Due to the popularity and in-depth application of computers, in order to meet people's needs, the functions of computers have become more and more powerful with its development, and more and more hardware devices, such as from the original ISA and PCI sound cards, modems, etc. to the current USB hard drives, mice, etc., and there are many brands. So, how should we use and set up these devices under DOS?
In fact, there are many hardware devices that do not need to install any drivers under DOS. They can be used as long as the hardware or BIOS is set up, such as keyboards, ordinary hard disks, and printers that support PCL (printer control language), etc. Using PCL-enabled printers under DOS is very easy because the printer is connected to a parallel port (LPT), so usually LPT1 or PRN is the printer port. For example, the COPY C:\LPT1 command (of course, you can also use the PRINT C:\ command directly) can print the contents in the C:\ file with a printer. Everyone, isn’t it very convenient? Of course, to print better results in some DOS applications (such as various fonts, images, etc.), a special printer driver is also required, and you can select the appropriate printer in the "Printer Settings" in these applications.
Similar to printers is a modem. Modems are essential devices for computers to dial up and surf the Internet, and are divided into two categories: built-in and external. External modems are usually connected to the computer's serial port (communication port COM), such as COM2. Traditional built-in modems can also automatically virtual serial ports, so they are not much different from external modems. There are a large number of modem-related communication programs under DOS. If the modem is connected to COM3, you can just use COM3 when using these programs. If you want to test the modem with simple commands under DOS, you can use ECHO ATDT12345>COM3 (assuming the modem is connected to COM3), and it will dial (12345), which is also very convenient to use. However, with the development of hardware, many non-traditional new modems have emerged. These new modems do not have hardware controllers and need to be virtualized by software, so they are called software modems, or WinModem. It turns out that most modems of ISA interface are traditional hardware modems, while many of the modems of PCI interface are software modems. Compared with hardware modems, software modems have lower costs because they do not have hardware controllers, but their performance is naturally worse and drivers are required to run. Therefore, the corresponding driver must be loaded in DOS before it can be used. However, since these modems are mainly designed for Win9x, most of them do not have DOS drivers, so they cannot be used in pure DOS. However, many modems can be used in Win9x's DOS window through virtualization.
Let’s talk about the mouse and optical drive that everyone often uses. Since mice and optical drives have been widely used for a long time, DOS comes with their drivers or extensions, such as MOUSE and MSCDEX, but MSCDEX also requires the drivers of optical drives. However, with the development of DOS, these programs have become increasingly impractical, and there are now good alternatives, such as the latest and best mouse driver Cute Mouse (CTMOUSE). CTMOUSE is a very practical mouse driver that is still under development. Compared with DOS or other mouse drivers, it has unparalleled advantages, such as very fast speed, very small memory occupancy (only 3.3K), very versatile, and display in multiple languages (no Chinese yet, but I can go to Chinese if you like it). Therefore, I highly recommend it to everyone to use it and can be downloaded in "DOS Software". There are also many common optical drive programs under DOS, such as the DOS boot disk OAKCDROM that comes with Win98. But the best one is the "driver" or, because it has a fast speed and small memory occupancy (only 2K and 5K respectively, while OAKCDROM needs to account for more than 30K, and the others account for more), and is very versatile (can drive various brands of non-USB CD-ROM/CD-R/CD-RW/DVD-ROM/DVD-R/DVD-RW, none of the optical drives I tried failed). The specific installation method is to first load the optical drive driver with the DEVICE (HIGH) command, and then load the optical drive extension in it, such as: LH MSCDEX /D:CDROM1 /S /K. However, if you want the system to automatically install the optical drive without manually configuring it, you can run the full-screen installation program that comes with it, which will make it very easy to install. In order to save memory, CLOAKING and MSCDEX can also be used in combination, which can greatly reduce the memory usage of MSCDEX. You can see the "Memory Configuration under DOS" and "File Commands and Configuration" in this column to obtain the specific configuration situation. As for USB mouse and optical drive, please see below.
