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  Microsoft(R) Product Support Services Application Note (Text File)
               FD0725: INSTALLATION QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
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                                                   Revision Date: 1/93
                                                      No Disk Included

The following information applies to Microsoft FoxPro(R) for MS-DOS(R)
version 2.5.

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|                                                                    |
| Copyright 1993 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.         |
| Microsoft, MS-DOS, and FoxPro are registered trademarks and        |
| Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.                   |
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1.  Q. Why does the FoxPro installation process sometimes stop before
       allowing the installation of optional components?

    A. If you have Terminate-and-stay-resident (TSR) programs running,
       you may want to remove them. Sometimes in low memory
       conditions, the installation program is unable to determine
       whether to run the standard (FOXPRO.EXE) or the enhanced
       (FOXPROX.EXE) version  to complete the installation. For more
       information on installing optional components not specified
       during installation, see Question 2 ("How do I install
       addtitional files that I did not specify during
       installation?").

2.  Q. How do I install additional files that I did not specify during
       installation?

    A. Restart FoxPro by typing "fox" at the MS-DOS command prompt and
       pressing the ENTER key. Insert any one of the product disks in
       the floppy disk drive and type the following command in
       FoxPro's Command window:

          do install

       You will then be prompted to insert the disk or disks that
       contain the additional files that you want to install. If you
       attempt to install from a drive other than drive A, you will be
       instructed to select another source drive after the "Abort,
       Retry, Fail?" message.

3.  Q. Why does FoxPro reboot during the installation process?

    A. You could have a anti-virus detection program running or an old
       video driver installed. Try using a different  video driver
       (e.g. use VGA.DRV from Windows) and running with a minimum
       CONFIG.SYS file and AUTOEXEC.BAT file. (For more information on
       CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT files, see your MS-DOS
       documentation.)

4.  Q. How does SMARTDrive affect FoxPro's performance?

    A. You may notice a substantial reduction in performance when
       SMARTDrive is loaded in the CONFIG.SYS file. In particular, the
       /DOUBLE_BUFFER switch can adversely affect performance. This
       performance degradation does not occur when SMARTDrive is
       loaded in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file. However, some systems require
       SMARTDrive to be loaded in the CONFIG.SYS file for
       compatibility. For example, when a permanent swap file is used
       on a SCSI drive, SMARTDrive must be loaded in the CONFIG.SYS
       file in order to allow Microsoft Windows to load.

5.  Q. What are the recommended "BUFFERS=" and "FILES=" settings for
       running FoxPro for MS-DOS?

    A. For best performance with FoxPro when SMARTDrive is loaded, use
       "BUFFERS=10" in the CONFIG.SYS file. Using more than 10 buffers
       takes away valuable memory that FoxPro could use for
       processing.

       If you do not use a disk-caching program such as SMARTDrive,
       you should allocate enough MS-DOS buffers to hold all the
       directory entries in the subdirectory where you will be
       working. "BUFFERS=40" is usually sufficient as long as the
       number of files in a subdirectory remains below 250.

       The value used in the "FILES=" statement should always be at
       least 10 more than the greatest number of files that you will
       have open at one time. We recommend a minimum of 40.

6.  Q. Does FoxPro 2.5 for MS-DOS operate with the MS-DOS Protected
       Mode Interface (DPMI)?

    A. Yes. FoxPro 2.5 works with DPMI-compliant memory managers, such
       as Microsoft Windows. If you use a DPMI memory manager, you can
       control the physical memory that FoxPro uses by specifying the
       MEMLIMIT option in your CONFIG.FP file.

7.  Q. What factors influence FoxPro's startup speed?

    A. The time required to load and start FoxPro relates to the
       physical size of FoxPro, the length of the PATH statement in
       effect, the number of items that must be sought at startup, and
       other factors. Many of these items are under your control. For
       a complete discussion of these issues refer to the "Optimizing
       Your System" section of the "Installation and Configuration
       Guide".

8.  Q. I receive the error message "Too many files open." How can I
       correct this problem?

    A. This error message can be eliminated by using one or more of
       the following methods:

       - Increase the "FILES=" setting in the CONFIG.SYS file.
   
