autoexec.bat & config.sys problems

The autoexec file was originally created for MS-DOS and Windows 3.x operating systems. Autoexec.bat was used in conjunction with the config.sys file as an easy way of loading the files that were required for various hardware devices and the operating system to run properly. In later revisions of MS-DOS and Windows 3.x these files were required in order for the operating system to load at all. In newer versions of Microsoft operating systems, these files are no longer required to load the operating system, however, a user may need to edit the information within these files from time to time.

Now, just to be safe, we recommend that before you edit the autoexec.bat or config.sys files that you create a copy of the original ones with a different name so that they can be recovered in the case that you make an error and things do not work properly after.

The most common way of editing the autoexec.bat and config.sys files is by using the MS-DOS command Edit. In order to edit these files you simply need to type “edit c:\autoexec.bat or config.sys” into a MS-DOS command prompt. However, on newer computer systems, the more common way to edit these files is to click on “Start” and then “Run”. Now you will want to type sysedit into the dialog box provided and click on the “OK” button. This will quickly display the System Configuration Editor within which the autoexec.bat, config.sys, win.ini and system.ini files are displayed for easy editing.

If you want to remove a line from one of these files, the most advised method is to use the remark command “REM” in front of the line you no longer want to execute. This will tell the computer to ignore this line when the operating system is loading, but also will allow you to easily remove your remark command to include the line again in the future if you do not get the result that you want or if you wish to use the line again at a later time. This will help you to easily restore that line of code without having to worry about where in the file it should be placed or the syntax that it should be written with.

With the increasing number of programs that are being loaded by an operating system when it first starts, getting additional memory is always as big advantage for any computer user. There is a way in the config.sys file that you can tell the operating system to load the files more efficiently into memory, which will help you have more memor for other programs and games on your system, especially in MS-DOS computers. In order to do this there are three lines that you will want to have at the beginning of your config.sys file:

DEVICE=C:\Windows\HIMEM.SYS
DOS=HIGH,UMB
DEVICE=C:\Windows\EMM386.EXE NOEMS

By using the DOS=HIGH, UMB command on the second line, you can potentially save memory because it is now loading DOS into upper memory before loading the memory manager. The first and third lines cannot be loaded into the upper memory areas however as they are the memory managers themselves. The best technique for saving memory is to load all of your devices in your config.sys file and autoexec.bat file into high memory.