  Getting Started  Help Commands  Back 
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                               HELP.HLP 
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This Help file is intended to be a replacement for the HELP.HLP file 
distributed with Windows 95 and later.  Apart from including aditional 
information relating to the MS-DOS 7 subsystem, it can function as an 
MS-DOS 6.x EDIT.HLP file. 
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Installation 
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This HELP.HLP is intended for QBASIC 1.1, which is supplied with MS-DOS 6, 
and in the OLDMSDOS folder on Windows 9x compact disks. 
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QBASIC 1.0, as supplied with DOS 5, OS/2, Windows NT, 2000, XP, and above, 
do not support the extended functionality for the help system.  Also, the 
editor uses different magic to display some of the dialogs, and incorrect 
help would be given there, too. 
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  Copy HELP.COM and QBASIC.EXE into a directory in your path, eg 
  C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND 
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  *  You can rename HELP.COM to another name, eg HELP5.COM, if the 
     HELP command loads a different program. 
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  Copy this file to the same directory. 
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  *  The HELP command will now load this version of HELP.HLP 
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Installation under Windows NT 
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You may not be able to replace the QBASIC file that is supplied with 
Windows NT, because of permissions or system file protections. 
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   To install this help system in Windows NT, you will need a copy of 
   the DOS 6.x help system, and make the modifications suggested in the 
   advanced installation. 
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                              Advanced Installation 
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The advanced installation requires the modification of some programs in a 
hexidecimal editor.  When one does this, one gets a version of the MS-DOS 
help system that runs under Windows XP, 2000 and later, as well as being 
able to access the Help system in the Editor. 
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If you proceed in this order, you will save some effort. 
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The complete set of changes creates a help system that does not intefere 
with an already installed QBasic system, the result will work under all 
versions of DOS 5.0 and later, OS/2 and Windows. 
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QBASIC.EXE 
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   If you plan to access HELP.HLP from the QBASIC Editor, you need to 
   make this change in QBASIC.EXE 
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   *   In QBASIC.EXE, Change one reference to EDIT.HLP to read HELP.HLP. 
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   You can test this result by the command QBASIC /EDCOM 
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HELP.COM 
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   You need to do this to allow QBASIC 1.1 and QBASIC 1.0 to co-exist. 
   This is required under Windows NT, 2000 and XP, where System File 
   Protection prevents QBASIC from being replaced. 
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   *  Rename QBASIC.EXE to another six-letter name, eg MBASIC.EXE 
   *  In HELP.COM, Change two references of QBASIC to MBASIC 
   *  If you have an alternate help system, you can rename HELP.COM 
      to another name, eg HELP6.COM 
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   Under OS/2 and Windows NT 4 and earlier, you may be able to replace 
   QBASIC.EXE with one from MS-DOS 6.x 
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EDIT.COM 
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   This allows you to start the QBASIC Editor from a command, as it was 
   under MS-DOS 6.x. 
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   *  Copy HELP.COM to a new name, eg MSEDIT.COM 
   *  In MSEDIT.COM, change a reference to QHELP to EDCOM 
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   Running MSEDIT.COM will load the editor.  Dismiss the dialog box 
   and then select help.  From there, select the <Contents> tab, and 
   you have the DOS Help system. 
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   Note that the document is still open, and you can resize, and 
   cut between the help window and the text window.  This is useful 
   if you are editing batch files, etc. 
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   The key F6 navigates between the two windows. 
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