ms dos

[lewis]

Can a ms dos based program be loaded in windows xp home
edition? If so, how?
I have an old database management system named Q&A Dos5
that I either need to load into my new computer or be
able to transfer the data to a new windows based dbms. My
preference would be to transfer the data from the
existing Q&A program into a Windows based program.
All help will be most appreciated.

 

[Tim Slattery]

Can a ms dos based program be loaded in windows xp home
edition? If so, how?

Copy the files into a directory on your disk. Open a command window
(Start|Run, type "cmd"), navigate to the directory and invoke your
program.

Nearly all DOS programs will work. If your program tries to access the
hardware directly - like some old games wrote directly to the video
hardware to improve performance - it will fail.

 

[Chris Lanier]

Greetings --

Just to add to Tim, if you run into problems please see the following.

Troubleshooting MS-DOS-Based Programs in Windows
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q314106

 

[Alex Nichol]

Can a ms dos based program be loaded in windows xp home
edition? If so, how?
I have an old database management system named Q&A Dos5
that I either need to load into my new computer or be
able to transfer the data to a new windows based dbms.

You can try making a shortcut to the .exe file and running it from that,
with adjustments for best conventional memory to run in. But if it
wants to do things like bypass DOS to access hardware direct (eg in
handling disk files) you will be out of luck - XP will just not allow
this. Nor will it support any drivers or TSRs that load in config.sys
or autoexec.bat

For best DOS conventional memory, edit the windows\system32\config.nt
and autoexec.nt files.

In config.nt have (apart from the large number of REM lines) just
EMM = B=4000 RAM
(note the exact spaces - either side of the first = and before RAM,
none next to the second =) and

dos=high, umb
device=%SystemRoot%\system32\himem.sys
files=40
(or higher files= if needed)

and in autoexec.nt have

REM Install DPMI support
lh %SystemRoot%\system32\dosx

with other earlier lh lines REM ed out, and then any SET or PATH lines
that may already be present at the end.

This should give about 612K for a program, run from a shortcut made to
its .exe file. R-click the shortcut, Properties and on the Memory page
you can set an explicit value - rather than Auto - for any EMM or XMS
memory it may need, and for initial environment space