FWIW, one thing to keep in mind is that when Microsoft implemented LFN they 
didn't actually do it in DOS.  LFN was not implemented until Windows was 
started and you were operating in a DOS box underneath Windows.  As far as how 
MS "integrated" things like caching with LFN & SFN, and what happened in the 
DOS kernel vs. the Windows services and exactly how they interacted I have no 
idea.  But I suspect the DOS LFN drivers don't do quite everything that the 
Windows services did.

I also know that when Windows started it sent a signal to EMM386 that told 
EMM386 to send most (though not all) of its current state & configuration 
information to Windows so that Windows could start providing the EMM386 
services and EMM386 would essentially "shut down", and when Windows shut down 
the process was reversed.  This "handover" process was called GEMMIS, but was 
only partially documented.

I wouldn't be surprised if some kind of undocumented "handover process" was 
performed when Windows started that affected the DOS kernel and LFN's (and 
maybe caching/buffers), but don't know that for sure.

Another thing to keep in mind is that FAT32 and LFN are NOT the same thing even 
though they both appeared around the same time, and many people conflate the 
two.  You can have LFN's on floppies and small hard drives that use FAT12 & 
FAT16.  FAT32 has nothing to do with Windows, unlike LFN's.


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