Uncompressed Files on Windows 3.1 disks

• Microsoft Windows operating system versions 3.1, 3.11

SUMMARY

Below is a list of files that are not compressed on the Windows 3.1 disk sets, and an explanation of why they are not compressed.

MORE INFORMATION

DISKx: Where x corresponds to the disk number. These files are 8 bytes in length. It would be useless to compress these files because they would still take up a sector on each disk. These files are used during System Administrator Setup (/A) to track which disks have been copied to the network.

SETUP.EXE: This file cannot be compressed because it is started from the source directory.

SETUP.INF: This file cannot be compressed because it is read from the source directory during first time setup.

SETUP.SHH: This file is the template file for performing hands-off installations (setup /H:setup.shh). Users must be able to read it from the disk, make a local copy, and modify it to suit their hardware. Although this file is intended to be used by System Administrators (where it will be read from a network), Setup supports SETUP /H from a disk.

SETUP.TXT: This file contains information about problems that may occur while running Setup. It must be readable from the disk in the unlikely event that Setup is unsuccessful.

XMSMMGR.EXE: This file is a TSR (terminate-and-stay-resident) version of HIMEM.SYS. It is run from the source directory when Setup has determined that there is not an XMS provider loaded in memory. Because it is run from the source directory (which may be a disk), it must be uncompressed.

EXPAND.EXE: This is the file expansion utility. It is used to manually expand files from the Windows 3.1 disks. It cannot be in compressed format.

SETUP.INI: This file is used during the implementation of Copy Disincentive. In certain cases, when the customer enters his or her name and company name, this information is written back to the disk that contains SETUP.INI, in encrypted format. This file cannot be compressed because it uses an encryption scheme, and is read directly from the disk and never copied to disk.

MSD.EXE: This program is used to diagnose a user's H/W. In cases where Setup fails, MSD (Microsoft Diagnostics) can be run directly from the disk to determine the system configuration. Therefore, the file cannot be compressed.

CONTROL.INF: This file contains a list of printers, which is used by Control Panel to set up printers.

PRTDUPD.INF: This file is used by Setup to upgrade printers. It is read into memory directly from the source directory (it is not copied to disk except during System Administrator's Setup -- /A) during printer upgrades, and therefore cannot be compressed.