AUTOEXEC CRAZY

[BobPar]

Can someone explain to me why I have so many AUTOEXEC files (8) total on my computer.
I've had this same system for about 5 years. I just updated as I went along, put a new hard drive in about 2 years ago, I did a drive copy so I haven't had to reload Windows in that time.
Running Windows 98 SE
AUTOEXEC.WOS
AUTOEXEC.PIF
AUTOEXEC.APP
AUTOEXEC.PSS
AUTOEXEC.NAV
AUTOEXEC.CAM
AUTOEXEC.DOS
AUTOEXEC.BAT
:x

[AllGamer]

They are all backups

the only one you need is Autoexec.bat

if any

Autoexec.DOS is used between DOS mode and Windows mode

:t

[BipolarBill]

It's there to drive us here at SysOpt crazy. :x

Programs created them. Example:

NAV= Norton Antivirus.

The only one that's safe to delete is .BAK usually.

[BobPar]

Could having all these files be the reason my attempt to partition this drive went bonkers and locked my system up? :confused:

[AllGamer]

is probable,

but

not likely :t

only if it executed the wrong command, like in your case

[BobPar]

I've removed all information in all but one AUTOEXEC file and my system seems OK, though I haven't tried running every application. Can't I just delete the files if they're empty anyway?

:p

[AllGamer]

don;t worry about it

they are safe

you can do the same with CONFIG.***

:t

[BipolarBill]

Why did you do that? Did you do that because knucklehead said "probable but not likely"? Look at that statement. It should give you some idea how confused this induhvidual is.

They are not the cause of your problem.

[Sterling_Aug]

If you are running Win95 or newer OS.

Delete all autoexec.* and config.* files then reboot and run without any of the DOS driver remnents in your system.

[2penguins]

Now what happens when you uninstall one of the programs/devices that created those Autoexec.bat backups?

The uninstaller would use those files to put things back as they were.....

If that's not so, then why save the old autoexec ?


On the other thread I told you to work with autoexec.bat via the System Config utility because it will allow you to put everything back. You only change one thing at a time until you find the problem.


never change anything unless you can undo it or you know the outcome of the change.

:)

[Paco103]

Well the backup files are nice in theory. . . but in practice they rarely work for me, I usually modify them by hand, but make a backup first.

I.E. if Norton is the first thing you install, it creates a backup, Autoexec.NAV, which is the empty autoexec.bat file (nothing was in it yet).

Now say you upgrade your onboard sound card to a Sound Blaster, and your autoexec file now has init strings for hardware/dos mode compatibility. Then we install a few other things that make a couple little changes to the autoexec.

You now decide to uninstall Norton, because you've decided to use Grisoft or (PLEASE DON'T)McAffee. . . now Nortons uninstaller removes autoexec.bat, puts it's backup, autoexec.nav, back in place, you now have an empty file with no init strings for your sound card or anything else you've installed.

The basis is - all those backups are useless in my experience. Keep a manual backup of it before you make any changes, and things should be fine.

[BobPar]

I guess the only reason I can think of for keeping the AUTOEXEC.DOS file is I can open MS-DOS from windows:
START
SHUT DOWN
Restart in MS-DOS mode

[BFlurie]

Autoexec.dos is only needed if you use the "Start a previous version of MS Dos" in your boot menu (like DOS 6.22). It's not used for "restart in DOS mode". The file C:\Windows\dosstart.bat is actually used for custom DOS settings when you do that.