Trying to run textra dos program in Windows XP textra.exe

[Guest]

My mother-in-law cannot change away from using Textra, a dinosaur of a DOS
word-processing program. She bought a Windows XP computer and of course the
program is having problems. I can get it to start intermittently (SP?) by
putting it in the start menu and restarting the computer. Also, I have
noticed that it will start successfully whenever I change any of the
compatibility choices and restart, but then the computer seems to get used to
the change and it will not start up on the next restart.

When I try to start the program regularly, the DOS window pops up and
disappears. I did a search and found others are having similar problems, so
I unchecked the "close window" box and the error message reads "divide
overflow".

I have medium skill levels and will try to follow instructions.

Thanks for any ideas.

 

[DandyDon]

The simple way is :
1. Install the program on the C:\ drive. My Computer-double click C
drive-File-New Folder. Create a folder named Textra, install the program
there.
2. To open and run the program under XP, you hit
Start-Programs-Accessories-Command Prompt. This will open a DOS dialog box
in Windows.

Now, under DOS, you don't have folders; you have directories. You need to
change from the Accessories directory to C:. To do that, at the cursor, Type
CD(spacebar)C:\ Press Enter. Then, at C:\ cursor, type CD(spacebar)Textra.
You should see C:\ <TEXTRA> and a blinking cursor.
3. Type whatever command needed to launch the program. Usually, it's either
..EXE or TEXTRA.EXE

Hope this helps, and of course your next hurdle will be getting a printer to
work in DOS. Most don't. But, that's what mother-in-laws are for, to make
us tear our hair out, and make us say words we've never uttered in our life.
My suggestion would be train her to use WordPad, it's part of XP; it's
simple, and works with all printers.

Good Luck

 

[Guest]

Don,

This is when I get the divide overflow error message. For some reason, if
the system is idle, as it is when going through this process, the failure of
the program to start is a sure thing. It will start sometimes when in the
middle of the start process when everything else is initializing. I do not
know whether this is because some other process has not begun or whether the
system is so busy starting up that it may give the program more time to call
in the resources is needs to start up.

 

[Malke]

Don,

This is when I get the divide overflow error message. For some
reason, if the system is idle, as it is when going through this
process, the failure of
the program to start is a sure thing. It will start sometimes when in
the
middle of the start process when everything else is initializing. I
do not know whether this is because some other process has not begun
or whether the system is so busy starting up that it may give the
program more time to call in the resources is needs to start up.

Accept that the program won't run reliably in XP. Either:

1.Give your mother-in-law an older machine running Win9x or even DOS.

2. Use Virtual PC 2004 (free) or VMWare to recreate a virtual machine
running either Win95 or even DOS. Install Textra in it. I'm don't know
how you would print from a virtual machine but I'm sure there's
information available if you do your research.

3. Tell your mother-in-law that you can't make this work and she should
either pay a professional (who will not be as patient and nice as you
are before telling her to get over it and use a word processor designed
to run on XP.

Good luck,

Malke

 

[Guest]

Malke,

I think I will print your reply and give it to her!!!

Many thanks, and I will be able to say proudly I have tried everything.

For now, I have it running reliably by having it startup automatically along
with two other programs and some network connections I just made up to make
the startup more complicated.

She has been great to me, but I think this may be the best I can do for her
on this one. As a note, I did try to use DOSBox, but could not get the
program to print, just as you expected.

If there are any other fixes that come along, it will just surprise all of
us, but for now, she can get by on this.

Thanks again.

 

[Malke]

Malke,

I think I will print your reply and give it to her!!!

Many thanks, and I will be able to say proudly I have tried
everything.

For now, I have it running reliably by having it startup automatically
along with two other programs and some network connections I just made
up to make the startup more complicated.

She has been great to me, but I think this may be the best I can do
for her
on this one. As a note, I did try to use DOSBox, but could not get
the program to print, just as you expected.

If there are any other fixes that come along, it will just surprise
all of us, but for now, she can get by on this.

Thanks again.

Feel free to print out my previous post and give it to her! Print out
this one, too which says:

Mother-in-law: You are really lucky to have such a great son-in-law. He
really worked hard on this - far above the Call Of Duty. Give him a
present or at least a hug and be grateful to him.

Malke