How to Run DOS Programs on Windows seven/8/10 and Other Windows Tips

There'due south a lot of older telecom and other software out there that is very specialized, not upgradeable, not replaceable, and won't run on mod Windows operating systems similar Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10 or Windows xi. Otherwise, the software works but fine, and spending a lot of money to replace it seems crazy.

At that place are many Windows 95/98 and fifty-fifty 3.ane computers out there running these special apps today.


MS-DOS Prompt in Windows 95

When Vista and XP came out many of the DOS programs that ran fine under W95/98 wouldn't run at all on those operating systems.

The skilful news is that Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows ten 32-bit (not 64-bit) have inverse that! Windows eleven is 64-chip simply and volition likely non run DOS programs well.

Note that if you employ a 32-fleck operating system, y'all accept to brand sure you are using the 32-chip versions of whatever Windows programs you're using (not the 64-bit versions).

It turns out that Vista and XP didn't handle the DOS programs and their retention needs very well. There were bug converting 16-bit (DOS stuff) to the 32-bit memory addressing scheme in Vista and XP (and the 64-bit versions of all Windows systems). If you're interested in the nitty gritties this is a good explanation of how "thunking" (the ability to share data between 16-flake and 32-bit stuff) was cleaved in Vista and XP:

Microsoft Article on Thunking

Just the 32-bit versions of W7 & W8 & W10 work correctly with DOS programs!

The DOS stuff we utilise in our office never worked in Vista or XP. All of the installs of W7 I had were 64-bit, then the DOS stuff never worked on W7 for me either.

Then I decided to try the W7 32 flake just to run across what happened, and the programs worked about 80% fine. That meant that I could at present use the DOS programme on a machine with a modern browser, which happened to exist i of the requirements for us to migrate that machine from W98SE. I couldn't find a mod browser that runs in W98SE.

Luckily for u.s.a., I wrote the DOS programs we utilise and could alter them easily. For some DOS programs the original authors aren't around anymore, so it might take some extra tweaking to brand it work on W7 if it'southward possible at all. In that location'south a pretty good chance there won't be a trouble if you have a expect at some of my tips, below.

One of the benefits of using a DOS program is that it's very quick and easy to use without a mouse.

DOS programs seem to run a lot slower on W7 32 bit than they did on a W98 box. The DOS programs we utilize are blindingly fast on W98 machines. Non on W7, but perfectly usable.

If all you have is a 64-bit system to play with there'south a program called DOSBOX that will let you run DOS programs on both 32-bit and 64-fleck systems (really designed for playing onetime DOS games), going back to Vista and XP (as well equally W7 & W8). Yous can check it out at:

http://www.dosbox.com/

The DIR Command is Different!

We do a lot of reading directories for new files. Nosotros practise that by doing a DIR command and reading the output into retentivity and massaging the results. Information technology turns out that in Vista and above they added a line to the top section of the DIR output, which was easy to fix by throwing away 5 lines instead of 4 earlier we started looking for file names.

They also changed the format of each line with a file proper name in the DIR, merely that didn't thing for united states.

Kicking Issues with Network Drives

W7 often has a trouble connecting to network drives from any workstation. In the case of our machines, they're involved with automating processes. I really needed the car to kicking upwards and connect to the network drives automatically, without my manually clicking on the disconnected drives to reconnect.

I run a batch file with the net apply command to reconnect the drives, but it doesn't reconnect the drives unless you wait about 20 seconds after the W7 machine starts loading stuff in the Startup Group. This is in a batch file called reconn.bat:

net use Fifty: \\Serverd\Ddrive

internet utilize M: \\Serverd\Edrive

net use P: \\Backup1\C

net utilize Q: \\Backup2\D

The set up is to filibuster reconn.bat then it waits 20 seconds...

Delaying Running Programs

I couldn't but drop the reconn.bat batch file into the startup grouping considering the drives wouldn't reconnect unless I waited 20 seconds to run the batch file. To prepare that I bought a program chosen Startup Delayer (the free version would likewise work, but won't save the configurations for testing):

http://www.r2.com.au/page/products/show/startup-delayer/

In addition to delaying the batch file to reconnect the network drives, I also had to delay any programs that apply those drives from starting earlier reconn.bat. Startup Delayer permit me set all the programs that need to see the networked drive to run later the drives were reconnected. That actually saved a lot of time and hassle!

Wow. I almost had a Windows 7 32-bit machine that worked as well as W98SE!

Printing from DOS Programs

It turns out that you probably need a footling help getting print statements in DOS programs to piece of work on a network or USB printer. It might work without assistance, but it was a problem for us. A quick fix was a program called Printfil:

http://www.printfil.com/english.htm

This lets you specify a local or network printer. Seems to work fine, and there are lots of options to play with.

