Using MS-DOS Software

Available at:

http://Windows Forums

Notice: WRP’s legacy software is both simple and applicable to use, plus it has a proven track record running on the DOS platform. If you have any problems, there are several products that may help you run MS-DOS based software on the newer systems.

DOSBox might be exactly what you need to solve Windows Vista compatibility problems with older MS-DOS software as it is an MS-DOS emulator.

An emulator is a piece of software that mimics an older computing platform. Modern computers are so fast that they can emulate older systems at full speed and sometimes run legacy software better than the ancient computer systems it was originally designed for. Because of this, there are now dozens of emulators available for Windows computers. DOSBox is just one of many emulators that can run all kinds of old software. It includes a simplified version of DOS with the download. DOSBox also includes some limited support for productivity software too.

To download DOSBox for free, go to: http://www.dosbox.com/

Virtualbox Software: For productivity software you might consider a good virtualization package; Sun Microsystems Virtualbox can run DOS, legacy and current versions of Windows and Linux and a whole lot more. Virtualization is somewhat similar to emulation, at least as far as the end user is concerned, but the two principles are a little different. Virtualization allows you to run two or more operating systems at once. You boot your regular operating system (the host) then the secondary operating system (the guest) runs on a virtual machine. Typically virtual machines will have access to the hard drive and storage of the host but not all the hardware capabilities, such as 3D graphics or audio acceleration.

To download Virtualbox for free, go to: https://www.virtualbox.org/

In addition, for more information go to MSDOS_Primer.pdf.