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WinAlign FAQ


By Dave Methvin
InformationWeek
September 1, 1998 12:00 AM

What is WinAlign?
WinAlign is the name of a Windows 98 Resource Kit utility that implements a program-loading optimization. However, there is a similar utility, Walign, built into Windows 98; the name WinAlign is sometimes applied to that utility as well. Finally, the term WinAlign is sometimes used as a verb, as in "I WinAligned Netscape 4.0 and it loaded about 20 percent faster."

For an introduction to the WinAlign utility for Windows 98, including the benefits, drawbacks, and a technical discussion, please see The Expert's Guide to Windows 98 WinAlign.

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What types of files need to be aligned?
No files need to be aligned, this is a completely optional performance-optimization technique. Windows 98 will operate fine if there are no aligned files on your system. Only program files can be aligned. For most applications that you will want to align, the files will have the extension .EXE or .DLL.

How can I tell if a program file is aligned?
Find the .EXE or .DLL file you want to check. Right-click it and select Quick View. (If you don't have this option then you will need to install it from Control Panel | Add/Remove Programs | Windows Setup.) At the top of the display you should see the words Dynamic Link Library or Windows Executable.

In the Quick View listing under the Image Optional Header section, you should see two values, one for Section Alignment and another for File Alignment. If the file has been aligned, both of these values will be 1000. (Hexidecimal 1000 equals 4096 decimal.) Microsoft's software development kits come with a utility called ExeHdr that also can display the header information from an .EXE or .DLL file.

What happens if a program file isn't aligned?
In that case, Windows 98 cannot perform its program-loading optimization and falls back to the same technique used in Windows 95: Load the program into disk cache memory, then create a separate aligned copy in another part of memory. Aligning an executable file is totally optional; Windows 98 will work fine (just a bit slower) with unaligned files.

Which files are aligned by Walign?
Walign.exe is included as part of Windows 98, and is a very limited version of the WinAlign.exe Resource Kit utility. It will only align a file if that file is located in the Windows System directory, and it will only run if it detects a copy of Microsoft Office installed on the PC. (It does this by checking some registry keys.) If Office is detected, Walign will attempt to align the list of files that are contained in the file winali.ini. In the May 1998 release of Windows 98, winali.ini lists 176 files.

If you don't have the WinAlign utility from the Resource Kit, you can use Walign to align other programs by adding the file names to winali.ini and moving the files into the Windows System directory. This procedure is described in the WinAlign How-To.

When does Walign run?
If you do an upgrade install of Windows 98 over Windows 95 and are using Micrsoft Office, the first time Walign runs is when you install Windows 98 and the system boots for the final time during setup. For a short period you may see a small window on the screen titled "Tuning up Application Start" The text in the window says "Setup is modifying your programs so they start faster. This might take several minutes." Inside the window you'll also see an animation of colored blocks falling into place. That's not really setup, that's Walign.

If you don't have Microsoft Office installed, Windows 98 creates a Task Scheduler item to run Walign at setup time. Each time the task runs, Walign checks to see if you have now installed Office. If so, it will run and align the files named in winali.ini, then delete its task from the list. (As you can tell, the operating system group and the applications group at Microsoft are good buddies.)

At any point, you can also run Walign yourself. Just double-click the Walign.exe file in the Windows System directory. If Office is installed on the system, you'll see the window appear with the animated blocks, and Walign will try to align any files named in winali.ini. If you don't have Office, Walign will exit immediately and do nothing.

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