OS/2 Warp Hints and Tips

I have been using Warp for 4 months and couldn't ask for a better operating system. Warp is a deep and rich piece of software that gives you incredible power and control over your computer. When I first installed Warp I was amazed that it ran all my DOS and Windows programs on my 486/25 computer. But it ran my Windows programs slower than Windows it's self. The reason it does this is because Warp is setup in a "default" mode. This means that it is setup to run all types of programs and isn't optimized to run programs.

So I searched everywhere for ways to speed up Warp's video, memory, disk, and printing performance. After I was done, Warp was running at lighting speed and blows away all other Dos and Windows computers. So now I am passing my tips along to you. Please write back if you know of any thing I left out.

Video:
1. Turn off  system video and shadow RAM in your BIOS. You usually can access your BIOS by pressing the DEL key. The reason you should do this is because OS/2 has video and system shadow built in.

2. You should  operate in the 640 x 480 resolution or the lowest possible. The reason for this is that if you use a higher resolution you are asking your video card to work a lot harder to squeeze in more pixels in a given area (your monitor).

3. Don't use a bit-mapped (picture) background. These use up processor power and take longer to display. (use the bitmaps for lock-up background)

4. Use a solid background color. These display faster than colors form a mixed palette. (Do this by preforming a right-click on the desktop and then select settings. Now click on the background tab and click change color. You will then see in the bottom right-hand corner a box that says solid color only and click on that.)

5. Close all windows not in use.

6. Turn of system animation. (Do this by preforming a right-click on the desktop and select System Setup, then click on the System icon. Now click on the Window tab and disable the animation feature.)

7. Display folders in "flowed-format" instead of "non-flowed format" (Do this by preforming a right-click on a folder then select settings.  Now click on "flowed-format" under Icon veiw.)

Memory:
1. Turn off system sounds. (Do this by preforming a right-click on the desktop and then select 	              system setup.  Now click on the Sound icon and deselect the sound option.)

2. Turn off type-ahead. (Do this by preforming a right-click on the desktop and then select system setup. Now click on the System icon and select the Input tab and disable type-ahead.)

3. Turn off Printscreen. (Do this by preforming a right-click on the desktop and then select system setup. Now click on the System icon and select the Printscreen tab and disable Printscreen option.)

4. Disable the Logo. (Do this by preforming a right-click on the desktop and then select system setup. Now click on the System icon and select the Logo tab and select none.)

5. Install only the programs you need. The reason for this is when you install programs they add statements in your config.sys file. The statements might load a driver which will sit in memory and and waste it.

Printer:
1. Disable the spooler. You should only do this if you plan to print only one thing at a time. (Do this by preforming a right-click on the desktop and then select system setup. Now preform a right click on the spooler and disable it.)

Hard Drive:
1. Use High Performance File System or HPFS for short.

2. Place Swappath in a area of your hard disk that is accessed very much. (Do this by clicking on the OS/2 System folder. Find the Productivity folder and open it and open the OS/2 System editor.  Select OS/2 System Editor.  Click on File and select open then find your config.sys and change your swappath (example swappath=D:\ 2048 16384)

3. Change the size of your cache. (Do this by clicking on the OS/2 System folder. Find the Productivity folder and open it and open the OS/2 System editor.  Select OS/2 System Editor.  Click on File and select open then find your config.sys and change the cache statement (example IFS=D:\OS2\HPFS.IFS /CACHE:128 /CRECL:4 /AUTOCHECK:d)

Optimal DOS Settings for Games and other Applications in OS/2 Warp:
DOS FULL SCREEN -- This is a push button that is selected before editing the DOS Settings. Selecting this option causes your application to cover the entire screen instead of running in a window. You won't be able to see other windows and icons, but most games run much faster in full-screen mode.

DOS_BACKGROUND_EXECUTION=OFF (default=ON) -- Set this on off, so that when you switch to a different program your game pauses.

DOS_FILES=NN (default=20) -- Increase to 30 or 40 for the few games that require more thatn 20 files.

DOS_HIGH=ON (default=OFF) -- Set ON to provide more conventional memory for your game. Some games, however, prefer to access the DOS high-memory space directly, thus requiring DOS-HIGH and DOS_UMB to be set to OFF. If DOS_HIGH is ON, you will probly also want DOS-UMB to be ON. XMS_HANDLES to be greater than zero, and XMS_MEMORY_LIMIT to be at least 64.

