Secret Warp Functions

Undocumented features to help you tweak your OS/2 Warp system.

By John McDonald.

One of the biggest strengths of OS/2 is the ability to adjust and tweak the system however you wish. Unfortunately, many of the best tricks that OS/2 can perform are buried deep inside of a README file or worse, not documented at all. Here are some interesting things you can add to the CONFIG.SYS file of your OS/2 system.

Deadly Restarts
OS/2 by default re-opens all of the programs and folders that were running when you shut down the system. Unfortunately, if you have a program that crashes the Workplace Shell, when you reboot the computer, the offending application will re-open and re-crash the system.

Just add SET RESTARTOBJECTS=STARTUPFOLDERSONLY to your CONFIG.SYS file, and only the objects in your Startup folder will re-open on reboot.

Deadly Restarts: One Better
Sometimes the WorkPlace Shell will encounter an error an have to restart. If you have objects in your Startup folder, this will cause all of them to be executed again, even though they are still running from the first time they were started.

To fix this, change the above line to read SET RESTARTOBJECTS=STARTUPFOLDERSONLY,REBOOTONLY to your CONFIG.SYS file, and the objects in your Startup folder will re-open only on the FIRST cold-boot of your computer, not on a Workplace Shell restart.

No Show-Stoppers
If you try to access a disk that is not ready, or a program crashes and has to be shut down, OS/2 pops up a dialog box asking you if you want to end the operation, retry the operation, or return the error to the program. But what happens if this occurs on a system that must run unattended, like a server?

Just add SUPRESSPOPUPS = C to your CONFIG.SYS file, and those messages will be silently spooled to a file called POPUPLOG.OS2 in the root directory of the drive you select (in this case, C).

Silent CONFIG.SYS
Another place where acceptable errors might occur is in the initial processing of the CONFIG.SYS file when the system is booted. For example, you might load network drivers in this file, but you might have a PCMCIA network card that you may not have put in.

Just add PAUSEONERROR=NO to your CONFIG.SYS file, and OS/2 will not stop for your input if it encounters an error in CONFIG.SYS.

No-Stop Swap
OS/2 by default swaps memory to the hard drive when it needs more working space to operate. However, this file can sometimes become large, and on a system with a small hard disk, suck up all of the remaining space. How can you force the swap file to stay at a certain size?

Just change the MEMMAN = SWAP,PROTECT line in your CONFIG.SYS file to MEMMAN = SWAP,PROTECT,COMMIT Now, your swapfile will leave empty the amount of disk space indicated by threshold parameter in the SWAPPATH line of your CONFIG.SYS file (the second parameter on the line).

The SWAPPATH parameter looks like this: SWAPPATH = C:\ 1024 1024 The first parameter indicates the location of the swap file. The second indicates the threshold size (in megabytes). OS/2 will warn you when the swap file exceeds this size. The third parameter is the starting size (in Kilobytes) of the swap file at boot. When you add the COMMIT parameter to the MEMMAN line, the function of the threshold parameter reverses: OS/2 will now LEAVE that amount of space free on the drive, not warn you when the swap file has reached that size.

Turn on Undelete
OS/2 by default disables the UNDELETE function. Why? Who knows. But here is how to turn it on.

Just add SET DELDIR=C:\DELETED 1024; to your CONFIG.SYS file, and create a \DELETED directory on your C drive. When you delete a file, OS will move it to this directory instead. Type UNDELETE to retrieve the file - but do it soon. OS/2 will automatically delete older files in the directory to make space for new files until the combined size of all of the files is no greater than 1024K, or 1 MB. The last file deleted is ALWAYS copied, however, even if its size is larger than 1024K. You can add additional drives and size numbers after the ; in the line to indicate the delete directories for other drives. Be warned: this will decrease your system's performance somewhat on file operations.

No LaunchPad/WarpCenter
By default, OS/2 Warp 3 starts the LaunchPad upon booting your computer, and the WarpCenter for OS/2 Warp 4. But what if you don't want to run these programs?

Remove the LAUNCHPAD (or WARPCENTER) from the CONFIG.SYS line that reads SET AUTOSTART=PROGRAMS,TASKLIST,FOLDERS,CONNECTIONS,LAUNCHPAD Now they will not start automatically when you boot. You can place shadows of these programs in your Startup folder, and then you will be able to close them on the TaskList when you are done with them. Be careful when playing with this line, however. Removing the folders parameter will keep folders from reopening automatically when you restart, but since the Desktop is a folder, your desktop won't open on restart if you remove it!

PrettyClock
This one's for Warp 4 users only. There is an undocumented way to improve the look of your WarpCenter.

Just add SET SCUSEPRETTYCLOCK=ON to your CONFIG.SYS file (it stands for SmartCenter USE PRETTY CLOCK), and you will get at 3-dimensional clock on your WarpCenter.

Quick Task Kill
This one's also for Warp 4 users only. Add: SET KILLFEATUREENABLED=ON to your CONFIG.SYS file. After you reboot, you can Ctrl-left click on the task list on the WarpCenter and it will show you ALL the running tasks on your system which you can selectively kill with a simple click.