Running DOS Applications in Windows 2000

I haven't had any problems running DOS programs under Win2K. If you goto the properties page of the exe file you want to run, you can setup all kinds of options on how Windows will handle the app. (From memory allocation, to autoexec files, to window settings.) I would just try to install and run the app under windows, then see if you have to make any changes.

Remember that autoexec.bat and config.sys have been replaced with autoexec.nt and config.nt.
There is also an older version of command.com hidden in the root of C:\
you may need to specify this.
Some dos programs run without a hitch.
Some are high maintenance.

Its possible but a bit hit and miss. If the DOS application attempts to access devices directly then Win2K will barf.

Some software has a check built in the ensure that the OS is a certain version before installation can occur but I've had success installing under Win98 in a dual boot system and then running under WinXP.

The same MAY happen with Win2K.

WinXP is much better then Win2K at running misbehaved applications, though. It has virtual devices - which look like real devices to the DOS application but are safely managed by WinXP.

As was said in another answer, there are options you can set on how to run the application. The most important one is whether it runs in its own process or whether it shares a common DOS process -the NTVDM process.

This is an issue if you're running more than one DOS process.

The two things to consider are...

a. Do the two DOS programs need to communicate through a shared memory space.
Means...put them in the common ntvdm process (ie. dont change how the DOS process runs)

b. Do you want to increase stability by putting each DOS process in its own memory space, using more memory overall but if it crashes it wont bring the other DOS program down with it...

Hope this helps...

Cheers,
Tim.

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