Now that computers have entered the multimedia era, sound and images are indispensable, so sound cards are very important. So, how to use sound card under DOS? The most important thing about using a sound card under DOS is that the BLASTER environment variable needs to be set to the correct value, such as SET BLASTER=A220 I7 D1 H6 P330 T6, etc., where A represents the hardware address, I represents the interrupt number, D represents the low-end DMA, H represents the high-end DMA, P represents the address of MPU401, and T represents the sound card type. A is usually 220, I mainly have two possibilities: 5 and 7, P is often 330, T corresponds to the type of your sound card (T1 means SB 1.0, T2 means SB 1.5, T3 means SB 2.0, T4 means lower version of SB Pro and its compatibility, such as ESS688, T5 means higher version of SB Pro, T6 means SB 16 and its compatibility, such as SB AWE and SB PCI, etc.). For ISA sound cards, the value that is automatically set is usually used. For example, the default value of ESS688 sound card is A220 I5 D1 T4, and it can also be reset using the built-in setup program such as ESSCFG; for PCI sound cards, some can use SB-Link technology, and most others can use the built-in driver virtual ISA sound card to use. For PCI sound cards such as SB PCI, SB Audigy, SB Live!, C-Media 8738, SiS 7018, etc. drivers can be downloaded in the "driver", and sound cards such as Yamaha and Aopen can also use their own built-in drivers to achieve the use of PCI sound cards in pure DOS, or in the Windows DOS window. To set the settings parameters of PCI sound card, you can use the built-in setting program, such as the SB Live! sound card driver, there is the SBECFG command, or edit its configuration file, such as the files in the SB PCI driver.
Next is the network card and graphics card. The situation of network cards is quite special, and each network environment requires its own network card driver. For ISA network cards, since most of them are NE2000 compatible, you can use the driver of the NE2000 network card and can be downloaded in "DOS Software". There are many folders on the disk that comes with the network card, which are separate drivers for each network environment. For example, the network card drivers for Microsoft Network Client (MSCLIENT) and LAN Manager are on the MSCLIENT or NDIS2 folders, and the network card drivers for Netware are on the NWCLIENT or DOSODI folders. Taking Netware Lite as an example, to start the IPX/SPX protocol, you need to load first, and then the ODI driver of the network card. For example, for the SIS900 network card, you can run it after loading. For MSCLIENT, the driver of the SIS900 network card is that it will automatically load when the network starts. Of course, network cards still have a standard driver for Internet access under DOS, that is, network cards Packet driver. For the specific usage method, you can see the "Method of Networking under DOS" in this column. For graphics cards, unlike Windows, you do not need a special driver to display high-color or even true-color text and images under DOS, but there are display extension drivers, such as VESA 3.0 display driver Scitech Display Doctor, etc., which can be downloaded in "DOS Software".
Then there is the use of USB hardware devices. Many people think that USB devices cannot be used under DOS, but this is not the case. The new BIOS has the "USB for DOS" function, and there are also many USB device drivers under DOS, such as DUSE, USB_CD, etc., which can be downloaded in "DOS Software". Take DUSE as an example. This is a driver for a general USB storage device under DOS, including USB hard drive, optical drive, floppy drive, etc. Many people have successfully used it to drive their own USB devices, such as USB CD-RW, etc.; OHCI/UHCI are OHCI/UHCI type USB mouse drivers; USB_CD is a separate USB optical drive driver; USB4DOS provides the functions of using various USB devices (such as USB printers, USB digital cameras, etc.) under DOS. I don't have a USB device, so I haven't used it yet. Everyone is welcome to use them and tell me the results of the use, thank you!
In recent years, a lot of new hardware has appeared, and they can be used under DOS. Taking ATX power supply as an example, some software under DOS can use it to realize soft shutdown, such as ShutDown, PowerOff and other commands, which can be downloaded in "DOS Software". There are many benefits to using these software to achieve soft shutdown in DOS. For example, when used in batch files, you can specify that the power will be automatically shut down after running a program or at a specified time, and you can also implement functions such as "remote call" in the network, which have many benefits. This shows the powerful functions of DOS. If everyone likes DOS, why not participate in the "DOS Development" column to develop new DOS software and let DOS continue to grow and grow together!