Microsoft KB Archive/96154

= FastTips for FoxPro for MS-DOS: Installation Q&A =

ID: Q96154

The information in this article applies to:


 * Microsoft FoxPro for MS-DOS, version 2.5

Microsoft(R) Technical Support Application Note (Text File) FP0913: INSTALLATION QUESTIONS & ANSWERS Revision Date: 9/93 No Disk Included The following information applies to Microsoft FoxPro version 2.5 for MS-DOS(R).

| INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THIS DOCUMENT AND ANY SOFTWARE THAT MAY    | 1. Q. Why does the FoxPro installation process sometimes stop before
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allowing the installation of optional components?

A. If you have terminate-and-stay-resident (TSR) programs running, you may want to remove them. Sometimes in low-memory conditions, the installation program is unable to determine whether to run the Standard (FOXPRO.EXE) or the Enhanced (FOXPROX.EXE) version to complete the installation. For more information on installing optional components not specified during installation, see Question 2 (&quot;How do I install      addtitional files that I did not specify during       installation?&quot;). 2. Q. How do I install additional files that I did not specify during

installation?

A. Restart FoxPro by typing FOX at the MS-DOS command prompt and pressing the ENTER key. Insert any one of the product disks in      the floppy disk drive and type the following command in       FoxPro's Command window:

do install

You will then be prompted to insert the disk or disks that contain the additional files that you want to install. If you attempt to install from a drive other than drive A, you will be      instructed to select another source drive after the &quot;Abort, Retry, Fail?&quot; message. 3. Q. Why does FoxPro reboot during the installation process?

A. You could have an anti-virus detection program running or an      old video driver installed. Try using a different video driver (for example, use VGA.DRV from Windows) and running with a      minimum CONFIG.SYS file and AUTOEXEC.BAT file. (For more      information on CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT files, see your       MS-DOS documentation.) 4. Q. How does SMARTDrive affect FoxPro's performance?

A. You may notice a substantial reduction in performance when SMARTDrive is loaded in the CONFIG.SYS file. In particular, the /DOUBLE_BUFFER switch can adversely affect performance. This performance degradation does not occur when SMARTDrive is      loaded in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file. However, some systems require SMARTDrive to be loaded in the CONFIG.SYS file for compatibility. For example, when a permanent swap file is used on a SCSI drive, SMARTDrive must be loaded in the CONFIG.SYS file in order to allow Microsoft Windows to load.

5. Q. What are the recommended BUFFERS= and FILES= settings for running FoxPro for MS-DOS?

A. For best performance with FoxPro when SMARTDrive is loaded, use BUFFERS=10 in the CONFIG.SYS file. Using more than 10 buffers takes away valuable memory that FoxPro could use for processing.

If you do not use a disk-caching program such as SMARTDrive, you should allocate enough MS-DOS buffers to hold all the directory entries in the subdirectory where you will be      working. BUFFERS=40 is usually sufficient as long as the number of files in a subdirectory remains below 250.

The value used in the FILES= statement should always be at      least 10 more than the greatest number of files that you will have open at one time. We recommend a minimum of 40. 6. Q. Does FoxPro 2.5 for MS-DOS operate with the MS-DOS Protected Mode

Interface (DPMI)?

A. Yes. FoxPro 2.5 works with DPMI-compliant memory managers, such as Microsoft Windows. If you use a DPMI memory manager, you can control the physical memory that FoxPro uses by specifying the MEMLIMIT option in your CONFIG.FP file. 7. Q. What factors influence FoxPro's startup speed?

A. The time required to load and start FoxPro relates to the physical size of FoxPro, the length of the PATH statement in      effect, the number of items that must be sought at startup, and other factors. Many of these items are under your control. For a complete discussion of these issues, refer to the &quot;Optimizing Your System&quot; section of the &quot;Installation and Configuration Guide.&quot; 8. Q. I receive the error message &quot;Too many files open.&quot; How can I

correct this problem?

A. This error message can be eliminated by using one or more of      the following methods:

- Increase the FILES= setting in the CONFIG.SYS file.

