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Another OldSkool/New take on 32Bit Dos using WinME Version of Dos


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#1 ispy

ispy

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Posted 01 January 2022 - 01:40 PM

This information is indirectly cross referenced & related to the following web Link
http://reboot.pro/to...rough-vmm32vxd/
However this is in relation to the previous version of Dos namely Dos-7 NOT Dos-8.

If you are of German persuasion here is the original German version website (Dos7) :
http://www.winfaq.de...p?h=tip1826.htm

& more recently this one for the English translated transcript of a German website above (Dos7):
https://www-winfaq-d...en&_x_tr_pto=sc

This resurrected article comes courtesy originally of an individual called Mike Risch, a talented individual who is the architect of Mindows which basically is a cut down version of Windows 98SE, as a side note I think the intention of Mindows was to use it for repairs etc. I believe there may be a section on RebootPro devoted to or hosting Mindows not a 100% sure.

Anyhow sliding on, the other day I was sifting through an old hard drive & came across an old article that Mikes old website discussed & I thought it would be interesting to combine the content of his old web-site (Mindows/XDOS) details with Windows ME-Dos  (or ME Dos-8 if you prefer) setup in a 32bit Dpmi Dos that fits onto a floppy disk.

NOTE - A lot of the shortcomings of M$ ME Dos-8 have been overcome on a Russian website which I will call or refer to as (tongue in cheek) naughty Dos (I will not be posting the link as it may contravene rebootpro rules) as this version of Dos8 will be considered dubious, because it distributes ME-Dos files, however in their defense, the way they have achieved their little project may not be a problem as long as individuals out there on the www have their own copy of Windows ME/XP (XP for what I would call the jaclaz file-set)  tucked away somewhere? My hope is this topic is not overly controversial? Basically I am not trying to subtract anything from naughty dos rather compliment their endeavors.

Anyway here are the details I downloaded many years ago as it might be useful to others wishing to create a Mini-ME (1.44mb) version of a 32bit variant of DOS (A fun Project if you like!). Mikes original project is as follows:

 

By the by, if Mike is around he may be able to shed some light or even fill in the blanks if I fail to explain the construction details, here's the info anyway:
Mikes project was called XDOS & outlined below are transcripts taken from his previous website as-was-in its day, a snapshot:

 

XDos Files
Last updated July 14, 2002

I have succeeded in loading the 32-bit dpmi dos from Windows ME from a single floppy. I am calling this XDos (eXtended Dos). Not sure about the utility of something like this, but it appears that this boot floppy is not machine-specific. Wish I could distribute this floppy, but obviously Microsoft would not be pleased with an effort such as this :0). The neat part is that the files just barely fit onto a single floppy, vmm32.vxd alone taking up a whopping 1,012,656 bytes! (My thoughts - Other files could be added with disk spanning or larger image file cannot remember if 2.88Mbs had flaky problems in booting? food 4 Thought)

Unfortunately, ME real dos requires a patch in order to allow booting to C:\> rather than directly to Windows. This patch can be obtained at : "Is provided in the link below XDOS by MRisch.zip"

The following link provides a dpmi application to test your XDos installation : Testfloat.exe "Provided in the link below XDOS by MRisch.zip" (Not sure why this is needed for but is provided for historical reasons, if Mike is around he may be able to explain possibly, I'm guessing this has something to prove if you are in a 32bit environment???)

These details are in respect of the directory layout:

==========START===========

 1) Volume in drive A has no label
 Volume Serial Number is 2824-2E88

Directory of A:\
IO       SYS       116,736  12-05-00  2:15p IO.SYS
MSDOS    SYS           150  01-03-02  3:14p MSDOS.SYS
COMMAND  COM        93,040  12-05-00  2:15p COMMAND.COM
CONFIG   SYS            36  02-22-01  9:26p CONFIG.SYS
AUTOEXEC BAT           160  01-03-02  3:14p AUTOEXEC.BAT
ANSI     SYS         9,719  06-08-00  5:00p ANSI.SYS
IFSHLP   SYS         3,708  06-08-00  5:00p IFSHLP.SYS
SETT     BAT           117  01-03-02  3:24p SETT.BAT
XDOS           <DIR>        01-03-02  8:25p XDOS
DIRXDOS  TXT             0  01-03-02  8:37p dirxdos.txt
         9 file(s)        223,666 bytes

