For PCBoard to operate properly, you must install it on your system.
The installation program provided on disk #1 will insure that PCBoard is properly installed. If you are installing PCBoard for the first time or upgrading a previous version, the installation program will get you running in a minimal amount of time.

If you have previously installed a version of PCBoard or are very familiar with installing a bulletin board, this section will provide you with only the necessary information that you will need to install PCBoard. If you require explanations of each of the questions that the install program will ask you, skip to the Detailed Installation Instructions section of this chapter.

PCBoard is supplied on both 3.5“ and 5.25” disks. Both disk sets are the same. Select the disk size appropriate to your machine and insert Disk #1 into your A or B drive as required. At the DOS prompt, enter:

a:install  (ENTER)  (if using Drive A)

or

b:install  (ENTER)  (if using Drive B)

The installation program will then ask you for the destination of your PCBoard installation on your hard disk (defaulting to C:\PCB), as well as verifying the source location of the installation disks (A or B above).

If you are upgrading from a previous version of PCBoard, or installing a registered copy of PCBoard in place of a demo copy, the installation program will automatically recognize your previous installation and will only update the necessary files required for the upgrade. In either case, the install program will not modify your previous configuration.

Continue with the installation by following the instructions that are displayed on the screen. When the installation is complete, change to the directory where you installed PCBoard and run BOARD.BAT.

PCBoard can be installed directly from the distribution disks, or from a temporary location on your hard disk. If you will be installing several copies of PCBoard on multiple machines in a network environment, it is suggested that you install from a temporary location on your main file server. For additional information on installing more than one node, refer to the Multiple Nodes chapter of this manual once PCBoard is installed.

If you are installing PCBoard for the first time, you will be asked to enter information regarding the System Operator (SysOp) - including their name, remote logon password, etc. Please be prepared to complete this information during the initial installation.

If you have downloaded a new release of PCBoard from Salt Air, follow the instructions under Upgrading a Current Installation from Hard Disk Files found later in this section.

At any time during the installation procedure, you may press E when a prompt is displayed to abort the installation. Files which have already been installed will not be removed from your hard disk. If you abort an initial installation and perform a subsequent complete installation, do not select the upgrade option since all files may not have been installed during the initial aborted install. Instead, tell the install program that you are performing a new installation to ensure all files are properly installed on your system.

PCBoard is supplied on both 3.5“ and 5.25” high-density disks. Both disk sets contain the same information. Select the disk size appropriate to your machine and insert Disk #1 into your A or B drive as required. At the DOS prompt, enter:

a:install  (ENTER)  (if using Drive A)

or

b:install  (ENTER)  (if using Drive B)

If you are upgrading from a previous version of PCBoard, or installing a registered copy of PCBoard in place of a demo copy, the installation program will automatically recognize your previous installation and will only update the necessary files required for the upgrade. In either case, the install program will not modify your previous configuration.

The installation program will then ask the following two questions:

• Are you installing from a Floppy Drive ? Y

  • Installing from Floppy Drive (A or B): ? A

  You should enter a Y at the Are you installing from a Floppy Drive question, and enter the floppy drive letter you are installing from at the Installing from Floppy Drive (A or B) question. You may skip the next section, Installing from Hard Disk Files, and proceed with the section entitled Installation Instructions Common to All Installation Methods.

NOTE: If you are installing PCBoard for the first time, you will be asked to enter information regarding the System Operator (SysOp) - including their name, remote logon password, etc. Please be prepared to complete this information during the initial installation.

