The first thing you'll notice is there's some kind of menu system on these micros. The people who run the joint don't need some snot-nose kid coming along and formatting their hard drives or leaving behind obscene messages, so certain protective de-vices are used to guard against such activities. It is generally a trivial
matter to get out of the menu program, even though its very existence - at least partially - is to keep you from doing just that. If the computer is turned on already and at the main menu, look on the screen for any indications of commands that shouldn't be there, such as "Alt-X to Quit." Try it - does it work? You might exit the menu, only to get a message like this: "Error! Press any key to return to Menu." What happened is this: when the computer was first turned on in the morning, the menu system was called up by the ALJTOEXEC.BAT file. By typing Alt-X, you have been returned to the AUTOEXEC.BAT shell, and are experiencing the next line of that BAT file. Simply Ctrl-C your way out of there. Even if it doesn't say on the screen how to leave the menu, you will want to try various function keys, the Ctrl-Break key, the Escape key, and differ-ent combinations of Alt and Ctrl with C, X, and Q. Often menu systems will have you enter a password before allowing you to exit to the operat-ing system. If this is the case with the one you're hacking, by all means try various passwords -starting with blank lines, the name of the building or company, and other obvious work-related and business-like words. Computer systems are at their weakest when they're moving from one program to another, so try choosing a menu item and using Ctrl-C as soon as it's selected.
Actually, for best results you should repeatedly tap Ctrl-C and the Ctrl-Break key simul-taneously.
If none of this works, turn the computer off, then turn it on again and see if you can Ctrl-C or Ct4-Break your way out of the ALJTOEXEC.BAT startup procedures. Alternately, you should have your own program disk ready to boot. If both of these tactics fail, use the menu system to run the various programs listed and see if any of them have an escape to the operating system.
For WordPerfect, you can shell out with Ctrl-F1. Wordstar allows shelling or single commands to be entered with Ctrl-K, F.
