DOS Additions For Connectix Virtual PC


Virtual PC DOS additions are included with Virtual PC and are located in the Additions\DOS additions folder located in C:\Program Files\Connectix\Online Installer, or on the Additions\DOS Additions folder on the CD-ROM. DOS Additions do not change frequently due to the age of the DOS operating system. When updates do occur, they will be available for download from the Connectix website at http://www.connectix.com/support/vpcw_online.html.

To install the DOS additions:
1. Locate the additions you downloaded from the Connectix web site, or on your Virtual PC CD-ROM, or Online Installer locations.
2. Start the DOS guest and allow it to finish booting.
3. The unzipped file will be a .VFD format, drag and drop this file on the floppy disk icon in the lower left corner of the DOS window.
4. Change to the A: drive (type "a:" and press "enter")
5. Run the DOSADD.BAT file (type "DOSADD" and press "enter"). This will copy the necessary files and add required lines to your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files.
6. Check the CONFIG.SYS file and verify that it contains an entry "LASTDRIVE=Z" without quotes, if not, please add for Shared Folders functionality.

The Virtual PC DOS additions can be installed on any DOS virtual machine. The additions contain the following files.

Fshare.exe
CDrom.sys
Idle.com

These three files will be installed to a CNTX folder on the C: drive of your Virtual Machine.

Your Autoexec.bat and Config.sys files will also be modified to use these new files.

FSHARE.EXE - Enable Shared Folders between your DOS VM and the Host system. This file was last updated for VPC 5.1 Win to use less conventional memory.

CDROM.SYS  This is a CDROM driver that is designed to work with Virtual PC's emulated CD-ROM drive.

IDLE.COM - Lowers CPU utilization when the DOS guest is idle and thus improves performance of your host. Idle.com can also cause software installers to fail and as a result should not be loaded for compability reasons if your installing software such as an operating system. This file was last updated for VPC 5.0 Win.


The Virtual PC Development Team