PCBoard is supplied on both 3.5“ and 5.25” high-density disks. Both disk sets contain the same information. Select the disk size appropriate to your machine and insert Disk #1 into your A or B drive as required. Next, decide on a temporary location on your hard disk to which you will be copying the distribution disks. This location must not be the same location that you will be installing PCBoard to. Next, copy the appropriate size distribution disks to that location by using the DOS COPY command. For example, if your temporary drive location is D:\TEMP, at the DOS prompt, enter:

COPY A:\*.* D:\TEMP  (ENTER)

Repeat the above procedure for each distribution disk of the size chosen.
Next, switch to your temporary file location and execute the install program. Assuming that you copied the files on the distribution disk to D:\TEMP, you would enter the following:

d:       (ENTER)
cd\temp  (ENTER)
install  (ENTER)

If you are upgrading from a previous version of PCBoard, or installing a registered copy of PCBoard in place of a demo copy, the installation program will automatically recognize your previous installation and will only update the necessary files required for the upgrade.

In either case, the install program will not modify your previous configuration.

The installation program will then ask the following question:

• Are you installing from a Floppy Drive ? N

You should enter an N at the Are you installing from a Floppy Drive question which tells the installation program to proceed with the remainder of the installation without prompting for a floppy drive location.

Next, the installation program will display a screen briefly describing the installation process and will ask you to complete the following three questions:

• Do you want to proceed with the installation ?

  • Enter your destination drive (C) through (Z) ?
  • Enter the directory path to install ?

  At the Do you want to proceed with the installation? prompt, reply with a Y unless you do not have the required System Operator (SysOp) information available which includes the SysOp name and password to be used for local login.

At the Enter your destination drive (C) through (Z)? prompt, enter the hard disk drive location on which PCBoard will be installed. The drive that you enter should be a physical drive, not a ram drive or other temporary drive.

At the Enter the directory path to install? prompt, enter the subdirectory or path location on the drive previously indicated that you wish the PCBoard files to be installed to. This location defaults to \PCB. Unless you have a specific reason to change this location, it is strongly suggested that you accept the default location since PCBoard defaults to the \PCB location. If you change this location from the \PCB default, you will have to manually change all of the program defaults inside PCBSetup once the installation is complete.

After completing the above, the installation program will create the following subdirectories on the destination drive you have specified and in general will contain the files indicated (if you accept the default install location of \PCB):

\PCB            Program executable files, system batch files, and node specific data  files
\DL01           Can be used to place downloadable files here
\PCB\GEN        Used to store system text files, menus, bulletins, and file listings
\PCB\HELP	Used to store system help files
\PCB\MAIN       Used to store USERS and MSGS files as well as other sensitive system files which need to be protected from downloading
\PCB\CONVERT    Used to store conversion files which contain instructions on converting 12.x and earlier versions of PCBoard
\PCB\UPLOAD	Used to store new public uploads to your system
\PCB\PRIVUPLD	Used to store new private uploads to your system

Once the necessary subdirectories have been created, the installation program will copy and expand the files from the distribution disks to their appropriate locations on your hard disk. After all files have been successfully installed, the program will ask you the following:

• Did you purchase a registered DOORWAY ? N

DOORWAY is an advanced serial and local screen I/O redirector which can be used to support remote DOS operations for the system operator as well as for running applications as a door. which have not been specifically written to operate as a door.. A non-registered version of the software is provided with your copy of PCBoard. If you have purchased a fully registered copy of DOORWAY with your copy of PCBoard and you have the registered DOORWAY disk available, answer Y to this question. Otherwise, accept the default of N and continue the installation process.

At a later date, you can purchase a registered copy of DOORWAY if desired.
To update your configuration with the registered copy, replace the DOORWAY.EXE file in the directory where you installed PCBoard with the DOORWAY.EXE on your registered version disk.

NOTE: The non-registered version of DOORWAY that is supplied with your copy of PCBoard is limited to 10 minutes of activity each time you run it. Once the 10 minutes are up, you will be returned to PCBoard.

The installation program will then ask the following question:

• Will you be running in a multitasking environment such as DESQview, TaskView or OmniView or DoubleDOS (Y/N) ? N

If you will be running multiple nodes on one machine under any of the above multitasking programs (including Windows or OS/2), you should answer Y to this question. If you answer Y, the installation program will automatically adjust your default COM port opening speed to insure proper multi-node modem operation. If at a later time you wish to adjust your COM port opening speed to either a higher or lower setting, you can do so using PCBSetup.

