Function keys control XTREE itself. Press F1 to quit XTREE, F2 to display a screen of help information, or F3 to cancel a command. XTREE displays the available commands and the key that executes each command on the lower right comer of your screen.

There are many ways you can put XTREE to work. All disk setup and maintenance functions can benefit from this utility. You can add XTREE to batch files like any other MS-DOS command-you could even put it in an AUTOEXEC.BAT file to display a disk’s file structure when you turn on the computer.

Cautions

With a utility as powerful and as fast as XTREE, you must always be aware of the danger of accidentally erasing important files. Follow these guidelines to protect your files:

You can cancel commands, even commands in progress, by pressing F3. This stops any function.

Use Ctrl A (the attributes command) to give read-only status to all the files in the directories. Then, in order to erase a file, you must first remove its protection. (See your MS-DOS Reference Manual for details about the ATTRIB command.)

XTREE is limited in the number of files and directories it can handle. If you have more than 2800 files or 180 directories, XTREE displays an error message. If you ‘see this error message, exit XTREE and store your infrequently used files on diskettes, or reorganize and delete some directories. If you use XTREE when you have more files or directories than it can handle, you may accidentally erase or alter files.

XTREE offers too many commands to demonstrate all the various combinations in this introduction; just remember that everything you can do is shown on the screen display. See your MS-DOS Reference Manual for a complete description of

XTREE.

3-42 Using MS-DOS With Your Computer