Directory of A:\XDOS
.              <DIR>        01-03-02  8:25p .
..             <DIR>        01-03-02  8:25p ..
IOS      LOG           910  01-03-02  8:36p IOS.LOG
WIN      COM        18,183  12-20-99  2:33a WIN.COM
SYSTEM   INI           227  12-28-01 10:31a SYSTEM.INI
INFO     EXE         7,830  09-30-94  4:35a INFO.EXE
VXD      386         5,226  10-02-94 12:43a VXD.386
WNBOOTNG STS             0  01-03-02  8:36p WNBOOTNG.STS
SYSTEM         <DIR>        01-03-02  8:25p SYSTEM
TEMP           <DIR>        01-03-02  8:26p TEMP
         6 file(s)         32,376 bytes

Directory of A:\XDOS\SYSTEM
.              <DIR>        01-03-02  8:25p .
..             <DIR>        01-03-02  8:25p ..
VMM32    VXD     1,012,656  08-20-00  4:58p VMM32.VXD
KBDUS    KBD           398  12-20-99  2:33a KBDUS.KBD
KRNL386  EXE        93,040  02-11-01  6:13p KRNL386.EXE
MMTASK   TSK         1,184  12-20-99  2:33a MMTASK.TSK
PROTMAN  DOS        22,810  12-20-99  2:33a PROTMAN.DOS
VGAFULL  3GR        14,624  12-20-99  2:33a VGAFULL.3GR
IOSUBSYS       <DIR>        01-03-02  8:26p IOSUBSYS
VMM32          <DIR>        01-03-02  8:26p VMM32
         6 file(s)      1,144,712 bytes

Directory of A:\XDOS\SYSTEM\IOSUBSYS
               <DIR>        01-03-02  8:26p .
..             <DIR>        01-03-02  8:26p ..
RMM      PDR        13,254  12-20-99  2:33a RMM.PDR
BIGMEM   DRV         9,960  12-20-99  2:33a BIGMEM.DRV
         2 file(s)         23,214 bytes

Directory of A:\XDOS\SYSTEM\VMM32
.              <DIR>        01-03-02  8:26p .
..             <DIR>        01-03-02  8:26p ..
         0 file(s)              0 bytes

Directory of A:\XDOS\TEMP
.              <DIR>        01-03-02  8:26p .
..             <DIR>        01-03-02  8:26p ..
         0 file(s)              0 bytes
Total files listed:
        23 file(s)      1,423,968 bytes
        15 dir(s)          23,040 bytes free

===============END================
2) Now here is the filelist:
===============START==============

:: Directory of A:\
IO.SYS
MSDOS.SYS
COMMAND.COM
CONFIG.SYS
AUTOEXEC.BAT
ANSI.SYS
IFSHLP.SYS
SETT.BAT

:: Directory of A:\XDOS
IOS.LOG
WIN.COM
SYSTEM.INI
INFO.EXE
VXD.386
WNBOOTNG.STS

:: Directory of A:\XDOS\SYSTEM
VMM32.VXD
KBDUS.KBD
KRNL386.EXE
MMTASK.TSK
PROTMAN.DOS
VGAFULL.3GR
:: Directory of A:\XDOS\SYSTEM\IOSUBSYS
RMM.PDR
BIGMEM.DRV

:: Directory of A:\XDOS\SYSTEM\VMM32

================END===============
3) Now here's your Boot Information details
===============START==============
:: ------ MSDOS.SYS
[Paths]
WinDir=a:\xdos
WinBootDir=a:\xdos
HostWinBootDrv=a

