Windows supports backward compatibility

Question: When I turn on the computer, a message pops up before the icons show, that says:
“Cannot find a device file that may be needed to run Windows or a Window application. The Windows registry or system.ini file refers to this device file, but the device file no longer exists. If you deleted this file on purpose, try uninstalling the associated application using it through uninstall or its setup program. If you still want to use the application associated with this device file, try reinstalling that application to replace the missing file. Z:VVINESD.386. Press a key to continue.”
How do I reinstall the missing file and what is “z:C”? —KO

Answer: I don’t know what winesd.386 is, but it looks to me like the remnant of a 16-bit program that you’ve deleted from your computer.

If you have an idea of what program it might be, try uninstalling it using the Add/Remove Programs icon under your Control Panel. Or, if the program has a setup program that you can find, run it because it may offer an uninstall option.

Failing that, it’s time to get your hands a little dirty.

A 16-bit program is an application designed to run under Windows 3.11 or earlier. It could even be a DOS program. To support backward compatibility, Windows 95 devised a way of running 16-bit applications by mimicking earlier versions of Windows. Namely, it loads parts of the programs through two files—one called win.ini and one called system.ini. Both files are text files that execute parameters stored in them when Windows starts up.

Without actually knowing what winesd.386 is, I can guess that you’ll find a reference to it in your system.ini file, which you can find in the c:windows folder.

Simply open up the file with Notepad or a compatible ASCII editor (that’s text-only editor) and use the Find function (under the Edit menu) to look for the line that references it. Then delete that line, save the file, and reboot Windows. The problem should go away.

It has the reference “z:” before the file name because you may have installed the program that contained the file on a hard drive that was labelled “Z.”

Before editing system.ini, you might want to make a copy of it, in case you make a mistake.

If you do, you can copy the original back to where it belongs and start fresh.

If you can’t find the file reference in system.ini, you could also look for it in the Windows registry. It is a mini-database that keeps track of references to 32-bit files.

To look for the reference, use the Find function in the program regedit.exe which you can also find in the c:windows directory. Tread lightly: Editing the registry can be a potentially dangerous thing if you make a mistake.

The easier thing to do is to clean the registry of missing files using PC Tools’ program called Registry Mechanic.