- If you are using a Novell network, increase the FILE HANDLES setting in the SHELL.CFG file.

- If you are using the MS-DOS Share program, increase the number of files and locks. For example:

share /F:4096 /L:500 9. Q. The Standard version of Microsoft FoxPro for MS-DOS runs

correctly, but when I load the Extended version, I receive the error message &quot;Incompatible memory manager.&quot; What causes this problem?

A. This error can occur if your memory manager is improperly configured. Verify that the memory manager is configured to      create expanded memory. For further information on the Extended version of FoxPro, please refer to the &quot;Optimizing Your System&quot; section of the &quot;Developer's Guide.&quot;

10. Q. I receive the error message &quot;Run command failed.&quot; How can I      correct this problem?

A. This error is caused by one of the following conditions:

Microsoft FoxPro for MS-DOS cannot find the COMMAND.COM file. If this is the case, use SHELL= with the /P parameter in your CONFIG.SYS file to specify the location of the COMMAND.COM file.

-or-

If the location of COMMAND.COM is explicitly given in the SHELL= statement, FoxPro does not have enough conventional memory to execute the SHELL command. If this is the case, use FoxSwap to execute the command. For example, use RUN /0 DIR instead of RUN DIR. (RUN /0 automatically makes all available      conventional memory accessible.)

11. Q. Why do I have several files with the extension .TMP on my hard disk?

A. Every time you run Microsoft FoxPro for MS-DOS, it creates temporary (.TMP) files. These files are automatically deleted when you quit FoxPro with a normal shutdown. However, the .TMP files will not be erased if you reboot the machine while FoxPro is running or if you don't have file-deletion rights in the directory where the files reside. To remove the .TMP files, exit FoxPro, acquire file-deletion rights for the directory where the .TMP files are, and then delete the .TMP files.

12. Q. When I try to start a second instance of FoxPro 2.5 for MS-DOS under Windows, I get the error &quot;Cannot access file at this time.&quot; This only happens when I am running multiple instances of the same copy of FoxPro on a stand-alone machine. What causes this problem?

A. This problem is caused by an incompatibility with the MS-DOS Share program. To work around this problem, do one of the following:

- Mark the FOXPRO.EXE file as read-only.

- Run FoxPro under Windows for Workgroups.

- Run a copy of FoxPro for MS-DOS from a network location.

13. Q. I'm running Microsoft FoxPro 2.5 for MS-DOS, under Windows. What memory allocation options are available with the PIF settings?

A. In the Memory Requirements section of the PIF Editor, KB      Required and KB Desired can both be set to -1. This tells Windows to give all available memory to an MS-DOS-based application. This doesn't mean that the MS-DOS-based application gets more than 600K of memory, but it gets as much conventional memory as you had available before starting Windows (minus some conventional memory that Windows itself      occupies).

Changing the EMS Memory and XMS Memory sections tells Windows whether or not to provide the MS-DOS-based application an      Expanded Memory Specification (EMS) or Extended Memory Specification (XMS). However, this does not allow an      application that doesn't support EMS or XMS to do so. Only applications that can use EMS or XMS will be able to access additional memory. It's important to note that once you tell Windows to create EMS or XMS for an application, it does so      whether the application can use it or not.

If Exclusive is selected in the Execution section, no other application, be it Windows or MS-DOS based, can run when the exclusive application is the current application.

The Advanced Options setting in the Multitasking Options section is very important when you want an MS-DOS-based application to run in the background. If an MS-DOS-based application is very I/O intensive (reads and writes to disk,      performs asynchronous communication, and so on), it is       necessary to increase the Background Priority option value. Unfortunately, there is no rule of thumb when it comes to the exact value that should be used. It's important to note that the larger the value for Background Priority, the slower other applications will run while the MS-DOS-based application with the higher priority is running in the background. For additional information, refer to the &quot;Learning More About PIF Settings&quot; entry in online Help.

Additional reference words: FoxDos 2.50 ivrfax fasttips novel KBCategory: kbprg kbfasttip kbappnote KBSubcategory:

Last Reviewed: December 12, 1996