DOS_STARTUP_DRIVE=D: (a drive letter) -- If game allows you to creat a boot disk when all else fails. If your game requires a boot disk then change to A.

DOS_UMB=ON (default=OFF) -- This setting should be ON unless DOS_HIGH is OFF. It lets your DOS game load drivers and other TSR programs into upper XMS memory, by doing this it frees more conventional memory.

DPMI_DOS_API=AUTO -- DOS Protected Mode Interface (DPMI) is a memory-access specification for use in multitasking environments such as OS/2 Warp. Many new applications are starting to take advantage of this feature. If you see DPMI mentioned in the game documentation, or in error messages, this default should be changed to ENABLED.

DPMI_MEMORY_LIMIT=4 -- Boasting this number to match the phisical RAM could provide improved preformance for memory hungry programs. If your raise if past the physical amount of RAM you have it might cause memory swapping to disk, which slows down preformance.

DPMI_NETWORK_BUFF_SIZE=8 -- The default should be enough, but some games require this setting to be 64.

EMS_MEMORY_LIMIT=2048 -- If your application requires more than the default of 2 MB of EMS (expanded) memory, increase this setting to match the amount of physical memory (RAM) you have.

HW_NOSOUND=ON (default=OFF) -- Set on ON to have OS/2 to try to prevent the application from using the computers internal speaker.

HW_ROM_TO_RAM=ON (default=OFF) -- This setting, which enables copying ROM BIOS to faster RAM. This usually improves performance slightly. Set on off for systems that have low memory.

HW_TIMER=ON (default=OFF) -- This should be set to ON for games and other timing-sensitive applications that need direct access to hardware timer ports. When set on ON programs running in the background suffer.

IDLE_SECONDS=NN (default=0) -- Some programs, such as games and word processors, spend most of their time idling, waiting for user input. Because they were written under the assumption that they are the only application running, they may make heavy use of the processor during this time, polling the keyboard or another device in order to appear as responsive as possible to the user. This setting lets you tell OS/2 Warp how many seconds you would like OS/2 Warp to wait before interrupting the program's idle time. By setting it to 10, you essentially tell OS/2 Warp to allow the DOS program to do whatever it pleases in 10-second intervals during idle time. If IDLE_SENSITIVITY is set to 100, disabling idle-detection, then it doesn't make any difference what IDLE_SECONDS is set to.

IDLE_SENSITIVITY=100 (default=75) -- Set this to 100 for most DOS games so that OS/2 won't interrupt you because you haven't responded for a certain period of time.

INT_DURING_IO=ON (default=ON) -- Should be left ON for multimedia applications, so that audio won't be choppy audio.

KBD_ALTHOME_BYPASS=OFF (default=OFF) -- Then enables you to toggal between full-screen and window by pressing ALT+HOME, when on.

KBD_CTRL_BYPASS -- In the case where a DOS applications uses either the Ctrl+Esc or Alt+Esc key sequences, or when the appliction does bad things to the screen when you try to switch back to the OS/2 Warp desktop from your appliction, you should set this to either CTRL_ESC or ALT_ESC.

MOUSE_EXCLUSIVE_ACCESS=ON (default=OFF) -- Set ON to prevent a second cursor for appearing.

VIDEO_8514A_XGA_IOTRAP=OFF (default=ON) -- By setting OFF it provides the application with unrestricted accss to the video device.

VIDEO_FASTPASTE (default=OFF) -- In some cases by setting on it can provide minor improvments in video proformance.

VIDEO_RETRACE_EMULATION=OFF (default=OFF) -- Keep this off for games and graphical applications to improve.

XMS_MEMORY_LIMIT=2048 (default=2048) -- Use this setting to increase the amount of XMS (Extended) memory available to an application. Keeps this number a few megabytes less than the amount of physical memory (RAM) you have.

Optimal Windows Settings for Games and other Applictations running under Warp:

Win_RUN_MODE=Standard (Defalt=Enhanced Compatibility)-- Run in standard mode for best preformance. Enhanced Compatibility only slows down the system by alowing windows to run DOS programs. Since OS/2 runs DOS programs far better than windows does there is no point in using it. Very few programs require Enhanced Compatibility.

WIN_DDE=OFF (Defalt=ON)--Turn OFF for improved performance

WIN_CLIPBOARD=OFF (Defalt=ON)-- Allows OS/2 to share clipboards with Windows applications. Turn OFF to improve preformance.

WIN_ATM=OFF (Defalt=OFF)-- When on it enables Adobe Type Manager font support.