
                                 Documentation
                  Copyright (c) 1997 - 2000 Vijai K. Amarnath
                              All rights reserved.

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Contents
~~~~~~~~
[1] Disclaimer 
[2] Copyright
[3] What is OSL2000?
[4] Features
[5] Install/Uninstall
[6] Safety Features
[7] Author
[8] Restrictions
[9] Credits

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[1] Disclaimer
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    By using OSL2000 on a computer system, users make the knowing decision to
    accept and agree to this disclaimer of warranty. These are meant to be
    binding terms and conditions, and not a mere recital:

    "OSL2000 is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
    ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
    FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. The author assumes no liability for
    damages, direct or consequential, which may result from the use of 
    OSL2000."

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[2] Copyright
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    The author, Vijai K. Amarnath, exclusively owns all the copyrights.
    OSL2000 can be freely distributed in its original form, and you can make
    as many copies as you want. Modifying or reverse engineering OSL2000 is
    strictly prohibited.

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[3] What is OSL2000?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    OSL2000 is an universal boot manager. If your system has multiple operating
    systems (like Linux, Win95/98/NT, DOS, OS/2, FreeBSD, etc.), you can use
    OSL2000 to easily boot the operating system of your choice. In a nutshell,
    if you have (or want to install) two or more operating systems in your
    computer, use OSL2000.

    Probably the best boot manager in the world!

    OSL2000 is compatible with most of the operating systems.

    Installation is very easy. Takes less than a second (fully automatic).

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[4] Features
~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Boot Menu
    ~~~~~~~~~
        Can boot upto 100 operating systems.
        Sports a damn great interface.
        Compatible with most of the operating systems.
        Automatically re-configures itself during every boot.
        Supports all partitions types.
        Has many great features.

	You can now set a default boot partition!
        Has a cool online help system!
        Has a timer, whose delay can be varied (0-99 secs).
        Has a clock & date display.
        Has both simple/advanced menus.
        Supports automatic partition hiding.
        Can fix FAT boot sector bug on the fly!
        Blocks unbootable entries from booting!
        Lets you assign names to partitions.
        You can even remove unwanted entries from the boot menu!
        Can manually hide and Unhide partitions very easily.

        Can boot DOS/Win95/Win98 from the second harddisk.
        Lets you have independent copies of DOS/Win95/Win98/WinNT.
        Lets you have even multiple copies of DOS/Win95/Win98 in your system.

    Installer
    ~~~~~~~~~
        Fully automatic. Very very easy to install and use.
        Installation now takes less than a second!
        Uninstaller now gives you a clean uninstall!

        Can be installed from a floppy.
        Can reside in free spaces between partitions.
        Can reside in FAT16/BIGDOS/FAT32 partitions.
        Does not need a separate partition like OS/2 boot manager.
        Very very safe. Never modifies the partition values.

    Documents
    ~~~~~~~~~
        All the documents have been completely revised.
        The document viewer works better now.

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[5] Install/Uninstall
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Installing OSL2000
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
        Install OSL2000 by typing 'OSL2000' at the DOS prompt. When OSL2000
        asks you what to do, press 'I'. Once installed, the boot menu pops-up
        whenever you re-start your system. If you have trouble installing, try
        reading all the accompanying documents before sending me a feedback.

        Once installed, OSL2000's boot menu automatically pops-up whenever
        you re-start your system. The boot menu has a complete online help
        system that can answer most of your questions.

    Uninstalling OSL2000
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
        Uninstall OSL2000 by typing 'OSL2000' at the DOS prompt. When OSL2000
        asks you what to do, press 'U'. Please remember to uninstall from the
        same drive/directory from where you installed OSL2000. This is where
        OSL2000 saves all the uninstall info. Even if the uninstall info is
        missing, OSL2000 can still do a minimal uninstall. If you want to
        uninstall manually, please read the accompanying documents.

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[6] Safety Features
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    All the modules inside OSL2000.EXE are encrypted using a 8-bit key and are
    protected using a 16-bit CRC. The secondary loader's image is also
    encrypted using a 8-bit key and is protected using a 16-bit CRC.

    OSL2000 has a "state-of-art" error handler. That means, the program is
    largely bug free and highly stable.

    During startup, OSL2000 scans the system for boot sector virus infections.

    OSL2000 modifies the (and only the) master boot record in the partition
    table and the "boot flag & file system ids" in the partition entries. At
    any point of time, the partition table can be perfectly restored. To do
    that, please refer "uninstalling manually" in "faq.txt".

    OSL2000 has a great uninstaller (hey, you won't be needing that anyway).

    Even though OSL2000 is very safe, i strongly advice you to make multiple
    copies of all the data in your system, and store them in radiation proof
    containers for more safety. Oops! just kidding... ;-)

    Anyway, if you wish, you may backup your critical system areas (like boot
    sector, partition table, etc.) using progs like Norton rescue disk, image,
    etc. These guys can help you even if everything else fails.

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[7] Author
~~~~~~~~~~
    If you need further assistance or if you have any questions, suggestions
    or bug-reports regarding the program, please feel free to contact the
    author at

        feedback@osloader.com

    If you have any questions regarding this program, make sure you read
    all the accompanying documents before posting your question. And, if
    you are submitting a bug report, please attach the file `debug.log'
    with your report.

    You can also contact me directly regarding my program at the following
    address:

        Vijai K. Amarnath,
        36B, Radhakrishnan Cross Street,
        B.B.Kulam, Madurai, Tamilnadu,
        India - 625 002.

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[8] Restrictions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    In case you do not have free spaces between partitions, you'll be needing
    "atleast one FAT partition" to install OSL2000. If OSL2000 still fails to
    detect devices, contact me. I'll try to find a way out.

    OSL2000 cannot coexist with drivers like On Track's Disk Manager and
    EZ-Drive, which loads before DOS. So, if your system has one such driver,
    you won't be able to use OSL2000.

    OSL2000.EXE is a compound EXE file. If you try to compress it with
    EXE-compressors like PKLITE, LZ91, etc, it won't work.

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[9] Credits
~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Special thanks to:

        My father for believing in me.

        Sumanth Kumar for his great ideas.

        Anil Cherian for improving my documents.

        Satish Chacko for helping me with graphics.

        And,

        All the registered users for helping me improve OSL2000.

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                            ^..^ Happy Booting ^..^

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