DVX User’s Guide: DOS Visual eXecutive

DVX always has its own built-in font. Setup can also install the base set of fonts: DejaVu Sans, DejaVu Sans Mono, and DejaVu Serif, each in regular, bold, italic, and bold italic, in sizes for the screen and for printing. The base set takes about 8 MB. Software lists it as “DVX Fonts”.

The DVX CD also holds the More Fonts add-on: more than forty more typefaces for documents, programs, and games, including condensed DejaVu, Arimo, Tinos, Cousine, display faces, and pixel fonts (see Section 3.6).

A program that asks for a font you did not install shows its text in DVX’s own font instead, unless it carries that font itself. Some programs do, such as Welcome and the DVX Demo.

Every font file holds its own license. The License…​ button of the Font dialog shows it.

DVX comes with four color themes, in the style of CDE (the Common Desktop Environment), GEOS Ensemble, Hot Dog Stand, and Windows 3.1. You choose a theme, change single colors, and save your own themes on the Colors page of the Control Panel (see Section 7.5).

Three desktop pictures (wallpaper) come with DVX, and you can use any BMP, JPEG, PNG, or GIF picture of your own. You choose one on the Desktop page of the Control Panel (see Section 7.6).

DVX plays short sounds when it starts and ends, when a message appears, and, if you choose, when a window opens or closes. You choose the sound for each event on the Sounds page of the Control Panel (see Section 7.12). DVX finds the sound hardware by itself; without any, DVX and its programs work the same, silently.

For MIDI music on a sound card’s music chip, DVX comes with two General MIDI instrument banks, DMXOPL and DMXOPL3, made to sound like a Roland Sound Canvas.

The DVX CD also holds the DVX General MIDI add-on, which gives a Gravis UltraSound or a Sound Blaster AWE32 or AWE64 General MIDI instruments (see Section 3.6).

This guide is for anyone who uses DVX on a DOS PC. You do not need to know how to program. You should know how to turn the computer on and type a command at the DOS prompt. Where DVX needs something done at the DOS level, such as loading a mouse driver from AUTOEXEC.BAT, the guide explains the steps.

If you are new to DVX, read the first chapters in order: they take you from checking your computer to using the desktop.

The index at the end lists every topic, setting, and message.

This guide shows the things you see and do in these ways:

The examples assume that DVX is installed in C:\DVX, which is where Setup suggests putting it. If you chose another folder, use that folder instead. Your own settings and files are in the USER folder inside it, C:\DVX\USER.

To click means to press and release the left mouse button; to double-click means to click twice quickly. To check a check box means to click it so a mark shows in it; to clear it means to click it again so the mark goes away. You can do almost everything with the keyboard as well (see Section 5.2).

DVX needs an 80486DX or newer processor, that is, a 486 with a math coprocessor: a 486DX, DX2, or DX4, or any Pentium. A 486SX needs a 487 math coprocessor added. DVX does not run on a 386. A faster processor makes everything quicker. It matters most for music modules (MOD, S3M, XM, and IT files), which the computer mixes itself unless a Gravis UltraSound or a Sound Blaster AWE plays them on its own voices.

DVX needs 4 MB of extended memory (the memory above the first megabyte), and 8 MB or more is recommended. DVX brings what it needs to use that memory: you do not have to load anything extra for it.

Each running program uses memory. To leave more room for your programs:

To see how much memory is in use now, open the Task Manager with Ctrl+Esc: its bottom line shows the memory in use and the total. Help › System Information…​ in Program Manager shows the total and the free memory at the moment you open it.

DVX needs DOS 3.1 or later, and DOS 5.0 or later is recommended. You start DVX from the DOS prompt. DVX is tested with FreeDOS 1.3. It asks DOS only for what MS-DOS has offered since version 3.1, so other versions of DOS that work like MS-DOS, such as MS-DOS itself and PC DOS, should run it as well.

A few things need a later DOS or an extra driver:

DVX needs no memory manager, such as HIMEM.SYS or EMM386, for itself (see Section 2.2.2).

The drivers DVX uses, such as the mouse driver, a VESA driver, and a network packet driver, are DOS programs you load before you start DVX. The usual place for them is the file AUTOEXEC.BAT in the top folder of your start-up disk (normally C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT), which DOS runs each time the computer starts. Settings that DVX reads from DOS, such as BLASTER for a Sound Blaster, also go there, as SET lines.

DVX draws its screen in a graphics mode, which it sets through the video card’s VESA BIOS (also called VBE). Nearly every video card made from about 1992 on has one. DVX needs:

DVX can use the card’s modes with 256 colors, 32 thousand colors, 65 thousand colors, or 16 million colors. Of the 16 million color modes it uses those that store a pixel in 32 bits; it does not use modes that store a pixel in 24 bits.

You pick the resolution and colors on the Video page of the Control Panel, which lists every mode your card offers (see Section 7.7). Setup itself normally runs at 640x480, and after a new install DVX starts in the mode Setup used, because that mode is known to work on your computer. Your monitor must be able to show the mode you choose; if it cannot, start DVX in safe video mode (see Section 3.13).

