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dos program loaded and run on Win XP

By jfrenelle ·
We have legacy software developed by our client A-B and it was written for a dos environment. It was last run on a system running Win 98, (ran fine of course). We had to replace that dinosaur recently and got a computer with XP Pro. I have never loaded a dos based program on an XP machine. Does it work (should it work) are there any precautions I need to consider in loading this software? I'm an NT user and haven't done much with XP. I could use a little advice.

Thanks in advance!!!!!
Jim

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by CG IT In reply to dos program loaded and ru ...

check out this article on Microsoft Help & Support # 324767 Error message when you install or start a DOS based or 16 bit program in Windows XP

Just do a search on Microsoft Help & support for DOS based programs for Windows XP and you'll get at least 25 hits including DOS based 32 bit programs and their problems when running on XP

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by tech_wiz03 In reply to dos program loaded and ru ...

Regardless of all the MS hipe, the winXP enviroment is a remake of the NT / 2000 enivroments which only can simulate DOS. This being said, very few DOS based programs will run correctly or at all. The reasons for this is that by upgrading away from the DOS based WIN9x and winNT to win2K/winXP you get a far more stable enviroment but you also loose some system functions that were present and often used in the former enviroment. MS made the change in an attempt to have users abandon older software.
If you follow the advice mentioned previously and are real lucky your old software may try and work. A better solution would be to see if you can
obtain the source code for the package and rework it with a suitable compiler for XP.

regards
rick

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