compression and cracks for dummies.txt

1000 HOWTOs for various needs [WINDOWS]

with a lot of programs and second you don't need that much. I use memmaker
from dos 6.0 and have about 615k conventual memory and no problems at all.
With all that said about conventual memory I believe the most problems with
new programs are incorrect sound board settings. Sometimes the auto-detect
settings of the programs will incorrectly detect your IRQ settings and other
times the software will just use the default settings and they may be wrong.
First thing to try if you have problems getting a program to run is redo the
setup for no sound or PC Speaker. If the program then runs then you know its
a sound board problem. Sometimes you have to completely re-install the
program to be able to re-configure it but most often you can just run either
setup or Install from the program directory. Sometimes there are even options
in the program itself to re-configure the sound. Most important thing to know
Is the 3 settings of your sound card. Example. Most sound Blasters and Sound
Blaster Pros default to the following settings.
IRQ  =  7
Port =  220h
DMA  =  1
Most Sound Blaster 16 boards default to the following.
IRQ  =  5
Port =  220h
DMA  =  1
The most common problem I have is with my Sound Blaster 16. Most programs
don't have a setup for the 16 so I have to choose the sound blaster Pro and
then the program just configure for IRQ 7 and I am at IRQ 5 even though My
sound blaster 16 is 100% compatible with the Sound Blaster pro. A simple
custom setup of the program for IRQ 5 and I am ready to Rock and Roll.


Q. Can I install the programs from the Hard drive without unzipping to all       
Those floppy disks.
 
A. I thought you would never ask. I very seldom Unzip programs to Floppy
disks anymore. Especially with the new Msdos 6.0 SUBST Command. First
things First.

More hard drive space is required to do this but if you have it its the best
way to install programs.. I will walk you thru the following Installation of a game
called Mystery that is 12 1.44 Meg Files., Without touching a floppy disk. If
we take for granted that the 12 .ZIP files are located in your C:\Download
Directory, Then we need to make a temporary Directory on the hard drive in 
order to install this game. I use C:\temp so go ahead and make that directory
with the following dos command.

C:\Download > MD C:\temp

Then from the Download directory where all the .Zip files are. By the way the
.Zip files are named as follows Myst_01 thru Myst_12 for our example. Issue
the following dos command.

C:\Download > Pkunzip -d Myst* c:\temp

OK now that command will start with the first file found and start Unzipping
the files to the C:\Temp directory. Most Likely at some point during the 
second file one of the files will contain the same Filename as a file from the 
first .Zip file. Example The File File_ID.Diz will be on every disk so when 
it reaches the second on the Pkunzip program will Halt and Tell you that the
same file exists and wants to know if you want to Skip, Overwrite, ETC.
The Command I always use is 'A' For always overwrite existing files. This
way the Pkunzip program will continue to process all 12 .Zip files with out
asking for confirmation of overwrite every time. Remember 99% of the time
the software companies will always have different filename on all of the files
and it will always be the .nfo and BBS Advertisements that are overwriting. OK
after all this is done you may want to delete the .ZIP files from your Hard
drive if your running short of space. OK now we need to make Dos think that
the files are on Floppies Instead of the Hard drive so this is where the Subst
Command comes in. From any dos Prompt issue the following command.
 
C:\download> SUBST A: C:\Temp

We have now substituted the c:\temp directory on your hard drive to the A:
Floppy drive. You can substitute the B: Drive if you like the Install program
does not care which Floppy you install from as long as it thinks its a Floppy
and not the Hard Drive. Anyway now anytime you or any program trys to
access the A: Floppy Dos will send it to the C:\Temp directory.
Now switch to the Gigantic floppy by typing A: and return from the dos
prompt. To test the Subst drive try Dir and you will see all those files from
the Unzipping of the 12 files. OK enough fun now just type Install or setup 
and you are on your way to installing the game. Most often the complete game 
will install in a fraction of the time it would take from floppies. Sometimes
it will hesitate between disk 1 and disk 2 etc asking you to put disk 2 in A:
drive and press any key. Just press any key each time and your on your way.
OK now that everything is installed look in your c:\Temp directory for any
.NFO or readme files and any crack patches you may need and then once all
that is taken care of delete everything in the c:\temp directory. As I said
before most programs for Dos will install this way but there are exceptions.
If you try this and it fails then Please read on as there are many other ways
to Install programs without having to use floppies.