Smooth text, where the edges of letters are shaded, needs a mode with more than 256 colors.

Older cards whose VESA BIOS is version 1, or which cannot give DVX direct access to all of their video memory, work too, but the screen updates more slowly on them. A VESA driver such as UniVBE may make such a card faster.

Many older cards have no VESA BIOS of their own, or only an incomplete one. They need a VESA driver, a small DOS program that is loaded before DVX:

To use one:

If DVX finds no mode it can use, it does not start. It prints this message at the DOS prompt:

“DVX could not start: the video card offered no usable graphics mode. DVX needs a VESA video BIOS with a mode of at least 640x480 at 256 colors or more. Many older cards need their VESA driver loaded first: UniVBE (Scitech Display Doctor) works with most cards, and some cards came with their own, such as S3VBE20 for S3 cards and M64VBE for ATI Mach64 cards. The details are in DVX.LOG in the USER folder.”

Setup needs the same kind of video. Without it, Setup says “DVX Setup needs a video card with a VESA video BIOS and a 640x480 mode at 256 colors or more; many older cards need their VESA driver loaded first, such as UniVBE (see README.TXT).”

For more help with the screen, see Section 11.3.

DVX finds the sound hardware by itself. If DVX.INI names a sound driver, DVX tries that one first; otherwise, or if it does not start, DVX looks, in this order, for a Windows Sound System board, a Sound Blaster, a Gravis UltraSound, a sound device on the printer port, and the PC speaker. Without any sound hardware, DVX and its programs work the same, silently.

Sound Blasters, Windows Sound System boards, and the Gravis UltraSound can also record, from a microphone, the line input, or a CD, as the card has them. The Sound Recorder uses this (see Section 8.8).

The Sounds page of the Control Panel shows the sound device in use, lets you choose another, and sets the volume (see Section 7.12). If there is no sound, see Section 11.7.

DVX plays MIDI music in one of several ways, which you choose under MIDI music on the Sounds page of the Control Panel. With the first choice, “Automatic”, DVX uses a Gravis UltraSound’s or Sound Blaster AWE’s recorded instruments when it has them, else the card’s FM music chip, else its own built-in synthesizer, which needs no MIDI hardware at all. Changes to the sound driver and to MIDI take effect when DVX next starts.

DVX uses an Ethernet network card through the card’s DOS packet driver, which you load before DVX. You also need DVX’s Networking part. With them you can use Telnet and the secure link over a network in the Terminal, the package server in Software, and BASIC programs that use the network. Chapter 4 explains how to set it up.

DVX uses the serial ports COM1 to COM4 and finds out by itself which kind of serial chip each one has (8250, 16450, 16550, or 16550A). The Terminal, in the Communications part, uses them for modems, direct serial links, and the secure link (see Chapter 9). The serial ports can also drive a serial printer.

DVX prints on printers connected to LPT1 to LPT3 or to a serial port, and can also print to a file. You choose the printer on the Printer page of the Control Panel (see Section 7.10). It knows these kinds of printer:

DVX uses joysticks on the standard game port: two joysticks with two buttons each, or one joystick with four axes and four buttons, such as a flight stick with a throttle or rudder. When no joystick is found, programs can use the keyboard as a joystick instead. You set this up on the Game Controllers page of the Control Panel (see Section 7.11).

The top folder of the DVX CD holds:

You cannot run DVX from the CD itself: it holds Setup and DVX in packed form. Install DVX on your hard disk first.

The floppy disks are 1.44 MB disks, numbered Disk 1, Disk 2, and so on. Disk 1 holds SETUP.EXE, README.TXT, SETUP.INI, and the start of DVX; each of the other disks holds the next piece. Setup asks for each disk in turn. The last disks hold only the base set of fonts, so if you choose not to install the fonts, Setup does not ask for them.

The floppy disks have no add-ons. You can install the add-ons later from the package server with the Software program (see Section 10.3).

Setup never writes to the CD or the floppy disks, so you can keep the floppy disks write-protected.

DVX, its parts, its fonts, and its add-ons are also published on the package server, where the Software program finds updates to them (see Section 10.5).

To start Setup from the CD:

To start Setup from the floppy disks:

Setup changes the screen to graphics. On a dark blue background it shows a large gold DVX, the words “The DOS Visual eXecutive” and “Windows, programs, and games for your DOS computer”, and a window titled DVX Setup, which shows one page at a time.

You can use Setup with the mouse or the keyboard, as everywhere in DVX: Tab moves from one control to the next, Alt with an underlined letter chooses that control, and Enter or Space presses the button that has the focus.

Until Setup starts installing, every page has an Exit button, which quits Setup without installing anything. Closing the DVX Setup window with its Close box also quits Setup, and stops an install that is in progress.

The first page says “Welcome! Setup puts DVX on your hard disk in a few minutes.” and shows the license that DVX is distributed under, the MIT license, in a box you can scroll.

