The following is a series of short technical articles concerning Windows 95 and Multimedia that were written by Richard McGoey and uploaded in the form of ASCII text files to the Windows 95 Forums of Compuserve and America Online. In some cases I have revised and updated the articles on this page from their original publication.

This text document provides links and references to currently hard-to-find technical information, drivers and software on a new type of graphics standard that is emerging and promises to make Windows 95 Graphics and Games as fast and high performance as DOS based Graphics and Games.

You have probably heard or read (like me) that great, FAST, high performance, Windows games are being developed and in some cases are released and available to buy. If you are not a game programmer who has purchased the MS Windows Game Software Development Kit (SDK), you (like me) may have been confused and underinformed as to how this will be accomplished.

After the August 1995 release of Win95, Microsoft made available to Game Software Developers a new standard called DirectX. As I understand it, DirectX provides Windows graphics programs with DIRECT ACCESS to Graphics, Video and Sound HARDWARE (similar to the way programmers have directly accessed this hardware in DOS applications).

To illustrate, when the gamer installs a DOS game, he provides setup information that specifies his hardware: For example, Standard VGA, SoundBlaster16, DMAs, IRQs, Port Addresses, etc., etc. With these specifications, DOS game developers can DIRECTLY ACCESS the user's hardware and greatly increase Graphic and Sound performance. The new Windows DirectX promises similar Direct Access to Hardware in Windows and similar great performance.

Sources of Information, Software and Downloads:

Vol.14 PC Magazine #21, Dec. 5, 1995, Pages 318 - 320.
Call DirectX: Multimedia Games Get Windows' Number.
by Jan Ozer and Larry Seltzer.

Vol.14 PC Magazine #21, Dec. 5, 1995, Pages 346 - 352.
See You Soon: Technologies for '96 and Beyond.
Chip Designers and Graphic Accelerator Vendors have big plans for Spring 1996.
by Jon Hill

Vol.15 PC Magazine #5, March 12, 1996, Page 362.
After Hours section.
The Ultimate DOOM for Windows 95
CD-ROM Pick Hit

Compuserve WinMM forum. (MS Windows Multimedia forum)
Windows Game Development, Library 12
Download: WinGfl.zip (WinG, Windows Game final version 1.0)

MediaAge Internet Home Page
http://www.mediaage.com
Contains links to Drivers and information about MediaAge's new games.

MediaAge Internet Driver Page
http://www.mediaage.com/
Includes the following downloads:
* Win95 DirectX drivers (1.6 MB) with install instructions
* WinG Driver (0.8 MB) with install instructions

The Monolith DirectX Internet Page
http://www.megamedia.com/
Provides DirectX information and demo downloads
Downloads include:
* WAPSY.ZIP 301KB, Awesome Parallax Scrolling demo
* MELTDOWN.ZIP 1.4MB, Meltdown interactive demo
* MELTSCRN.ZIP 1.4MB, Meltdown screensaver
* various screen shots in GIF format of Win95 Game Sampler CD

January 1996 issue of Computer Gaming World.
Issue apparently comes with CD-ROM containing demo of MediaAge's JOSEPHINE - PORTRAIT OF AN ASSASSIN with DirectX and WinG drivers and integrated install application.

February 1996 issue of Computer Gaming World.
Issue comes with CD-ROM containing demo of Sierra On-Line's THEXDER arcade game with DirectX drivers and integrated install application.

A Microsoft Win95 Game Sampler CD-ROM is available now in retail stores that contains DirectX drivers with installer and samples of Win95 games that use DirectX.

The Microsoft Windows 95 Games Internet Page
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/games
Contains a description of the Win95 Game Sampler CD-ROM and its contents.
Also contains links and information about Windows 95 games.

