I see the 64 bit OS finally killed DOS

It also seemed to kill a lot of old 32 bit windows software that will
not even run in compatibility mode. XP did not seem to have a problem
with any of my old stuff except dBase that wants to do direct writes
to the disk.
DOSBOX to the rescue.

http://gfretwell.com/ftp/Win%203.1%2...207%20suit.jpg

On Sat, 08 Jun 2019 15:01:57 -0500, NT (Ant) wrote:

wrote:
It also seemed to kill a lot of old 32 bit windows software that will
not even run in compatibility mode. XP did not seem to have a problem
with any of my old stuff except dBase that wants to do direct writes
to the disk.
DOSBOX to the rescue.

http://gfretwell.com/ftp/Win%203.1%2...207%20suit.jpg

Virtual Machines would work too like free VirtualBox.

DOSBOX seems to do OK for what I am doing here. It is pretty easy to
set up and once you get into that environment it is pretty close to
real DOS.
I did load up a drive the other day with DOS 6.3 and W/3.1 just to be
sure a couple of my programs were working right.
It was a bit nostalgic when I recreated the environment on my desk at
work in 1996 when I backed up that machine on my way out the door.
One thing DOSBOX won't do is load ANSI.SYS and allow all of those
"Prompt" tricks.
It does run a whole lot faster on a 2.4gz machine than that 25mz 486 I
was running tho.

wrote:
It also seemed to kill a lot of old 32 bit windows software that will
not even run in compatibility mode. XP did not seem to have a problem
with any of my old stuff except dBase that wants to do direct writes
to the disk.
DOSBOX to the rescue.

http://gfretwell.com/ftp/Win%203.1%2...207%20suit.jpg

Virtual Machines would work too like free VirtualBox.
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wrote:
On Sat, 08 Jun 2019 15:01:57 -0500, NT (Ant) wrote:

wrote:
It also seemed to kill a lot of old 32 bit windows software that will
not even run in compatibility mode. XP did not seem to have a problem
with any of my old stuff except dBase that wants to do direct writes
to the disk.
DOSBOX to the rescue.
http://gfretwell.com/ftp/Win%203.1%2...207%20suit.jpg
Virtual Machines would work too like free VirtualBox.

DOSBOX seems to do OK for what I am doing here. It is pretty easy to
set up and once you get into that environment it is pretty close to
real DOS.
I did load up a drive the other day with DOS 6.3 and W/3.1 just to be
sure a couple of my programs were working right.
It was a bit nostalgic when I recreated the environment on my desk at
work in 1996 when I backed up that machine on my way out the door.
One thing DOSBOX won't do is load ANSI.SYS and allow all of those
"Prompt" tricks.
It does run a whole lot faster on a 2.4gz machine than that 25mz 486 I
was running tho.

You can install the same OS twice on the hard drive, using
the same key. You could install an x86 version for your
legacy software collection, and an x64 version for when
you want to use the maximum amount of RAM. I haven't tested
dual boot of different bitness, for boot loader issues.

You could also use separate drives, one for each.

Paul

gfretwell wrote:

It also seemed to kill a lot of old 32 bit windows software that will
not even run in compatibility mode. XP did not seem to have a problem
with any of my old stuff except dBase that wants to do direct writes
to the disk.
DOSBOX to the rescue.

http://gfretwell.com/ftp/Win%203.1%2...207%20suit.jpg

"The 64-bit OS". Which one is that? Since you posted in a Windows XP
newsgroup, are you talking about Windows XP x64? That really isn't
Windows XP. Because of the pressure to get out a 64-bit workstation
version of Windows, Microsoft cheated. They crippled Windows 2000
Server x64, put on the Windows XP GUI, and called it Windows XP x64.
Many programs won't run on server platforms, so they wouldn't run on
Windows XP x64 aka Windows 2003 Server crippled with alternate desktop.

All NT-based versions of Windows do not permit direct hardware access.
They aren't 9X-based with switching between the 9x- and DOS-kernels. If
you want to run something that wants direct memory access, you need to
run it inside an emulator. DOSBOX is one. VirtualBox and VMplayer are
VMMs (Virtual Machine Managers) in which you would run a DOS guest OS
(e.g., FreeDOS) in a virtual machine on your Win7 host OS.

