Running an old MS-DOS program in the XP environment

[Marla]

My husband's company wants me to load their DOS software
program on my new XP based computer. It won't start even
though I used the Compatibility Wizard. Am I missing
something? Also, I can't seem to remove the program from
the Command Prompt using the DEL or ERASE command. It's
been a long time since I used DOS so I am sure I am doing
something wrong. I want to uninstall it and reinstall it.
Thank you.

[Alvin A Brown]

Hello

Here are a few links to look at and Win XP does not like or
address dos based programs well.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;278104
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;324767
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314106
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314495
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314452

Alvin






Marla wrote:

> My husband's company wants me to load their DOS software
> program on my new XP based computer. It won't start even
> though I used the Compatibility Wizard. Am I missing
> something? Also, I can't seem to remove the program from
> the Command Prompt using the DEL or ERASE command. It's
> been a long time since I used DOS so I am sure I am doing
> something wrong. I want to uninstall it and reinstall it.
> Thank you.

[R. C. White]

Hi, Marla.

As you probably know, WinXP does not include real MS-DOS at all. It does,
however, include a DOS emulator, which many have described as "a better DOS
than DOS". All of the DOS programs I have tried work very well in a "DOS"
window in WinXP.

WinXP is built on the NT architecture, rather than DOS. A major difference
is in the way the operating system deals with hardware. Many of the older
DOS programs handled hardware directly, usually because this gave the
programmer more speed and control over printers, the video display and other
peripherals. DOS programs that used these techniques often don't work in a
"DOS" box in WinXP.

To answer questions about YOUR software, we'll need to know some details.
If you mention the name of the program, someone here might recognize it and
know how to tweak it to work with WinXP. If it is a custom program, you may
need to contact the programmer. WinXP does offer several ways to configure
the "DOS" box, such as managing extended and expanded memory, setting
environment variables, etc. There are even ways to handle some of the
things that we used to have to put in config.sys, which WinXP does not use.
I know those tools are there, but I can't tell you much about them because I
haven't had to work with them - but others here are quite familiar with
them.

Give us some more details and we probably can help.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX

Microsoft Windows MVP

"Marla" > wrote in message
...
> My husband's company wants me to load their DOS software
> program on my new XP based computer. It won't start even
> though I used the Compatibility Wizard. Am I missing
> something? Also, I can't seem to remove the program from
> the Command Prompt using the DEL or ERASE command. It's
> been a long time since I used DOS so I am sure I am doing
> something wrong. I want to uninstall it and reinstall it.
> Thank you.