Games that apparently use DirectX and Win95
* The Ultimate DOOM for Windows 95 (alias DOOM95)
* The Hive
* Josephine - Portrait of an Assassin
* Thexder
* Silent Thunder
* All games on the MS Win95 Game Sampler CD-ROM

I have completed downloading and installing DirectX and WinG on my Pentium 100 Triton PCI-ISA based system. I installed these drivers on my system at this time for testing purposes. Currently I do not have any applications that utilize DirectX. I told my gaming teenage sons that I would not purchase any more DOS based games; Instead the next game would be Win95, 32-bit and DirectX.

It is my understanding that if you buy a new game that was written to use DirectX, the game CD-ROM will contain the "REDIST" DirectX and other drivers necessary and the game's setup will install the drivers.

TIPS ABOUT INSTALLING DirectX:
* Unzip to a temporary directory.
* Change directory to \DirectX\
* Run DXsetup.exe from Win95.
* Choose Reinstall DirectX.
* You will have the option to "Restore Win95 drivers" after install.
* You may get a message asking to replace existing display drivers because they have not been tested with DirectX. I chose NO because my new Diamond GT display drivers were written to work correctly with DirectX.
* INSTALL configured the following components on my system:
--- DirectDraw(tm) 4.02.00.095 certified
--- DirectSound(tm) 4.02.00.095 certified
--- DirectPlay(tm) 4.02.00.095 certified
--- Audio Driver 4.02.00.095 certified
--- Display driver 4.02.00.241 [Diamond GT Win95 drivers 2/96]
* I recommend that you create a new DirectX drivers shortcut as follows:
Shortcut name: DirectX Setup, Config, Removal
Shortcut target: \Redist\DirectX\DXsetup.exe
With this shortcut you can check the status of the DirectX drivers.

TIPS ABOUT INSTALLING WinG:
* Unzip into a temporary directory.
* Read the Readme.txt file. The file states, "WinG is designed to be the absolute fastest way to "blt" [verb] DIBs [Device Independent Bitmaps] under Windows."
* Run Setup2.exe from Windows.
* WinG INSTALL will create a "WinG SDK" folder containing several cool demos (Doggie, Frog & Spinning Cube) and an informative help file.

By the way, I found the Monolith Wapsy and Meltdown demos to be incredibly fast and interesting. They ran great on my Triton PCI Pentium 100, Diamond PCI Stealth64 Video 2201, SoundBlaster16 and WaveBlasterII. BUT they would fatally CRASH Win95 after exiting the demos UNLESS my video was configured for 640x480x256 mode. In that mode no crashes occurred. Richard McGoey

It is easy to create a WIN95 shortcut to a Control Panel Applet. Simply right mouse click the Control Panel Applet and select NEW / SHORTCUT.

It is not as easy (and perhaps UNDOCUMENTED, or UNDERDOCUMENTED) how to create a WIN95 shortcut to the particular, desired "TAB" within the Applet.

This text file explains how to "shorten the shortcut" if you want to quickly go directly to a particular TAB.

For my personal use, I created two Control Panel TAB shortcuts:

The first goes directly to the Display Applet, SETTINGS TAB, so I can quickly change video display color depth and resolution.

The second goes directly to the Multimedia Applet, MIDI TAB, so I can quickly change my MIDI configuration.

Files with .CPL extensions are Control Panel Applet files.
Here is my Directory of C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\*.CPL

ACCESS.CPL
DESK.CPL
INTL.CPL
MAIN.CPL
SYSDM.CPL
TIMEDATE.CPL
KCFG.CPL
JOY.CPL
MODEM.CPL
MMSYS.CPL
APPWIZ.CPL
NETCPL.CPL
PASSWORD.CPL
13 file(s)

Many of the Win95 CPL Applets have "TABS" (meaning multiple pages or multiple windows of options with an index selection "tab" sticking up). When you call a CPL Applet the default is the first tab (like page one).

To create one of these "shortened shortcuts", right mouse click in the void area of your desktop and select NEW / SHORTCUT. You can later rename the shortcut and move it where you want by right mouse dragging it to the desired location.

