Starting and Restarting the Workplace Shell

The Workplace Shell starts automatically when OS/2 is booted. Because all Workplace Shell applications run under the Workplace process, one application with an error can cause the Workplace Shell to trap or to hang. Should the Workplace Shell become inoperative, the system must be rebooted. To avoid frequent reboots, one method that can be used is to start the Workplace Shell from an OS/2 window. Then should a hang occur, the Workplace Shell can be terminated by going to the OS/2 window and entering a Ctrl+Break.

The procedure for manually starting and restarting the Workplace Shell is as follows:

Create a backup copy of your CONFIG.SYS file, for example:
```
   COPY CONFIG.SYS CONFIG.WPS
```
Edit CONFIG.SYS. Find the following line:
```
   SET RUNWORKPLACE=C:\OS2\PMSHELL.EXE
```
where C: is your boot drive. This line sets the name of the interface to be started for OS/2. PMSHELL.EXE is the program for the Workplace Shell. Replace the line with the following:
```
   SET RUNWORKPLACE=C:\OS2\CMD.EXE
```
This changes the OS/2 interface from the Workplace Shell to an OS/2 session.
By default, the Workplace Shell attempts to recover from any traps caused by itself or other Workplace Shell applications. Should this recovery occur, you might see all the objects on the Desktop disappear temporarily and then re-appear after the Workplace Shell re-initializes. The Workplace Shell exception handler can be disabled by adding the following line to the CONFIG.SYS file:
```
   SET SHELLEXCEPTIONHANDLER=OFF
```
With the exception handler disabled, errors will result in the typical OS/2 error pop-up windows. Thus, errors encountered will not be masked by the Workplace Shell's exception handler. However, the ability for the Workplace Shell to recover from errors has been impacted.
Save the changes to CONFIG.SYS. These changes will not take effect until a shutdown and reboot are performed.
Shutdown the system and then reboot.
After the system reboots, instead of bringing up the Workplace Shell (PMSHELL.EXE), the system will bring up an OS/2 prompt (CMD.EXE).
Start another OS/2 session by issuing START or START /FS for a full-screen session. This session can be used for running other programs if needed.
Return to the original OS/2 session, and then manually start the Workplace Shell by typing:
```
   PMSHELL
```

It is important to invoke PMSHELL from the first OS/2 session. There are two reasons for this:

First, the Workplace Shell assumes that it is the first process in the system.
Secondly, OS/2 assumes that the first application to create a message queue is the Workplace Shell and allocates additional resources for it. If another application creates a message queue before the Workplace Shell, unpredictable problems occur when the Workplace Shell is started.

Now that the Workplace Shell has been started from an OS/2 session, should the Workplace Shell trap or hang, it can be stopped by simply going back to that OS/2 session and terminating the session, for example, by selecting the Ctrl+Break keys. The Workplace Shell can then be restarted from the same window by invoking PMSHELL again.

After the Workplace Shell has terminated, the DLLs containing Workplace Shell objects should be unlocked. This allows them to be deleted or replaced before restarting the Workplace Shell.

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