                      README for DOS 5.00 Beta Test




This text discusses differences between the DOS DOCs and the beta software.
In addition, it addresses features which are not yet mentioned in the docs,
as well as known problems with the beta software.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN BETA DOCS AND DOS 5.0 Beta SW
================================================

The main area of difference is in the shell.  The structure of the shell
menus have been completely changed.

Fortunately, online help is available in the shell to describe what
each menu function does.  To access the help, open the menu (using
ALT or F10), move the cursor to the menu item, and press F1.

Out of Memory when using Help:
       If you encounter "Out of Memory" messages when trying to access
       help, try running the shell in character mode (Run "Change Colors"
       from the program manager, and tab to "NEXT" on the screen mode
       and press the enter key; You can tell when you're in character mode
       because the icon next to the program items will turn into to dashes
       "--".  For example, the program item for Change Colors will become:
       "-- Change Colors").

To use the Help Index:
       Press Alt-H I to bring up the Help Index dialog.  At this point,
       you MUST press UP before you can access the index (the cursor
       which appears is misleading).  After pressing up, you can move
       the selection down to the topic you desire and press enter.

       If you press enter before pressing UP (or using tab to move to
       the topic list), the dialog will close without displaying any
       help.


NON-SHELL FEATURES NOT DOCUMENTED IN THE BETA DOCS
==================================================

UNPACK
    The files on the installation diskettes with file extensions which
    end with a $ are in a compressed format.  To retrieve a single file
    from the installation diskettes, use the Unpack command.

    Usage:  unpack d inFile outFile

    Where,
        d      - The letter "d", a required parameter for unpack.

        InFile - is the pathname of the file on the installation diskette,
                 such as, a:\redir.ex$.

        OutFile- The name of the file to received the unpacked copy of
                 InFile.  For example, c:\dos\redir.exe


EDIT
    EDIT is not mentioned in the reference manual (it is described in
    detail in the User's manual).  EDIT invokes the Full Screen Editor.

QBASIC
    The Quick Basic Interpreter is included in DOS 5.0.  To start the
    interpreter, enter:

            QBASIC

    The interpreter includes fully intergrated online help (accessed
    via the F1 key).  Try opening (Alt-F-O) one of the BASIC programs
    in the DOS directory.  Then run the program (Alt-R-S).


PIPES USE OF TEMP ENVIRONMENT VARIABLE
    Dos 5.0 checks for the existence of the "TEMP" environment variable
    when createing temporary files for piping operations.  If such a
    variable exists, temporary files are created in the directory
    described in the variable.  Otherwise, temporary files are created
    in the current working directory.  For example, the following
    command will cause all temporary variables to be created in the
    directory c:\tempdir:

            SET TEMP=C:\TEMPDIR


KNOWN PROBLEMS
==============

INCORRECT DOS VERSION
    Some applications check for version =n, where n is 3 or 4.  Such
    applications refuse to run when version is 5.  To handle this, a new
    command, SETVER has been added to DOS.  This command is documented in the
    DOS reference manual.

    Be careful when using this command.  The application you are trying
    to run may not have been verified on DOS 5.0.

Upgrade Installation on Hard disk Systems with NO CONFIG.SYS and/or
No AUTOEXEC.BAT
    There are a couple of glitches in the way the upgrade install creates the
    autoexec.bat and config.sys on hard disk systems which do not already
    have the files.  For users who have hard disk systems with no AUTOEXEC.
    BAT and/or no CONFIG.SYS, there is a simple work around. Simply create an
    empty file called AUTOEXEC.BAT and/or CONFIG.SYS so that both files
    exist.  The UPGRADE installation will work fine if these files are present.

DOS 5.0 and WORDSTAR
    Due to a known problem, some older versions of WORDSTAR don't work
    correctly with this pre-release version DOS 5.0. We know what the problem
    is, but the fix was not incorporated in time for this beta release.
    WORDSTAR 2000 seems to work fine with DOS 5.0.

Toshiba 5200 running Toshiba DOS 3.2
    The DOS installation fails to install correctly on some of these
    configurations.  The install does sucessfully recover the Toshiba
    system after it fails to install.


DOS 5.0 and DOS 4.0 PCLP redirectors
    DOS 5.0 will not work with DOS 4.0 PCLP redirectors.  If you have a
    PCLP redirector, you can get your network to boot by doing the
    following:

    1)  Copy your old redir.exe to a file, such as redir.sav.

    2)  Copy the file redir.exe from the dos installation diskettes to
        replace your existing file REDIR.EXE.  This new REDIR.EXE is a
        MS-NET 4.0 redirector.

    3)  Reboot your computer


DOS 5.0 and 3.3 MS-NET based redirectors
    Same as for DOS 5.0 and DOS 4.0 PCLP Redirectors (see above)

DOS, SHARE, and DBASE IV Installation
    Due to a problem with the DBASE IV installation program, DBASE IV
    will not install when SHARE is loaded.  To install DBASE IV,
    boot dos without installing share and then run the installation program.
    You can then install share and everything should work fine.

    This problem also appears with DOS 3.3 and DOS 4.0

DOS 5.0, SHARE, EXCEL 2.1 Installation
    Due to a problem with the EXCEL installation program, EXCEL
    will not install when SHARE is loaded.  To install EXCEL, boot dos
    without installing share and then run the installation program. You can
    then install share and everything should work fine.

    This problem also appears with DOS 3.3 and DOS 4.0

DOS 5.0 and Deskmate
    On sufficiently large disks, it Deskmate erroneously concludes that there
    is not enough space on the disk to write out files.

    This problem also occurs on DOS 4.0.


DOS 5.0 and QEMM versions prior to QEMM 5.0
    When running DOS in the HMA, and using the /INT15 switch on HIMEM,
    QEMM will cause the system to hang.  To fix the problem:

        if himem has /INT15=xxxx option & DOS=high is specified in config.sys,

        add a command line option 'MEMORY=yyyy' for the device=qemm.sys line
        in config.sys

        where yyyy = xxxx - 64


        (64 is the size of the HMA, in K).


The Help key in Help Dialogs
    When you select help on an item, by pressing F1, the dialog box has
    buttons, including a button labled "Help".  This button does not
    currently work correctly.  Pressing it will cause the machine to
    freeze for a few seconds.  If you wait, the cursor will reappear
    and you can select other keys.
