Microsoft KB Archive/66065

Word 5.50 Freeing Up Memory When Shelling Out

PSS ID Number: Q66065 Article last modified on 11-02-1994

5.50 6.00

MS-DOS

= SUMMARY =

When selecting MS-DOS commands from the File menu in Microsoft Word version 5.5 or 6.0, include the extension of the program to run from the operating system shell (for example, COMMAND.COM instead of COMMAND) in order to free up memory. If the file extension (.COM, .EXE) is included, Word will throw away its page buffers and close any open files, making more memory and file handles available to programs executed from the operating system shell.

Because Word will close any open files if the file extension is included, users must be careful not to modify any files that will be reopened by Word when the operating system shell is exited and control is returned to Word. If a file is modified, Word may be unable to continue or the file may become corrupted.

= MORE INFORMATION =

Page buffers are 512-byte blocks of memory that contain document text. The number of page buffers created by Word is determined by the amount of memory available. If no expanded memory is available, the size of the page buffers cannot exceed 64K. When Word throws away its page buffers to execute an operating system shell, approximately 50K of memory will be freed.

File handles are 16-bit numbers that the operating system uses to identify open files and/or to identify other input/output sources for a program. The default internal data structure for DOS only allows for eight file handles. The number of file handles can be increased with the use of the FILES command in the CONFIG.SYS file (for example, Files=20).

KBCategory: kbother KBSubcategory: Additional reference words: 5.50 6.00 insufficient memory ============================================================================= Copyright Microsoft Corporation 1994.