Upon completion of the installation process, the user is given the opportunity to migrate installed Windows applications (defined to the Windows Program Manager) to the OS/2 Version 2.0 Workplace Shell. All Windows applications which are to be migrated must have the appropriate DOS and Windows settings defined in the Certified Application Database (CAD), which is shipped as a standard component of OS/2 Version 2.0. See also Installing and Migrating Applications.
Note: Only the settings for those applications which have been certified via approved IBM testing channels will be held in the Certified Applications Database (CAD), and only those settings which differ from the default settings will be recorded.
If a referenced Windows application is found on any of the available disk volumes during OS/2 installation, the existing *.INI and *.GRP files will be read, the necessary changes applied to them, and the updated versions stored in the \OS2\MDOS\WINOS2 directory. This will effectively migrate the user's Windows desktop, including all Windows applications, into a MAVDM, SAVDM or seamless environment.
The CAD provides information enabling the installation procedure to automatically set the DOS settings for certified DOS and Windows applications. The user is presented with a list of the certified applications found, which can then be migrated. The user may select any or all of these applications. The CAD is searched for each of the selected applications, and DOS and/or Windows settings information found in the database will be used to automatically assign settings to applications. Windows applications will be placed in a single "Windows Applications" folder. DOS applications are placed in a single "DOS Applications" folder.
The CAD is a binary database, generated from an ASCII database and a predefined tag file. Each field in the ASCII database starts with a descriptive tag that is associated with a value between 0-225 in the predefined tag file; the maximum number of tags is therefore 256. When the binary CAD generation tool encounters one of the descriptive tags, it generates an entry in the binary CAD with a 0-255 value specified in the predefined tag file. To add new or additional DOS properties, a short descriptive tag is created for the ASCII file and associated with an unused value between 0-255 in the predefined tag file. A length specification is also provided for the value in the tag file.
Each field in the binary CAD starts with a predefined tag value of 0-255 that identifies the field. This tag is followed by a size field, which in turn is followed by the actual value of the field.
Each application in the CAD has the following minimum information:
The filename that starts the application is used to identify the application on the hard drive. The next application pointer points directly to the next application entry in the CAD. This provides the ability to jump from one entry to the next without parsing all of the tags between entries in the CAD. The application title is displayed to the user if the application is found on the hard drive. The user will use this information to specify if the application is to be migrated.
The filename extensions held in the CAD will determine what files are searched for; that is all EXE, COM and BAT files.
When the applications have been migrated into the OS/2 Version 2.0 Workplace Shell, information for DOS applications is stored in the OS2.INI file. Windows settings for Windows applications are stored in the WIN.INI file, while their DOS-related settings are stored in the OS2.INI file.