A DOS program I am using through CMD.EXE in Windows 2000 requires 2MB
XMS. If I type MEM from the C:> prompt, I only have 1MB of XMS memory.
How do I increase this to 2MB?

Microsoft Windows 2000 [Version 5.00.2195]
(C) Copyright 1985-2000 Microsoft Corp.

C:\>mem


    655360 bytes total conventional memory
    655360 bytes available to MS-DOS
    633632 largest executable program size

   1048576 bytes total contiguous extended memory
         0 bytes available contiguous extended memory
    941056 bytes available XMS memory
           MS-DOS resident in High Memory Area

C:\>

Hi there sun818!

The solution to this one is a little bit odd, but it will certainly
work.

You cannot directly change the amount of memory that cmd.exe (or
command.com) starts with. However, you certainly can change the memory
for the application you are trying to use!

1) Using Windows Explorer, find the DOS program you're trying to use.
2) Right-click the program, and choose properties.
3) You will see a number of tabs at the top of the dialog box. Choose
"Memory".
4) Adjust the memory to your liking! N.B. 2048 is 2mb.

This should enable your application to use 2mb of XMS memory, when run
from Windows Explorer.

This solution was obtained from:

http://groups.google.co.uk/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&threadm=1og4mu0kaklu8t668ptgq98r4sj8u3b2h8%404ax.com&rnum=2&prev=/groups%3Fhl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8%26q%3Dxp%2Bcommand%2Bxms%26btnG%3DGoogle%2BSearch

The only disadvantage to this method is that if you are used to using
command line arguments. This can be solved by choosing the Program tab
from step 3 above, and adding a question mark "?" after the name of
the program, in the box marked "Cmd line". Now, when you run the
program, it will ask you for any arguments you want to add.

I hope this answer is clear to you. However, if anything needs further
explanation, then please don't hesitate to ask for clarification
before rating this answer.

Thanks, and good luck working with your DOS applications.

-- seizer-ga

Search terms used: "2000 cmd xms", "xp command xms"

---

Request for Answer Clarification by sun818-ga on 28 Nov 2002 17:38 PST

Researched this a little further and apparently one can create a file
called _default.pif under c:\winnt - Right click on the empty file and
there is a Memory tab one can modify to apply memory settings to all
DOS programs.

---

Clarification of Answer by seizer-ga on 28 Nov 2002 19:03 PST

Very useful! Well spotted! I'll tuck that one away in my tip collection.

Thanks,

--seizer-ga

Yup works. Why didn't I think of that?