Q96706: Mouse Doesn’t Work with MS-DOS Shell
Article: Q96706
Product(s): Microsoft Disk Operating System
Version(s): MS-DOS:5.x,6.0
Operating System(s):
Keyword(s):
Last Modified: 17-DEC-2000
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The information in this article applies to:
- Microsoft MS-DOS operating system versions 5.0, 5.0a, 6.0
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SYMPTOMS
========
When you use MS-DOS Shell, your mouse moves erratically, or the mouse pointer
doesn't appear at all. Or, the following dialog box appears when you start
MS-DOS Shell for the first time:
Warning:
You do not have a current mouse driver. This driver may cause your system to
stop or cause other problems with MS-DOS Shell.
Contact your vendor to get more information or a driver that will work with
MS-DOS Shell.
<Disable Mouse> <Use Mouse Anyway>
NOTE: If the dialog box appeared earlier and you now want to disable or re-enable
your mouse, you must modify your DOSSHELL.INI file. For more information about
modifying DOSSHELL.INI, see the "Disabling and Re-Enabling Your Mouse with
MS-DOS Shell" section in this article.
CAUSE
=====
The mouse driver you are using may be installed incorrectly or may be
incompatible with MS-DOS Shell or MS-DOS Editor. (The mouse driver is a file
that enables your computer to interpret your mouse movements. Every mouse should
come with its own mouse driver.)
Some earlier mouse drivers do not work well with MS-DOS Shell because they cannot
perform all the functions required by MS-DOS Shell. Also, using the wrong mouse
driver for your mouse can cause some problems due to hardware differences.
WORKAROUND
==========
If you have no mouse pointer at all, refer to the "Check Your Mouse Driver
Installation" section below. If you do have a mouse pointer, but it moves
erratically or not at all, or if the "You do not have a current mouse driver..."
dialog box appears, refer to the "Check Your Mouse Driver Compatibility" section
later in this article.
Check Your Mouse Driver Installation
------------------------------------
To determine whether your mouse driver is installed correctly, use the procedure
below.
NOTE: The following steps assume your mouse uses a driver called MOUSE.SYS or
MOUSE.COM. If you don't find either file on your hard disk, check the
documentation that came with your mouse for the correct driver name and use it
wherever appropriate.
1. At the MS-DOS command prompt, type the following and press ENTER after each
line
" <drive>:
cd <drive>:\
dir mouse.* /s" (without the quotation marks)
where <drive> is your hard disk drive. (If you have more than one hard
disk drive, perform this command for all the hard disks on your system.) For
example, if your hard disk is drive C, type the following command and press
ENTER after each line:
" c:
cd c:\
dir mouse.* /s" (without the quotation marks)
MS-DOS displays the location of all mouse files on the drive.
2. Make sure you have either the MOUSE.COM or MOUSE.SYS file, and note which
directory contains the file. If you have more than one hard disk drive, check
each drive for these files.
If you don't have either of these files on your hard disk, copy them from the
floppy disk that came with your mouse.
3. Use a text editor to open your CONFIG.SYS file (if you have MOUSE.SYS) or
your AUTOEXEC.BAT file (if you have MOUSE.COM). If you want to use MS-DOS
Editor, type the following at the MS-DOS command prompt and press ENTER
" edit <drive>:\config.sys" (without the quotation marks)
-or-
" edit <drive>:\autoexec.bat" (without the quotation marks)
where <drive> is the startup drive where either AUTOEXEC.BAT or
CONFIG.SYS currently resides. For example, if your startup drive is drive C,
type the following command:
" edit c:\config.sys" (without the quotation marks)
-or-
" edit c:\autoexec.bat" (without the quotation marks)
4. Check the file you open to make sure it contains a command for starting your
mouse and that the location of your mouse file is the same as the location
specified in the command. Also, make sure your path points to the most
current version of your mouse files. If you have MOUSE.SYS, a command similar
to the following should be in your CONFIG.SYS file
" device=<path>:\mouse.sys" (without the quotation marks)
where path is the path to your MOUSE.SYS file. For example, if MOUSE.SYS is
located in the MOUSE directory on drive C, a command like the following
should be in your CONFIG.SYS file:
" device=c:\mouse\mouse.sys" (without the quotation marks)
If you have MOUSE.COM, a command similar to the following should be in your
AUTOEXEC.BAT file
" <path>:\mouse.com" (without the quotation marks)
where <path> is the path to your MOUSE.COM file. For example, if
MOUSE.COM is located in the MOUSE directory on drive C, a command like the
following should be in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file:
" c:\mouse\mouse.com" (without the quotation marks)
5. Save the file and quit the text editor. If you're using MS-DOS Editor, choose
Exit from the File menu. When MS-DOS Editor displays a dialog box prompting
you to save your file, choose the Yes button or press ENTER.
