Gramps
2nd September 2001, 10:30.30 PM
(Sorry if this was covered somewhere else before)
If you do like I do and run three or four of the HTR programs at once, you'll soon find your computer running sluggishly and the mouse freezing. And it doesn't matter if you have a Pentium 1.2 gig processor and 384 megs of ram. It will still happen.
The problem doesn't lie with your machine but with how DOS operates. DOS was originally programmed to be a standalone operating system, and as such, it expects to have all of your computer's resources to itself. So when you have two or more DOS programs open, each one is fighting for control of the CPU. This was fixed to a degree in Windows 95 and 98, but even today, if you have three or four DOS programs open, things start to drag. Each DOS window comes up slowly, and the mouse sticks as you move it.
Luckilly, Microsoft programmed a solution to this. You'll need to do this once for each HTR DOS program that you have, (and it won't hurt to do it for all the DOS programs that you have icons for, as well as the MS-DOS(.pif) icon in Start/Programs and any other DOS shortcuts that you may have, such as on your desktop). After you've done it the first time for each DOS program, you won't need to do it again; your computer will remember it for future sessions. Here is what you do:
Right click on each DOS-based icon, then choose properties. A menu will popup. Choose the far right tab, "Misc". Now check the box that's next to "Always suspend" (under "Background"). Now click on "Apply" then on "OK".
What this does is suspend any DOS process that isn't in the foreground (on top). This means that only one DOS program will be requesting usage of your computer's CPU at any given time. Any DOS programs not on top will suspend operations and lie dormant until they're brought back on top. If you like to open three or four HTR programs at once and go from one to another as you process a day's files, this will seriously reduce the dragging that used to occur.
Of course the drawback is that when you minimize a DOS program that has "Always suspend" checked, or put another program (DOS or windows) in front of it, the DOS program will stop running until it's on top again. So you might want to uncheck the "suspend" box if you're planning on having your DOS program do something for a long time in the background while you work on something else on the computer.
Hope this helps.
If you do like I do and run three or four of the HTR programs at once, you'll soon find your computer running sluggishly and the mouse freezing. And it doesn't matter if you have a Pentium 1.2 gig processor and 384 megs of ram. It will still happen.
The problem doesn't lie with your machine but with how DOS operates. DOS was originally programmed to be a standalone operating system, and as such, it expects to have all of your computer's resources to itself. So when you have two or more DOS programs open, each one is fighting for control of the CPU. This was fixed to a degree in Windows 95 and 98, but even today, if you have three or four DOS programs open, things start to drag. Each DOS window comes up slowly, and the mouse sticks as you move it.
Luckilly, Microsoft programmed a solution to this. You'll need to do this once for each HTR DOS program that you have, (and it won't hurt to do it for all the DOS programs that you have icons for, as well as the MS-DOS(.pif) icon in Start/Programs and any other DOS shortcuts that you may have, such as on your desktop). After you've done it the first time for each DOS program, you won't need to do it again; your computer will remember it for future sessions. Here is what you do:
Right click on each DOS-based icon, then choose properties. A menu will popup. Choose the far right tab, "Misc". Now check the box that's next to "Always suspend" (under "Background"). Now click on "Apply" then on "OK".
What this does is suspend any DOS process that isn't in the foreground (on top). This means that only one DOS program will be requesting usage of your computer's CPU at any given time. Any DOS programs not on top will suspend operations and lie dormant until they're brought back on top. If you like to open three or four HTR programs at once and go from one to another as you process a day's files, this will seriously reduce the dragging that used to occur.
Of course the drawback is that when you minimize a DOS program that has "Always suspend" checked, or put another program (DOS or windows) in front of it, the DOS program will stop running until it's on top again. So you might want to uncheck the "suspend" box if you're planning on having your DOS program do something for a long time in the background while you work on something else on the computer.
Hope this helps.