From: "AndrewJ" Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp,comp.os.msdos.programmer References: <8am5ub$o0v$1 AT news6 DOT svr DOT pol DOT co DOT uk> Subject: Re: Detecting Windows and Windows directory from DOS Lines: 28 X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2919.6600 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2919.6600 Message-ID: Date: Sun, 19 Mar 2000 13:09:40 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 24.42.120.18 X-Complaints-To: abuse AT home DOT net X-Trace: news2.rdc1.on.home.com 953471380 24.42.120.18 (Sun, 19 Mar 2000 05:09:40 PST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 19 Mar 2000 05:09:40 PST Organization: @Home Network Canada To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com DJ-Gateway: from newsgroup comp.os.msdos.djgpp Reply-To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com "Ben Davis" wrote in message news:8am5ub$o0v$1 AT news6 DOT svr DOT pol DOT co DOT uk... > I need to write an installation program for my DOS game. I want to design it > so that if it detects Windows 95 or higher it puts the game in the Start > Menu. > > I can detect Windows from DOS - that part's easy, as I use Allegro which has > the function built in. But can I detect the actual Windows directory? How? > > By the way, I have no decent experience or documentation on Windows > programming. One day... Lot's of solutions have already been provided, but I didn't see anyone mention this one. Why not just try opening C:\MSDOS.SYS and checking if the first 7 characters is equal to [Paths]. If it's some strange binary value, you don't have Windows '9x installed, if it is there, you can get just about all the windows installation information you like. Unless the user is incredibly perverse and has changed the contents of the file. =) I don't know if it's foolproof, but it might be more useful than doing a recursive search for WIN.COM. AndrewJ