DaveDDS wrote on 2025-03-11, 02:01:

It's essentially a file transfer tool that can copy files over Serial, Parallel or Network. It has a 2-side(2 directories) displ […]
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DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-03-11, 01:50:

DaveDDS wrote on 2025-03-11, 01:45:

Have you got my DDLINK?

I don't believe so. What's that? A third-party manager of some sort?

It's essentially a file transfer tool that can copy files over Serial, Parallel or Network.
It has a 2-side(2 directories) display and quite a few actions it can perform
(Copy, Rename, Erase, View, set-Attrs etc. - on either end)
It's the primary method I used to move files to/from and between DOS systems.

There's a thread about it here: DDLINK: Easily move files between/To/From DOS systems

Dave

Ah. In that case, no, I've never tried it. Not sure how I'd be able to. My retro rig isn't set up to the internet. I'm not quite sure how I'd go about setting things up to use that tool. I don't believe my rig has ethernet...? I'd need to check. But with where my router is, it wouldn't be possible anyway. And I don't think I've ever done it before with serial (COM) or LPT (parallel).

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-03-11, 15:05:

... Not sure how I'd be able to. My retro rig isn't set up to the internet ... I don't believe my rig has ethernet...? I'd need to check.

Fair enough, but I was actually referencing using it in local mode (no connection to another system)
It still offers two side/directory display (on your local system) and lets you copy/view/manipulate them
"as if" one side were a remote system.

I often do this if I'm just copying a file to another directory and don't want to have to type in that other
directory to COPY. I also use if for lots of other local stuff - if I want to look at a source file somewhere else,
it's easier than going there and then back.

And yes, if you are actually moving files to another system, it works really well. The user interface it the
same - it's just that the right side shows a directory on the remote system.

DDLINK works in DosBox (LAN and Serial - not had good luck with parallel)
which makes it really good for moving stuff DOS<>Windows

And it doesn't require "internet", TCP/IP or any other type of network to be installed.
It uses low-level network packets, the only thing you need to access network is a "packet driver".
There are 100's of those available for almost every DOS era network card, and are a single small
TSR that you can load/unload as you wish.

DaveDDS wrote on 2025-03-11, 17:35:

Fair enough, but I was actually referencing using it in local mode (no connection to another system) It still offers two side/di […]
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DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-03-11, 15:05:

... Not sure how I'd be able to. My retro rig isn't set up to the internet ... I don't believe my rig has ethernet...? I'd need to check.

Fair enough, but I was actually referencing using it in local mode (no connection to another system)
It still offers two side/directory display (on your local system) and lets you copy/view/manipulate them
"as if" one side were a remote system.

I often do this if I'm just copying a file to another directory and don't want to have to type in that other
directory to COPY. I also use if for lots of other local stuff - if I want to look at a source file somewhere else,
it's easier than going there and then back.

And yes, if you are actually moving files to another system, it works really well. The user interface it the
same - it's just that the right side shows a directory on the remote system.

DDLINK works in DosBox (LAN and Serial - not had good luck with parallel)
which makes it really good for moving stuff DOS<>Windows

And it doesn't require "internet", TCP/IP or any other type of network to be installed.
It uses low-level network packets, the only thing you need to access network is a "packet driver".
There are 100's of those available for almost every DOS era network card, and are a single small
TSR that you can load/unload as you wish.

Hmm. Interesting. I have a modem card that came with the PC when I bought it, but no network card. So, I take it I would create a virtual network card within DOSBox, get a network card for the retro PC, and link up to it...?

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-03-11, 17:50:

Hmm. Interesting. I have a modem card that came with the PC when I bought it, but no network card. So, I take it I would create a virtual network card within DOSBox, get a network card for the retro PC, and link up to it...?

DosBox does support a virtual NE2000 network card.

You need something called WINPCAP which lets DosBox interface to the network via
low-level packets (which is what that network card does).

You use the NE2000 packet driver within DosBox and that lets DDLINK
talk to the virtual NE2000 NIC.

You would need a network card in the DOS PC and whatever packet driver is needed to support it.

Then it's simple. on either end start DDLINK as a server: DDLINK P= /s

and on the other end, as a client: DDLINK P=

The client will give two directory displays I mentioned earlier, but since you
started them with P= .. It uses network packets to talk to the server, and the
right side display will be the other system .. you can copy to/from it, manipulate
files etc. just as you can with another directory (on the same system) in local
mode.