6. If you modified your CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT file, restart your computer
by pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL.
7. Start MS-DOS Shell to determine whether this solved the problem. If the
problem still occurs, check your mouse driver's compatibility with MS-DOS
Shell, as described below.
Check Your Mouse Driver Compatibility
-------------------------------------
To determine whether your mouse driver is compatible with MS-DOS Shell, proceed
as follows:
1. Determine the version number of your mouse driver.
For some mouse drivers, you can find out what version you have by typing
"mouse" (without the quotation marks) at the MS-DOS command prompt. Or,
observe the message your computer displays when your mouse driver starts. If
your mouse driver starts from your CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT file, as is
usually the case, the message appears when you start your computer. This
message often includes the version number.
2. Ensure your mouse driver is compatible with MS-DOS. The following is a list
of compatible mouse drivers:
Type of Mouse Compatible Versions
---------------------------------------
Genius 9.06 or later
Hewlett-Packard(R) 7.04 or later
IBM(R) PS/2(R) 7.04 or later
Logitech(TM) 5.01 or later
Microsoft 6.21 or later
Mouse Systems 7.01 or later
3. If your mouse driver is not on this list, contact your vendor for an updated
driver. If you have a Microsoft Mouse and MS-DOS Upgrade version 5.0a (MS-DOS
file dates of 11/11/91) or 6.0, you can install a compatible mouse driver
from your MS-DOS installation disks by doing the following:
a. Perform Procedure 1 to determine if you are loading MOUSE.COM or MOUSE.SYS
and where the mouse driver you are currently using is located.
b. MS-DOS 5.0a and 6.0 both ship with MOUSE.COM only. If you found in
Procedure 1 that you are using MOUSE.SYS, you'll need to disable the
command in CONFIG.SYS by changing it to resemble the following
rem device=<path>:\mouse.sys
where <path> is the path to MOUSE.SYS. For example, if MOUSE.SYS is
located in the MOUSE directory on drive C, the command should appear as
follows:
rem device=c:\mouse\mouse.sys
The REM command stands for "remark" and tells MS-DOS to ignore the command
it precedes.
Then add a line to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file using the same location for the
path as you found in Procedure 1. It should look similar to the following
line
<path>:\mouse.com
where <path> is the path to MOUSE.COM. For example, if MOUSE.COM is
located in the MOUSE directory on drive C, use the following line:
c:\mouse\mouse.com
c. To determine which MS-DOS installation disk contains the new mouse driver,
insert the disk containing the PACKING.LST file in your floppy disk drive.
To find the disk containing the PACKING.LST file, use the following
chart:
MS-DOS 5.0a Disk Number
---------------------------------
5.25-inch 1.2 MB 1
5.25-inch 360K 3
3.5-inch 720K 3
MS-DOS 6.0 Disk Number
---------------------------------
5.35-inch 1.2 MB 1
3.5-inch 1.44 MB 1
d. Type the following at the MS-DOS command prompt and press ENTER to see the
contents of each installation disk
" type <drive>:\packing.lst | more" (without the quotation marks)
where <drive> is the floppy disk drive containing the installation
disk. For example, if the installation disk is in drive A, type the
following command:
" type a:\packing.lst | more" (without the quotation marks)
NOTE: MOUSE.COM will appear as MOUSE.CO_ because it is a compressed file.
e. Insert the MS-DOS installation disk containing MOUSE.CO_ in your floppy
disk drive.
