The installation program for a DOS or Windows application may alter the AUTOEXEC.BAT (usually to modify the PATH statement) and CONFIG.SYS (to modify the FILES and BUFFERS statements or add a DEVICE statement). Usually the copies edited are the ones found in the root directory of the OS/2 V2.0 boot drive. If the option is given the user should not allow the installation program to make the modifications before reviewing the changes. We recommend that you back up both of these files prior to running an installation. After installation, inspect the date and time stamps of the files to see if they have been modified.
The most common change made to the AUTOEXEC.BAT file is to the PATH statement, so that the program being installed can be started from any subdirectory. The function of the PATH statement can be provided in a virtual DOS machine by using the Path and file name and Working directory fields of the Program page of the Settings notebook.
Since the CONFIG.SYS is used for every virtual DOS machine, the device driver that an installation program adds will be loaded for all VDMs and consume system resources unnecessarily. We recommend that when the DOS application is added to the Workplace Shell the device driver statement be added via the DOS_DEVICE setting in the DOS Settings facility. This setting is accessed by pressing the DOS Settings push button on the Session page of the Settings notebook.