Date:	Tue, 20 Oct 1998 16:50:52 +0100
From:	Matthias Paul <PAUL-MA AT reze-1 DOT rz DOT rwth-aachen DOT de>
Subject:	Re: Task-switching Win 3.1
To:	opendos AT delorie DOT com
Message-id:	<368F03F5C75@reze-1.rz.rwth-aachen.de>
Organization:	Rechenzentrum RWTH Aachen
X-Mailer:	Pegasus Mail v3.22
Reply-To:	opendos AT delorie DOT com

On Fri, 16 Oct 1998 Ray Greene wrote:

> Is it possible to use Taskmgr to switch out of Win 3.1 
> back to OpenDOS?

This *is* possible, but there are three things involved: 

- The modes of operation of both, DR-DOS TASKMGR, and Win 3.1
- The hotkeys used to activate the Windows TASKMAN and the
  DR-DOS TASKMGR
- The location of the TASKMGR.EXE file aka INI file settings.

If you installed DR-DOS manually or installed Windows after DR-DOS, 
you need to apply the necessary changes to the Windows setup
manually (otherwise the DR-DOS SETUP can do this for you). I don't
know all the INI directives by heart, so I suggest to download
the MPDOSTIP.ZIP archive from my web-page, and have a look into
the NWDOSTIP.TXT file. Even if this is written in German you should 
be able to find the chapter with Windows setup changes and in there
the list of necessary changes. Also make sure that the Windows
task manager is replaced by the DR-DOS one. 

Afterwards you will be able to start Windows as one task of DR-DOS
TASKMGR. If TASKMGR is running as a task switcher, Windows will
come up in 386 Enhanced Mode; if the DR-DOS multitasker is running,
Windows will run in Standard mode only. Having the task manager
hotkeys assigned to the same keys, and the DR-DOS TASKMGR assigned
as task manager for Windows (SETUP.INI setting), DR-DOS tasks and 
Windows will be seamlessly integrated in the task menu.

There are a few physical limitations: With a bit of tweaking, it 
should be possible to run multiple Windows 3.1 in Standard mode in 
different tasks of the TASKMGR, however, as Windows is a VCPI client 
(and not a DPMI client as the patched issue of Windows for OS/2), 
Windows will be suspended if you put it in background, so this
is merely a task switching mode rather than preemptive multitasking,
as usually provided by the DR-DOS multitasker. 

Well, I haven't tested this myself for a long while now, but at 
Novell DOS times I was able to run a setup like this, hence it
should still apply to DR-DOS. However, please correct me, if
you are experiencing difficuties.

Hope it helps,

 Matthias
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eMail: <Matthias DOT Paul AT post DOT rwth-aachen DOT de>
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