f. To expand the compressed mouse driver file and copy it to your hard disk
drive, you must use the EXPAND command. For example, type the following at
the MS-DOS command prompt and press ENTER after each line
" <drive>:
expand mouse.co_ <path>:\mouse.com" (without the quotation marks)
where <drive> is the floppy disk drive containing the installation
disk and <path> is the path to the directory where your current
mouse driver resides. For example, if the installation disk is in floppy
disk drive A and your current mouse driver is located in the root
directory of drive C, type the following commands and press ENTER after
each command:
" a:
expand mouse.co_ c:\mouse.com" (without the quotation marks)
You now have an MS-DOS Shell compatible mouse driver installed for your
Microsoft Mouse. To start using your mouse, remove any disks from your
floppy disk drive and restart your computer by pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL.
Disabling and Re-enabling Your Mouse with MS-DOS Shell
------------------------------------------------------
If the "You do not have a current mouse driver..." dialog box appeared the first
time you started MS-DOS Shell, you had the choice of disabling the mouse or
using the mouse anyway. MS-DOS Shell recorded your choice in a file called
DOSSHELL.INI, which contains information about how MS-DOS Shell appears on your
system.
NOTE: If you just installed a new mouse driver, you do not need to manually edit
the DOSSHELL.INI file to enable the new mouse driver. MS-DOS Shell will
automatically update the DOSSHELL.INI file the next time you start it.
If you chose the Disable Mouse option, MS-DOS Shell added the following line to
your DOSSHELL.INI file:
mouseinfo=<version>,disabled
However, if you chose the Use Mouse Anyway option, MS-DOS Shell added this line:
mouseinfo=<version>,ignore
The <version> parameter represents the version number of the mouse driver
MS-DOS Shell detected on your system.
To either enable or disable your mouse, you must manually change the "mouseinfo="
(without the quotation marks) line in the DOSSHELL.INI file.
If you originally chose Disable Mouse, and you want to enable your mouse, follow
this procedure:
1. Use a text editor to open your DOSSHELL.INI file. If you want to use MS-DOS
Editor, type the following at the MS-DOS command prompt and press ENTER
" edit <drive>:\<directory>\dosshell.ini" (without the quotation
marks)
where <drive> is your hard disk drive and <directory> is your
MS-DOS directory. For example, if your hard disk is drive C and your MS-DOS
directory is called DOS, type the following command:
" edit c:\dos\dosshell.ini" (without the quotation marks)
2. Find the "mouseinfo=" (without the quotation marks) line and change it to
read as follows
" mouseinfo=<version>,ignore" (without the quotation marks)
where <version> is the version number of the mouse driver MS-DOS Shell
detected on your system.
3. Save the file and quit the text editor. If you're using MS-DOS Editor, choose
Exit from the File menu. When MS-DOS Editor displays a dialog box prompting
you to save your file, choose the Yes button or press ENTER.
If you originally chose Use Mouse Anyway and you want to disable your mouse,
follow this procedure:
1. Use a text editor to open your DOSSHELL.INI file. If you want to use MS-DOS
Editor, type the following at the MS-DOS command prompt and press ENTER
" edit <drive>:\<directory>\dosshell.ini" (without the quotation
marks)
where <drive> is your hard disk drive and <directory> is your MS-
DOS directory. For example, if your hard disk is drive C and your MS-DOS
directory is called DOS, type the following command:
" edit c:\dos\dosshell.ini" (without the quotation marks)
2. Find the "mouseinfo=" (without the quotation marks) line, and change it to
read as follows:
" mouseinfo=<version>,disabled" (without the quotation marks)
3. Save the file and quit the text editor. If you're using MS-DOS Editor, choose
Exit from the File menu. When MS-DOS Editor displays a dialog box prompting
you to save your file, choose the Yes button or press ENTER.
REFERENCES
==========
For information about using MS-DOS Shell, see Chapters 3 and 8 of the Microsoft
MS-DOS 5.0 "User's Guide and Reference" or Chapter 2 of the "User's Guide" for
version 6.0 or 6.2.
Additional query words: 6.00 5.00 5.00a err msg shell dosshell tshoot
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Keywords :
Technology : kbMSDOSSearch kbMSDOS600 kbMSDOS500 kbMSDOS500a
Version : MS-DOS:5.x,6.0
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