Interface programs for MS-DOS DP4 programs to use Win32 DP4 System Service

Interface programs for MS-DOS DP4 programs to use Win32 DP4 System Service - E4000040 - 22 Feb 2002

A number of live DP4 systems are still MS-DOS based. In many cases, perhaps most, these are actually run inside DOS boxes on Windows 9x or NT family computers. This is not officially supported, particularly where MS-DOS versions of the DP4 network programs are used. We can now offer an alternative configuration - additional software components are available that allow MS-DOS based programs to use the Win32 DP4 service. In particular this allows multiple DOS programs to run on the same machine.

The details of whow this is achieved are completely different depending on whether you are running on a Windows 9x/Me computer or on Windows NT/2000/XP. Each method described only works for the operating systems listed.

Windows 9x/Me computers.

Install enough of the Win32 version of DP4 to be able to run the DP4 service with win1632w.exe enabled. A minimal set of files would be srvw32.exe,win1632w.exe,tcpw.w32 or dp4srvr.w32, syslibt.dll,usrlibt.dll,vddlibt.dll,trmwold.dll,trmw.dll,and syslibw.dll. It is probably a good idea to include errlog.w32 as well for trouble-shooting purposes.
Install a suitable datafit.ini in the windows directory. Make sure load_win1632w=1 is set in the [win32] section
Obtain the additional component vxdfnet.win. This is not included with the DP4 CD ROM and must requested from us. You may be charged for this file. Install this in a suitable directory such as c:\dp4\win.
Edit the system.ini in the Windows directory. Add the line device=c:\dp4\win\vxdfnet.win and reboot the machine. (If you are planning to install on a large number of machines you should use a .inf file to make this modification automatically. We can supply a suitable inf file on request)
Ensure the dp4 service is loaded with srvw32 -start or srvw32 -load before opening any DOS boxes, for example by adding a suitable short-cut to the Startup group.
You should now be able to run MS-DOS DP4 programs, and they will believe srv2.exe is loaded. To double check everything is working correctly you may like to rename or delete srv2.exe

On Windows 9x computers running DP4 like this is around 50% slower than running pure DOS DP4 inside a DOS box (as long as you remember the -dosidle command tail), so you should only do if necessary (e.g. because you have a pure TCP/IP network or want to run multiple programs, or the MS-DOS DP4 network programs do not work on your version of Windows).

Windows NT,2000,XP

Install enough of the Win32 version of DP4 to be able to run the DP4 service. A minimal set of files would be srvw32.exe,tcpw.w32 or dp4srvr.w32, syslibt.dll,usrlibt.dll,vddlibt.dll. It is probably a good idea to include errlog.w32 as well for trouble-shooting purposes. Make sure srvw32 -install is run to install DP4 as a service.
Install a suitable datafit.ini in the windows directory.
Obtain the additional component win1632d.exe. This is not included with the DP4 CD ROM and must requested from us. You may be charged for this file. Install this in a suitable directory such as c:\dp4\win.
Before trying to run MS-DOS DP4 programs ensure the DP4 service is started, and load the file win1632d.exe. There are several ways to do this:
- You can add the file to autoexec.nt in the system32 directory. This won't work if the Windows path does not include the directory where the DP4 service is installed. Setting the path in autoexec.nt is no good. It is possible to load win1632d.exe high with lh though it is so small this is probably not necessary.
- You can load the win1632d.exe manually from the DOS prompt or you can rename win1632d.exe to srv2.exe so that DOS DP4 programs will auto-load it.

win1632d.exe will only work if it is loaded after the DP4 service is started. If it is loaded before this it will appear to load successfully but it will not work even if DP4 is started later. It will stop working if the DP4 service is stopped and restarted.

On Windows NT the performance of MS-DOS DP4 with win1632d.exe is very similar to the performance using ntb2 -dosidle. On later versions of Windows ntb2 probably will not work.