After BIOS initialization, the operating system attempts to determine the current configuration, including whether the computer is a docking station. This is done by using a hardware profile that Windows 95 selects before CONFIG.SYS is processed. The hardware profile is built by a detection process that collects information about interrupt usage, BIOS serial and parallel ports, BIOS computer identification, Plug and Play BIOS docking-station data, and, if possible, docking-station data that is unique to each OEM. Then the detection process builds a 2-byte value known as the current hardware profile (or the current configuration).
Each hardware profile has a name that matches a top-level menu item in a multiconfigured CONFIG.SYS file (that is, the long text in the menu, not the section name enclosed in square brackets). Windows 95 automatically selects that multiconfiguration menu item and processes the corresponding section of CONFIG.SYS.
CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT are processed at this point. Although these files are not required for Windows 95, they are used for backward compatibility with applications created for MS-DOS or Windows 3.x. In Windows 95, CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT are processed much like they are processed under MS-DOS 6.x. Drivers and TSRs specified in these files are loaded in real mode.
For more information, see "System Startup Files" later in this chapter.
Note The real-mode MS-DOS errors are standard, as documented in the MS-DOS 6.0 Programmer's Reference.