optimised config.sys?

[anton muzic]

Hi all,
could anyone tell me if my config.sys can be improved? I have not mucked about with it but having a look at some templates on the web it seems it is a bit thin...

device=c:\windows\himem.sys
device=c:\windows\emm386.exe
device=c:\cdpro\himem.sys\vide-cdd.sys /d:mscd001

i run pent 2, win98 se, dial up networking,
have firewall and all necessary spyware/ adware loaded

cheers
anton ;)

[classicsoftware]

You might want to play with the files and buffers.

If the PC is networked, you play with the lastdrive parameter.

Is the PC running well?

Why would you like to change something if it's running ok.

[Zieman]

Just wondering...
...why do you have a DOS-driver for CD-ROM in your config? I thought win98 doesn't need those, that it might even cause problems...

[Dan Penny]

The only reason something should be in config.sys and autoexec.bat are for some DOS applications. Anything loaded in these two files before windows starts will just be taking up memory that windows could use.

As a test you could disable these two files via msconfig and run your system as normal. If there are no glitches (and there shouldn't be), leave them disabled or remove the entries.

[classicsoftware]

Dan is of course riught on the money...... As long as you do not have any legacy applications, DOS or Windows 3.1 16 bit apps, you don't need config.sys at all..... My thoughts were on how to tweak it if you did....

[Paleo Pete]

Yep, in fact you can completely delete everything in both files and leave them both blank and Win98 will still run fine. Usually the only things I've found that need to be there are mouse, CD ROM and sound card pointers for DOS based games and applications that need support for those items. I also frequently comment them out as a troubleshooting measure. Anything with rem or a semi-colon (;) in front of it is treated as a comment and the OS will ignore it.

EXAMPLES:

rem device=c:\windows\himem.sys
; device=c:\windows\himem.sys

Notice the space after the comment and before the command. That MUST be there. THe comment tags are used so notes can be put in as reminders of the reason certain entries wre included.

rem This is a CD ROM section

would be to let you know the following line(s) enable CD ROM support. The OS would ignore that line and read the next one it sees with no comment tag in front of it. But the space MUST be there or you get a "Bad command or filename" error message. Notepad should open and edit both autoexec.bat and config.sys files. If in doubt, copy and paste the entire file into a new Notepad file and save it as the same filename with your initials as the extension. If you have problems, simply rename that one to the original filename.