The next page asks “What would you like to do?” It has three choices, each with a picture and a button. Click either the picture or the button.

If DVX is already in the folder Setup suggests, the page also says “DVX is already installed in C:\DVX.” (with your folder) and Upgrade or repair DVX has the focus. Otherwise Install DVX has the focus.

< Back returns to the license.

After you choose Install DVX, Setup asks where to put DVX, in the box Install DVX in this folder. It suggests the folder DVX on the drive the computer started from, normally C:\DVX. (On a DOS older than 4.0, which does not tell programs that drive, the box starts empty: type the folder.)

Setup checks the folder when you click Next >:

The next page lists everything you can choose. It has three groups, each explained in a section of its own:

On a new install the page starts with the base set of fonts, every part checked, and no add-ons.

Under the choices, the line “DVX needs about n MB of disk space.” changes as you check and clear them.

< Back returns to the folder page.

Before it unpacks anything, Setup checks that the disk has room. If not, it says “There is not enough free space for DVX on that disk. DVX needs about n bytes; n bytes are free.” Free some space on the disk, or click < Back and choose a folder on another disk.

After you click Install, Setup says “Setup is installing DVX. This can take a few minutes.” Under it are the name of the file being unpacked (with the floppy disks, “Disk n: file”), a progress bar, and a panel that shows a different feature of DVX every few seconds: “Windows, your way”, “Build your own programs”, “Games, sound, and music”, “Help on every screen”, and “Files and the world”.

When DVX itself is unpacked, Setup installs the add-ons you checked. Setup checks every file as it unpacks it; if a file on the CD or a floppy disk is damaged, Setup stops and says so.

To stop, click Cancel. While Setup is unpacking DVX, it then returns to the What to install page and says what happened:

If you click Cancel while the add-ons are being installed, DVX itself is already in place. Setup says “Setup was canceled: name and the add-ons after it are not as you chose. Software (in Program Manager) can install and remove them.” and goes on to finish the install and show the last page.

With the floppy disks, Setup asks for each disk it needs:

Clicking Cancel in any of these stops the install, as described above.

When the files are unpacked on a new install, or on an upgrade with Start over checked, Setup writes DVX’s settings file, DVX.INI, into the USER folder. It sets DVX’s screen mode to the mode Setup itself is running in, normally 640x480, because that mode is known to work on your computer. You can choose a higher resolution later in the Control Panel (see Section 7.7).

If the file cannot be written, Setup says “DVX was installed, but the settings file in folder could not be written.”

If you checked Start DVX when the computer starts (AUTOEXEC.BAT) on the folder page, and AUTOEXEC.BAT does not start DVX already, Setup says “Setup will add this line to the end of C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT, so DVX starts when the computer starts:”, shows the line, for example C:\DVX\DVX.EXE (with your folder), and asks “The file as it is now is saved as C:\AUTOEXEC.DVX first. Add the line?” When there is no AUTOEXEC.BAT yet, Setup says instead “There is no C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT yet. Setup will make one with this line, so DVX starts when the computer starts:”, shows the line, and asks “Add the line?”

The line names DVX by its short DOS name, which DOS needs, so a folder with a long name appears in its short form.

To stop DVX starting with the computer, delete the line from AUTOEXEC.BAT with a text editor (for example, type EDIT C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT at the DOS prompt), or let Setup remove it when you remove DVX.

When everything is done, Setup shows “DVX is ready!” and “Your new desktop is waiting.”, the folder DVX is in (“DVX is installed in C:\DVX.”), and how to start it (“To start it from the DOS prompt, type C:\DVX\DVX.EXE”).

What you see the first time DVX starts is described in Section 3.14.

With /AUTO=folder, Setup installs DVX in that folder without waiting for you:

The screen still switches to graphics and shows Setup’s pages briefly while it works. Setup shows no messages; any problem is written only to the log, so give /LOG as well.

When it ends, Setup returns the exit code 0 if DVX was installed and 1 if it was not, which a batch file can test with IF ERRORLEVEL 1:

A copy of an installed DVX folder can also be run from a disk DVX cannot write to, such as a CD-ROM you made or a write-protected disk. DVX then cannot save into its USER folder:

The same happens when you set DVXUSER (see Section 3.11) to a folder DVX cannot write to; the messages then name that folder: “DVX cannot write to folder, the folder DVXUSER names, so your settings are kept in the TEMP folder. To keep them somewhere else, set DVXUSER to a folder DVX can write to before starting DVX.”, or, with no TEMP folder, “DVX cannot save anything: it cannot write to folder, the folder DVXUSER names, and there is no TEMP folder. Settings you change are kept until you exit DVX. To keep them, set DVXUSER to a folder DVX can write to before starting DVX.”

To keep everything on your hard disk, install DVX there with Setup.

You can add these switches after DVX. Upper and lower case are the same. Put /SAFE before /RUN=: everything after /RUN= belongs to the program it names.