Q. What if the Program files are overwriting and not just the .NFO files.

A. Occasionally Software companies will have the same filename on each disk
so that when you try to Unzip to the hard drive the file from Disk2 overwrite
the file on disk 1 etc. In this case you will have to Multi-task to Install 
programs such as this.

Q. I just hate to use floppies , Is there any way of avoiding this as the 
   hard drive is so much faster.

A. YES!!! I will address this subject right now. I have only had to unzip to
floppies about 1 in 1000 programs. Here is a set of Examples. OK Lets 
assume the worst case, There are 12 files and each as a different Volume label
which is required by the install. Also the file names on each disk is the same
so that if you unzipped all 12 disks to the same directory they would 
overwrite and you would be left with only one file. This is what to do!. 
follow each step exactly. you can try this with any multi disk program just
for practice.
 
Step 1.  Load Windows and Drop to a Full screen dos window by double clicking
         on the Dos Prompt Icon.
Step 2.  Unzip disk 1 to the Substitute B: Drive using the -D -$ . This will 
         only unzip the first disk and Label the Hard drive with the stored
         Volume Label. The Volume Label will also be Present on the Subistuted
         B: drive.
Step 3.  Press "CTRL ESC" which will bring back Windows and the Task Manager.
         From here select Program Manager and from the Program Manager Open
         another Full screen Dos session.
Step 4.  Now from the second DOS Window select B: and Type Install or Setup to
         Start the installation process. The Installation will now proceed 
         properly as the correct volume label is present and only the correct 
         files from disk 1 are in the substitute drive. Now you will soon be 
         requested by the Install program to Please Insert disk 2.
Step 5.  Press "CTRL ESC" Again and from the task manager screen select the
         1st or other Dos window. From this dos window delete all the files in
         B: and Unzip the second disk to B: which will also put the proper 
         files in the Substitute drive and re-Label the volume label as 
         required by the install program.
Step 6.  As you should see by now just repeat this process until all the disks
         have been processed and thats all there is to it.               

Q. How do I get rid of a Subst drive so I can use my floppy again.

A. Will you have to choices. This command will remove the subst drive in the
above example  SUBST A: /D as long as you don't try to issue that command
from the A:\> prompt.  Rebooting your computer will also eliminate the Subst
Drive.
I personally never use my 1.2 Meg Floppy Drive so I always Subst that drive
for c:\temp in my Autoexec.bat file. That way it is always there when I need
it. I still have my 1.44 drive B: available for use with floppies.
 
Q. If the Media was originally on 1.44 floppy disks and I use My 1.2 Meg       
   Floppy for the Subst Drive will I have problems.

A. No! Most install programs only look to see if your installing from a floppy
drive and not the hard drive so if it finds A: Or B: It will install fine.

Q. How much space will be taken on my Hard drive using a subst Drive.

A. Will in the above example without deleting files in between the process you
could have as much as 80 Megs of space used just to install one program. OK
follow me in this example.
12 1.44 Meg .Zip files in the C:\download directory ====== 20 Megs
All those files Unzipped in to the c:\temp directory ===== 20 megs
The Game installed in the hard drive c:\game         ===== 40 megs
Remember the 40 Megs installed is because the install program uncompressed
the files when it installed itself.
Anyway it took 80 Megs to install but now you can delete everything except the
installed game so your down to 40 Megs.

