VSHARE.386 -- what is it?

[Dan Koller]

Howdy. I am trying to run Windows 3.1 on an old 386 laptop. DOS
5.0 and Win3.1 both run, but every time windows runs, it reports
the following error.

"Cannot find one or more files which may be needed to run windows
386 enhanced mode: VSHARE.386.
Press any key to continue."

What is VSHARE.386? I cannot find a copy of it anywhere on my
win 3.1 or DOS diskettes, and I can't find any reference to it in
any of the system config files on the hard drive. How do I fix
this problem?

Please let me know if you know the answer. An e-mail reply to
dan...@max.physics.sunysb.edu would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.
Danube

[DONALD G. DAVIS]

dan...@insti.physics.sunysb.edu (Dan Koller) writes:

VSHARE.386 is the Windows "virtual device driver" that can be used
in liue of DOS SHARE.EXE to control file sharing and locking for
applications. When present, it should be in the \WINDOWS\SYSTEM
directory, and is loaded by the line "device=vshare.386" in the [386Enh]
section of SYSTEM.INI. If that line is *not* in your SYSTEM.INI, it is
not clear to me why Windows would give you an error message if the file is
missing. Windows does not require Vshare to run, but unless either Share
or Vshare is loaded, some applications (e.g., Word 6.0) won't start, and
others may experience file corruption under some circumstances. A Web
search for VSHARE.386 will give you more detailed information.

VSHARE.386 is not on the Win 3.1 or DOS disks, but comes with
Windows for Workgroups, or can be downloaded free from:

http://www2.arrl.org/notes/qstv/vshare.html

or various other sites. The filename is WW1000.EXE.

If you don't use applications that benefit from Share or Vshare,
it may be better not to load them, as they can cause problems with things
like file operations when multiple Windows DOS sessions are running. If
you want to run programs like the Microsoft Word reader without Share or
Vshare loaded, there is a little TSR, NOSHARE.COM, on the Web, which will
fool applications into "thinking" Share is loaded when it it not.

--Donald Davis