Something worth mentioning here, CTMOUSE may only work with a USB mouse that supports the PS/2 protocol (ie one that can use those green adapters) on certain motherboards. I believe USB legacy mode in BIOS is supposed to cover this, but at least in my case (MSI K8MM-V), it did not. Cutemouse (even the newest version 2.1 beta 4) refused to work with my wired 'Classic IntelliMouse' (2017 model). I tried out an older Sony USB optical mouse I had laying around via PS/2 adapter, and sure enough it worked perfectly in DOS.

But still, fantastic guide Phil. I've been subbed to you for a while now on YouTube and your work is fantastic and provides an amazing resource for retro gaming on PC.

Excellent stuff. Will I be able to install my ESS Audodrive ISA soundcard for use in DOS mode or would I require more steps?

ras2a wrote on 2020-06-25, 18:20:

Excellent stuff. Will I be able to install my ESS Audodrive ISA soundcard for use in DOS mode or would I require more steps?

I find ESS drivers even easier to install than the Creative drives. ESS cards also tend to have great compatibility with DOS games! Find the DOS drivers here http://vogonsdrivers.com/index.php?catid=17, move them to your retro PC and run the install in DOS and you are set to go!

Sjollico wrote on 2020-06-26, 17:40:

ras2a wrote on 2020-06-25, 18:20:

Excellent stuff. Will I be able to install my ESS Audodrive ISA soundcard for use in DOS mode or would I require more steps?

I find ESS drivers even easier to install than the Creative drives. ESS cards also tend to have great compatibility with DOS games! Find the DOS drivers here http://vogonsdrivers.com/index.php?catid=17, move them to your retro PC and run the install in DOS and you are set to go!

FANTASTIC! Thank you so much 😃

Hi,

I'm not sure to understand why, but I'm getting error messages when restarting ( and selecting choice 1 or 2, not tested others. )
ERROR: Unable to control A20 line !
XMS Driver not installed

and

Warning: the high memory area (HMA) is not available.
Additional low memory ( below 640k) will be used instead.

I also tested the file you provided on your other DOS Guide ( the pif itself ). I'm not getting an error message but I'm getting 494K of conv memory.

Seems I'm missing something.

Edit : Found the root cause, M=2 Argument saved me 😀

CrimsonMachete wrote on 2020-03-19, 03:39:

So, have run into a weird problem. […]
Show full quote

So, have run into a weird problem.

Followed the very useful guide above last night, had my AWE64 working perfectly in MS-DOS mode on my P2 system, but after returning to Windows and back to DOS all my settings reverted and my autoexec and config were made into .bak files, long story short but when trying to fix that I borked my install with a reboot loop and decided to start from scratch.

This time round when trying to use SETVER command on the DOS installation files have been running into trouble; first it says DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\SETVER.EXE in the CONFIG.SYS from the Exit to Dos.pif is missing, when it isn't. Using Phil's standalone restart_in_msdos.pif the SETVER command now works, however when running the Install.exe from sbbasic I for some reason DON'T get the script error code (which I got yesterday), and the install won't progress past the next screen.

Sorry about the wall of text, but any ideas what might be going wrong here? I'm not understanding why the SETVER command isn't working with the Exit to Dos.pif when it clearly (I think) should be. Getting frustrated here, probably going to have to start from scratch again.

I had this same issue. Replace the device=c:\windows\setver.exe with devicehigh=c:\windows\setver.exe and it should work now (or at least it did for me)

Hi im a little late to the party but wanted to say a big thankyou to Phil for making this menu and to anyone having issues with sound i would suggest using unisound a universal
pnp driver that works for a lot of different sound cards. only if i could could get it to work once selecting a menu item on your menu would be awesome otherwise i have to type unisound at the dos prompt not a big issue.

also unisound is not my work please support the original developer

This is an AMAZING guide!!! Can't start to thank you for all the proper information enlisted here.

I have a couple of questions 'though;

I'm running Windows 95 on a Cyrix 486DX - 80Mhz (32MB ram) using a CREATIVE CD-RW optical drive and a SoundBlaster Pro audio card (PnP).
So far, I've tried everything up to STEP 4 and everything went great.

Here is where it starts to become a bit confusing;

1- Prior to having installed Windows 95, I had MS-DOS 6.22 installed
2 - Back in DOS I had installed and configured drivers for SoundBlaster Card and used to play games without problems
3 - I moved into Windows 95 because I was never able to make CD ROM drive work from MS DOS
4 - Now in Windows 95 it works perfect along with SoundBlaster
5 - Now after following this guide up to STEP 4, CD-ROM drive will also work great restarting into MS DOS mode
6 - I haven't passed beyond STEP 4 (that is, installing MS DOS drivers for SoundBlaster) since when I restart the PC in MS DOS mode, games will do have soundblaster working along with CD-ROM and MOUSE.

The odd thing is that when I restart the computer in MS DOS, I DO have Soundblaster audio for my games but I will always have to perform the "auto detect" and save setup for some of the games since I get the message "SETBLASTER is not loaded".

QUESTION: Since I had previously installed MS DOS Soundblaster drivers, do I need to RE INSTALL them as listed in this guide from STEP 4 and beyond? Or just by adding the "SETBLASTER" command lines in the new CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT I should be good to go?

Sorry for all the messy explanation! I really appreciate some help!!! I'm struggling to have my dream PC working as I envisioned (MS DOS + WIN95).

Best guide to help us configuring MS-DOS properly, thats life saving post 😁
Thank you so much !!!

I recently reformated my pc to Windows 95OSR2 and now I'm having issue with looping restart when I typed "exit" to go back to windows 95, the config.sys selection still appearing and at the end it will ask

"You are currently in ms-dos mode ...................... do you want to return to normal mode, to run windows application again [Enter=y,Esc=n]

if I press Enter, it will restart
if I press ESC, it will go to command prompt

How do I safely go back to windows ?

Edited:

I figure it out, it's the "DOS=SINGLE" in my restart.pif