Here are the command lines I used for the Display, Settings Tab shortcut:
Shortcut Target: C:\WINDOWS\CONTROL.EXE DESK.CPL,,3
Icon filename: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\DESKCP16.DLL

Here are the command lines I used for the Multimedia, MIDI Tab shortcut:
Shortcut Target: C:\WINDOWS\CONTROL.EXE MMSYS.CPL,,2
Icon filename: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\MIDIMAP.DRV

Although I have not yet experimented further than these two shortcuts, I expect that users can, by trial and error, create shortcuts to other WIN95 Control Panel "TABS" based on my two examples.

Much of this information I learned from, and is documented in, a PC MAGAZINE article or note that I read and used over a year ago. I think it was about mid-1994, but I am not sure of the date and was unable to locate the back issue. I give full credit (and appreciation) to the author of that article or note. It applied to creating WIN3.1 program items in program manager to directly call control panel applets. My information supplements that article for WIN95 shortcuts to CPL tabs.

I hope this explanation and rambling helps someone in their endless PC upgrading, performance tuning and troubleshooting. Richard McGoey

If you suddenly you find, after restart, that Win95 is running what looks like Win3.1's old Program Manager and all your old "Groups" have come back from the dead, and are a mess, and there is no Taskbar and Right Mouse Click does nothing, here is the easy fix.

You probably, innocently, ran some Win3.1 program to "clean things up." In my case, I ran Norton Desktop for Windows [3.1] Uninstall. I wanted to get rid of this now old (and possibly dangerous) group of utilities. NDW Uninstall edited my SYSTEM.INI and "restored" my Program Manager. The Uninstall program was unaware (in 1992) that a new "Shell" would replace the PROGMAN in 1995.

The easy, but not so obvious, (perhaps UNDOCUMENTED or UNDERDOCUMENTED) solution is to edit C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.INI with a text editor and change the line:

Shell=Progman.exe

back to:

Shell=Explorer.exe

After restart, Program Manager will go away and your Win95 Desktop, Taskbar, and Right Mouse Click functions will reappear with no damage done.

If you, or the PC end users you shepard, WANT Win95 to look and feel like the old Win3.1, you can follow PC MAGAZINE's "Interface Tip #66" and "Revive the real Program Manager." SEE, PC MAGAZINE, 9/12/95, Volume 14, Number 15, Page 328. It says to, ". . . edit SYSTEM.INI in Notepad and change the line [from SHELL=EXPLORER.EXE to] shell=progman.exe."

I hope this explanation and rambling helps someone in their endless PC upgrading, performance tuning and troubleshooting. Richard McGoey

The new improved IDFedit, released by Microsoft's, Multimedia, MIDI group in late September 1995, Version 1.00, is an excellent utility for creating custom IDF files for non-standard (not General MIDI) MIDI devices. It is a great improvement over the old "MIDI Mapper" from Win3.1.

DOWNLOADING IDFedit.zip:

You can download it from Internet from:
Midi and Music Home Page

or set your browser to download & click on:
IDFEDIT.ZIP

You can download it from COMPUSERVE.
Compuserve's Microsoft Windows 95 Forum
Go MSWIN95
Using the Search function, search for file name: IDFEDIT.ZIP

You can download it from AMERICA ONLINE.
Go to the Windows Software Library.
Search for: IDFEDIT

Apparently, it is also on MSN.

Microsoft granted permission to freely distribute it to public BBS's.

This text file explains some of the pitfalls I experienced in using the utility and provides tips and suggestions for using IDFedit to EASILY and QUICKLY create an IDF for your MIDI device. I learned these tips through the long, hard process of trial and error. I hope these suggestions save someone some time:

1) Unzip IDFedit.ZIP to C:\WINDOWS\CONFIG\
This is where Win95's setup placed GENERAL.IDF for General MIDI devices. It is also where Control Panel / Multimedia / MIDI tab expects to find IDF's.

