Can anyone explane this... if not %1*==* goto loop ???? (it's from setramd.bat from windwos 98 startup disk) I specificly need to know what the * mean.

New to DOS? The '*' is one of the wildcard characters, and can be loosely translated as 'any' a bit more here We've heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the complete works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know that is not true

jboy is correct as usual. In this case, and I assume the line is actually: if not %1*==* goto loop [no string of ?] the gist is that if %1 is nul [not set] then: *==* is evaluated as TRUE and the batch goes to the label named LOOP. If %1 is set [NOT nul] the: *==* is evaluated as FALSE and the batch proceeds to the next line. ===================================== If at first you don't succeed, you're about average. M2Go

Sure - the trailing '?'s must be punctuation ; ) Seems like error handling. I suspect if the wildcard concept is a new one, likely quite a bit of ground left to cover We've heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the complete works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know that is not true

While we're at it... The batch files on a 98 startup disk are not recommended as a good example of scripting from which to learn. To me they look more like a fruit salad. And we don't even need to mention the wisdom of extracting stuff from CAB to ramdisk. ===================================== If at first you don't succeed, you're about average. M2Go

True - not what I'd consider as a good starting point to DOS batching - just *a bit* convoluted Maybe the ultimate goal will be revealed We've heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the complete works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know that is not true

In #2 I ignored the "not", so what I wrote is 180° out. If %1 is NOT nul, it goes to the loop. ===================================== If at first you don't succeed, you're about average. M2Go