Wordstar 7

[kmashraf]

Hello,
I know it is kinda belated but can anyone walk me through installing Wordstar 7 ? I never could make a working install of it. I find that a lot pf people who have been using computers since the early 90's tend to stick to what they know best, which usually is Wordstar.  Therefore me as a service guy need to know how to.

[Forum Admin]

Hi,

From: http://www.wordstar.org/wsdos/pages/ws7install.htm

To install WordStar from the floppy disks you need to run the command WSSETUP. This command expects the files to be in either drive A: or B:

If you have copied all your floppy disks to a single directory on your hard disk you will need to change into this directory in DOS and then use the command WSINSTALL /A to tell WordStar to look for all files in the current directory.

WINSTALL in all other cases is for monitor and other system configuration and should be run (without the /A switch) after running WSSETUP.
----

Is that where you're going wrong?

[kmashraf]

Thanks a ton !
As I said whenever I tried to install WS 7 I did not know what I had to to do to install it. I've never seen any documentation for it I think because those days people were expected to read the hard copy docs that came with the software. The manual that would have come with my copy in any case was unavailable since I only got the files.
Also tell me whether it would work if I copied a working WS 7 install from one hdd to another. I tried that and it doesn't work. Though all the earlier versions work !
Once again thanks and I am much obliged.  

[Forum Admin]

Hi again,

Yes, you can copy from one disk to another, but you must keep the root path the same: i.e., if the original was in C:\WS7 then the copied version must also be in C:\WS7 - on the new disk.

WordStar stores it's file paths internally, so if you move it you need to reset all the paths. I have a batch file on the site to help you to change the drive letter, if you try it, make a backup first! The file is available at http://www.wordstar.org/wsdos/downloads/utils/DEFPTH.BAT.

Copy it to your new WS directory and run it with the new drive letter as an argument: e.g., DEFPTH d <CR>. It will check for a copy of ws.exe so if you've used a different name it will need to be modified to suit.

[deedee]

If I may jump in here --

You can copy a complete install of WS from one machine to another, but not from one hard disk drive to another on the same machine. That is, if it was on drive C: on the first machine, it must be on drive C: on the second machine. However, if you want to move it from drive C: to drive D: on the same machine, you can't do that.

I've not used the utility defpth.bat to change the path for changing drives on the same machine, but I have used a utility that came as part of Zip Tools (an early version, later versions didn't seem to include this tool), called App Mover. That tool did work and successfully changed the paths. So there's a good possibility that defpth.bat will do so. Just remember to backup everything first .

deedee

[Forum Admin]

Which is basically as I said - if it was in C:\WS on the old disk it must be in C:\WS on the new disk.

I've looked at DEFPTH.BAT again, and at long last quickly tested it. This utility will allow you to change the drive. So if you need to move WordStar from C:\WS7 to D:\WS7 do so, then copy DEFPTH.BAT into D:\WS7 and run it as follows:

D:\WS7> DEFPTH d <CR>

Note: No colon after the new drive letter!

DEFPTH only changes the drive letter in the Search Paths section of WordStar, not the directory it's installed in. It would be difficult to add that feature because of the unknown length of what is there now.

You can manually change the paths by running WSCHANGE, then following the menu option sequence: C, D, A, and then each of the 16 possible path letters in turn.

I've updated the description of how to run DEFPTH in my previous message in case someone only reads that far.