2) Create a new "Shortcut" to Control Panel / Multimedia / MIDI tab.
To create this special shortcut, right mouse click in the void area of your desktop and select NEW / SHORTCUT. You can later rename the shortcut and move it to the folder where you keep your MIDI applications and utilities (including the icon to IDFedit) by right mouse dragging it to the desired location.

Here are the command lines I used for the Multimedia, MIDI Tab shortcut:
Shortcut Target: C:\WINDOWS\CONTROL.EXE MMSYS.CPL,,2
Icon filename: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\MIDIMAP.DRV
Start in Directory: C:\WINDOWS\CONFIG\

3) Run IDFedit and begin by adding New Instrument by the pull down menu command Edit / New Instrument or by clicking once the button bar button with the light blue MIDI keyboard icon.

This will create the instrument entry: [untitled1]

Now double click on [untitled1]

Fill out the following fields:
* ID: Instrument Name
* INFO: Manufacturer
* INFO: Product Name

SAVE the file as MyIDF.IDF

I named my file YamPSR47.IDF for my Yamaha PSR-47 MIDI Keyboard. I suggest you use a name that describes your instrument.

4) I suggest creating the "Patch Map" and "Percussion Map" outside of IDFedit using a plain text (ASCII) editor. I decided this was EASIER and QUICKER than the Data Entry (Edit line item) function built into IDFedit. After you create the simple text file, you can use the IDFedit PASTE function to fill in all 128 General MIDI Instrument fields with ONE COMMAND! You will also have a plain text file backup of your valuable custom map information.

5) Here are the steps to create the text file and paste it into IDFedit:

* Choose a plain text (ASCII) editor that has a "Line Counter". This is very important because the Line number of the text file will represent the GENERAL MIDI INSTRUMENT NUMBER (NUMBERS 1 TO 128). Note that Win95's Notepad and Wordpad do NOT have a "Line Counter." I used Microsoft's DOS "EDIT", available by typing "EDIT" at any DOS prompt. It has a "Line Counter." You can choose any editor with a "Line Counter."

* On line 1 type the number that should be sent to your non-standard (not General MIDI) device for Acoustic Piano. Strike Enter.

* On line 2 type the number that should be sent to your non-standard (not General MIDI) device for Bright Piano. Strike Enter.

* Continue typing one number per line for 128 lines. Watch the Line Counter.

* On line 128 type the number that should be sent to your non-standard (not General MIDI) device for Gunshot. Strike Enter.

* Save the file as: C:\WINDOWS\CONFIG\MyIDF.TXT

* Now open: C:\WINDOWS\CONFIG\MyIDF.TXT with an editor that supports Windows Clipboard Copy & Paste function. I used Notepad. Select all 128 lines including the last ENTER on line 128 (Carriage Return / Line Feed). Copy the block (all) to the Clipboard.

* With this data in the clipboard, run IDFedit, open MyIDF.IDF, select Patch Map tab, select all 128 fields by clicking on field 1, then, with SHIFT held down, mark all fields using the down arrow cursor key.

* Right mouse click on the marked selection. Choose PASTE from popup menu and ZAP!, all your patches are pasted into the Patch Map.

* Save MyIDF.IDF

6) Note that IDFedit assigns General MIDI instrument numbers starting with NUMBER ONE and ending with NUMBER 128. My old data from the Win3.1 MIDI Mapper assigned numbers starting with NUMBER ZERO and ending with NUMBER 127. If your patch map data is in the following format, you must add ONE to EVERY NUMBER.

0 Acoustic Piano 3 ==ChangeTo==> 1 Acoustic Piano 4
1 Bright Piano 52 ==ChangeTo==> 2 Bright Piano 53
2 Electric Piano 5 ==ChangeTo==> 3 Electric Piano 6
. . .
126 Applause 90 ==ChangeTo==> 127 Applause 91
127 Gunshot 110 ==ChangeTo==> 128 Gunshot 111

7) Generally, repeat step 5 above to create a "Percussion Map", EXCEPT for the following points.