If the program or document cannot be found, DVX says “Cannot find file.” If no program is set up for a document’s kind of file, it says “No program is set up to open file. Choose one on the File Types page of the Control Panel.” If a program’s file is there but cannot be started, for example because it is damaged, DVX says “Failed to load file:” followed by the reason.

While DVX loads, you see a title screen with a bar that fills from left to right. Sometimes the bar fills a second time. That happens after programs or parts of DVX were added or removed, while DVX brings its help files up to date. It only takes a moment.

The screen then changes to the DVX desktop, and these appear in turn:

The programs in the Program Manager’s Startup group also start once the desktop is up (see Section 6.3).

If an add-on’s library or control cannot be loaded (for example, it was made for another version of DVX, or it needs something that is not installed), DVX starts without it. A message titled Add-ons then lists each one as “file was not loaded: reason.” and ends “The Software program can reinstall or remove an add-on.” The rest of DVX works as usual. See Section 11.11.

If one of DVX’s own files cannot be loaded, DVX does not start. It prints “FATAL: file could not be loaded: reason.” and “Run Setup and choose Upgrade or repair to fix DVX.” Do that (see Section 3.8).

If DVX cannot find a video mode it can use, it prints a message and does not start (see Section 2.3.2 and Section 11.2).

If a program crashes while DVX starts, for example a program in the Startup group, DVX ends that program with the Application Error message and goes on starting. If something goes wrong inside DVX itself while it starts, DVX returns to DOS with “DVX stopped while starting: something went wrong inside DVX itself. Start DVX again with a safe start: hold down a Shift key while it starts, or type DVX /SAFE. If DVX still stops, run Setup and choose Upgrade or repair to fix DVX.” (see Section 11.2).

To leave DVX, choose File › Exit DVX in the Program Manager, or close the Program Manager window. DVX asks “Are you sure you want to exit DVX?” Click Yes to close every program and return to DOS. See Section 5.16 for what happens to programs with unsaved work.

If the screen mode DVX is set to use does not work on your computer (for example, after you changed video cards), DVX starts in safe video mode instead: 640x480 with 65 thousand colors, or the nearest mode your card has. It then asks, in a box titled Safe Video Mode:

“The screen mode DVX is set to use (resolution, n-bit color) does not work on this computer, so DVX started in safe video mode (resolution, n-bit color). Use this mode from now on?”

Each resolution is a width and height in pixels, such as 640x480.

You can choose another mode at any time on the Video page of the Control Panel (see Section 7.7).

If DVX starts but you cannot read the screen (for example, your monitor cannot show the mode DVX is set to use), or DVX stopped starting after you installed an add-on, start DVX in safe mode:

A safe start does two things:

To use the add-ons again, start DVX the usual way. If an add-on is what stopped DVX from starting, remove it with the Software program during the safe start (see Section 10.4).

The window has six tiles, each with a picture, a button, and a line under it. Click the picture or the button:

Under the tiles, a tip that starts “Did you know?” changes every few seconds, for example “Did you know? Press F1 in any program for help about it.”

The tour shows one page at a time in place of the tiles, with “Page n of 7” and the buttons < Previous, Next >, and End the tour. Its pages are “A quick tour of DVX”, “Program Manager”, “Windows”, “Your files”, “Make it yours”, “Write your own programs”, and “Help is always there”.

At the bottom of the window, Don’t show this again starts checked. If you close the window with it checked, Welcome does not open the next time DVX starts. Clear it before you close the window if you want Welcome again the next time DVX starts. Close closes the window.

To see Welcome again later, start it from the Installed Programs group in the Program Manager. The Help menu of the Welcome window has Help › Contents (F1) and Help › About Welcome…​.

Behind the Welcome window is the Program Manager. The first time DVX starts, it has three groups:

See Chapter 6 to start programs and arrange your groups, and Chapter 5 to learn to work with windows.

DVX starts in the screen mode Setup used, normally 640x480. To use a higher resolution or more colors, choose one on the Video page of the Control Panel (see Section 7.7).

If the Networking part is not installed:

To add it:

See Section 3.8 for each step.

Get the address automatically (DHCP) is checked to begin with. The network then gives DVX its address, subnet mask, gateway, and name servers. Most networks work this way, so try it first.

Right after the network starts, a program that connects or looks up a name waits up to 20 seconds for the address to arrive, instead of failing at once.

If your network gives out no addresses, clear Get the address automatically (DHCP) and fill in:

These three boxes can be used only when Get the address automatically (DHCP) is unchecked.

A name server turns a name, such as a bulletin board’s name, into an address.

When you set the address yourself, there is no DHCP to give out name servers, so type at least one here; otherwise names cannot be looked up, and you can reach other computers only by their numeric addresses.

When you click OK with a setting that is not valid, a warning box titled Network says what is wrong, and the Control Panel stays open so you can fix it:

The address, subnet mask, and gateway are checked only when Get the address automatically (DHCP) is unchecked.

The settings are kept in the [network] section of DVX.INI (see Section B.2).

