x .INI files and the REG.DAT file. The Registry can be used for troubleshooting and enhancing perfomance in Windows 95. The Registry is a heirarchical tree which contains information about many things in the computer. REGEDIT.EXE
- Used to modify the Registry.
The Windows 95 Registry is composed of USER.DAT and SYSTEM.DAT. The majority of the configuration settings of Windows 95 are in the Registry. A virtual machine is an illusional environment created by the operating system in memory. These are designed to allocate resources to programs that might normally be halted by other programs in memory. Each MS-DOS application runs in its own virtual machine, as they are designed to have total and uninterupted access to all system resources. All other non-MS-DOS based programs run in the System virtual machine. Windows
95 has three core components:
Kernel
- Responsible for basic O/S functionality,
managing virtual memory, task scheduling,
and File I/O services.
User
- Manages the user interface, including input
from devices and interaction with drivers. GDI
- Responsible for all graphics manipulation. Plug and Play is designed so that no user intervention is required in order to install hardware. A
Plug and Play system needs to consist of the following
to be complete:
A
Plug and Play operating system
A
Plug and Play BIOS Legacy Cards - Hardware designed prior to Plug and Play which, when installed, will not automatically be setup by the OS and must be setup manually. Disk
operations:
IFS
(Installable File System) - Architecture which
allows multiple file systems to coexist on
the same computer.
VFAT
- 32-bit virtualized File Allocation Table
used in Win95. VCache - 32-bit protected mode cache driver which replaces the real-mode SmartDrive. Hard Drive caching in Windows 95 is handeled with VCache. Memory
Management
Installation,
Configuration, and Upgrading
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