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Missing help file?

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First post, by pilgrim

Posted on 2006-02-03, 20:15

pilgrim Offline

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Rank: Newbie
Posts: 11
Joined: 2006-02-03, 19:56
Location: Edinburgh

Hello everyone!

I installed VDMS 2.10 recently (30 minutes ago actually), and it seems as if one of the help files is missing. Whenever I right-click and use the "What's this?" option in the Launchpad, I get a Windows error saying in essence "Cannot find the LaunchPad.Hlp help file". I checked the VDMSound directory (and the rest of my drive in fact) and sure enough the file isn't there, even though I did tick the "Help files" option during install (VDMconfig.hlp is in the folder). Any way I can get the help file in there? It's not exactly essential, since I'm managing with trial and error, but it would make it easier.

Speaking of the installer, I never got a message asking me to reboot, oddly enough. I did anyway (it pays to browse the forums before installing the software!)

That little issue aside, I've got to admit I am VERY impressed with VDMS. I've put off getting it for a while because I was happy with DOSBox, but I've got to admit DOSBox can be a little annoying because it's such a CPU hog. I never thought VDMS could actually handle memory tweaks - and sure enough it took me less than 5 minutes to get that configured and running. I think I quite like VDMS now!

Reply 1 of 2, by DosFreak

Posted on 2006-02-04, 02:13

DosFreak Offline

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Joined: 2002-06-30, 16:35
Location: Milliways

IIRC, VDMSound doesn't have a help file. I think it does have a minimal one but it's not of much use. We never got around to creating a comprehensive help file. Unfortunately this is pretty common for alot of free software projects. 😉

The reason we never got around to it is mostly that it's a PITA and secondly DosBox has pretty much taken over almost all VDMSound tasks so there really isn't much reason any more for VDMSound documentation unless someone is really really bored.

As for rebooting....VDMSound only applies to NTVDM. It doesn't require a reboot since it doesn't install any system drivers. The only time VDMSound is executed is when you run a 16bit program.

I think the only instance where you *might* need a reboot is if you already had VDMSound installed and the launchpad.dll is currently in use. That would require a restart of explorer but not a reboot which is kind of complicated to explain to a normal user.

As for DosBox being a CPU hog make sure you grab a CVS build from my signature. I've been using it mainly for the past 2-3 years without problems and it runs the latest resource intensive games just fine on my XP 2800+. (Except for BUILD\Quake games of course).

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Reply 2 of 2, by pilgrim

Posted on 2006-02-04, 11:14

pilgrim Offline

Rank Newbie

Rank: Newbie
Posts: 11
Joined: 2006-02-03, 19:56
Location: Edinburgh

Thanks for the information. Too bad about the VDMS help, but since I was still using DOS up to 1998 I think I can manage without it 😉
At least you can change memory options by ticking boxes rather than endless tinkering with config.sys and emm386 parameters. Ah the good old days!

I've grabbed one of the DOSBox CVSs, I'm going to experiment with it over the weekend. It does seem to add quite a lot of interesting functions to the program.

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