Category : Utilities for DOS and Windows Machines
Archive   : HOTBOOT4.ZIP
Filename : HOTBOOT4.DOC

HOTBOOT4 reworked by J. E. Arkay 12/89

Instant 'warm boot' (if the keyboard is still working) for crashed programs
(or to get out of ones you can't figure out how to exit !).

Ctrl-Alt-Insert restores the situation just before Hotboot was installed, wiping
out all resident programs in memory including Hotboot on up.
Your RAM disk will be preserved (even in Extended or Expanded memory).
It resets the timer chip, typematic rate and video mode in case games or dumb
programs have messed with them.

This version tested on '386 and AT clones, with PC-DOS 3.3 and dual Herc/CGA
video cards. CAVEAT EMPTOR !!!!

You can install it in your AUTOEXEC, just after the last TSR you'll always
want to keep loaded, EXCEPT your DOS shell. Some shells may work, but ours
gets confused when you install Hotboot after it.
We run our DOS shell from a .BAT file that installs Hotboot just before the
shell. After you hit Ctrl-Alt-Ins, running that .BAT file re-installs Hotboot.

Our PathMinder PM.BAT file for DOS 3.3 is the last thing our AUTOEXEC runs,
and looks like:

@Echo Off
C:
CD \PathMind
\path\HOTBOOT3
PMV /m/x

When we get stuck, we just hit CTRL-ALT-INS and then enter PM.

It's great for assembly programming (it works on about half your crashes).
And, we use it to remove resident programs before running bulbous programs like
AutoCAD and Windows that need all the memory they can get.

It doesn't work in Windows (which seems to grab EVERY interrupt) or QuickBasic.
DOS's SHARE will cause any program you run after HotBooting to crash.

It saves all 256 interrupt vectors and the Video mode when it's installed.
Ctrl-Alt-Insert restores interrupts and the video mode, marks all RAM past
Hotboot as unused, tells DOS that Hotboot is the active program, resets the
8253 timer to its bootup period, sets the Typematic rate to 10 cps with 500 mS
delay, and issues DOS func 4Ch (program terminate).
Obviously, it is dangerous to Hotboot during disk activity.
If you HOTBOOT out of a program with open files (like AutoCAD), you may have
to run CHKDSK to get rid of the leftover fragments.

Hotboot could be even better if we could only find detailed documentation on
function 4Ch...