Running old DOS programs in Windows 7

[Robin Faichney]

An accountant wants to run a really old DOS program on a newish
Windows 7 machine. DOSBox looks relatively easy to install and use but
is aimed at games players. FreeDOS run within VirtualBox seems much
more sophisticated but there's much more to installing and using it,
in particular having to use FTP to transfer files. I'm hoping the DOS
prog will support print to file otherwise I expect that will be a
headache - printing is definitely required. Does anybody here have
experience of this sort of scenario?

[Graham J]

Post by Robin Faichney
An accountant wants to run a really old DOS program on a newish
Windows 7 machine. DOSBox looks relatively easy to install and use but
is aimed at games players. FreeDOS run within VirtualBox seems much
more sophisticated but there's much more to installing and using it,
in particular having to use FTP to transfer files. I'm hoping the DOS
prog will support print to file otherwise I expect that will be a
headache - printing is definitely required. Does anybody here have
experience of this sort of scenario?

Good luck ...

It may be cheaper to find some less new hardware and install Windows 3.1
on it ....

[Robin Faichney]

Post by Graham J
Good luck ...
It may be cheaper to find some less new hardware and install Windows 3.1
on it ....

In fact it's currently residing on an old machine that the user wants
to dump, so one option would be to tell him he'd be better to carry on
as is. But that machine will obviously give up the ghost at some
stage, and any other old one will inevitably be relatively unreliable.

I'm now wondering whether there might be a way to transfer the whole
existing system into VirtualBox or the like... Not that that would
necessarily solve the printing issue...

[Ian]

Post by Robin Faichney
An accountant wants to run a really old DOS program on a newish
Windows 7 machine. DOSBox looks relatively easy to install and use but
is aimed at games players. FreeDOS run within VirtualBox seems much
more sophisticated but there's much more to installing and using it,
in particular having to use FTP to transfer files. I'm hoping the DOS
prog will support print to file otherwise I expect that will be a
headache - printing is definitely required. Does anybody here have
experience of this sort of scenario?

If the Win 7 version is "Premium or "Ultimate", I believe it can be done
in Virtual PC/XP Mode.

[Robin Faichney]

Post by Ian
If the Win 7 version is "Premium or "Ultimate", I believe it can be done
in Virtual PC/XP Mode.

Thanks but I think the version needs to be Professional or Ultimate,
see http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows7/products/compare

[Bill]

Post by Robin Faichney

Post by Ian
If the Win 7 version is "Premium or "Ultimate", I believe it can be done
in Virtual PC/XP Mode.

Thanks but I think the version needs to be Professional or Ultimate,
see http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows7/products/compare

If I remember correctly, you can run the Windows virtual machine
software in other versions of 7. It just "isn't supported". You then
just have to have some software you can licence, eg an XP licence.

I have run very old audio programs - Win 3.1 generation - in XP mode,
and I could print from an old Quickbooks to my old Xerox printer (=
Laserjet II).

[Robin Faichney]

Post by Bill
If I remember correctly, you can run the Windows virtual machine
software in other versions of 7. It just "isn't supported". You then
just have to have some software you can licence, eg an XP licence.
I have run very old audio programs - Win 3.1 generation - in XP mode,
and I could print from an old Quickbooks to my old Xerox printer (=
Laserjet II).

Thanks, but I've now found a way around DOSBox's printing limitations,
something called Printfil, and it's looking like that combo's probably
the best bet.

[r***@robinfaichney.org]

Post by Robin Faichney
I've now found a way around DOSBox's printing limitations,
something called Printfil, and it's looking like that combo's probably
the best bet.

Couldn't get that to work either. :) Now awaiting the arrival of a new computer that might have Win7 Pro or Ult on it. (Don't ask why we don't know!)

[Dr J R Stockton]

Post by Robin Faichney
An accountant wants to run a really old DOS program on a newish
Windows 7 machine. DOSBox looks relatively easy to install and use but
is aimed at games players. FreeDOS run within VirtualBox seems much
more sophisticated but there's much more to installing and using it,
in particular having to use FTP to transfer files. I'm hoping the DOS
prog will support print to file otherwise I expect that will be a
headache - printing is definitely required. Does anybody here have
experience of this sort of scenario?

At least some versions of Windows 7 come with, or can get from
Microsoft, software to run, in a Win 7 window, Win XP. I have a Win 7
icon labelled "windows XP mode".

XP is 32-bit, but has the ability to run 16-bit code.

If I knew more I would tell you.