I'm having loads of problems trying to start old DOS-based games under Win ME, all due to a lack of conventional memory. Does anybody know how I can free it up?

by using an operating system that supports the true DOS
Regards

Do a serch for "Dos in windows ME".Put in the "dos patch". Make a start up disk from windows me.delete everything ,(one at a time), copy command.com back on ,copy chkstate.sys,himem.sys,memmaker.exe,emm386.exe and sizer.exe on the disk ,make a dos dir on "C" .copy msd.exe and msd.com on .boot with the disk, run memmaker,you`ll have conventional memory .I think windows ME has Himem.sys and EMM386.EXE,use those. If you don`t have memmaker,chkstate and sizer.exe go to the dos forum, find out where their getting dos6.22 nowadays and copy them from the dos 6.22 disks i think msd is on there to. run MSD to find out how much conventional memory you have

Something to try before you give up:

Open up a DOS emulation window... start>>programs>>accessories>>msdos prompt.

Right click on the Blue Bar on top of the window.
Choose properties.
Go to the Memory tab.
Increase Conventional Memory from there.

Run the game/program *.exe from within the Dos window you just "fixed". As in:
Lets say the name of the executable is game.exe and the path to game.exe is c:\program files\game\game.exe.

When you open up a DOS window it automatically opens up to c:\windows\desktop.
To get to c:\program files\game you would type this:
cd..
cd..
cd progra~1
cd game

To start the program type:
game.exe

As long as the game/program does not insist on booting you into straight DOS, it should work. If the game will not emulate DOS within Windows, you will have a problem running it in ME.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

Well, this was obviously too simple to work, but thanks anyway, newgrl; I'll have to try Glenn's method. Oh by the way, I've tried running himem.sys and emm386.exe from config.sys (like in the old days), but for some reason Windows keep renaming the edited file to config.bak and creating a new, blank config.sys; is there a way I could prevent that from happening?

p.s. Jaka ti pomoc, Miroslave...

Reverend, is it serbian?... i dont speak that language well...
windows ME does not proces config.sys or autoexec.bat...
what is the reason that you need to run dos?.... there are dos patches for windows ME, but i never tried any of those because i have 3 other computers that run dos...
if you need it only ocasionally try to boot with a boot disk... you can find here
http://www.bootdisk.com
for the dos patch look here
http://www.geocities.com/mfd4life_2000/
Regards

Wheh you put the dos patch in.config.sys and autoexec.bat will work.They don`t dissapear

It's Croatian actually, but there isn't really any difference... I need DOS to play games which don't have realtime 4-dimensional animation, but are addictive and fun, unlike the new ones. Like Cannon Fodder or The Lost Vikings, for example. I'll try those links and I think I'll be fine. Thanks.

now the post http://www.computing.net/windowsme/wwwboard/forum/13441.html
reminded me what was the screwup with the dos patch... it makes impossible to boot into the safe mode....
for dos i would either boot with the boot disk... or would get another hard drive and trios hard drive selector and load on the other hard drive windows 98 and be switching the hard drives... i am going to do that for my daughter that she can use both OS also....
i thought that the language is from that area... i speak only slovak czech russian and a very little polish and ukrainian from slavic languages
Regards

My total Conventional memory to start with is only 636 instead of 640. How do I fix this. I've run virus software and a thorough scandisk with no luck(when attempting to load system commander, the message I got stated that some of base memory was missing possibly due to a virus) I cant find anything on this problem.
Thanks,
Brian