Moving the mouse moves the pointer on the screen. These are the mouse actions this guide uses:

The scroll wheel. If your mouse has a wheel and your mouse driver supports it, turning the wheel scrolls the active window: the window you are working in, not the window under the pointer. Inside that window it scrolls the highlighted control (such as a list or a text box), otherwise the window itself. Scrolling a list or a tree does not change which item is selected. On a drop-down list whose list is closed, the wheel changes the choice instead, one choice a notch. Each notch scrolls three lines unless you change it on the Mouse page of Control Panel.

Tooltips. Hold the pointer still for half a second over a button or other control that has a tip, and a small box below the pointer says what it does. The tip goes away as soon as you move the mouse or press a button. Minimized windows show their titles this way too. No tips appear while a menu is open.

The pointer. The pointer changes shape to show what is going on:

Only one window at a time takes what you type: the active window. Its title bar is drawn in different colors from the others: with the standard colors, it is dark with white letters, and the others are gray.

Inside the active window, one control has the keyboard focus: the button, box, or list that your keys go to. It shows a dotted rectangle, or a blinking cursor in a text box. Click a control to give it the focus, or press Tab to move to the next control and Shift+Tab to move back. Moving to a control this way also scrolls it into view.

Letters that are underlined in menu names, buttons, and labels are shortcuts. Hold down Alt and press the underlined letter to open that menu, press that button, or move to that control. Pressing and releasing Alt by itself does nothing; hold it while you press the letter. In a menu that is already open, press a command’s underlined letter without Alt (see Section 5.4.2).

Other keys that work the same everywhere:

Section 5.9 lists every key that works in all programs.

A window has these parts:

Click anywhere in a window (its contents, title bar, frame, menu bar, or scroll bars) to bring it to the front and make it the active window. Right-clicking inside the window’s contents does the same. A window a program opens comes to the front and becomes active by itself; if it would land exactly on top of another window, DVX moves it a little down and to the right so you can see both.

With the keyboard:

Alt+Tab skips minimized windows, and does nothing while a dialog box is open (see Section 5.5.1). The Task Manager can also switch to any program (see Section 5.10).

When you close or minimize the active window, the window in front of the others becomes active.

To move a window, drag its title bar. The window moves with the pointer once you have moved the mouse a few pixels, so a double-click on the title bar does not move it.

DVX keeps the window where you can reach it: its top edge cannot go above the top of the screen, its title bar cannot go below the bottom of the screen, and at least 50 pixels of it stay on the screen at the left and right.

To move a window with the keyboard, choose Move from its window menu (see Section 5.3.9.1).

To change the size of a window, point at its frame and drag:

The pointer turns into a double arrow when it is on a spot you can drag: left-right on the side edges, up-down on the top and bottom edges, and diagonal at the corners. You can grab an edge anywhere along the frame and up to two pixels inside it.

The grooves across the frame near each corner show where the corners begin: anywhere on the frame between a corner and its grooves, dragging changes the width and the height together.

A window cannot be made smaller than its title bar buttons and the start of its title, nor narrower than its menu bar, and it cannot be made larger than the screen (some programs set a smaller limit). When you reach a limit, the edge stops, and the pointer stays on it.

Dialog boxes, and some other windows, always keep the same size; their frames have no grooves and do not change the pointer.

To change the size with the keyboard, choose Size from the window menu (see Section 5.3.9.1).

To make a window fill the whole screen, click its Maximize button. Some programs limit how large their windows can be; such a window grows as much as the program allows, starting from the top left corner of the screen.

To put a maximized window back to the size and place it had before, click the same button again (it now shows a smaller box: the Restore button).

Double-clicking the title bar of a window that can change size does the same as the Maximize or Restore button. The window menu has Maximize and Restore commands too.

A maximized window covers the icons of minimized windows. It cannot be moved or have its size changed: dragging its title bar or its frame does nothing, and the window menu’s Move and Size are gray. Restore it first. After you change the screen resolution (see Section 7.7), no window counts as maximized any more.

To put a window away without closing it, click its Minimize button, or choose Minimize from its window menu. The program keeps running.

The window becomes a square icon along the bottom of the screen. The icons line up from left to right; when a row is full, a new row starts above it. An icon shows the program’s own picture, or, for a program without one, a small copy of the window’s contents that keeps up to date while the window is minimized. Hold the pointer still over an icon to see the window’s title.

To bring the window back, double-click its icon: the window comes back where it was, in front of the others, and becomes active. A single click on an icon does nothing, and icons have no right-click menu. You can also use the Task Manager: select the program and click Switch To (see Section 5.10).

Icons lie underneath all windows. If a window covers an icon, move or minimize that window to reach it. While a dialog box is open, icons cannot be restored.

Dialog boxes cannot be minimized: they have no Minimize button, and the window menu’s Minimize command is gray.

Any of these closes a window:

A program with unsaved work usually asks whether to save it first (see Section 5.5.2). Closing a program’s last window usually ends the program.

While a dialog box is open, Alt+F4 closes only the dialog box. Closing a dialog box with its Close box is the same as choosing Cancel.

