Important Notice

The pages on this site contain documentation for very old MS-DOS software, purely for historical purposes. If you're looking for up-to-date documentation, particularly for programming, you should not rely on the information found here, as it will be woefully out of date.

◄Notes►  ◄Examples►
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
                               LOADHIGH (LH)
 
Loads a program into the upper memory area. Loading a program into the upper
memory area leaves more room in conventional memory for other programs. (For
more information about optimizing memory, see the chapter "Making More
Memory Available" in the MS-DOS User's Guide.)
 
Syntax
 
    LOADHIGH [drive:][path]filename [parameters]
 
To specify the region(s) of memory into which to load the program, use the
following syntax:
 
    LOADHIGH [/L:region1[,minsize1][;region2[,minsize2]...] [/S]]
    [drive:][path]filename [parameters]
 
You can abbreviate LOADHIGH as LH.
 
Switches
 
/L:region1[,minsize1][;region2[,minsize2]...]
    Specifies one or more regions of memory into which to load the program.
    If /L is not used, MS-DOS loads the program into the largest free
    upper-memory block (UMB) and makes all other UMBs available for the
    program's use. You can use the /L switch to load the program into a
    specific region of memory or to specify which region(s) the program can
    use.
 
    To load the program into the largest block in a specific region of upper
    memory, specify the region number after the /L switch. For example, to
    load the program into the largest free block in region 4, you would type
    /L:4. (To list the free areas of memory, type MEM /F at the command
    prompt.)
 
    When loaded with the /L switch, a program can use only the specified
    memory region. Some programs use more than one area of memory; for those
    programs, you can specify more than one region. (To find out how a
    particular program uses memory, use the MEM /M command and specify the
    program name as an argument.) To specify two or more regions, separate
    the block numbers with a semicolon (;). For example, to use blocks 2 and
    3, you would type /L:2;3.
 
    Normally, MS-DOS loads the program into a UMB in the specified region
    only if that region contains a UMB larger than the program's load size
    (usually equal to the size of the executable program file). If the
    program requires more memory while running than it does when loaded, you
    can use the minsize parameter to ensure that the program will not be
    loaded into a UMB that is too small for it. If you specify a value for
    minsize, MS-DOS loads the program into that region only if it contains a
    UMB that is larger than both the program's load size and the minsize
    value.
 
/S
    Shrinks the UMB to its minimum size while the program is loading. Using
    this switch makes the most efficient use of memory. This switch is
    typically used only by the MemMaker program, which can analyze a
    program's memory use to determine whether the /S switch can safely be
    used when loading that program. This switch can be used only in
    conjunction with the /L switch and affects only UMBs for which a minimum
    size was specified.
 
Parameters
 
[drive:][path]filename
    Specifies the location and name of the program you want to load.
 
parameters
    Specifies any command-line information required by the program.
 
Related Commands
 
For information about loading device drivers into upper memory, see the
<DEVICEHIGH> command.
 
For information about using the MemMaker program to move programs to the
upper memory area, see the <MEMMAKER> command.
 
                                      ♦