
	

	     This file contains general installation notes and
	                  IMPORTANT information on
	          upgrading previous versions of DOSSBOSS

			    Contents 

	    1. Installation & Running of DOSSBOSS For New Users
	    2. The DOSSBOSS Files
	    3. Installation Procedure When Upgrading
	    4. Information You May Lose When Doing an Upgrade

	


Ŀ
 1. Installation & Running of DOSSBOSS For New Users 


Installation Procedure for new DOSSBOSS users...

   * Copy ALL 20 DOSSBOSS files (listed in next section) to a subdirectory
     (not a root directory) from which you want to run DOSSBOSS.

   * Switch to that drive and directory and run the SETUP.EXE program.

Choice of subdirectory:

   It is also recommended to install DOSSBOSS on your most frequently
   used & accessed drive. Why? Generally, when you switch drives in DOSSBOSS,
   the directory window will simply show you the root and its first level
   directories of the drive you switch to. However, for the drive in which
   you install DOSSBOSS itself (say the C: drive), the state of the directory
   tree is saved between switching on & off of that drive. Therefore whenever
   you return to the drive on which DOSSBOSS was installed, the directory
   tree will appear just as it was when you last accessed that drive.

CONFIG.SYS & AUTOEXEC.BAT files:

   * It is recommended to set (or add) the FILES command in your CONFIG.SYS
     file to at least 15 files (e.g. FILES=15 ).

   * You may want to add the directory where you installed DOSSBOSS to your
     DOS PATH statement in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. This will allow you to
     start up DOSSBOSS from any directory.

Running DOSSBOSS:

   Once you have installed or upgraded DOSSBOSS, you should ALWAYS start
   DOSSBOSS by running the BOSS.BAT file. Once in DOSSBOSS take time to run
   the 'Welcome' and 'Basic Information' tools. They will give you the basic
   information you need to start finding your way around in the world of
   DOSSBOSS!

Moving DOSSBOSS to another directory after installation:

   You may move all the DOSSBOSS files to another directory at any time,
   but you must rerun the SETUP.EXE from that new directory before DOSSBOSS
   will work from there!


Ŀ
 2. The DOSSBOSS Files 


The 20 files included with DOSSBOSS are:

	ALLDIRS.EXE 	Utility for traversing a directory tree.
	BOSSKEY.COM 	Utility for passing keystrokes to programs.
	BOSSVIEW.EXE	File Viewing utility.
	BOSSYSNO.COM	Useful Batch file utility for getting user input.
	DBFIX.EXE	Used to fix corrupted initialization files.
	DBOSSI.ICO  	Windows Icon
	DBOSSTLS.SYS	Copy of System Tools for version 4.0.
	DB_ACTS.TXT 	Used by one of the tools supplied with DOSSBOSS.
	DB_JOBS!.DAT	File containing job scheduling information.
	DB_MAIN.EXE 	Called by BOSS.BAT
	DB_PAGES.DAT	File containing page information.
	DB_TOOLS.DAT	File containing tool information.
	DB_WELC.TXT 	Text file used by 'Welcome' Tool.
	DOSSBOSS.DOC	Main DOSSBOSS manual.
	FEATURES.TXT	Text file explaining the Features of DOSSBOSS
	HISTORY.TXT 	List of changes in latest versions of DOSSBOSS
	MUSTREAD.ME!	A 'Must Read' file to get started.
	REGISTER.FRM	Form to use for registering DOSSBOSS.
	SETUP.EXE	The DOSSBOSS Setup Utility
	SETUP.TXT 	Text file containing installation information and
	                important information for those upgrading.

If DOSSBOSS is distributed to others, ALL the above files must be included
in their original form and with their original names (and no other files can
be added). When you run the SETUP utility a number of other files will be
created, however these additional files may not be distributed to others.
The additional files created by the SETUP utility are:

	BOSS.BAT    	Used to run DOSSBOSS
	BOSSX.BAT   	Used by BOSS.BAT
	DB_INIT1.DAT	Initialization file.
	DB_STACK.DAT	File for Command Stack data.
	DB_TODO.DAT 	File containing to-do-list information.

NOTE: DO NOT CHANGE ANY OF THE FILE NAMES!!


Ŀ
 3. Installation Procedure When Upgrading 


If you are upgrading from an earlier version of DOSSBOSS, you have 2 choices:

   1. simply upgrade your version of DOSSBOSS in the directory where
      you previously installed DOSSBOSS.
   2. install version 4.0 in a new directory to check it out first
      before updating your previous version.

The latter option (#2) is highly recommended if you are a registered user
of a version PRIOR to v3.x. This is because when you update to a new version
of DOSSBOSS you become an unregistered user again until you re-register
(at the reduced upgrade price) and get a new registration id number (your
old one won't work anymore)! Thus you will again be subject to the
limitations that the unregistered version of DOSSBOSS places on you. Note,
however, that if you are currently using a DOSSBOSS 3.x version, you need
not reregister; your v3.x registration information will work for v4.0.

