Microsoft KB Archive/86181

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Programs with Reserved Windows Filenames May Not Run

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Q86181

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The information in this article applies to:


 * Microsoft Windows versions 3.1, 3.11

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SUMMARY
In Microsoft Windows version 3.1, if a program's executable filename is a name that is reserved by Windows, the file will not run. There is no error message associated with this behavior.

In addition, if a program's executable file has a name that is already running in memory and the program running in memory can only occur once, the duplicate program will:


 * not execute
 * not return an error message
 * may execute the duplicate program

MORE INFORMATION
This occurs because when Windows gets the request to run a new program, it checks for another occurrence of this program in memory. It does this by looking at the first eight characters of the filename and then comparing the information to the programs in memory.

If Windows finds another version of this program in memory, it sends this new instance to the currently running program. It is then up to this program whether or not to execute a new instance. If the program is set up to make itself active, then it will become active. If the program is reserved by Windows or its operating system, such as KERNEL.EXE, then the new program will not execute.

Unusable executable filenames:

CGA40WOA.EXE

COMM.EXE

COMMDLG.EXE

GDI.EXE

DISPLAY.EXE

DOSAPP.EXE

FIXFONTS.EXE

FONTS.EXE

KERNEL.EXE

KEYBOARD.EXE

MMSYSTEM.EXE

MOUSE.EXE

PROGMAN.EXE

SHELL.EXE

USER.EXE There may be other executable filenames that cannot be duplicated, depending on the configuration and third-party applications.

KBCategory: kbother kbdisplay kbprb

KBSubcategory: win31

Additional query words: 3.10 3.11 file name

Keywords :

Issue type :

Technology : kbWin3xSearch kbWin310 kbWin311