Windows DOS Mode Settings (Shortcuts)

Introduction

Windows DOS Mode Settings (Shortcuts; or Program Information, PIF, Files)

To allow you to run WordStar by double-clicking an icon within Windows, and for it to start either in a window or full screen, and with your preferred font size at start-up you need to create new Shortcuts (icons that can be double-clicked to stat a program). This will allow you to keep the default MS-DOS Prompt for any other DOS programs.

Procedure (based on Windows 9x)

  1. Use Windows Explorer to browse to your WordStar directory (folder).
  2. Right-click in the file list area (what you see depends on how your system is set up. If you have folders listed on the left and files on the right you need to right-click in the right hand pane. In the pop-up menu click New, then click Shortcut. This will display the New Shortcut dialog. Fill in the details as follows:
    1. In the Command line box, type C:\WS7\WS.EXE or whatever you called it, and then click Next
    2. In the Name box, type WordStar, and then click Finish
    3. Back in Explorer look for your new shortcut. If you can't see it, right-click again and select Refresh to force Windows to re-read the file list.
    4. Once you've found the shortcut right-click on it and select Properties.
    5. Click the Program tab and make sure the Close on Exit tick box is ticked. If it isn't, every time you exit WordStar you'll be left with a DOS window that you don't want.
    6. Click Advanced and make sure that the Suggest MS-DOS mode box is the only option ticked. Click OK.
    7. Click Change Icon if you'd prefer something other than the MS-DOS one. I'd suggest starting off with the one provided with WordStar. Select Browse and change to the WordStar directory where you'll see one icon displayed. There are some other icons here. Click OK. You can change this at any time.
    8. Click the Font tab and choose your favourite font, or leave it set to Auto. I like 5x12 but this will be too small for many people. If you can't see all the font sizes, make sure the Available Types is set to Both.
    9. Click the Memory tab. All settings here should be Auto. Under the Extended (XMS) memory option the Uses HMA tick box should be ticked.
    10. Click the Screen tab. Here, set the Usage option to Windowed if you want WordStar to start-up in a window, or to Full-screen if you'd prefer it to look like it's just DOS running. Then set Initial size to Default. All tick boxes can be ticked.
    11. Click the Misc tab. You can select the Quick Edit option to allow you to use your mouse to copy text to the Windows clipboard without using the Control Menu, Edit, Mark (the icon at the left of the window's title bar) sequence. However, this will prevent you using the mouse to select the WordStar menus, etc., so if you use the mouse this way, de-select it.
  3. Click Apply, then click OK.

Most of the above settings are the defaults. I've only listed them all in case the default DOS settings have been changed. Much of this also applies to Windows 3x although you'll need to use PIF Editor to create the new shortcut icons in Program Manager.

Now, click on your shortcut again and while keeping the mouse button down drag it to a blank area on the desktop (it could have been created here in the first place), then let go of the mouse button. You can now run WordStar from here by double-clicking on the icon.




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