A scroll bar shows that a window, list, or box holds more than fits, and lets you see the rest:

If you move the pointer off the window, list, or box while you hold the button down, the scrolling pauses until you move back. * Turn the mouse wheel to scroll the active window (see Section 5.2.1).

Every window has a window menu with commands for the window itself. To open it, click the Close box once, or press Alt+Space (press Alt+Space again to close it). The menu opens just below the Close box.

Gray commands cannot be chosen. To choose a command with the keyboard, press Up or Down to highlight it and press Enter, or press its underlined letter. Esc closes the menu. With the mouse, click a command; a click anywhere outside the menu closes it, and that click also acts on whatever you clicked.

Program Manager’s Window menu arranges every window on the screen at once. Minimized windows stay icons; every other window is moved and resized, Program Manager’s own window included:

Tiles are never made smaller than 80 by 60 pixels. With so many windows that they would be, the last windows overlap at the right or bottom edge of the screen.

Click a menu name to open its menu; the name looks pressed in while its menu is open. Then click a command to choose it.

Press F10 to open the first menu of the active window (press it again to close the menu), or hold Alt and press the underlined letter of a menu name. If a menu name and a control in the same window have the same underlined letter, Alt and that letter open the menu.

When a menu opens from the keyboard, no command is highlighted yet: press Down to highlight the first one. Then:

While a menu is open, the window and its controls get no keys: what you type goes to the menu, apart from the few keys that work everywhere, such as Alt+Tab and F1 (see Section 5.9).

Some commands show extra marks:

Many programs show a short menu when you right-click inside a window. The menu opens at the pointer and holds commands for the thing you right-clicked (or for the window). Right-clicking also brings the window to the front.

Choose a command with the left mouse button, or with the keyboard as in any menu. Click outside the menu or press Esc to close it. A second right-click while the menu is open does nothing.

Right-clicking an item in a list does not always select it: in most lists, select the item with the left button first, then right-click. Program Manager’s icons are selected by a right-click.

Right-clicking a title bar, a frame, or the desktop does nothing.

Dialog boxes open in the middle of the screen. They have no Minimize or Maximize button, and they always keep the same size.

Keys in a dialog box:

Some windows that are not dialog boxes have OK and Cancel buttons too, such as Control Panel. Enter and Esc work there the same way: Enter presses OK (except on the controls above that use Enter themselves), and Esc presses Cancel.

In most dialog boxes with OK and Cancel, Alt+C presses Cancel.

A message box shows a short message, usually with an icon, and a row of buttons. Click a button to answer.

The icon shows what kind of message it is:

The buttons are OK; OK and Cancel; Yes and No; Yes, No, and Cancel; or Retry and Cancel. Their underlined letters are O, C, Y, N, and R. Enter presses the first button and Esc presses the last. Closing a message box with its Close box answers Cancel; in a box with only Yes and No, that is neither answer.

When you close a program, or start a new file, while you have unsaved work, most programs ask “Save changes?”:

Each kind of message box plays its own desktop sound, if sounds are set (see Section 5.13).

This section describes each kind of control and how to use it with the mouse and with the keyboard. With the keyboard, first give the control the focus: press Tab until it shows the dotted rectangle, or press Alt and the underlined letter of its label.

Besides message boxes and the Open and Save dialog boxes (see Section 5.6), several programs use these same dialog boxes:

From top to bottom, the dialog box has these parts:

With the keyboard, Alt+P goes to the Path box and Alt+N to the File name (or Folder name) box; Alt+D opens the Drive list and Alt+I the Filter list.

To open a file:

Double-clicking the file (or selecting it and pressing Enter) opens it at once. You can also type the file’s name in the File name box and click Open.

The Open dialog box opens only a file that is there. If you type the name of a file that does not exist, a box titled File Not Found says “name does not exist. Check the file name and try again.” Click OK and choose again. To start a new file, use the program’s command for a new file (usually File › New) and give it its name when you save it.

A program that makes new files from its Open dialog box, such as DVX BASIC with File › Add File…​, asks instead: a Confirm Create message says “name does not exist. Do you want to create it?” Click Yes to go on with a new file of that name, or No to choose again.

To save a file under a new name:

If you leave off the ending of the name (such as .txt), the dialog box adds the ending of the chosen filter. Nothing is added when the filter is *.*.

If a file of that name is already there, a Confirm Save message asks “name already exists. Do you want to replace it?” Click Yes to replace the old file, or No to choose another name.

The Choose a Folder dialog box works like the Open dialog box, but lists folders only. Go into the folder you want and click OK: with the Folder name box empty, that folder is the one chosen.

To choose a folder that does not exist yet, type its name in the Folder name box (or a full path, such as C:\GAMES\NEW) and click OK; the program makes the folder when it needs it. When a program suggests a folder that does not exist yet, the dialog box opens at the nearest folder above it that does, with the rest of the path already in the Folder name box.

If the name cannot be a folder, an Invalid Folder message says why, for example “path is a file, not a folder.”

