Dos box minimizes in a few seconds

I have an app that I've been running for years, on 95, 98, ME, and XP,
that's just started doing something very odd..

When the app runs, a batch file sets some environment variables, then runs a
DOS executable in full screen mode, VGA 640x480. What's new, is that after
2- 10 seconds, the window now minimizes itself. If I maximize it again,
then in a few seconds it will minimize again.

Latext XP pro updates installed, no changes to video card or drivers, pretty
nasty problem though..

This is just a thought (I've got a DOS prog that was run in DOS via Win3.1,
and W98, since 1985 - still runs perfectly in XP without modification in any
way)
Go to the DOS exe file, Right-click, select Properties. Try changing the
Compatability to W98 or earlier, see if that makes a difference. You could
also tick the "640 x 480" box - I haven't, but seems a good idea in your
case.

Like I said - just a thought - no actual knowledge. Do tell if this solves
it!

Sincerely, Len


"Dave VanHorn" wrote in message
...

I have an app that I've been running for years, on 95, 98, ME, and XP,
that's just started doing something very odd..

When the app runs, a batch file sets some environment variables, then runs
a DOS executable in full screen mode, VGA 640x480. What's new, is that
after 2- 10 seconds, the window now minimizes itself. If I maximize it
again, then in a few seconds it will minimize again.

Latext XP pro updates installed, no changes to video card or drivers,
pretty nasty problem though..

Go to the DOS exe file, Right-click, select Properties. Try changing the
Compatability to W98 or earlier, see if that makes a difference. You could
also tick the "640 x 480" box - I haven't, but seems a good idea in your
case.

Like I said - just a thought - no actual knowledge. Do tell if this
solves it!

Tried that, no difference. I'm running some more virus scans, and such at
this point.
Takes a while with a third of a terabyte online.

Since you KNOW the darn thing works in XP - have you tried
ininstalling/re-installing the application?
One last possibility - tried running the exe file in (virtual) DOS from the
CMD line? No obvious reason why this should work any different to running
from within XP, but, stranger things have happened!

Sincerely, Len



"Dave VanHorn" wrote in message
...

Go to the DOS exe file, Right-click, select Properties. Try changing the
Compatability to W98 or earlier, see if that makes a difference. You
could also tick the "640 x 480" box - I haven't, but seems a good idea in
your case.

Like I said - just a thought - no actual knowledge. Do tell if this
solves it!

Tried that, no difference. I'm running some more virus scans, and such at
this point.
Takes a while with a third of a terabyte online.

Since you KNOW the darn thing works in XP - have you tried
ininstalling/re-installing the application?

Tried it, same problem.

One last possibility - tried running the exe file in (virtual) DOS from
the CMD line? No obvious reason why this should work any different to
running from within XP, but, stranger things have happened!

Same problem.
Something's changed, but I don't know what.

Panda says I'm clean, other than a few virii in my email attach dir, which
were just sitting there anyway.

Dave, sorry, can't think of anything else to adjust your current set-up,and
unfortunately no-one else has come on board to offer advice.
Bit drastic, but if it's sufficiently important, one option is to do a clean
re-installation of XP. You could try a a "repair" installation, but 50/50
chance that will retain whatever setting has been changed in existing
registry. Alternatively, create a "dual-boot" system with your previous OS
as the alternate boot, and use it for this one prog only. Recommend that you
restrict the alternate OS to ensure you don't inadvertently d/l changes to
other progs which you use in XP.

I'm assuming there's no XP-friendly version of your problem prog
Good luck! Len

"Dave VanHorn" wrote in message
...


Since you KNOW the darn thing works in XP - have you tried
ininstalling/re-installing the application?

Tried it, same problem.

One last possibility - tried running the exe file in (virtual) DOS from
the CMD line? No obvious reason why this should work any different to
running from within XP, but, stranger things have happened!

Same problem.
Something's changed, but I don't know what.

Panda says I'm clean, other than a few virii in my email attach dir, which
were just sitting there anyway.

I'm assuming there's no XP-friendly version of your problem prog
Good luck! Len

It's a cad program, last updated in '94, which wasn't win3.1 compatible even
then.
It's worked in a dos box under win3.X, OS-2, Win85, 98, 2000, NT, XP, up
till this incident, and it's still working fine under XP on my laptop...

I just can't figure why it's minimizing, and what I can do to STOP it!

Thanks

On Fri, 14 Jan 2005 11:39:33 -0500, "Dave VanHorn"

Jumping in late, but; tried extracting new CONFIG.NT and AUTOEXEC.NT
from the OS CD to where they should be in the Windows subtree?



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Cats have 9 lives, which makes them
ideal for experimentation!
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