MSD

Provides detailed technical information about your computer.

To use MSD to create a report:

MSD [/I] [/F[drive:][path]filename] [/P[drive:][path]filename] [/S[drive:][path][filename]]

To run the MSD program and examine technical information through its interface:

MSD [/B] [/I]

drive: path filename (v6.0 Win95 ONLY)

Specifies the drive, directory, and filename to which you want to write the report.

/B (v6.0 Win95 ONLY)

Runs MSD in black and white instead of color. Use the /B switch when you have a monitor that does not correctly display MSD in color.

/F[drive:][path]filename (v6.0 Win95 ONLY)

Prompts you for name, company, address, country, phone number, and comments, then writes a complete MSD report to the file you specify.

/I (v6.0 Win95 ONLY)

Specifies that MSD not initially detect hardware. Use the /I switch if you are having problems starting MSD or if MSD is not running properly.

/P[drive:][path]filename (v6.0 Win95 ONLY)

Writes a complete MSD report to the file you specify, without prompting you for information.

/S[drive:][path][filename] (v6.0 Win95 ONLY)

Writes a summary MSD report to the file you specify, without prompting you for information. If you do not specify any of the parameters, MSD writes the report to the screen.

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• Information provided by MSD
• MSD Button Options

Whether you examine the information through MSD's interface or through a report, the MSD program can provide detailed technical information about your computer's:

• Model and processor
• Memory
• Video adapter
• Version of MS-DOS
• Mouse
• Other adapters
• Disk drives
• LPT ports
• COM ports
• IRQ status
• Terminate-and-stay-resident (TSR) programs
• Device drivers

A brief description of the buttons that appear on MSD's main screen:

Computer

Displays computer manufacturer, processor type, and bus type; ROM BIOS manufacturer, version and date; keyboard type; DMA controller configuration; and math coprocessor status.

Memory

Displays a map of the upper memory area (UMA) -- the memory region from 640K to 1024K.

Video

Shows your video card manufacturer, model, and type; video BIOS version and date; and current video mode.

Network

Displays network-specific configuration information.

Operating System

Displays the operating system version, location of MS-DOS in memory, the drive the computer was started from, the current environment settings, and the path from which MSD was run.

Mouse

Shows the MS-DOS mouse driver version, mouse type, mouse interrupt request line (IRQ) number, and other information specific to the configuration of the mouse.

Other Adapters

Displays the game card status for up to two game devices or joysticks.

Disk Drives

Displays the size and number of bytes free on local and remote drives.

LPT Ports

Displays the port addresses of all installed parallel ports, and dynamically displays the status of each port.

COM Ports

Displays the port addresses and current communications parameters of all installed serial ports, and displays the status of each port.

IRQ Status

Displays the configuration of the hardware IRQs.

TSR Programs

Displays the name, location in memory, and size of each program loaded in memory at the time MSD was run.

Device Drivers

Displays the names of all device drivers installed at the time MSD was run.

• Creating a report
• Starting the MSD program

If you wanted to examine some of the technical information about your computer before calling Microsoft Product Support Services, you would start the MSD program by typing:

    MSD

The MSD program has an interface that makes it easy for you to access detailed technical information about your computer.

Before calling Microsoft Product Support Services, you could create a file called COMPUTER.TXT that contains a detailed technical report about your computer. To do this, you could type:

    MSD /PCOMPUTER.TXT

The COMPUTER.TXT file would contain the information about your computer.

If you want MSD to create a detailed report about your computer and you wanted the report to include such information as your name, company, address, and phone number, you would type:

    MSD /FCOMPUTER.TXT

The MSD program will prompt you for the information.

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External

DOS

v6.0 v6.10 v6.2 v6.21 v6.22 v6.23 v7.00 v7.0R1

Windows

Win95

Windows NT

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