You can type where to go instead of clicking through folders:

You can type / in place of \ anywhere you type a path in DVX: C:/DOCS/NOTES.TXT works the same as C:\DOCS\NOTES.TXT. Once the dialog box has gone to a folder, the Path box shows its full path with \.

DVX uses long file names when a long-file-name driver, such as DOSLFN, is loaded before DVX (see Section 2.2.3), and the usual DOS names otherwise: up to eight characters, then a dot and an ending of up to three, such as LETTER01.TXT.

If a name breaks the rules, an Invalid Filename message says which rule:

The Drive list shows every drive DOS knows about, as A:, C:, and so on, and always shows the drive you are looking at. Choose a drive to go to its top folder. The list does not check whether each drive has a disk in it.

If the drive you choose cannot be read, for example a floppy drive with no disk in it, a Drive Not Ready message says “Drive X: is not ready.” and the dialog box stays where it was. Put a disk in and choose the drive again.

Each row is one running program. The Task Manager does not list itself; Program Manager is listed, and should be left running: it is DVX’s shell, and ending it exits DVX. The columns are:

The list is a list with columns: click a heading to sort by that column (see Section 5.5.3.6). It keeps itself up to date as programs start and end.

The line at the bottom says how many programs are running and how much memory is in use, for example “Applications: 2 Memory: 4/30 MB”: 4 MB of the computer’s 30 MB are in use.

No program is selected when the Task Manager opens, and the buttons do nothing until you select one: click a row first (or use Up and Down).

Ending Program Manager exits DVX, so DVX asks first, in a box titled Exit DVX: “Are you sure you want to exit DVX?” Click No to leave everything running. Click Yes to exit DVX as File › Exit DVX does: every other program is closed as if you had closed it, and asks about work it has not saved (see Section 5.16). If you click Cancel in one of those questions, DVX keeps running, with Program Manager. A Program Manager that has stopped responding is ended at once instead, and DVX then exits the same way.

If a program stops reacting to the mouse and the keyboard:

If the whole screen is frozen and even the pointer does not move, DVX cannot recover: restart the computer. See also Section 11.13.

If a program makes a serious mistake, DVX ends it and shows an Application Error message: “'name' has caused a fault and will be terminated.” Click OK. Your other programs keep running, but unsaved work in the program that was ended is lost.

The first time DVX runs, Program Manager has three groups, with Installed Programs selected:

After the first time, Program Manager opens with the group that was selected when DVX last ran.

To make a group:

The new group appears at the end of the Groups list, selected and empty.

Every group needs a name, and no two groups can have the same name (capitals and small letters count as the same): otherwise a message says “A group needs a name no other group has.” You can have up to 64 groups of your own. With 64 already, File › New Group…​ does not ask for a name: a New Group message says “There is no room for another group: Program Manager holds up to 64 groups of your own. Delete a group to make room for a new one.”

To rename a group:

The same rule about names applies. Installed Programs cannot be renamed.

To delete a group and all its items:

Only the items are deleted: the programs and documents they start stay where they are. Installed Programs cannot be deleted.

Right-click the Groups list for a short menu with New Group…​, Rename Group…​, and Delete Group. Right-clicking does not select the group under the pointer: these commands act on the group that is already selected, so click the group first.

Click an item to select it: its name is highlighted, and the status bar shows its description. Clicking empty space in the icon area clears the selection. With the keyboard, when the icon area has the focus:

To add a program or document to one of your groups:

The new item appears in the group, selected.

To change an item, select it and press Alt+Enter, or choose File › Properties…​, or right-click it and choose Properties…​. The Program Item Properties dialog box has the same boxes as the New Program Item dialog box:

The picture beside the check boxes shows the item’s icon. It changes when you choose a program or an icon file with Browse…​.

With the keyboard, Alt and an underlined letter moves to a box, checks or clears a check box, or presses a button: N, P, A, W, I, and S for the boxes, M and K for the check boxes, and B, E, and R for the three Browse…​ buttons, from top to bottom.

Items in Installed Programs cannot be changed: for them, Properties shows a Properties message with the program’s name, its file (“Program: file”), and its description.

An item’s shortcut key starts it from any program, whichever window is in front, so you can start your favorite programs without going back to Program Manager. Type the shortcut in the item’s Shortcut key box as the key names joined with +, for example Ctrl+Alt+N or Ctrl+Shift+F5 (capitals and small letters are the same).

A shortcut key is:

Anything else brings the message “A shortcut key is Ctrl with Alt or Shift, and a letter, a digit, F1 to F12, or one of Backspace, Del, Down, End, Enter, Esc, Home, Ins, Left, PgDn, PgUp, Right, Space, Tab, and Up, for example Ctrl+Alt+P.”

A few of these keys belong to DVX, which acts on them first in every program, so they could never start an item. The Shortcut key box refuses them, with the message “keys cannot be a shortcut key: it does.”, which says what the keys do:

The same keys with Shift held as well are refused too.

