Running DOS on Windows 7?

[mklotz]

Now that 64 bit Windows 7 is beginning to be used, I'm receiving emails from people asking if there is any way to run my DOS utilities on W7.

Have any of you figured out a way to do that?

Is there an emulator available that could be used to run the programs?

TIA for any advice you can offer.

 

[Cedge]

Marv
Thats going to take a bit of experimentation. You can get to a Command prompt window in the start menu, so i would think you can CD to your file and get it to run..... but I haven't tried it yet.

I can tell you Windows 7 definitely is not the most legacy friendly thing I've ever run.

Steve

 

[mklotz]

I don't have any W7 machines so I can't do any experimentation. Hence the question.

I'm hoping that one of the computer gurus out there (I'm most decidedly not a guru) who has W7 can answer the question and I can pass the solution along to the folks who need it.

If we can establish an ironclad technique, I'll put it on my website in the fond hope that people will read it.

 

[menthol]

You could try DOSBox http://dosbox.com/. I've yet to try DOS on the 7 box we are trialling at work

Mark

 

[Cedge]

Marv
Just gave the BoltCirc file a try and I'm afraid it's a very dead issue on my 64 bit windows 7 system. Complete incompatibility. Popup says to contact you for an upgraded file64 bit . I'd say it sucks, but it would only sound like a weak echo after you say it.

And nope... have not found an emulator that will work with the Win 7 premium version. You'd need to have Pro or higher versions of Win7.


The "good news" is that I still recall enough DOS commands to get around using the command prompt..... bad news?..... not much you can do once you get there since it's pretty much a dead language.

Steve

 

[kvom]

I tried the dosbox program and was able to run the boltcirc.exe program! ;D

 

[mklotz]

Many thanks for trying that, Kvom. I appreciate it.

Could I impose on you to try one of the programs that uses a data file, e.g., DIVHEAD?

 

[John S]

Marv, You could always be dragged screaming and kicking into the 20th Century and port them to windows :big:

John S.

 

[mklotz]

Marv, You could always be dragged screaming and kicking into the 20th Century and port them to windows :big:

Nah, ain't gonna happen, John. I haven't figured out a way to make them stop working for no apparent reason.

 

[black85vette]

Nah, ain't gonna happen, John. I haven't figured out a way to make them stop working for no apparent reason.

No worries. Micro$oft will take care of that for you if you write them for Windoze. :big:

 

[Jadecy]

Have any of you tried a virtual environment on windows 7? I believe there is a built in Win XP environment automatically available in Win 7.

I can't comment from experience just what I've read.

Microsoft bought Virtual PC which is/was VMWare's competition. It is my understanding that it is built in to Win 7.

 

[Maryak]

Marv,

I'm no computer guru either but the easiest way I have read about and tried is to create a small dos partition on your hard drive and load up a version of dos to it. From then on it's all plain sailing.

Hope this helps

Best Regards
Bob

 

[rake60]

I can't get them to work here even with dosbox.

What am I doing wrong kvom?

Rick

 

[zeeprogrammer]

Nah, ain't gonna happen, John. I haven't figured out a way to make them stop working for no apparent reason.

Easy...

srand(1) ; //Initialize the random number generator.
if (1 == rand()) //See if a random number matches.
{
DoStupidThings() ; //Call function that does any number of annoying things.
}

 

[black85vette]

Easy...

srand(1) ; //Initialize the random number generator.
if (1 == rand()) //See if a random number matches.
{
DoStupidThings() ; //Call function that does any number of annoying things.
}

Zee, did you use to work for Microsoft?? That would explain a lot.

 

[Seanol]

I know it is not Windows 7 but I have all of Marv's programs running under Vista 32 using DosBox.

Needs some setup but not too bad.

Hope that helps,

Sean

 

[zeeprogrammer]

Zee, did you use to work for Microsoft?? That would explain a lot.

eh? explain what? explain yourself. :big:
nope...never worked for them...but I am a software engineer...so you could say we're related in a way...I've produced some interesting bugs myself. ;D

 

[black85vette]

eh? explain what? explain yourself. :big:

I was just thinking that your code could explain why Windows behaves the way it does. But if you didn't do it someone one else much have used something very similar. ;D

 

[rake60]

I could run DOS programs on Vista 32 if I set them to run in a Windows 98
compatibility mode.

I've been playing for an hour now and still so positive results on Windows 7, 64bit.

There is still a Command Prompt program in Windows 7, but it will not
recognize the 1981 version of DOS in it's original 16 bit format.

Rick

 

[Seanol]

Rick,
I tried every compatibility mode in Vista and could not get any of Marv's programs to work. His programs are the only reason I tried so hard to get DOS running!

DosBox was my only solution.

Thanks,
Sean