Problem of mysterious programs occupying conventional memory under DOS in Win98 - China DOS Union Forum

Brand-new newbie here...

Not here to report in, straight to the point:

Following advice online, I modified the config.sys and autoexec.bat files under 98.
Then I freed up 597k of conventional memory, enough to run most programs.
But after coming home this winter vacation I found... there wasn't enough conventional memory anymore.

I checked with msconfig in confusion, and found that there was no problem with the config.sys and autoexec.bat programs:
config.sys:
devicehigh=...himem.sys
devicehigh=...emm386.exe
dos=umb,high
autoexec.bat:
set sblast=....
set temp=...

Roughly like the above. Right now I'm under the 2000 system. Anyway, logically speaking, there should be no way this would cause insufficient memory, and this is how it was written before too.

It's a dual-boot system, though that shouldn't have anything to do with this...
When Win98 starts, press F8 and choose step by step.
I found that the loading order is different from the settings in msconfig, and it also additionally loads some strange programs like ifhelp and vmm32. These programs are all located in the Win98 directory, and they don't seem to be viruses.

I want to get rid of these programs, but I can't find them anywhere. 98 is on drive C and 2000 is on drive D. I've looked in the root directory and under both Windows directories. There are a few config.* files, but not a single one contains the above programs. I searched with regedit, and they are not loaded in the registry. They are not loaded in system.ini or win.ini either.

So what exactly is going on with those programs that do not exist in config.sys, yet are still loaded into conventional memory? It is known that when I previously freed up 597k of conventional memory, these programs were not there...
What should I do?

Please give me some advice.

Floor1　valenr	Posted 2004-01-27 00:00
初级用户　Posts 1　Credits 106
Brand-new newbie here... Not here to report in, straight to the point: Following advice online, I modified the config.sys and autoexec.bat files under 98. Then I freed up 597k of conventional memory, enough to run most programs. But after coming home this winter vacation I found... there wasn't enough conventional memory anymore. I checked with msconfig in confusion, and found that there was no problem with the config.sys and autoexec.bat programs: config.sys: devicehigh=...himem.sys devicehigh=...emm386.exe dos=umb,high autoexec.bat: set sblast=.... set temp=... Roughly like the above. Right now I'm under the 2000 system. Anyway, logically speaking, there should be no way this would cause insufficient memory, and this is how it was written before too. It's a dual-boot system, though that shouldn't have anything to do with this... When Win98 starts, press F8 and choose step by step. I found that the loading order is different from the settings in msconfig, and it also additionally loads some strange programs like ifhelp and vmm32. These programs are all located in the Win98 directory, and they don't seem to be viruses. I want to get rid of these programs, but I can't find them anywhere. 98 is on drive C and 2000 is on drive D. I've looked in the root directory and under both Windows directories. There are a few config.* files, but not a single one contains the above programs. I searched with regedit, and they are not loaded in the registry. They are not loaded in system.ini or win.ini either. So what exactly is going on with those programs that do not exist in config.sys, yet are still loaded into conventional memory? It is known that when I previously freed up 597k of conventional memory, these programs were not there... What should I do? Please give me some advice.

Floor2　aria	Posted 2004-01-29 00:00
高级用户　Posts 243　Credits 924
Hehe ifshlp.sys is the VFAT driver vmm32 is Win98's virtual driver program; you could say it's the core of 98