DataCom Shareware Review

ConEd v2.8

ConEd (Configuration Editor) is one of a large number of utilities designed
to perform the configuration management function.  Simply stated, ConEd
provides the user with complete, menu-driven control of his computer's
bootup configuration.

A PC's bootup configuration is determined by the contents of the files
CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT.  It is these two files that dictate how the
system's memory is set up, what device drivers and TSR's are loaded, and
where in memory they are loaded, what routines are executed at bootup, and
finally, what is the general nature of the operating environment (DOS,
4DOS, DESQview, Windows, etc.)

ConEd enables the user to control his bootup configuration by providing the
capability to change the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files whenever the
program is run.  To see how this works, let's say you have four different
bootup configurations you would like to use, depending on what you need to
do at a particular time.  The first configuration makes the XTree Gold
Application Menu the hub of your operations, and you would like to run
several small applications automatically when you boot up. The second
configuration is just like the first, except that you bypass the small
applications and go right to the menu.  The third and fourth configurations
are DESQview and Windows, respectively.

Each configuration requires a menu title, a CONFIG file, and an AUTOEXEC
file.  Organizing this information, we get:

                                           CONFIG      AUTOEXEC
     TITLE                                  FILE         FILE
     ----------------------------------- ---------- -------------
     XTree Gold Application Menu         CONFIG.XTG  AUTOEXEC.XTG
     XTree Gold Application Menu-Nonstop CONFIG.NST  AUTOEXEC.NST
     DESQview                            CONFIG.DSQ  AUTOEXEC.DSQ
     Windows                             CONFIG.WIN  AUTOEXEC.WIN
     
Note that it is possible to use the same CONFIG file in each of these
cases; AUTOEXEC is where the action is.  It is also possible to write
AUTOEXEC files that would take you right to a favorite application such as
a spreadsheet, word processor or communications program without stopping to
look at a menu.  Just be sure to include a command at the end of the
AUTOEXEC file to bring you back to ConEd or to some kind of menu where
ConEd is one of the choices.

Once all these CONFIG and AUTOEXEC files have been stored in the same
directory as ConEd, and ConEd has been configured (a simple task), then you
name the menu choices as shown above and associate each menu item with a
CONFIG-AUTOEXEC pair.  Then when you select a menu item and press <Enter>
the program copies the chosen files to the root directory as CONFIG.SYS and
AUTOEXEC.BAT and reboots the computer.  Then, lo and behold, if you chose
Windows, Windows is what you get!  Pretty slick.

At this point a word of warning is in order.  If you use disk caching ConEd
could mess things up unless you provide for flushing the cache before
CONFIG.* and AUTOEXEC.* are copied to the root directory.  For this reason
ConEd's configuration menu provides for entry of the cache flushing
command.  For the SMARTDrive cache used with Windows 3.1 the command is:
                  
                       C:\WINDOWS\SMARTDRV /C.

This subject is the topic of a very interesting article on Page 491 of the
November 24, 1991 issue of PC Magazine.

ConEd v2.8
Filename:  CONED28.ZIP
Registration Fee:  $
IJ Enterprises
10288 Abbott Road
Manassas, Virginia 22110
