Me2Dos Patcher By Bobby Gage ============================ This patching program was based off of a patch program I found on the Internet at: http://www.geocities.com/mfd4life_2000 I do not know who this person is but I would like to thank them for there creation of this utility. I am not taking any privilege of making the patch program "winmedos.com" that I use to modify the system files. I have only created a nice user interface that allows you to install and uninstall the patch made by "winmedos.com". Reliability =========== The sad thing is I wish I would not even have to say this because I have not lost any files myself and neither do I know of any one else that has. It's just that unless I say this it makes it a lot more possible for people to sue me and so on! So.... This software is provided "as-is" without any express or implied warranty. In no event shall the author, distributor, or any other person or company be held liable for any damages arising from the use of this software. Why use this program? ===================== The only need for this program is if it is required to place commands or 3rd party drivers in the config.sys and/or autoexec.bat files on system start. Such as old parallel port devices and such. Also for DOS programs such as INTERLNK and RAMDRV. Both should work in the config.sys with no problem after this installing this program! Usage ===== I place NO constraints on the usage of this program! It may be used for commercial or personal use. BUT if it is included with a software package that is distributed to your clients or customers that calls Me2Dos then I ask that the "Me2Dos" program be mentioned in your product's documentation file somewhere. Just like I have included the person that made "winmedos.com" program in my readme.txt file. Installing ========== To install the patch file first download Me2Dos.exe off of my web page (http://bobby.mydis.org/download). Second: I would recommend that you backup your entire system. The first time I messed around with this program my self, next thing I know windows restarted and my registry was lost. It automatically restored the last one. But the bad news was the last registry backup was 6 months ago. I have made the install utility execute a command "scanreg /backup" which from my understanding will backup the registry Third: Create a "Windows Emergency Boot Disk" by doing the following make sure you have a blank floppy disk ready. Click on Start -> Settings -> Control panel in the control panel select "Add/Remove programs" then select the Boot Disk tab. It's on the top far right. Place the empty disk into the drive and click "Create Disk". Make sure you remove the disk after it's finished!!!!!!! Forth: After you have completed the above backup. Then run the installer. After it is finished installing, it will ask you to restart the computer. During the restart you will see a message "Starting Windows Emergency Boot...", this is because the new system files are actually modified off of the Emergency Boot disk for windows. Just ignore this message. You will also now see your Config.sys and autoexec.bat files pass by. You will no longer see the Windows ME splash screen as the system starts up. This is normal! Automated Install ================= If you would like to install Me2Dos from another installer or a batch file then you can start the installer with a command line option of "/silent" or "/verysilent". The "/silent" option will install without asking the user for any questions. The "/verysilent" option will install without any install screen! Keep in mind that the Automated install does not backup the system registry. Neither will it display the license agreement! If one of the options above are used. And the end user is installing on a version of windows other then WinMe. Then the user will get an error message telling them that they do not have the correct version. Your installer should check and make sure they have WinMe before executing. If you are calling from a batch file you can use my program OSType. You can get this program from my web page that is given below. You can also use the "/noicons" command line option if you would like so no icons are installed in the start menu. If you would like to uninstall Me2Dos from your uninstaller or batch file then you can call the uninstaller with the "/silent" option. c:\me2dos\unins000.exe /silent Remove Me2Dos ============= There are three ways to remove Me2Dos. 1. Remove just like any other application. Click on Start -> Programs -> Me2Dos -> Uninstall Me2Dos. This will then restore your system files back as they where at first. 2. If you don't see an uninstall icon in your start menu then look in your control panel under "Add/Remove Programs". If it's no there then you will need to go to Start -> Run. Type in "c:\me2dos" and press "OK". You should see an icon that looks like a trash can. Double click it. 3. If you can't boot your computer any more then you will need to boot off of the "Emergency boot disk" You will need to select "Start computer without CD-ROM support." option from the Startup Menu. Then you will need to type in the following commands. (when you see "[enter]" this means press the enter key) C: [enter] cd \me2dos [enter] restore [enter] Remove the disk and restart the system. If you still have trouble then read the next section. Removing does not work ======================= If you attempted to remove Me2Dos using the option above then I and it still does not boot or it did not correct the problem then I would recommend booting from the "Windows Emergency boot disk". Once you have booted off of the disk you will get a Startup Menu. From this menu select "Start computer without CD-Rom Support." Then enter the following command: (when you see "[enter]" this means press the enter key) a: [enter] sys c: [enter] copy command.com c:\windows Press Y if you are asked to over right a file or not. C: [enter] cd \me2dos\backup [enter] copy regenv32.exe c:\windows\system [enter] Press Y if you are asked to over right a file or not. Ignore a message about a missing file if you get one. Remove the disk and restart the computer. Memory Management Support ======================== After doing some research and after several EMails with users. I found out that it looks like the system files provided in the Emergency Boot disk (the same ones used for this program) do not support any type of Memory manager! You will not be able to load EMM386 or HIMEM correctly! If anyone can find a way of doing this it would be grate to find out how! Where is the BOOT menu? ======================= If you press the F8 button during a system boot you will get a different menu. It will only have two options in the menu. But if you look at the bottom of the screen you will see other options such as a DOS prompt! When I installed the program I get an error message like this: "Incorrect MS-DOS Version" ============================================================== I have yet to verify why anyone is getting this message. But if you do get this message please make sure you have a BOOT disk ready because you will probably have to use it! I am working very hard to find out where this problem is coming from! But have yet to pin it down. A couple have stated to me that they have used the suggestions on the following web page at one time in the past and I'm wondering if some system files got screwed up and my program does not like it. If you have modified your system like described on the following web page then I would recommend removing ALL modifications and then try my program. If you get this error let me know with the EMail address below! http://www.sgmvp.freewebsites.com/WinME_DOS/Win-ME.htm History ======= v1.03 - Corrected a problem on some systems you are unable to uninstall using the restore.bat file when booting from a boot disk. v1.02 - Added "@echo off" to the start of the autoexec.bat file. This will help to remove a lot of the messages at Windows start. - Increased the amount of available environment space which will fix the "Out of environment space" error messages. v1.01 - Added /silent and /verysilent options. v1.00 - First released version. - Added readme.txt documentation. v0.10 Beta - Beta test was the very first running program. Was given out to beta testers for testing. Give Thanks =========== I would like to give thanks to the following people for assisting with the testing and updateing of this program. Earl Dixon Jeremiah Thompson Copyright ========= The following batch files and programs are: Copyright 2001 by Robert F. Gage II all rights reserved. APPLY.BAT RESTORE.BAT REPLACE.EXE README.TXT (this file) Contact Me =========== If you would like to contact me please use the following info: Bobby Gage bgage@frederickmd.com http://bobby.mydis.org