If an item already has shortcut keys that are not allowed (any more), for example because PROGMAN.INI was changed by hand or DVX now keeps those keys for itself, Program Manager removes the key when it starts, keeps the rest of the item, and tells you once: “"item" no longer has its shortcut key keys. reason Choose another one in the item’s Properties.”, where the reason is one of the two messages above.

Shortcut keys work while Program Manager is running, even while it is minimized. They do not work while a menu, a window menu, or a dialog box is open, or while a program uses the whole screen. When a program uses the same keys for one of its own commands, the item’s shortcut key wins.

Two items should not share one shortcut key: only one of them would start. The Properties dialog box refuses a key another item already has, with the message “keys is already the shortcut for "name".” A copy of an item (see Section 6.4.8) has no shortcut key, so the original’s key keeps starting the original; give the copy a key of its own in its Properties if you like.

An item shows the first of these that it has:

To rename an item, select it and press F2, or choose File › Rename…​. In the Rename dialog box, type the new name in the New name box and click OK. An empty name leaves the item as it was. (You can also change the name in the Name box of the item’s properties.)

To move an item to another of your groups:

The list shows your own groups except the item’s current group. Items of Installed Programs cannot be moved (copy them instead).

To put a copy of an item in one of your groups, for example a program from Installed Programs:

The copy has the same properties as the original, except its shortcut key: a copy has none (see Section 6.4.4).

If you have no group to move or copy the item to, a message says “There is no other group. Make one with File > New Group first.”

To delete an item from a group:

Only the icon goes; the program or document stays where it is. Items of Installed Programs cannot be deleted; to remove a program from DVX, use the Software program (see Section 10.4).

Right-click an item for a short menu with Open, Move…​, Copy…​, Delete, Rename…​, Properties…​, and New Item…​. Right-clicking selects the item under the pointer first.

To add a DOS program to one of your groups:

The settings that matter for a DOS program:

Start the item as any other. Then:

DVX stays in memory while the program runs, so a program that needs a great deal of memory is best started from DOS after you leave DVX. Section 5.15 gives the details and the messages.

Open, Copy…​, and Properties…​ need a selected item; Move…​, Delete, and Rename…​ need a selected item in one of your own groups; Rename Group…​ and Delete Group need one of your own groups selected.

The commands of the Window menu arrange every window on the screen that is not minimized, Program Manager’s included. Section 5.3.10 describes what each one does.

The System Information window shows details about your computer, in sections headed CPU, Memory, DOS, Video, Mouse, and Disk Drives, then Log. You can scroll the text but not change it, and you can change the size of the window. DVX gathers this information each time you open the window, so the free memory, the screen mode, and the free disk space are those of that moment. The Log section says where DVX’s log file is, or, when DVX can write no log file, shows the latest lines of the log, which DVX then keeps in memory (see Section B.6). If no information could be gathered, a message says “No system information available.”

Right-clicking an item selects it and opens a menu with Open, Move…​, Copy…​, Delete, Rename…​, Properties…​, and New Item…​. Right-clicking empty space in the icon area opens the same menu for the item that was already selected.

Right-clicking the Groups list opens a menu with New Group…​, Rename Group…​, and Delete Group, which act on the selected group.

You can use Control Panel without a mouse:

The tab names have no underlined letters. On the pages, some labels and buttons do: Alt with the underlined letter moves to that setting or presses that button. They are Screen saver (Alt+V), Wait (Alt+W), and Test (Alt+T) on the Desktop page; Add…​ (Alt+A), Change…​ (Alt+C), and Remove (Alt+R) on the File Types page; and Browse…​ (Alt+B) on the Printer page. Only the page showing is searched for the letter.

When you click OK, Control Panel first checks the Network and Printer pages. If a setting there cannot work, a warning box titled Network or Printer says what is wrong, and Control Panel stays open so you can fix it (the messages are listed with those pages). Otherwise Control Panel:

DVX keeps most of these settings in the file DVX.INI in your USER folder. See Section B.2.

If your settings cannot be saved, for example because the disk is full, a box titled Control Panel says “The settings could not be saved: the disk may be full or write-protected. Control Panel stays open: click its OK to try again, or Cancel to undo the changes.” Nothing is saved, and the settings you tried out are still in use. Make room on the disk and click OK again, or click Cancel. If only the File Types changes cannot be saved, the box says “The file types could not be saved: the disk may be full or write-protected.”, and Control Panel closes with your other settings saved.

Clicking Cancel, or closing the window, puts back the mouse settings, the colors, the wallpaper and its mode, the screen saver and its wait, the video mode, text smoothing, the game controller settings, and the volume as they were when you opened Control Panel. File Types, Network, Printer, and Sounds choices you had not saved are forgotten. Nothing is saved.

The exceptions are the ones in the last row of the table above: a theme file you saved, Page Setup changes, and a network restart cannot be undone with Cancel.

Change…​ opens a box titled with the name of the part you are changing. It has:

The underlined letters are R, G, and B for the three rows, O for OK, and C for Cancel.