DVX
===

DVX is a graphical desktop for DOS: windows, a Program Manager, a File
Manager, a Notepad, a Terminal, DVX BASIC, and more.


What you need
-------------

  * DOS on a 386 or newer (486 recommended, Pentium for the best speed)
  * A video card with a VESA BIOS and a 640x480 mode at 256 colors or
    more; many older cards need their VESA driver loaded first, such as
    UNIVBE (Scitech Display Doctor), S3VBE20 for S3 cards, or M64VBE for
    ATI Mach64 cards
  * 4 MB of extended memory (8 MB or more recommended)
  * A two-button mouse and its DOS driver
  * About 12 MB of free space on the hard disk (14 MB with the base set
    of fonts, 22 MB with all the fonts)


Installing
----------

From the CD: change to the CD drive and type SETUP, for example

    D:
    SETUP

From floppy disks: put Disk 1 in drive A: and type

    A:
    SETUP

After the licence, Setup asks what you would like to do: Install DVX,
Upgrade or repair DVX, or Remove DVX. To install, choose the folder
(C:\DVX unless you change it; type it, or click Browse... to pick it)
and which fonts to install. Setup checks the free space and unpacks
DVX. With floppies it asks for each disk it needs in turn. Setup can
also add a line to AUTOEXEC.BAT so DVX starts with the computer; it
shows the line first and keeps a copy of the old file as AUTOEXEC.DVX.

The fonts: None keeps DVX to its own font; the base set adds DejaVu
Sans, Sans Mono, and Serif in all their styles (about 2 MB); All adds
every font that comes with DVX (about 8 MB). A program that asks for a
font you did not install shows its text in DVX's own font, unless it
carries that font itself. Each font file holds the licence of the font
it was made from. With None or the base set, Setup does not ask for the
last floppy disks, which hold only fonts.

Setup never writes to the CD or the floppy disks.


Upgrading or repairing
----------------------

Run Setup again, choose Upgrade or repair DVX, and choose the folder
DVX is in. Your settings and saved files (the USER folder) are kept;
tick Start over to remove them instead. Setup starts with the fonts the
folder already has; choose others to add fonts or remove them.


Removing DVX
------------

Run Setup, choose Remove DVX, and choose the folder DVX is in (or run
SETUP.EXE in the DVX folder, for example C:\DVX\SETUP, which removes
DVX from that folder). Setup removes the files it installed and, if you
ask, your settings; files you added yourself stay. It can also take the
DVX line out of AUTOEXEC.BAT.


Starting DVX
------------

Type C:\DVX\DVX (or the folder you chose). If DVX cannot use the
display mode in its settings, hold down Shift while it starts, or type
DVX /SAFE, to start it in 640x480.


Unattended install
------------------

    SETUP /AUTO=C:\DVX [/FONTS=NONE|BASE|ALL] [/LOG=C:\SETUP.LOG]

installs without asking (the licence is taken as accepted, a folder
that has DVX is upgraded with its USER folder kept, and AUTOEXEC.BAT is
not changed). /FONTS chooses the fonts; without it Setup installs the
fonts the folder already has, or all of them in a new folder. The exit
code is 0 when DVX was installed.


DVX is free software under the MIT licence (see the licence in Setup).
Copyright 2026 Scott Duensing.
