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I have a friend that uses some really old business software and for whatever reason doesn't want to check out a new version (if one even exists, he's in a niche market). The software ran as a 16-bit DOS program and he'd like to upgrade his computer to something running Vista or 7 but still run this software. The machine that's currently running the software appears to be dying so I can't suggest to let him keep running it on that box.

Will NTVDM or DosBox give him the functionality he's looking for? I've never played with either, so I'm hesitant to recommend something for him and it not work.

And bonus points: which one will be better for this type of thing?

Thanks!

P.S. I wasn't sure if this was a serverfault question or one for here, so please move it appropriately.

Oliver Salzburg
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mrduclaw
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6 Answers6

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DOSBox is certainly up to the task; the tricky bit is driving USB printers and/or other peripherals, so it really depends on the software and what it is used for.

If I have to print something from a DOS program, I'll print to file (PRN) in DOSBox and then print it in Windows with PrintFile

enter image description here

PrintFile is freeware.

Gareth
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He could use a VirtualBox, providing he has a copy of DOS. The overhead will be minimal, what with it being DOS and all :P

Phoshi
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Unless your Vista or Windows 7 (or XP/2000 for that matter) are the 64-bit version, then 16-bit executables will run fine. You might have to map shared printers to LPT ports, set environment variables and the like in CONFIG.NT/AUTOEXEC.NT and stuff like that, but nothing unsurmountable. The 64-bit flavours of Windows won't run 16-bit software but I don't see a mention of 64-bit in the original question.

Alan B
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This is the purpose of NTVDM. It isn't compatible with all DOS applications though so be sure to try out your particular application on Windows 7 before committing to that approach.

DosBox is another alternative, but is tuned a bit more to games and graphics and less to line of business scenarios than NTVDM. Again, YMMV so try it out and see.

Between these two alternatives, you are likely to find something that works.

Steve Rowe
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I have an INFORMIX-SQL DOS 6.22 application working perfectly within Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 on a Windows Vista host, including printing to a dot matrix parallel printer on LPT1:, file sharing with USB storage devices and folders on Windows Vista.

I recommend you do this because:

  1. You can only create max partition sizes of 2GB on DOS 6.22 and you're not going to find new hard drives less than 30GB, and eventually IDE will no longer be around

  2. My DOS app runs 20 times faster under Virtual PC than a native DOS machine

  3. You can do backups to USB flash drives vs. diskettes

  4. You can even have your DOS virtual hard disk on a 2GB USB flash drive

  5. Virtual PC 2007 is free

Gareth
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Joe R.
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I highly recommend an "enhanced" build of DOSBox for anything but games. There's the DOS Megabuild, and what I prefer: the SVN-Daum version of DOSBox from http://ykhwong.x-y.net/ (installers for Windows, Mac, and Linux are all available there). Using the latter I've been able to print natively from DOS applications, specifically legacy business software.

Dr. Derek Austin
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