After indicating whether you will be running in a multitasking environment, the installation program will check your CONFIG.SYS file to insure you have a sufficient number of file handles defined for proper program operation. Each PCBoard node requires approximately 25 file handles for operation. If the installation program detects an insufficient number of handles, you will be asked if you wish to update your CONFIG.SYS file with an appropriate FILES= statement. If you do not allow the install program to update your CONFIG.SYS file, be sure to manually update it before attempting to run PCBoard.

Next, the program will ask you to complete the System Operator (SysOp) information by asking the following questions:

• What is your first name ?
• What is your last name ?
• City/State Information ?
• Password for remote login ?

The password you enter in this screen will be the one the SysOp uses for remote access to this system. Since the integrity of the system can be jeopardized by unauthorized access, you should enter a password which is not used for accessing other systems. In other words, the password entered should be unique to this system only!

After completing the above, the program will create the system's USERS file and associated index files. This screen must be completed before attempting to access your system since the required USERS file information will not be present unless the above screen is properly completed.

The installation program will now ask if you wish to configure a modem for operation by asking the following:

• Do you wish to Install a MODEM (Y/N) ?

In order to configure your modem at this time, it must be connected to your hardware and be powered on. If you do not have a modem connected, reply with an N to skip this operation. If you do have a modem, and it is connected and powered up, reply with a Y. The installation program will then run PCBModem which will setup your modem properly. For more information on PCBModem, refer to the Utilities chapter of this manual.
Once you have selected and initialized your modem, you will be returned to the PCBModem menu. Press E until you are informed that PCBSetup will be run. This is the next step in the installation process.

Next, the installation program will run PCBSetup so that you can alter some of the finer details of your configuration. If you are installing PCBoard for the first time, it is suggested that you immediately exit from PCBSetup without altering any of the default settings until you have reviewed the chapters in this manual which detail PCBSetup. To exit PCBoard without making changes, press E, and answer N to the question that you are asked.
Altering PCBoard's defaults at this time, without having a complete understanding of the overall operation of the program, can cause frustration in trying to put things back to their default settings at a later time.

Finally, the installation program will ask if you wish to view the WHATSNEW and Q&A.TXT (Questions and Answers) files. If you do, simply respond with a Y to both prompts and you will be shown the two files for review.

After completing the installation process, you are ready to run PCBoard by entering:

 board  (ENTER)

at the DOS prompt in the directory where you installed PCBoard.

NOTE: If you need to setup more than one node of PCBoard, proceed to the Multiple Nodes chapter of this manual for additional information.

If you have already installed a demo version of PCBoard, or are upgrading your current registered version of PCBoard with a newer version, copy the upgrade files and/or disks supplied to a temporary location on your hard disk. This location must not be the same location as your current program location. For example, Using the location D:\TEMP as your temporary location, you would copy or place the files downloaded from the Salt Air BBS, or the disks supplied, to that location.

Next, change directories to the location where you copied the upgrade files and type:

d:        (ENTER)
cd \temp  (ENTER)
install   (ENTER)

Tell the installation program you are not installing from a floppy drive.
When asked to enter the destination drive and path location for the software, enter the location of your current PCBoard files. At this point, the installation program will display a screen indicating that you have already installed PCBoard and ask if you wish to perform a new installation or an upgrade:

• Would you like to Upgrade or install a New system (U/N) ? U

If you are doing a first-time reinstall of the software due a previously aborted installation, enter N. Otherwise, enter U for upgrade. Entering U will only upgrade the necessary files on your system, leaving all other configuration and data files intact.

CAUTION: DO NOT SELECT A NEW INSTALLATION IF YOU ARE SIMPLY UPGRADING A CURRENT SYSTEM AS ALL CURRENT DATA FILES WILL BE OVER-WRITTEN.