Therefore it is best to install this new version in a totally separate
directory. Then try it out and if you like what you see, register the new
version by filling in the form in the REGISTER.FRM file and mailing it in.
Then keep using your old version until you receive your new registration id
number in the mail.

Once you do decide its time to upgrade your old version, if you want to
avoid losing any pages, tools, jobs, to-do list items or your DOS stack
which you created while using the old version of DOSSBOSS, you must follow
the following procedure:

   * These 5 files should exist within your current DOSSBOSS directory:

	 DB_PAGES.DAT   (your pages)
	 DB_TOOLS.DAT   (your tools)
	 DB_JOBS!.DAT   (your jobs)
	 DB_TODO.DAT    (your to-do-list)
	 DB_STACK.DAT   (your DOS command stack)

     Rename them to...

	 DB_PAGES.OLD
	 DB_TOOLS.OLD
	 DB_JOBS!.OLD
	 DB_TODO.OLD
	 DB_STACK.OLD

     This is easiest done by entering the following DOS command from your
     DOSSBOSS directory...

	 copy db_*.dat *.old

   * Now Copy ALL new DOSSBOSS v4.0 (listed in section 1) to your DOSSBOSS
     directory (thereby overwriting your old files). Be careful not to
     erase the *.OLD files you just created!

   * Switch to your DOSSBOSS directory and run the SETUP.EXE program.

   * Now start up DOSSBOSS (using the BOSS.BAT) file.

   * Take a few moments to look at or run some of the new tools provided
     with DOSSBOSS v4.0

   * When you decide its time to restore your old set of pages, tools,
     to-do-list items & jobs, run the 'GET *.OLD DATA' tool found on the
     'DATA' page! This tool will retrieve all your data for you! It's a
     good idea to enter your registration information into DOSSBOSS
     and to restore the video mode to 43 or 50 rows if that is what you
     were using previously, BEFORE restoring your old data files!

Important Notes:

   * Do not try to re-use any of the other files (especially not the
     old initialization files called DB_INIT1.DAT)!

   * If you are planning to save & re-use your to-do-list file AND you
     are a registered user of version 2.5 or earlier, make sure you
     read the next section which contains information for making your
     to-do-list file compatible with v4.0 !!


Ŀ
 4. Information You May Lose When Doing an Upgrade... 


When doing an upgrade from a previous version, some information will be
lost and need to be re-entered manually. How much information needs to be
re-entered depends on how old your previous version of DOSSBOSS was! What
follows is a list of things you will need to do after upgrading to
prevent any loss of information...

1. Number of Screen Rows & Upgrading

   If you have your DOSSBOSS display set to 43 or 50 rows and you do an
   upgrade, the FIRST command you should run when you start DOSSBOSS again
   is the 'Row' command found under the 'System' command menu to set your
   row value back to what it was. This will avoid the possible loss of any
   tool references on your pages!

2. If you are upgrading from version 3.0 or later...

 * Function key assignments and bookmark settings will be lost & need
   to be re-entered.

3. If you are upgrading from version 2.5 or earlier...

 * DOSSBOSS will replace all the system tools in your tool file with
   new system tools. Therefore any changes you made to the system tools
   will be lost & need to be remade.

 * Function key assignments will also be lost.

 * Any tools which used the SYS_ALLDIRx tools will now need to set the
   variable %o to a single letter or digit BEFORE calling SYS_ALLDIRS1.
   See section on 'Traversing Directories' in the manual.

 * Because of the different type of menu system used in versions later
   than 2.5, the 'Run-Menu-Command' tool command is no longer available
   to you. DOSSBOSS will no longer recognize this command when it is found
   in a tool.

 * Your To-Do list will NOT be compatible with version 4.0 of DOSSBOSS!
   The file format of the to-do list was changed slightly so that the to-do
   list could be printed out in a nice format (using the 'Print To-Dos'
   tool found on the 'Utilitys' page).

   If your to-do list is small, the easiest thing to do is simply to replace
   your to-do-list file withe the one that comes with v4.0 & re-enter all
   your to-do list items again. However, if your to-do list is large (or
   you simply don't feel like re-typing it all in), you can make the file
   compatible with DOSSBOSS v4.0 fairly easily. Simply follow these steps:

     a) Open the file DB_TODO.DAT using an ascii text editor (however, do not
	use the DOS full screen editor 'EDIT', because it converts tab
	stops into spaces!). Don't use a fancy word processor that is going
	to add all sorts of formatting information to the file when you save
	it again.

     b) Each to-do item takes up one line, with the priority listed in the
	first column and the actual item in columns 2-56. To make the file
	compatible with DOSSBOSS v4.0 you must insert a single tab character
	in column 2 of every line (make sure you are in insert mode when you
	do this, and not in over-write mode). The last line of the file is
	a null line. Do not edit or remove that line!!

     c) Save the updated file. Make sure you made no changes other than that
	specified in step b) above!! Your to-do list will now work fine with
	DOSSBOSS v4.0