* Run text editor and create a new file: C:\WINDOWS\CONFIG\MyDrums.TXT Strike ENTER 35 times to create 34 empty lines.

* On line 35 type the number that should be sent to your non-standard (not General MIDI) device for Acoustic Bass Drum. Strike Enter.

* On line 36 type the number that should be sent to your non-standard (not General MIDI) device for Bass Drum1. Strike Enter.

* Continue typing one number per line until line 81.

* On line 81 type the number that should be sent to your non-standard (not General MIDI) device for Open Triangle. Strike Enter.

* Save the file as: C:\WINDOWS\CONFIG\MyDrums.TXT

* Select lines 35 to 81 (mark the block) and copy this block to the Windows Clipboard. Do not copy empty lines 1 to 34.

* With this data in the clipboard, run IDFedit, open MyIDF.IDF, select Percussion Map tab, select fields 35 to 81 by clicking on field 35, then, with SHIFT held down, mark all fields using the down arrow cursor key.

* Right mouse click on the marked selection. Choose PASTE from popup menu and ZAP!, all your patches are pasted into the Percussion Map.

* Save MyIDF.IDF

8) Use MIDI tab shortcut (described in step 2 above) and "Add New Instrument". Note that if you later modify your IDF, it seems that you must REMOVE the Instrument using the MULTIMEDIA / ADVANCED tab and then "Add New Instrument" again so that Win95 reads the modified IDF.

I hope this explanation and rambling helps someone in their endless PC upgrading, performance tuning and troubleshooting. Richard McGoey

This text file explains C:\WINDOWS\DOSSTART.BAT, a batch file that WIN95's setup program created when I upgraded from WIN3.1.

DOSstart.bat contains the left over TSR and device driver command lines that used to be in C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT but were REMarked out (REM) by WIN95 setup because WIN95 contained superior built in device drivers that used little or no conventional memory.

DOSstart.bat is run (AUTOmaticallyEXECuted) when you "Shut Down" Win95 and select the option: "Restart the computer in MS-DOS mode"

In my case DOSstart.bat contains 2 command lines. The first loads my MS Mouse Driver. The second loads my MSCDEX (Microsoft CD-ROM Extensions) Driver.

I wanted to edit these 2 command lines (change the command order, parameters and LOADHIGH the drivers). I could see that Restarting my computer in MS-DOS mode executed these lines but I could not find any documentation how the process worked.

I searched for an explanation in the MS WIN95 Resource Kit on CD-ROM and in Book form. I searched the C:\WINDOWS\*.TXT files. I searched WIN.INI and SYSTEM.INI. Finally I discovered the batch file, DOSstart.bat.

DOSstart.bat seems to be UNDOCUMENTED or perhaps UNDERDOCUMENTED. I could find no mention of it in the Official Microsoft online or printed documentation. Maybe it is documented in 3rd party books and articles. Or maybe I missed it in my searching.

I now think of DOSstart.bat as the tail end of the old DOS AUTOEXEC.BAT. Many of you may have figured this out right away but it took me a while to find it.

Another use for DOSstart.bat is at startup (system boot). If you hit F8 at bootup when "Starting Windows 95 . . ." appears you get an options menu. This menu is well documented in the "Introducing Microsoft Windows95" Manual on pages 82 to 83. If you select the option "Command Prompt Only", CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT execute and you get a C:\> command prompt. BUT, in my case, NO DOS MOUSE or DOS CD-ROM. If you type "DOSSTART" the batch file runs (it is in the PATH) and loads the drivers needed to run pure DOS complete with DOS drivers (if for some reason you need MS-DOS mode at startup time.)

I hope this explanation and rambling helps someone in their endless PC upgrading, performance tuning and troubleshooting. Richard McGoey