Some Software Can Be Too Helpful
Sometimes you just have to say enough, already. So listen up software publishers, I’m unhappy with what some of you are doing to my computer.
Ironically, the problems arise because the software makers are trying to make my life easy. But some of them are being just too darned helpful.
The objects of my wrath are installation programs for IBM PC and compatible computers that automatically copy a program from floppy disks onto a hard disk, and so-called memory-resident programs.
Memory-resident programs go into hiding once you start them, allowing you to run other software. Then, at the tap of a special key or two, they interrupt the program you are using and pop into view, allowing you to do math calculations, take a note, dial a phone number or schedule a meeting.
Both kinds of programs sound really helpful, don’t they? They can be, but they also can be computer killers. Installation programs do make it easy to load software onto a hard disk, but some of them give you no choice of where on the hard disk to store the files, and worse yet, don’t even check whether they will interfere with what is already stored in your computer.
The trouble with memory-resident software is that too often there is no easy way to get rid of it when you no longer want to use it during a computing session. That may prevent you from running other programs because the memory required to do so is already in use. If you don’t understand what’s happening, you easily could conclude that something was wrong with your computer and waste a lot of time trying to figure it out.
The way to tell if memory-resident programs are robbing you of RAM power is to use the MS-DOS command CHKDSK before running the program and again after it has run. CHKDSK computes how much RAM you are using and how much is available for programs to use.
To use the CHKDSK command, you must have a DOS program called CHKDSK.COM on your disk. Keep in mind that DOS itself requires some RAM, which is why you’ll never have the full 640K free.
Investigate Memory-Resident Option
If you have a choice, don’t buy memory-resident software that cannot be killed out of memory with a keystroke. How can you tell? Make your dealer prove it to you on his computer or call the publisher or read the manual. Unfortunately, many such programs do not have a self-destruct command.
Installation programs are a little more complex. The concept is good. They let you automatically copy software onto your hard disk into a directory where it safely can be compartmentalized, away from your other programs and data.
A hard disk directory is like a folder in a file drawer--it keeps things separated and easier to find. It is very important not to let the number of files in any directory grow to more than about 115. If you have more files, DOS really bogs down trying to find them.
Directories have names, much as files do. It is possible that you already have a directory named the same as the one that the installation program of your new software wants to create.
Some installation routines will check before trying to create the directory. Others won’t, and run blithely along, dumping all the new files into your old directory. If some of the new files have the same name as the old ones, the old ones will be destroyed.
Even if there is no collision between directory or file names, you may not want to copy from floppy drive A to hard disk C as most installation programs force you to do. You might want to copy onto a second hard disk, D, or a segment of a hard disk bearing some other designation.
Here are a few things you can do to protect yourself. Look at a directory of the program installation diskette to determine what kind of program is involved. If the installation program ends in the file extension name BAT, you can probably figure out how to copy the files across one by one to the hard disk and directory of your choice.
But if instead of something called INSTALL.BAT, you find a program called INSTALL.EXE or INSTALL.COM, you’re out of luck. There is no practical way to decipher and modify the instructions in such programs.
If you have an INSTALL.BAT program to work with, however, here is what to do. Since it is simply a text file, print a copy of it by typing this DOS command on your computer screen: PRINT A:INSTALL.BAT. (We’ll assume the disk is in drive A. If not, substitute the proper drive name.)
Text Files May Look Foreign
If you haven’t already used the PRINT command during that computing session, the computer will ask you to confirm the name of the printer device. Just press the ENTER or RETURN key. (You have to have the DOS program PRINT.COM available to your computer to use the PRINT command.)
What you see is a text file in which each line is a DOS command. Some of them may look familiar to you and many will look very foreign. For help understanding what you see, consult the section on BATCH files in your DOS instruction manual. (The BAT in the file name indicates a BATCH file.)
If you have a word processing program that can edit a simple text file in “ASCII” mode (such as PC-Write or Xywrite or WordStar in the non-document mode), you could edit a copy of the INSTALL.BAT file to meet your needs. Be sure to give the copy a name that ends in BAT, such as 2INSTALL.BAT, and never try to edit the original installation file.
The critical commands to look for are MD followed by the name of a directory, CD and the directory name, and COPY followed by file names. You also must look for disk drive names such as A: and C:.
The command MD . . . makes a directory of the name following the back slash. The CD . . . command puts you into that directory. To change the name of a directory in the installation program, you would change the names after the MD and CD commands. The only changes you want to make in a COPY command line are to drive names or directory names.
As long as you work from copies of the original disks, you can’t do any real damage as you experiment with these procedures. Just make sure you don’t already have a directory of the same name you want to create by typing the command CD followed by the directory name before you start. If the computer doesn’t protest with an “invalid directory” message, the directory already exists and you need to choose a different name.
After you finish, if the program you installed doesn’t run, you simply can delete all the copied files from the hard disk directory and start over.
The better solution, however, would be for publishers to create installation programs that give users warnings before existing directories are invaded or existing files are destroyed, and that provide the flexibility to designate different drive and directory names for both the floppy disk and the hard disk.
