tinyjim said:
How do I install a DOS based program on Windows XP? I
have older bible program requiring Windows 3.1 or higher
and it has worked thru Windows 95 but, I see no icon for
MSDos on XP.
XP does not have real DOS - it has an emulator system, and it is not
guaranteed to run any DOS program; they have to be well behaved, needing
no drivers or TSR supports loaded via config.sys and autoexec.bat, and
work solely through the formal system calls.
Put the program's .exe file in a convenient folder, drag it out to the
desktop with the right mouse button down, and 'Create a shortcut';
double click on that to run it.
You may need to adjust some settings: 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
