Q74572: How Microsoft Windows Uses an MS-DOS Mouse Driver

Article: Q74572
Product(s): Microsoft Windows Device Driver Kit
Version(s): 3.0,3.1
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): 
Last Modified: 06-NOV-1999

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Windows Device Development Kit (DDK) for Windows, versions 3.0, 3.1 
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SUMMARY
=======

For performance reasons, the Microsoft Windows graphical environment does not
use the MS-DOS mouse driver even if one is installed. Windows has its own mouse
driver (usually a file named MOUSE.DRV) that handles mouse input. Therefore,
Windows applications can use the mouse as long as the appropriate Windows mouse
driver is installed, regardless of whether an MS-DOS mouse driver is present.

The Windows mouse driver does not provide any mouse support for MS-DOS
(non-Windows) applications. You must load the MS-DOS mouse driver to use the
mouse with an MS-DOS application running under Windows. You can load the MS-DOS
mouse driver either before running Windows or in an MS-DOS session under
Windows. However, we recommend that you load the mouse driver before starting
Windows because hardware conflicts may occur if a mouse driver attempts to
initialize the hardware after Windows has started.

The virtual device driver named VMD manages ownership of the mouse hardware
between the Windows mouse driver and the MS-DOS mouse driver. VMD is not a mouse
driver; it simply switches hardware ownership between the MS-DOS and Windows
drivers.

Additional query words: 3.00 3.10 control

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Keywords          :  
Technology        : kbAudDeveloper kbWin3xSearch kbWinDDKSearch kbWinDDK300 kbWinDDK310
Version           : :3.0,3.1

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