WHAT'S NEW IN VERSION 1.10 -------------------------- NEW UTILITIES - HIGHINST.EXE can be used with "INSTALL=" command in CONFIG.SYS file. This allows DOS's SHARE.EXE to be loaded into High Memory. - HIGHGFX.EXE now eliminates the need to edit the CONFIG.SYS file and reboot in order to switch between using the EGA/VGA graphics display buffer space for graphics versus using it to extend Conventional DOS memory beyond 640k. HIGHGFX can do this on the fly. - HIGHBFRS.EXE allows DOS 3.xx users to put their DOS buffers (e.g., the "BUFFERS=" command in CONFIG.SYS) in High Memory. NEW FEATURES - A best-fit "/SIZE" option has been added to HIGHDRVR, HIGHTSR, and HIGHINST. - Memory allocation strategy for data blocks of HIGHDISK, HIGHMARK, HIGHEMS3, and HIGHEMS4 has been changed to "best fit". - On 286 and 386sx NEAT chipsets there is a setup configuration option to relocate the 384k of High Memory from A0000-FFFFF to just above 1 Meg at 100000-15FFFF so that it can be used as Extended Memory on machines that have only 1Meg of physical memory. LASTBYTE used to disable this option (without warning) so that it could use that memory. To be sure that the user now knows that this 384k of memory cannot be used both by LASTBYTE and as 384k of Extended Memory, LASTBYTE now issues the following error message if this option is enabled, and refuses to install: Error: A0000-FFFFF memory is RELOCATED - Change NEAT setup! The user must use the NEAT setup menu to disable this option in order to install LASTBYTE. - When an error message is printed by improper use of any of the LASTBYTE utilities, it is now followed by a "usage" line that briefly reminds you of the proper way to invoke the utility. - LASTBYTE now responds to Ctrl-Alt-Del with a Cold Boot instead of a Warm Boot ONLY if some part of the BIOS Rom space (F0000-FFFFF) has been allocated to DOS - i.e., you have used an option such as DOS=F000:32. - LASTBYTE prevents use of EGA/VGA graphics modes if their graphics display buffer at A0000-AFFFF has been allocated for use by DOS with a "DOS=" option on the LASTBYTE.SYS command line. Offending programs are now automatically terminated with a message that reads: Graphics disabled by LASTBYTE options. Terminating application! - HIGHDRVR.SYS now checks that the driver to be loaded high contains only one logical device. More than this cannot be supported, and will now cause HIGHDRVR to print a corresponding error message without loading the driver. - LASTBYTE is compatible with DESQview, but the HIGH????.EXE programs should be run before entering it. They all now check to see if DESQview is runnung, and if so, they issue an error message message and terminate. BUG FIXES - MAJOR BUG (AND LOSS OF FACE!): All you poor users with NEAT chipsets, (and especially if you have a Hercules, IBM Mono, or CGA display) I apologize! I just discovered that the NEAT chipset memory controller has a "nibble-swap" in the byte that control the eight (8) 16k segments that lie between A000 and BFFF. This affects users with 286 or 386sx motherboards only, and NOT 386 users. The symptom was that if you used any LASTBYTE command line option for this address space (such as DOS=A000:64 or DOS=B000:32) LASTBYTE would enable/disable the WRONG 16k segments! If you were unlucky enough to have a NEAT chipset *AND* one of the display adapters listed above, then the symptom was even worse - LASTBYTE would "hang" during the boot sequence! Corrected. - Command tail for TSR's not prepared properly by HIGHTSR. Corrected. - Value returned by BIOS INT 12 (Physical Memory KBytes) now reports correctly when DOS Conventional Memory has been expanded beyond 640k with a DOS=A000:nn option. - HIGHMARK did not work properly when no Bank-Switch memory remained and the mark was put into High-DOS memory. Corrected. - LASTBYTE would hang (even on 386 systems) if high memory consisted of a single free High-DOS block followed by a single wrap block enclosing everything else. (This is the situation when an unlicensed version of LASTBYTE is installed on a system with a Hercules card, or when used with a DOS=A000:?? option.) Corrected. KNOWN LIMITATIONS - HIGHDRVR.SYS cannot be used to load EMM386.SYS. - HIGHDRVR.SYS cannot be used to load device drivers that implement more than one logical device. MISCELLANEOUS - The version numbering of all software has been changed. All modules now share the same system number (e.g., 1.10), but now followed by a letter that designates the revision of the module relative to the system. Accordingly, each module now verifies that it is operating with a compatible system version by comparing its version number to that of LASTBYTE.SYS. - The amount of high memory accessible with the unlicensed evaluation version is still limited to 32k of High DOS memory and 32k of Bank-Switch memory. However, the maximum number of device drivers and/or TSR's is now restricted to two; this limit does not apply to the licensed version. --------------------- End of file WHATSNEW.110 ---------------------