On Sat, 08 Jun 2019 18:59:45 -0400, Paul
wrote:

You can install the same OS twice on the hard drive, using
the same key. You could install an x86 version for your
legacy software collection, and an x64 version for when
you want to use the maximum amount of RAM. I haven't tested
dual boot of different bitness, for boot loader issues.

You could also use separate drives, one for each.

How esy is it to get, say, a laptop, with a 32-bit OS?

Mine came with a set of DVDs with the 32-bit version, but that was 8
years ago -- does that still happen today?


--
Steve Hayes
http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
http://khanya.wordpress.com

Steve Hayes wrote:
On Sat, 08 Jun 2019 18:59:45 -0400, Paul
wrote:

You can install the same OS twice on the hard drive, using
the same key. You could install an x86 version for your
legacy software collection, and an x64 version for when
you want to use the maximum amount of RAM. I haven't tested
dual boot of different bitness, for boot loader issues.

You could also use separate drives, one for each.

How esy is it to get, say, a laptop, with a 32-bit OS?

Mine came with a set of DVDs with the 32-bit version, but that was 8
years ago -- does that still happen today?

Depending on your supplier, you can have it done for you.
For example, Eurocom could do that for you. And they're transparent
about it, with the material cost of custom OS costing around
$200 or so. There will be a line item for the concierge service.

The HP/Dell/Acer of the world, the high volume manufacturers,
are less likely to cater to every possible preference.

For the machines that have a custom order page, you'd have
to check the option list.

Computers don't normally come with discs, and instead
the user finds content on the HDD that can be used to
make recovery discs.

The Eurocom came with discs, because it was pretty
obvious they weren't a "Royalty OEM" shop like
a Dell or HP. They would be using System Builder OEM
or Retail boxed software. And that's why authentic
discs were provided. Dell and HP learned a long time
ago, that customers take delivery, don't like the machine,
the customer "pockets" the media and sends the system
back, and then it's missing the discs. To stop that, this
is why Dell and HP have recovery partitions. And you burn
your own copies.

You can get media. But the Microsoft download page requires
a license key, as part of the dialog. Heidoc can be
used to get around this, if you needed a Win7 disc.
The discs available this way, are whatever is available
on TechBench (Vista is not on there any more, Win7 is
getting very close to being eliminated). The disc is authentic
and the download actually comes from a Microsoft CDN.
This software just bypasses the license key step, and
allows more OEM users to get a matching SKU of media (as an ISO).
Naturally, using Microsoft discs, there won't be any
drivers. Please don't waste the URLs generated, as getting
the Win7 downloads to work for this software developer,
is a lot harder than it used to be.

https://www.heidoc.net/joomla/techno...-download-tool

Download: Windows-ISO-Downloader.exe
Version: 8.15
Release Date: 1 June 2019
Requirements: Windows 7 or newer,
.NET Framework 4.x, Internet Explorer 8 or newer.

That program doesn't have to do the download. The "value" part of the
exercise, is it generates a URL pointing to a .iso file on the
Microsoft site. There are two buttons in the interface, "copy to buffer",
that copy the URL so you can paste the URL into a real browser. Using
the x64 and x86 URLs, you can get yourself a pair of discs matching
the license key you own.

To give a worked example, the COA sticker on my OEM laptop
has a license key. If I go to the "official" download page,
and I type in that key, it will tell me to **** off and
go to Acer to get media. (And of course Acer has no
intention of doing that!) Using the Heidoc tool, I don't
need a license key to get media. I generate two URLs,
paste them into two Firefox windows, and the download begins.
And after an hour or two, I have two ISO files.

My laptop was Win7 Home Premium, so in the Heidoc thing,
I would be searching for Win7 Home Premium, since the COA
sticker is going to be Win7 Home Premium too.

Some System Builder packets, only come with the one
disc inside. I think there were some Retail OS boxes
with two discs inside. There isn't a lot of Retail class
products any more. MS likes to sell the System Builder ones
(which have their own weird rules of usage that most
people are ignoring).

Paul