DaveDDS wrote on 2025-03-11, 20:32:

DosBox does support a virtual NE2000 network card. […]
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DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-03-11, 17:50:

Hmm. Interesting. I have a modem card that came with the PC when I bought it, but no network card. So, I take it I would create a virtual network card within DOSBox, get a network card for the retro PC, and link up to it...?

DosBox does support a virtual NE2000 network card.

You need something called WINPCAP which lets DosBox interface to the network via
low-level packets (which is what that network card does).

You use the NE2000 packet driver within DosBox and that lets DDLINK
talk to the virtual NE2000 NIC.

You would need a network card in the DOS PC and whatever packet driver is needed to support it.

Then it's simple. on either end start DDLINK as a server: DDLINK P= /s

and on the other end, as a client: DDLINK P=

The client will give two directory displays I mentioned earlier, but since you
started them with P= .. It uses network packets to talk to the server, and the
right side display will be the other system .. you can copy to/from it, manipulate
files etc. just as you can with another directory (on the same system) in local
mode.

That sounds great. It's something I'll certainly have to look into. 😀 Thanks for the suggestion and info.

Thought I’d resurrect this as I’m still having problems with images/utilities failing to unload via a game’s batch file. I don’t think I ever figured it out and got them working right before.

Currently messing with a custom BAT file I’ve made for Theme Park, and I’ve added commands for it to unload the regular mouse driver, re-enable CuteMouse, unload Throttle, and unload the image from SHSUCD. It doesn’t appear to be unloading any of them. I can still feel the slowness from THROTTLE and the image is mounted to G:.

Found out. Reached out to Jason Hood. Turns out I need to CALL the game's BAT file. Otherwise the custom one ends and won't run the final commands. Calling it will wait until that task/program has finished and then it will carry on again. 😀

Okay, so following this person's setup for their autoexec and config files - How to create a boot (start up) menu under Windows 9x/ME - I've sort of got a custom boot menu set up on my rig. However, when I select either DOS mode, it just takes me straight to Windows instead. 😮 I think the commands and drivers are still being run, but I'm not actually taken to DOS.

This is how they're setup...

Config:

[menu]
menuitem=windows, Microsoft Windows 98 SE
menuitem=DOS1, MS-DOS 7.10 - Boot with Expanded Memory
menuitem=DOS2, MS-DOS 7.10 - Boot without Expanded Memory
menudefault=windows, 5

[common]
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS /TESTMEM:OFF
FILES=45
BUFFERS=30,0
DOS=HIGH
LASTDRIVE=G

[windows]
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\SETVER.EXE
DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOSDRV\CD-ROM\VIDECDD.SYS

[DOS1]
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE D=64 MIN=0
DOS=UMB
DEVICEHIGH=C:\WINDOWS\SETVER.EXE
DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOSDRV\CD-ROM\VIDECDD.SYS /D:MSCD001
SHELL=C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM /E:512 /P

[DOS2]
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\SETVER.EXE
DEVICE=C:\DOSDRV\CD-ROM\VIDECDD.SYS /D:MSCD001
SHELL=C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM /E:512 /P

And autoexec.bat:

@ECHO OFF
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H3 P330 T6

goto %config%

:windows
C:\WINDOWS\WIN.COM
goto end

:DOS1
SET CTSYN=C:\WINDOWS
REM SET CDBQ=C:\DOSPRO\CDBQ

LH C:\DOSDRV\MOUSE\CTMOUSE.EXE
LH C:\DOSPRO\SHSUCD\SHSUCDX /D:MSCD001 /D1
LH C:\DOSPRO\UNISOUND\UNISOUND.COM /V50 /VW50 /VL75 /VC50

REM C:\DOSPRO\CDBQ\CDBQ.EXE /P2 /DM /S1200
C:\DOSPRO\MPXPLAY\MPXPLAY.EXE -scs SBA -f0 C:\DOSPRO\MPXPLAY\INIT.WAV -xel
C:\DOSPRO\EK1M\EK1M.EXE -f C:\DOSPRO\EK1M\EK1M.INI
goto end

:DOS2
SET CTSYN=C:\WINDOWS

C:\DOSDRV\MOUSE\CTMOUSE.EXE
C:\DOSPRO\SHSUCD\SHSUCDX /D:MSCD001 /D1
C:\DOSPRO\UNISOUND\UNISOUND.COM /V50 /VW50 /VL75 /VC50

REM C:\DOSPRO\CDBQ\CDBQ.EXE /P2 /DM /S1200
C:\DOSPRO\MPXPLAY\MPXPLAY.EXE -scs SBA -f0 C:\DOSPRO\MPXPLAY\INIT.WAV -xel
C:\DOSPRO\EK1M\EK1M.EXE -f C:\DOSPRO\EK1M\EK1M.INI
goto end

:end

So I'm not sure what needs adding/removing.

