For more rational use of all types of RAM I recommend in CONFIG.SYS to write the line DOS = HIGH, UMB, NOAUTO, so that SETVER.EXE (needed for old DOS programs) and DBLBUFF.SYS (needed for SCSI disks) are not loaded - than Less loaded with all shit - the better. It is advisable to use commands in the configuration files with HIGH attachments of the type DEVICEHIGH, LOADHIGH, INSTALLHIGH, BUFFERSHIGH, FCBSHIGH, FILESHIGH, LASTDRIVEHIGH, STACKSHIGH (if you need them), to free basic memory. To do this, enter in the CONFIG.SYS line first

DEVICE = C: \ WINDOWS \ HIMEM.SYS / V / TESTMEM: Off

DEVICE = C: \ WINDOWS \ EMM386.EXE NOEMS V

To use the upper memory. Attention! If you do not add a line to CONFIG.SYS

DEVICEHIGH = C: \ WINDOWS \ IFSHLP.SYS,

Then your computer may not boot, because the DOS = NOAUTO command disables the download of this file system driver. Use in this case a boot floppy disk or a compact to add to the configuration of this line. Parameter HIGHSCAN (can add a little more free upper memory) for EMM386 is better not to use, as there is a high probability that this will lead to errors and the system will hang.

It should be noted that the Windows are loaded by default (if DOS = NOAUTO is not registered in the config) as it were "invisible" CONFIG.SYS, in which such lines:

Dos = high, auto

Device = c: \ windows \ himem.sys

Device = c: \ windows \ ifshlp.sys

Device = c: \ windows \ setver.exe

Fileshigh = 30

Lastdrivehigh = z

Buffershigh = 30

Stackshigh = 9.256

Shell = command.com / p

Fcbshigh = 4

These drivers are loaded even if they are not registered in your config (and, even if there are no AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files), and if you already have commands written in CONFIG.SYS without HIGH attachments (for example files) Then the commands with these prefixes (such as fileshigh) will still be executed, to use the higher memory addresses (or rather, the Windows itself decides whether to use the higher memory addresses or not, and most often the end of "HIGH" to the commands adds). The values ​​specified by the files, lastdrive, buffers, stacks, fcbs and the SETVER.EXE driver are only needed for MS-DOS applications, Windows'98, these parameters are not required. There is also a "hidden" AUTOEXEC.BAT:

@echo off

Net start

Set tmp = C: \ windows \ temp

Set temp = C: \ windows \ temp

Set COMSPEC = C: \ COMMAND.COM

Prompt $ p $ g

Path c: \ windows; C: \ windows \ command

Changing the values ​​of the configuration parameters used by "Windows" by default, you can achieve more rational allocation of memory. A bit of the basic memory can be freed up by setting the LASTDRIVEHIGH command to the letter of the actual last drive (by default, more memory is allocated: reserved for all disks from A to Z) - 80 bytes are consumed on each additional disk. It is advisable by the command STACKSHIGH = 0,0 to cancel the allocation of memory for the stacks allocated for temporary storage of various system information and only necessary for old DOS programs. By BUFFERSHIGH = 20, you can limit the number of disk I / O buffers (each occupies 532 bytes), because the "Windows" use their own VCache disk caching system, and for MS-DOS MODE this value is usually enough. Another parameter needed in the MS-DOS emulation mode is the FCBS, which specifies the number of certain file management blocks, which, naturally, again leaves valuable memory (64 bytes for each), its value can be changed to FCBSHIGH = 1. The basic memory can be saved by setting the parameter FILESHIGH = 10, thereby reducing the number of file handlers from 30 to 10 (for each of 60 bytes, approximately). If you never load the MS-DOS emulation mode, you can set even lower values ​​of these parameters, my own version is designed to support this mode. If you are using some obsolete program that wants to work only from the MS-DOS emulation mode, then you may need to change these settings again by increasing their values, otherwise some of the dos software will not start, or even include the support of the outdated EMS Memory by adding the RAM parameter to the EMM386 driver! For example:

DEVICE = C: \ WINDOWS \ EMM386.EXE RAM VERBOSE,

It may be necessary to abandon the C-di-ROM driver and some other dos drivers to maximize the amount of basic memory - it's best to do this without changing the basic configuration files, and by creating for this program your own PIF-file, in which Specify the required values.

If you have a dblspace.bin or drvspace.bin file in the root of the system disk, Windows will download the appropriate compressed disk driver, even if you do not use this function, so do not forget to delete these files!

It is very useful to see what is loaded by selecting the "Step-by-step confirmation" mode in the boot menu (press F8, when the PC is booted, to call it). In this case, you will be able to see and fix errors in the configuration files that usually arise from incorrect writing paths to drivers and files. And to check how efficiently the memory is allocated, you can use the command "MEM / P / C", which you need to type in the "Run" menu of the "Start" button. If in the appeared window you will see about such values:

Largest executable program size = 614032 (600k)

Largest free upper memory block = 0 (0K)

MS-DOS is resident in the high memory area,

Then everything is in order. Another useful command "MEM / D / P" will show in more detail the use of memory.

Sometimes you need to allocate more memory for environment variables (for example, if you want to set additional parameters for the video accelerator from 3dfx in autoexec, but get the message "Out of environment space"), in this case, write the line in the config:

SHELL = C: \ COMMAND.COM / P / E: 1024

The amount of free RAM can decrease dramatically when using the clipboard, especially if it contains a large picture, so do not forget to clean it after using the buffer in powerful software packages, copying just one letter from a notebook, for example.