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Article ID: 87165 - Last Review: September 24, 2011 - Revision: 3.0
Command-Line Switches for MSCDEX.EXE
This article was previously published under Q87165
This article describes the command-line switches for Microsoft's CD-ROM
Extension, Mscdex.exe, versions 2.21, 2.22, and 2.95.
Mscdex.exe is available from CD-ROM vendors, with the MS-DOS 6 Upgrade, 6.2
Upgrade, and 6.21 Upgrade, and with Windows 95/98.
Mscdex.exe is a CD-ROM "redirector." It hooks into the MS-DOS or Windows
operating system the same way the network redirector does to obtain access
to files that are not on local hard or floppy disks. As far as MS-DOS or
Windows is concerned, CD-ROM drives look just like network drives.
MSCDEX splices itself in front of the network redirector and takes requests
belonging to CD-ROM drives and passes the rest to redirectors (such as
network redirectors).
Command Line Switches
The following is the command line for MSCDEX.EXE:
MSCDEX.EXE: /D:x /M:n /E /V /L:x /S /K
The following table defines the MSCDEX.EXE command-line switches:
Switch Definition
/D:<device name> - Allows you to specify a name for the device
driver. This name must be identical to the
device name used in the CONFIG.SYS file.
/M:<n> - Specifies the number of sector buffers used
to cache the path table of a CD-ROM disk.
Typically, each drive should have a minimum
of four to five buffers. The larger this
number is, the less your computer will have
to read directly from the CD-ROM drive.
/E - Tells MSCDEX.EXE to use expanded memory if
your system is using expanded memory.
/V - Displays information on memory usage
when you boot your PC.
/L:<drive letter> - Allows you to specify the letter you want
to assign to the first CD-ROM drive.
/S - Allows the CD-ROM to be shared on MS-NET
based systems.
/K - Tells MSCDEX.EXE to use any KANJI (Japanese)
file structures, if present, rather than the
default of alphanumeric file structures.
APPLIES TO
- Microsoft Windows 3.0 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Windows 95
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