How to make a double-click only affect the clicked-on file ?

Lee,

I assume you start with the START menu's DOS PROMPT shortcut,
but then do you manually press ALT + ENTER?

Something like the first (I did put a shortcut to it on the desktop), though
I also placed a link into the context-menu of a folder. But no, I do not
(need to) press ALT-ENTER, I changed the DOS Prompt settings to start in
full-screen mode. I seldom use ALT-ENTER. I however do use ALT-TAB to
switch between the (full-screen) DOS prompt and the GUI ...

You don't need to preload the windows keyboard buffer with this
ALT button press which may be the root cause of the issue.

I'm not sure what you mean here ... Preloading ? How ? I'm not aware of
that (and than, what about the TAB key I also need to press ?).

Earlier you asked for where are the settings if there are any?

I was aiming for GUI settings (as there the problem is most pronounced), but
I'm open to any help I can get. :-)

One is close on exit checkbox tick, mine is ticked.

Same here.

Another is screen start settings in full size or standard normal
window, play with this to get ALTless full screen CLI perhaps.

As you can tell from my above response, already done. :-)

Another is Windows shortcut key list allowed during CLI interface,
all of mine are checked and I never mess with it so this is probably
the original settings I'm looking at

The only ones I've got enabled are ALT-TAB and ALT-ENTER -- The fewer
"special key combinations" that will throw me back to the GUI environment
(and disrupt my work in the CLI), the better.

Confirmed power user then. We are all addicted to the best Windows
ever, just in a vast multitude of different ways. Hello, my name is Lee
and I have an addiction

I'm not sure I'm really a power-user. Its just that some stuff just seems
to work easier in a CLI than in a GUI. *Especially* when you have some
"dump output" you want to view/capture into a file.

If I'm not mistaken NONE of the BIOS calls can be ignored in that manner

I'm afraid you're mistaken. You just have to make sure that you do not
have both active at the same time, as that most likely will cause clashes.
:-)

For example: the BIOS provides an interface to the serial port (INT 0x14).
But nothing stops you if you want to access the UART hardware itself (I/O
ports 3F8h-3FFh for COM1).

Basic In/Out System is what BIOS stands for and it's a 'get all your work
done thru me' centralized standard from day one

Not quite. The B in BIOS stands for "Basic", as in Bog-standard, no extras.
What you are referring to is the OS'es gate-keeper to the hardware, which
makes sure only a single program can access a certain piece hardware at a
time (imagine two programs in a multi-tasking environment trying to use the
same hardware at the same time. Yup: C(l|r)ash! :-) )

And yes, Win98se wasn't fully grown-out in this regard (which is why you can
still access hardware directly in it, even as a mere user)

pretty sure now it's just the settings/method you are using

I'm all ears ! ... but are you sure about that ? A sometimes(!)-sticky
key being caused by a setting ?

with a possible cure using an exit batch file perhaps

Well, although I rather dislike having to shell a shell (with the second
shell doing all the work and the first shell just waiting to run some
"clean-up" code), it could not hurt to take a peek at it, even just as a
method to determine if such a sticky key is actually the cause. Thanks for
the suggestion.
Now I only need to come up with a method to, in a DOS environment, check the
keys current status ...

One last rememberance of mine is that there several DOS mode PIF
file shortcuts scattered throughout the system.

Yup. Never bothered to take a look at those either (other than to conclude
that they would not open a CLI window for my use). But don't worry: I've
got a single PIF, with the others being shortcuts to it (other than the
origional one in the start menu, which never use and I left untouched -- you
never know when I could need it :-) )

Thanks for the suggestions.

Regards,
Rudy Wieser


-- Origional message:
Lee schreef in berichtnieuws
...
On Friday, March 31, 2017 at 4:49:04 AM UTC-6, R.Wieser wrote:
Lee,

You provide your own work around, pressing the Alt key.

Yeah, but not a *good* work-around I'm afraid. I switch between the CLI
and GUI to much to have to do it every time (for a problem that pops up
sometimes).

Understood there. I would call that a power user of the big DOS box although
you've already indicated you would not call it that ever. Maximized window
isn't what I was referring to either even though they may in fact be the
same thing. We are on the same page, it just might not sound like it.

Full screen console means a big DOS box?

Nope, it means the CLI taking up the whole screen (like most games do),
not
maximized GUI window. Like when you get (on an W98 system) when pressing
ALT-ENTER when in a windowed CLI.

And here is our clue, your ALT press (in windows) from that is being
maintained afterwards (via the keyboard buffer). And this begs the question
just exactly how do you get to full screen console? I assume you start with
the START menu's DOS PROMPT shortcut, but then do you manually press ALT +
ENTER? You don't need to preload the windows keyboard buffer with this ALT
button press which may be the root cause of the issue.

Earlier you asked for where are the settings if there are any?
Answer is under right click on the DOS PROMPT shortcut with several gotchas
in there. One is close on exit checkbox tick, mine is ticked. Another is
screen start settings in full size or standard normal window, play with this
to get ALTless full screen CLI perhaps. Another is Windows shortcut key list
allowed during CLI interface, all of mine are checked and I never mess with
it so this is probably the original settings I'm looking at -- ALT + ENTER
is in there, but I don't know if unchecking it is the thing to do or not. I
doubt it but you never know. You may have to reboot for changes done in
here to actually go into full effect too - if in doubt reboot as they say or
should have.

I usually don't use the big DOS box for anything.

:-) Sometimes it feels to me I use it more than I use the GUI.


Confirmed power user then. We are all addicted to the best Windows ever,
just in a vast multitude of different ways. Hello, my name is Lee and I have
an addiction.

My vote is on some dodgy BIOS code that may have been fixed in the
last available BIOS version for your machine perhaps.

Are you sure ? Doesn't windows load its own low-level keyboard-driver
(ignoring any-and-all BIOS routines for it)

If I'm not mistaken NONE of the BIOS calls can be ignored in that manner,
Basic In/Out System is what BIOS stands for and it's a 'get all your work
done thru me' centralized standard from day one. Even protected mode
windows calls are still done with interrupt calls thru the BIOS, just in a
different section for protected mode. Keyboard use would just use a
different set of interrupt calls from say the hard drive or screen. And it's
quite likely that protected mode sections extend to the keyboard too. Ralf
Brown's interrupt list is a mighty fine read for further details.

But I've changed my mind as to BIOS update being a possible need in your
case, pretty sure now it's just the settings/method you are using with a
possible cure using an exit batch file perhaps. Other method may be to
alter the string in the registry that fires up the CLI emulator, some batch
files I use require certain switches for firing up the CLI part such that it
will persist and work properly with some of the batch files I'm using, but
the exact information to supply here is long forgotten since it's been so
long since I built the batch files. /C or /K switches seem to be in the
front of my mind but a run thru of the DOS help file might shed better light
on the subject. I've even forgotten exactly where to look in the registry
for this string anyway. For now you can mess with the shortcut properties
which will probably be doing the exact same thing anyway. I use RegShot to
confirm such suspicions often, but again been so long I would have to
relearn my own methods for even using RegShot properly.

One last rememberance of mine is that there several DOS mode PIF file
shortcuts scattered throughout the system. You will have to work on the
correct one, one operates the shutdown flash moment as windows dies IIRC.
If you foul this one up you can get locked into CLI only and other problems
as well. One is specifically for reboot to DOS mode choice and others I
never did figure out.