MSCONFIG's Other Uses
Don Bradbury continues his look at Microsoft Configuration Utility
Last time we saw how MSCONFIG can be used to tweak your Startup Group. But it's useful for other things, too.
Click on the General tab - Windows ME was used in this example - and you'll see three types of startup; Normal, Diagnostic, and Selective. The first speaks for itself, and all drivers, startup options etc are loaded.
The second lets you interactively load items in a troubleshooting mode. That's to say, if you encounter a difficulty and don't know what's causing it, the diagnostic mode lets you isolate the program that's problematic so that you can deactivate it while you seek the advice of its publisher.
Selective
The last, the selective mode, is probably the one you will select most often. It lets you deactivate any item, by unchecking the box by its side, to see what effect it has when left out of the boot or running process. You might do that if you suspect a conflict between two items and want to run one in the absence of the other, again, while you seek advice from the publishers.
Selective mode offers configuration subsets where you can decide to try running with whole sections of the PC's system deactivated, such as System,ini or Win.ini. Serious problems would be indicated if you had to do that.
The System.ini and Win.ini tabs respectively take you to these two important configuration files in turn so that you can deactivate items they contain. If you select Win.ini, for example, and click on the [Windows] check button, it will open up to show you, for example, 'load' and 'run' lines which might contain start instructions for parts of your overall configuration. Some applications pop their commands in one or the other of these two lines; don't always expect to find these only in the Startup Group.
Or simply edit it
You could, if you chose, simply edit these text files and make your own changes by typing them in and then resaving the relevant file, but the virtue of MSCONFIG is that is avoids typing errors if all you want to do is deactivate or reactivate an item.
Similarly, if you are using an alternative to Explorer, click on the System.ini tab and deactivate the Shell=Explorer.exe line in the [boot] section.
The International tab should contain the correct items under each section. The Country Data File Name, for example, should show 'C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\country.sys'. And Display Data File Name should show C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\ega.cpi. The Code Page should be 850, and the Country Code should show 44. Keyboard Data File Name should be Keyboard.sys, and finally, Language ID should be 'UK'. All presuming you are operating with the UK setup for your PC.
Your Environment settings will have been determined by software, either Windows or other. A tweaked DOS Data Path might be shown if one is necessary, for example.
In conclusion
Take care if you decide to try your hand at using MSCONFIG. It's a most useful utility but you can do damage if you're not sure of your ground. At the least, make notes of your changes so that they can be reversed if it proves necessary.
