DOS

Home >> MS-DOS Reference >> Command Categories >> Config.sys Commands >> DOS

Supported DOS versions:	MS-DOS 5+
How easy to use?	Easy
How safe to use?	Fairly safe
How common?	Fairly common
Internal or external command?	Internal

Description

Controls various options regarding where DOS should load itself.

Command Syntax

DOS=[HIGH | LOW] [,UMB | NOUMB] [,AUTO| NOAUTO]

HIGH specifies that part of DOS should be loaded into the high memory area
LOW specifies that DOS should not be loaded into the high memory area
UMB creates a link to the upper memory blocks that are used by LOADHIGH and other related commands such as DEVICEHIGH and STACKSHIGH
NOUMB does not create a link to the upper memory blocks
AUTO specifies that a number of device drivers and commands should be automatically loaded by Win9x
NOAUTO specifies that the device drivers and commands should not be automatically loaded by Win9x. This pair of options is available in DOS 7+ only.

Comments

The default setting is DOS=LOW, NOUMB, AUTO in Win9x and DOS=LOW, NOUMB in other versions of DOS. If AUTO is specified the following drivers are loaded

HIMEM.SYS
IFSHLP.SYS
DBLBUFF.SYS
SETVER.EXE
EMM386.EXE

The following commands are also used:

BUFFERSHIGH
FILESHIGH
FCBSHIGH
LASTDRIVEHIGH
STACKSHIGH

in place of the following:

BUFFERS
FILES
FCBS
LASTDRIVE
STACKS

Hence suggestions for the lack of a need for CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT in Win9x. However, if you intend to use locale-specific information or any settings other than US English running Win9x only (and not DOS), you will need these files.

The pairs of settings can appear in any order. To use any of them HIMEM.SYS must be loaded.

Home

MS-DOS Home

A - Z Index

Top of page

Summary

Description

Command Syntax

Comments