Running a DOS Program in SP3

[mcp6453]

A friend (true) has a DOS program that he cannot get to run on his new
computer with XP SP3. He has tried all compatibility modes. Does anyone
here have any tricks to get it to work?

Here is his message to me:

-----------------

Everything has worked fine with Win 98, 2000, and XP SP 2. XP SP 3
nada. (XP SP 2 is on a different computer)

If I try to run from the Command Prompt, all I get is a black screen.
Absolutely nothing. No prompt. If I type Exit, it will return to Windows.

If I run the program from a Desktop shortcut, I see a DOS screen and
some text briefly flash up, and then it returns to Windows
automatically. I have tried every compatibility combination.

The computer is a Asus P5N7A-VM mother board with a 2.2 G Hz Pentium
Dual Core CPU, with onboard video. Hard drives are FAT 32.

If I boot the computer from a Win 98 boot disk and run the programs from
the hard drive, the programs work fine.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

A friend (true) has a DOS program that he cannot get to run on his new
computer with XP SP3. He has tried all compatibility modes. Does anyone
here have any tricks to get it to work?

Here is his message to me:

You could try loading a Virtual PC. It's free.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtualpc/default.mspx

 

[Ian D]

A friend (true) has a DOS program that he cannot get to run on his new
computer with XP SP3. He has tried all compatibility modes. Does anyone
here have any tricks to get it to work?

Here is his message to me:

-----------------

Everything has worked fine with Win 98, 2000, and XP SP 2. XP SP 3
nada. (XP SP 2 is on a different computer)

If I try to run from the Command Prompt, all I get is a black screen.
Absolutely nothing. No prompt. If I type Exit, it will return to Windows.

If I run the program from a Desktop shortcut, I see a DOS screen and some
text briefly flash up, and then it returns to Windows automatically. I
have tried every compatibility combination.

The computer is a Asus P5N7A-VM mother board with a 2.2 G Hz Pentium Dual
Core CPU, with onboard video. Hard drives are FAT 32.

If I boot the computer from a Win 98 boot disk and run the programs from
the hard drive, the programs work fine.

He should download DOSBox. It will run DOS programs in
XP, or Vista, including 64 bit. The DOSBox site is down,
got hacked, but it's available here:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=52551&package_id=46709

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

A friend (true) has a DOS program that he cannot get to run on his new
computer with XP SP3. He has tried all compatibility modes. Does anyone
here have any tricks to get it to work?

Here is his message to me:

Since you didn't tell us, and he apparently didn't tell you, what DOS
program it is, it's very hard to answer that question. Although some
DOS programs will run under XP, others will not.

 

[Twayne]

A friend (true) has a DOS program that he cannot

get to run on his new
computer with XP SP3. He has tried all
compatibility modes. Does
anyone here have any tricks to get it to work?

Here is his message to me:

-----------------

Everything has worked fine with Win 98, 2000,
and XP SP 2. XP SP 3
nada. (XP SP 2 is on a different computer)

If I try to run from the Command Prompt, all I
get is a black screen.
Absolutely nothing. No prompt. If I type Exit,
it will return to
Windows.
If I run the program from a Desktop shortcut, I
see a DOS screen and
some text briefly flash up, and then it returns
to Windows
automatically. I have tried every compatibility
combination.

The computer is a Asus P5N7A-VM mother board
with a 2.2 G Hz Pentium
Dual Core CPU, with onboard video. Hard drives
are FAT 32.

If I boot the computer from a Win 98 boot disk
and run the programs
from the hard drive, the programs work fine.

Not all DOS programs, especially games, will run
on XP's Command Prompt. XP does not have a full
implementation of DOS and some programs try to use
some of the missing commands/files that "real" DOS
has/had..
Win98 and earlier had real DOS, not just an
emulator, which is what those programs want to
see. That's why it works with win98 boots.
Solution is to get a good DOS emulator that will
run all the old DOS features, or if you know how,
a dual boot system with DOS, say 6.22 (or win98),
and XP. Or a Virtual Machine. Some of those are
a little complex to operate, but they will work.

I assume there is a valid reason for still using
FAT-32 disk formats. If there isn't, as in some
program requires the FAT format, you are missing
out on a lot of safety features and capabilities
provided by NTFS. You can switch from FAT to NTFS
without losing any data, but not the other
direction. As always, backup your important data
first anyway, as things do happen.

HTH,

Twayne

 

[Bill Bradshaw]

I agree. DOSBox runs dos programs 10 times faster than VPC.

 

[ju.c]

Try the 16-Bit Fix:

Info: http://www2.whidbey.net/djdenham/16bit_fix.htm
Download: http://www2.whidbey.net/djdenham/File_store/16bit_fix.exe
MSI Installer: http://download.freewarefiles.com/files/winfx16.msi


ju.c