DustyShinigami: Sorry I'm late to the party. 😀 By default, Win9x/ME automatically boots Windows after parsing your DOS config files. You can disable this by adding a setting to MSDOS.SYS. I don't remember off-hand how exactly to do this, so try Googling "msdos.sys settings." About the CALL command: CALL runs a new batch file from the current batch file and, when finished, returns control to the line in the current batch file after the CALL.

Harry Potter wrote on 2025-12-18, 00:48:

DustyShinigami: Sorry I'm late to the party. 😀 By default, Win9x/ME automatically boots Windows after parsing your DOS config files. You can disable this by adding a setting to MSDOS.SYS. I don't remember off-hand how exactly to do this, so try Googling "msdos.sys settings." About the CALL command: CALL runs a new batch file from the current batch file and, when finished, returns control to the line in the current batch file after the CALL.

Hey, no worries. ^^ Hmm. Is this what it typically does if you were to access DOS via the regular boot menu? The one that you can toggle via msconfig? I was wondering if that was the reason DOS wasn't loading with my boot menu - because I'd temporarily disabled that option. It loaded with my custom boot menu before when that was ticked. Though that was before I'd finished setting up my autoexec and config files.

I don't understand what you are saying, but if you press F8 at startup then select Command Prompt Only, Windows won't boot but will process your DOS configs.

Harry Potter wrote on 2025-12-18, 11:55:

I don't understand what you are saying, but if you press F8 at startup then select Command Prompt Only, Windows won't boot but will process your DOS configs.

Okay, let me try to re-phrase it a bit. If you go to Start > Run > type msconfig > and then Advanced, it gives you some options to tick. One of them is to enable the boot menu on start. I've usually accessed it this way. Then the menu will appear on boot where you can choose Windows, Safe Mode, the Command Prompt etc. As an experiment, because my custom boot menu gives me a boot menu anyway, I disabled the option. Didn't think I'd need it. When I had it enabled, and tested out the work-in-progress custom boot menu, selecting one of the DOS options from my menu worked. DOS/the command prompt loaded up. Since disabling the option and trying my custom boot menu, DOS now doesn't load. It loads all the drivers/utilities in the background, but it just loads up Windows instead. So I was just wondering if disabling the boot menu via msconfig was the reason? But it's something I'll try a bit later and see.

I have to admit that I don't know about msconfig, but you can disable Windows autoboot at startup via an option in MSDOS.SYS and execute WIN at the end of AUTOEXEC.BAT if and only if booting to Windows.

Yeah, looks like my guess was correct. I need to have the boot menu enabled first before my custom boot menu will work. I'll try playing around, and check out MSDOS.SYS, as there must be a way of skipping the default boot menu so it's just your own, without it loading straight to Windows.

The confusion continues. Now with the boot menu enabled, my custom boot menus are loading directly into Windows. 🙁

Try Googling "msdos.sys settings." It should show you the right option to set. I don't remember off-hand the name of the setting, sorry! You also need to make msdos.sys accessible, and the page should show you how.

Harry Potter wrote on 2025-12-18, 19:01:

Try Googling "msdos.sys settings." It should show you the right option to set. I don't remember off-hand the name of the setting, sorry! You also need to make msdos.sys accessible, and the page should show you how.

Oh awesome. Thank you! Yeah, these are a big help. 😁 I'm able to disable the default boot menu whilst enabling my custom one. 😀

Cool. You're welcome. 😀

Harry Potter wrote on 2025-12-18, 19:18:

Cool. You're welcome. 😀

Just trying to figure out now how to add Safe Mode and Step-by-Step Confirmation to my own boot menu. Would I need to call and set up something in MSDOS.SYS for that? Or can it be done in the config.sys?

I believe that needs to be done via msdos.sys, but you can also get your desired options by pressing F8 while Windows is starting up.