[Options]
BootMulti=0
Logo=0
BootGUI=0
AutoScan=0
WinVer=4.90.3000
BootWarn=0
DisableLog=1

 

:: ------- CONFIG.SYS
device=ansi.sys
device=ifshlp.sys

:: ------- AUTOEXEC.BAT
prompt=$e[1;33m$e$p$g
set comspec=a:\command.com
set path=a:\xdos;a:\
set winbootdir=a:\xdos
set windir=a:\xdos
pause

:: ------- SETT.BAT
:: This file needs to be run *after* successful boot
prompt=$e[1;33m$e$p$g
set comspec=a:\command.com
set path=a:\xdos;a:\
set winbootdir=a:\xdos
set windir=a:\xdos

:: -------SYSTEM.INI
:: I think the following is the minimum
[boot]

[keyboard]
keyboard.dll=
oemansi.bin=
subtype=
type=4

[386Enh]
ebios=*ebios
woafont=dosapp.fon
mouse=*vmouse, msmouse.vxd
device=*int13
keyboard=*vkd
display=*vdd,*vflatd
device=vxd.386
Paging=off
============END=============

The command sys.com will not work with ME Dos (MSDos8). To make a bootable disk, you will have to format with format a: /s under another dos version, then delete all these files, and finally copy the root ME files. Copy io.sys first, as it needs to be at the beginning of the disk. also here again you could possibly interchange command.com with 4dos.com but not sure whether this would breach the 1.44Mb boundary?

Less is More
Mike Risch

I think if some of the amended updated files from the Russian version of  ME-naughty-Dos e.g. IO.SYS or files from Jaclaz's diskcopy from XP  Posted Jan 1 2008 : "XPBTDSK.EXE ... a console application to extract the image from diskcopy.dll" http://jacevedo.phst...fo/getbtdsk.zipetc ("from naughty DOS website ") are interchanged with the folder/filelist above it could be a usable updated alternative (please feel free to post your thoughts reservations & considerations). Please find enclosed a zip file below some of the pre-built files as outined in the script info above to aid proceedings if you wish to undertake this little project. Maybe a script/batch file could be constructed to build such a varient?

One thing I have noticed that is different between the XDOS & the other types illustrated is that XDos does not seem to be bundled with a registry, the others have either a mini registry or full system.dat/user.dat & that would not fit on a floppy disk. However maybe I'm getting confused & we are talking about two different animals here?

Reference details for some useful utils taken from wink wink naughty ME-dos website:

  • IO8DCOMP.ZIP
  • http://jacevedo.phst...fo/getbtdsk.zip= getbtdsk.zip (aka Jaclaz Wonko etc)
  • cabextract 1.2 © 2000-2006 Stuart Caie a program that un-archives files in the Microsoft cabinet file format (.cab) or any binary file which contains an embedded cabinet file = cabex12b.zip
  • Dariusz Stanislawek   DS File Ops Kit dsfok.zip
  • Gilles Vollant Extract extrac21.zip

Maybe someone will want to run with this, I have enclosed some of the utils obtained from the naughty dos website to aid and assist in endeavors. When I get time I will post the old PC-Welt PCW9912 Bat File for historical closure as an edit to Dos7 32BitDos variant with applicable details of how to install.
One further thought if I was being correct in issuing credit for the Dos7 32Bit Dos it should go to an individual called Bernd Blaauw from the old CD-forum he posted the first info on 32Bit dos (That I know of) & PC-Welt developed it further into an installer PCW991232BD!.exe (Please correct me if I am wrong?)

 

& lastly - as always, get into the habit of scanning these attached files for virus's, it's just good practice!

 

NJoy & Best Regards,

I

 

Edit: Here is some good information or web links to further elaborate on WinME Dos 8

1) Entitled  - How did Windows ME "cripple" DOS?

 

https://retrocomputi...-me-cripple-dos

 

& MS-DOS 8.00 by Wendy on Rebootpro

http://reboot.pro/in...showtopic=14204
 

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