Microsoft KB Archive/87165

= Command-Line Switches for MSCDEX.EXE =

Article ID: 87165

Article Last Modified on 1/18/2007

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft MS-DOS 6.22 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Windows 3.0 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Windows 3.1 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Windows 3.11 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Windows for Workgroups 3.2
 * Microsoft Windows 95
 * Microsoft Windows 98 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition

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This article was previously published under Q87165



SUMMARY
This article describes the command-line switches for Microsoft's CD-ROM Extension, Mscdex.exe, versions 2.21, 2.22, and 2.95.

Mscdex.exe is available from CD-ROM vendors, with the MS-DOS 6 Upgrade, 6.2 Upgrade, and 6.21 Upgrade, and with Windows 95/98.



MORE INFORMATION
Mscdex.exe is a CD-ROM &quot;redirector.&quot; It hooks into the MS-DOS or Windows operating system the same way the network redirector does to obtain access to files that are not on local hard or floppy disks. As far as MS-DOS or Windows is concerned, CD-ROM drives look just like network drives. MSCDEX splices itself in front of the network redirector and takes requests belonging to CD-ROM drives and passes the rest to redirectors (such as network redirectors).

Command Line Switches
The following is the command line for MSCDEX.EXE:

MSCDEX.EXE: /D:x /M:n /E /V /L:x /S /K

The following table defines the MSCDEX.EXE command-line switches:

Switch                 Definition

/D:       - Allows you to specify a name for the device driver. This name must be identical to the device name used in the CONFIG.SYS file.

/M:                 - Specifies the number of sector buffers used to cache the path table of a CD-ROM disk. Typically, each drive should have a minimum of four to five buffers. The larger this number is, the less your computer will have to read directly from the CD-ROM drive.

/E                     - Tells MSCDEX.EXE to use expanded memory if                          your system is using expanded memory.

/V                     - Displays information on memory usage when you boot your PC.

/L:      - Allows you to specify the letter you want to assign to the first CD-ROM drive.

/S                     - Allows the CD-ROM to be shared on MS-NET based systems.

/K                     - Tells MSCDEX.EXE to use any KANJI (Japanese) file structures, if present, rather than the default of alphanumeric file structures.

Additional query words: 5.00 5.00a 6.00 6.20 6.21 6.22 3.00 3.00a 3.10 3.11 share cd rom device parameters delimiters dos win95x msdos

Keywords: kbinfo tp_cs KB87165

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