Q. Will the Subst command work in Windows.

A. Interesting question.  If you subst a floppy Ie SUBST A: C:\DOS or
whatever and load windows, then yes file manager will treat the A: drive as a
Substituted drive. Not much here is accomplished here because all programs 
will install in windows with out having to Unzip to Floppies. There are (2)    
methods to install programs from the hard drive. Both will be covered in     
complete detail .

Q. It seems that there are a lot of programs that have a File called              
Install.dat or disk.Id on each disk and when unzipping them to the 
hard drive the install.dat file always overwrite the next on so then 
the installation fails after after looking for the 2nd file. How Come?

A. It is very common for the software companies to use the Install.dat
installation routine. What they do is have a text file on each disk called
Install.dat that contains a list of all files on that disk with there 
respective sizes. Then the Install.exe program reads the Install.dat and
installs those files checking to see if the size is correct on the list Then
you insert the next disk and it reads the Install.dat file again and so on.
This is a very convenient way for them as when they update the program a 
slight change to the install.dat and the same install program works. The 
problem for us is that after Unzipping multiple files to one Directory on the
hard drive you see we only end up with one Install.dat file so when you run 
the Install.exe it installs only the files from one disk and stops asking for
more disks with different Install.dat files. Some people get around this by 
making there own Install.bat containing a list of all the files from every 
disk so after they unzip all the files to the hard drive you copy the custom
Install.dat over the one existing one and install from the subst drive. This 
reads the custom Install.dat and all the files are installed. An example of
this can be found on the Patch for 3D Studio Version 3.0 for Subst Install. 
Also using windows to Multi-Task as in the example above is another effective
method to use to install programs such as this.

Q. What is the best way to install programs in windows with out using floppies

A. No Problem. I have 2 methods that seem to work for 100% of all
software I have tried. First just forget about Subst Drives when working in
windows and Unzip all files to one Directory on your hard drive just as you
would with dos programs, Overwriting all files. Next load windows and the
File Manager and select the directory that contains the unzipped files. 
Example C:\temp   Then from the list of files in the right most window within 
file manager select Setup.exe or Install.exe just as if you were Installing 
from Floppies. This will load and run the install or setup program as normal.
The exception to this is that the setup program will sometimes prompt you that
it cant find files and it is looking for them in the Disk1 directory or the 
Disk2 directory. This is very common and can easily be tricked. For example
if the prompt is something like this Cant Find  [ c:\disk1\FileX ] then you
know its the Disk1 Directory trick.  Go to Dos and create a Disk? directory 
for every .Zip File the program has. Example if there are 4 .Zip Files Named
as follows in the c:\Download Directory.
lots123-1.zip
lots123-2.zip
lots123-3.zip
lots123-4.zip
Make four directories on your hard drive as follows.

MD C:\disk1
MD C:\disk2
MD C:\disk3
MD C:\disk4
Then Unzip the four files as follows.
 
Pkunzip lots123-1 c:\disk1
Pkunzip lots123-2 c:\disk2
Pkunzip lots123-3 c:\disk3
Pkunzip lots123-4 c:\disk4
 
OK then return to windows and select c:\disk1 from the File manager and select
Setup or install. The installation will proceed as normal. Then remember to
delete all files and directories used in installation. This is an example that I
would use after the program is installed from Dos.
 
Deltree c:\disk1
Deltree c:\disk2
Deltree c:\disk3
Deltree c:\disk4

Ok will also if you have the same problem with files over writing then just
as before only unzip one file at a time and switch between the Windows
File Manager install program and a Full screen Dos window.

Q. What are the commands for .ARJ files and are they similar to .Zip

A. Sure. The one thing that is different is there is only one program to ARJ 
and Unarj files with the .ARJ Extension where as with PkWare there is Pkzip 
the Zip files and Pkunzip to Unzip files. The following examples are for ARJ.
Remember you need version 2.41 or newer version of the file ARJ.EXE in
your C:\Dos directory.
To arj all files from the B: Floppy to a file called game in the c:\wares