First post, by Exploit
Samir.Habib wrote on 2018-12-17, 19:32:wrote:The best solution you're going to get is to either have to put the time in to re-learn or learn DOS basics or just install win9x. There are too many reasons why windows 3.11 won't just exit and run any old DOS game....
To be honest, I've already figured out DOS, and typing all commands i need. ...
Instead of using a GUI menu system for launching DOS programs you can also use the power of batch files and a special bin folder for all your batch files.
Let's assume you have Wing Commander 2 installed in the directory C:\GAMES\WC2\ and you want have a lazy way with less typing to run it, then you can do the following:
1. Create a folder called C:\BIN
C:CD \MKDIR C:\BIN
2. Add that C:\BIN folder to your PATH variable in AUTOEXEC.BAT. In your AUTOEXEC.BAT the PATH variable typically looks like this:
PATH C:\DOS;C:\WINDOWS
just add a semicolon followed by your new C:\BIN folder:
PATH C:\DOS;C:\WINDOWS;C:\BIN
3. Now create a batch file for Wing Commander 2 in your new C:\BIN folder with the following content:
@ECHO OFFC:cd C:\GAMES\WC2WC2.EXE
If WC2.EXE is not the command, then then take a look and change the name. After that, save the batch file as let's say WC2.BAT in your C:\BIN folder.
A more sophisticated batch file would check for the presence of the game's folder and the game's executable. You can add this if necessary.
4. Since executables in the local directory always have priority over the executables that can be accessed via the folders that are in the PATH variable, we need another command to be able to return to the C:\BIN folder easily.
Thus create a new batch file, let's call it simply and short GO.BAT with the following content:
@ECHO OFFC:cd C:\BIN
5. Now your C:\BIN folder should look like this:
GO.BATWC2.BAT
5. Another usefuel BATCH file is a batch command that lists all your files in your C:\BIN folder from any location. So create another file and call it GODIR.BAT
@ECHO OFFDIR C:\BIN
If you are now in any folder on your system and then type GO.BAT, you will always jump back to your C:\BIN folder.
If you need from any location a listing of the contents of your C:\bin folder just enter GODIR.BAT.
And if you want to run WC2.BAT from C:\ or somewhere else, just enter WC2.BAT. This will run your BATCH file in your C:\BIN folder, as long as there is no other file called WC2.BAT in the local directory. The batch file will then switch to your Wing Commander 2 folder and run the executable there.
The C:\BIN folder can be extended with more BATCH files for more games as you wish.
Typing is thus reduced to a minimum and you don't need GUI menu programs that only take time to start and, in the worst case, require memory space in the RAM.
