DOS Memory Explanation

The DOS6 help program (qbasic) is an invaluable resource for setting up memory management etc.
Basically, to configure a 386 or higher machine to use the emm386 memory manager you need in config.sys
device=c:\dos\himem.sys
device=c:\dos\emm386.exe noems
DOS=HIGH,UMB

**the first 2 lines should be the first 2 in config.sys, the 3rd can go anywhere. Make sure that the path to the programs is correct.)

... that will setup with extended memory only, but frees up more upper memory (which can be helpful)

to setup for expanded memory just change the line to:

device=c:\dos\emm386.exe ram

EMM386 emulates an expanded memory card using extended memory.

Not many programs use EMS any more, but a few of the older ones either need it or can use it to their advantage (Neopaint for DOS, WordPerfect5.1 to name a couple).

EMS uses upper memory addresses for the page frame, so if you don't need it, might be better off not using it.