       - If you are using a Novell network, increase the FILE HANDLES
        setting in the SHELL.CFG file.
   
       - If you are using the MS-DOS Share program, increase the
        number of files and locks. For example:
      
             share /F:4096 /L:500

9.  Q. The Standard Version of Microsoft FoxPro for MS-DOS runs
       correctly, but when I load the Extended Version, I receive the
       error message "Incompatible memory manager." What causes this
       problem?

    A. This error can occur if your memory manager is improperly
       configured. Verify that the memory manager is configured to
       create expanded memory. For further information on the Extended
       Version of FoxPro, please refer to the "Optimizing Your System"
       section of the "Developer's Guide".

10. Q. I receive the error message "Run command failed." How can I
       correct this problem?

    A. This error is caused by one of the following conditions:

       Microsoft FoxPro for MS-DOS cannot find the COMMAND.COM file.
       If this is the case, use the "SHELL=" with the /P parameter in
       your CONFIG.SYS file to specify the location of the COMMAND.COM
       file.

       or
       
       If the location of COMMAND.COM is explicitly given in the
       "SHELL=" statement, FoxPro does not have enough conventional
       memory to execute the SHELL command. If this is the case, use
       FoxSwap to execute the command. For example, use "RUN /0 DIR"
       instead of "RUN DIR". ("RUN /0" automatically makes all
       available conventional memory accessible.)

11. Q. Why do I have several files with the extension .TMP on my hard
       disk?

    A. Every time you run Microsoft FoxPro for MS-DOS, it creates
       temporary (.TMP) files. These files are automatically deleted
       when you quit FoxPro with a normal shutdown. However, the .TMP
       files will not be erased if you reboot the machine while FoxPro
       is running or if you don't have file-deletion rights in the
       directory where the files reside. To remove the .TMP files,
       exit FoxPro, acquire file-deletion rights for the directory
       where the .TMP files are and then delete the .TMP files.
          
12. Q. When I try to start a second instance of FoxPro 2.5 for MS-DOS
       under Windows, I get the error "Cannot access file at this
       time." This only happens when I am running multiple instances
       of the same copy of FoxPro on a stand-alone machine. What
       causes this problem?

    A. This problem is caused by an incompatibility with the MS-DOS
       Share program. To work around this problem, do one of the
       following:

        - Mark the FOXPRO.EXE file as read-only.

        - Run FoxPro under Windows for Workgroups.

        - Run a copy of FoxPro for MS-DOS from a network location.

13. Q. I'm running Microsoft FoxPro 2.5 for MS-DOS, under Windows.
       What memory allocation options are available with the PIF
       settings?

    A. In the memory requirements section of the PIF Editor, the "KB
       Required" and "KB Desired" may both be set to "-1". This tells
       Windows to give all available memory to an MS-DOS application.
       This doesn't mean that the MS-DOS application gets more than
       600K of memory, but it gets as much conventional memory as you
       had available before starting Windows (minus some conventional
       memory that Windows itself occupies).

       Changing the "EMS Memory" and "XMS Memory" sections tells
       Windows whether or not to provide the MS-DOS application and
       Expanded Memory Specification (EMS) or Extended Memory
       Specification (XMS). However, this does not allow an
       application that doesn't support EMS or XMS to do so. Only
       applications that have the capability of using EMS or XMS will
       be able to access additional memory. It's important to note
       that once you tell Windows to create EMS or XMS for an
       application, it does so whether the application can use it or
       not.
       
       If Exclusive is selected in the "Execution" section, no other
       application, be it Windows or MS-DOS, can run when the
       exclusive application is the current Application.
       
       The "Advanced Options" of the Multitasking Options section is
       very important when you want an MS-DOS application to run in
       the background. If an MS-DOS application is very I/O intensive
       (reads and writes to disk, asynchronous communication, etc.) it
       is necessary to increase the "Background Priority" option
       value. Unfortunately, there is no "rule of thumb" when it comes
       to the exact value that should be used. It's important to note
       that the larger the value for "Background Priority", the slower
       other applications will run while the MS-DOS application with
       the higher priority is running in the background.
       
       For additional information, refer to the "Learning More About
       PIF Settings" entry in the on-line help.
