Short description
----------------- 
MSTBOOT 4.0 allows to access up to 12 operating systems stored on hard disk or 
floppy. A partitioning of the storage media is not required any more.
Right after switching on or resetting the computer a boot manager will be 
activated enabling the user to choose between the available operating systems. 
Moreover, the boot manager can optionally be envoced after a soft reset. If 
there is no keyboard entry, the boot manager will automatically start the 
operating system of the last session with some seconds of delay. When the 
startup is completed, MSTBOOT frees al allocated RAM space.
The installation an system adaption of the boot manager can be carried out 
with a user-friendly dialogue program with online help under DOS.

First installation
------------------ 
How to install the boot manager for the first time:
1. Unpack the file MSTBOOT.ZIP into any directory on your harddisk
2. Start from this directory the program SETUP.EXE.  It creates a
   bootable diskette and copies the MSTBOOT files.  The diskette
   contains a selection of CD ROM drivers with those almost all
   types should to be supported.
3. Reboot the system from the new diskette (some systems block a direct 
   hard disk access)
4. Start the boot manager MSTBOOT.EXE
5. The Wizard asks now for all necessary information to define
   the current operating system in the boot manager.
6. Dismiss the boot manager with Alt+X

The boot manager installation is now completed. So far, however, only one
operating system can be selected.

Additional operating systems
---------------------------- 
How to add an additional operating system:
1. Reboot your computer from the with SETUP.EXE created diskette.
2. Start the boot manager MSTBOOT.EXE
3. Prepare the boot manager for the operating system to be added (Alt+B, P)
4. Dismiss the boot manager with Alt+X.
5. Install the operating system according to the instructions and make 
   shure that the installation process will be fully completed which might 
   also require a new start of the system
6. Now boot the system from the MSTBOOT diskette
7. Start the boot manager a second time, MSTBOOT.EXE
8. The Wizard asks now for all necessary information to define the
   new operating system in the boot manager.
9. Dismiss the boot manager with Alt+X

The boot manager can now handle the new operating system.

CD-ROM installation
------------------- 
How to install a new operating system from CD-ROM:
The with SETUP.EXE created diskette contains a selection of CD ROM drivers
with those almost all types should to be supported.  However if your drive
needs different drivers, you should copy these also on the boot diskette and 
the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT be altered. The name of the driver and the 
corresponding parameters can be taken from the actual DOS configuration on the 
system. An example can be given how the crucial lines might look if Mitsumi 
CD-ROM drive will be used.:

CONFIG.SYS:
   DEVICE =A:\MTMCDAI.SYS /D:MTMIDE01
AUTOEXEC.BAT:
   MSCDEX.EXE /S /D:MTMIDE01 /M:10

If an operating system is getting delivered with boot diskettes for the
installation from CD-ROM, the copy of drivers might be dropped.
It might be a good alternative to copy all installation files from CD-ROM to a 
temporary directory on hard disk first and to start the installation process 
from there, what needs checking for sufficient hard disk space.

Supported operating systems
---------------------------
Test of MSTBOOT 4.0 have been made for the following operating systems (all
higher versions should also run without problems):
   * IBM-DOS Version 5.0
   * IBM-DOS Version 6.3
   * MS-DOS Version 5.0
   * MS-DOS Version 6.0
   * MS-DOS Version 6.2
   * MS-DOS Version 6.22
   * NOVELL-DOS Version 7.0
   * CALDERA OpenDOS 7.0
   * OS/2 Warp
   * WINDOWS-NT 3.1
   * WINDOWS-NT 3.5
   * WINDOWS-NT 3.51
   * WINDOWS-NT 4.0
   * WINDOWS-NT 5.0 Beta 1
   * WINDOWS 95 Version 4.00
   * WINDOWS 95b (OEM SR-2)
   * WINDOWS Memphis Beta 1
   * WINDOWS 98
   * LINUX
The boot manager will definitely not handle the following operating systems:
   * IBM-DOS Version 4.x (or lower)
   * MS-DOS Version 4.x (or lower)
   * DR-DOS Version 5.0 (or lower) 

Data compression an boot drive
------------------------------ 
If the boot drive content (typically C:) with the system files have been 
compressed the boot manager must not be used.
Compression of other drives does not disturb the use of the boot manager. It 
must, however, be checked if an additional operating system to be installed 
will support the existing compression method.

FAT32
----
Starting from version 3.0 MSTBOOT supports also FAT32 drives. If your boot
drive is formatted with FAT32, you must consider that you only can install
such systems additionally, wich support also FAT32 (at present:
WIN95B, WIN98, NT5.0).  If you plan a combination with other systems,
then you could create either a smaller boot partition with FAT16, or use
the function PARTITION LINK.

File list
--------- 
The packed file MSTBOOT.ZIP contains the following files:

   SETUP.EXE    Creation of boot disk
   ORDER.TXT    Ordering form for full version
   README.TXT   File actually displayed

The boot disk created by SETUP.EXE contains the following files:

   MSTBOOT.EXE  Installation and adaption of the boot manager
   MSTBOOT.HLP  Online help
   ORDER.TXT    Ordering form for full version
   README.TXT   File actually displayed
 
Registration
------------ 
The shareware release allows a 30-days test of the program free of change. To 
use the program permanently, register please and add the license free of
DM 25,00 or 14 USD or (cash or cheque) at:

   Olaf H. Barth
   Oskar-Mai-Str. 46
   01159 Dresden
   GERMANY

You can use the ordering form ORDER.TXT for convenience Immediately after
registration an actual full version of the manager will be mailed to you.

For pay per credit card look at:

   http://www.mstboot.com/en/credcard.htm

Exclusion of warranty
--------------------- 
All legal responsibilities of the programmer for detrimental effects of the 
use of the program MSTBOOT including damage from operating interrupts, data 
losses or from other program-related problems must be excluded.


Olaf H. Barth


Dresden, 27.07.1998
