Operation
Advanced

EMS Magic supports several command line options (or "switches") that may be useful for advanced users who need more control. Switches are entered on the command line, after emsmagic but before pressing the enter key. Both DOS (/xxx) and Unix (-xxx) style switches are supported. They are not case sensitive; i.e. both /EMS32 and /ems32 are acceptable. Below is an explanation of the switches supported:

  • /NOEMS
    • Do not load the EMS emulator.
       
  • /XMS3
    • Load the XMS fix, but only if XMS 3.0 is not detected. By default, the XMS fix is not loaded. This is different from previous versions of EMS Magic, which always loaded the XMS fix when XMS 3.0 was not present.
       
  • /FORCEXMS
    • Load the XMS fix, even if an existing XMS 3.0 manager is detected. This will prevent applications from using more than 64 MB XMS.
       
  • /FORCEEMS
    • Load the EMS emulator even if expanded memory already exists. Default behavior is to load the EMS emulator only if no EMM is found.
       
  • /EMS32
    • Load EMS 3.2 functions only. Without this switch, all EMS 4.0 functions are loaded. Loading only EMS 3.2 functions saves about 4K conventional/upper memory, but some programs may not run properly.
       
  • /HIGHSCAN or /HI
    • Try to use any writeable 64K block in the upper memory area (UMA) for the page frame, possibly without allocating it first. Normally the page frame is allocated in either an upper memory block (UMB) or conventional memory. With the /HIGHSCAN switch, UMB allocation is attempted first, and if that fails, then the UMA is scanned for a writeable 64K contiguous block of memory. If no writeable block is found, then the page frame is allocated in conventional memory. May cause memory corruption; use with caution.
       
  • /LOW or /L
    • Always allocate the page frame in conventional memory, even if free UMBs are available. This switch also prevents EMS Magic from loading itself into UMBs.
       
  • /FRAME=hhhh
    • Sets the segment of the page frame without allocating it. hhhh specifies the page frame segment in hex. Valid segments are 0001 to FFFF. Very likely to cause memory corruption if set incorrectly; use with caution.
       
  • /NOFRAME
    • Do not allocate or set a page frame. Use this switch only if the program you trying to run specifically states it does not require an EMS page frame.
       
  • /BEST or /B
    • Use "best fit" DOS memory allocation strategy when loading. This fixes problems with applications that use non-standard memory allocation, such as Collins Electronic Dictionary.
       
  • /RAM=xxxxx
    • Amount of expanded memory desired. xxxxx specifies the amount of memory, in KB. Valid range is 0 to 65520. Amount of EMS specified cannot exceed amount of free XMS currently available. Use /RAM=MAX to use all available XMS for EMS. If the /RAM switch is not used, the amount of EMS created will be about half of the free XMS available.
       
  • /HANDLES=xxx
    • Number of EMM handles. xxx is the number of handles, ranging from 2 to 255. One handle is always reserved for DOS. The default number of handles is 64.
       
  • /SAVES=xxx
    • Number of context saves. xxx is the number of saves, ranging from 0 to 255 The default number of saves is 4. Multitasking applications may require more context saves; refer to your program documentation for the recommended number of saves.
       
  • /QUIET or /Q
    • Suppress all output. This switch is not available in the personal version of EMS Magic.
       
  • /UNLOAD or /U
    • Unload XMS fix and/or EMS emulator.
       
  • /HELP or /?
    • Show command line help.

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