OS/2 Configuration

The OS/2 subsystem handles OS2.INI compatibly with OS/2. The WINxxx APIs supported in this release of Windows NT are provided for this purpose. STARTUP.CMD is just a batch file; if you want to run the batch file, add it to the Startup group in the Windows NT Program Manager.

When the OS/2 subsystem starts for the first time, it checks the Registry for OS/2 subsystem configuration information. If it doesn't find any, it looks for information in the original CONFIG.SYS file and adds the information to the Registry. If the original CONFIG.SYS file does not exist or is not an OS/2 configuration file, the subsystem adds the following default information to the Registry:

PROTSHELL=c:\os2\pmshell.exe c:\os2\os2.ini c:\os2\os2sys.ini 
%SystemRoot%\system32\cmd.exe
SET COMSPEC=%SystemRoot%\system32\cmd.exe

The subsystem updates the environment variable, Os2LibPath, with LIBPATH information found in the original CONFIG.SYS file. The updated Os2LibPath is <systemroot>\SYSTEM32\OS2\DLL concatenated with the list of directories specified in the LIBPATH line of the original CONFIG.SYS file.

The PATH information found in the original CONFIG.SYS file is not entered automatically into the default Windows NT path. To add the location of OS/2 applications, use the System appletss in the Control Panel to add a PATH variable to the user environment variables. This information is appended automatically by Windows NT each time a user logs on to the system.

Windows NT supports the OS/2 configuration commands shown in the following table. If you use commands that are not supported, Windows NT ignores them.

Table 16.1 OS/2 Configuration Commands Supported by Windows NT

Command	Function
protshell	Specifies the command interpreter. Only the Windows NT command interpreter is supported.
devicename	Specifies a user-defined Windows NT device driver used by OS/2 applications.
libpath	Specifies the location of OS/2 16-bit dynamic-link libraries.
set	Sets environment variables.
country	Sets a country code that defines country-dependent information such as time, date, and currency conventions.
codepage	Specifies the code pages your system is prepared to use.
devinfo=KBD	Specifies the information the keyboard needs in order to use a particular code page.

The libpath, set, and devicename commands are processed as follows:

The libpath command appends path information to the OS/2 library path in the Windows NT environment. At the command prompt, you can change the library path for OS/2 applications by using the os2libpath command.
The following set commands are ignored:

set path	set comspec	set video_devices
set vio_ibmvga	set vio_vga	set prompt

The devicename command specifies a device driver compatible with Windows NT for use with an OS/2 application. The syntax for the devicename command is as follows:
DEVICENAME=OS/2devicename [[path][NTdevicename]]

Devicename is the logical name that OS/2 applications use to address the device. Path and NTdevicename specify the Windows NT device driver to which the OS/2 device name is mapped. If these are not specified, the device is mapped to \DEVICE\os/2devicename.

Changing OS/2 Configuration Information

Although the OS/2 configuration information is stored in the Registry, you can edit that information just as you would edit an OS/2 CONFIG.SYS file. To edit the information, you must use an OS/2 text editor.

Note To change configuration information, you must be logged on as a member of the Administrators group.1

To change configuration information

While running Windows NT, start an OS/2 text editor in a window.
Open a file called C:\CONFIG.SYS.
Windows NT retrieves the configuration information from the Registry and stores it in a temporary file that you can edit.
Edit the configuration information.
Save and close the file.
Quit the editor.
Windows NT stores the new information in the registry.
Log off from Windows NT, and restart your computer.