Impress Screen

Nosotros run some reports by doing a screen print of the DOS screen. Nosotros used a DOS TSR (Finish and Stay Resident) on the one-time W98 machines to print the screen to a page on the printer, and and so send a form feed to squirt the page from the laser printer. That'south worked well for us for a long time, but the TSR won't run in the DOS box in W7 32 scrap. Greenshot solved that problems for u.s.a.:

http://getgreenshot.org/

This program lets yous tell it to grab the Impress Screen when you push that push (you tin can tell it to utilise whatsoever button) and send it to a printer with a form feed. I save toner on the laser printer past telling the program to only print in black and white, and in our case inverting the colors so the blue background on the DOS screen doesn't bear witness up in blackness on the printer. It's piece of cake to setup, free, and really handy!

CAPS & Number Lock

We need the caps lock and num lock to be set differently in unlike DOS screens. With the old DOS and W98 machines I simply peeked and poked memory to make up one's mind the status and set the caps and num lock. Those peeks and pokes definitely don't work on W7!

This is the easiest style I plant to ready the caps and num lock from the DOS program on the W7 motorcar. I simply call a batch file from the DOS program which runs "capslock on" or "capslock off" in the batch file. Aforementioned with numlock.

http://www.rjlsoftware.com/software/utility/capslock/

http://www.rjlsoftware.com/software/utility/numlock/

Running this program is a lot slower than the pokes, but it works for the states.

Arranging the ICONS on the Desktop so They'll Stay!

Nosotros leave the DOS plan open all the time on the W7 desktop in the upper left corner. Information technology turns out that W7 puts other icons at the upper left corner, so they're always covered upward by our DOS program. W7 likes to rearrange icons after you move them, from time to time.

The gear up I found for that is a Windows program called DesktopOK:

http://www.softwareok.com/?Freeware/DesktopOK

It lets you salve your icon arrangement and restore it when the system boots. It lets us put the icons anywhere we need them, and they return to the right position afterwards the organization restarts.

Earthworks Around in a Windows Car to See What'south There...

In the old days with DOS I used a plan called XTREE to give me the lowdown on any PC I sat down at. Before you lot start irresolute stuff it'due south a really skillful thought to know exactly what's on the machine. XTREE (and then XTREE Gold) did a great job of giving me a graphical tree view of everything on a disk and allow me install or prepare stuff without screwing up the machine farther.

Today I apply a clone of XTREE called ZTREE that runs on all versions of Windows. The writer of ZTREE used nevertheless commands as XTREE so y'all don't have to utilize a mouse to practice annihilation :

http://www.ztree.com/html/ztreewin.htm

It gives a much clearer motion picture of what's on a hard drive, local or remote, than My Computer or Windows Explorer. If you've never used XTREE information technology will take a little while for your fingers to learn what they have to do to get you where you desire, but once your fingers larn it it'south incredibly fast.

Having WiFi Bug, and You Have W7 or W8?

In W7 and W8 they added some capabilities to the netsh (network shell) control that actually helps diagnose why WiFi connections aren't working well. To access netsh, click the Showtime button in W7 and type cmd into the niggling text box at the bottom, and hit enter. I don't use W8 then I don't know where you find the place to get to cmd in W8 since at that place'due south no START button.

When the command box opens, at the prompt type:

netsh wlan show networks mode=bssid

You can get a little more information with:

netsh wlan evidence all


netsh Output Sample

It volition give you a listing of all the Wi-Fi networks that tin can be seen. The important thing is to see what Aqueduct your Wi-Fi is on, and what all the other Wi-Fi routers are on. In the example to a higher place you lot can see that all the networks are on Channel eleven. In this case it doesn't matter much because the signal is so bad on the 2d two networks listed (there are two more when I scroll down) just having two or more Wi-Fi routers set to the same channel is a recipe for crummy Wi-Fi for everybody.

If you have a router that does both 2.iv and 5 gig, you'll encounter two SSIDs for your location. Make sure neither one is on the same aqueduct as a nearby router, unless maybe if the signal force from the other routers is actually low.

The fix is to go into your router and change the channel, or both channels if you have a 5G router with 2 SSIDs.

In that location is a wonderful app called Wi-Fi Analyzer by farproc in the Android Google Play and Kindle app stores that works great, and gives you the aforementioned information as the netsh wlan commands in W7/8.

When you lot open up the gratuitous app after downloading it, touch View and choose AP list from the drop down. It gives you all the WiFi routers it can see, signal strength and the Channel number.

I oasis't found an app that will practice that on ios for iPhones/iPads, only there may be i.

Finding Utility Programs on the Cyberspace is DANGEROUS!

The links I provided for the various utilities on this page are condom every bit far every bit I tin can tell.

BUT if the utility is free you lot'll probably find it on many other sites on the Net. The trouble with almost all of those sites that let you download gratis software is that they "wrap" the software in their own installer, which is there to put all kinds of other questionable software on your PC forth with the costless software you want.

CNET is probably the safest identify to download free programs because they requite yous the option to apply a Straight Download Link (if you know to do that) or use their Installer which will probably screw up your computer. See the Two means to download software from CNET circled in ruby-red:


CNET Download Installer

Even SourceForge, the place that says it's "Trusted for Open Source," wraps their downloads in an installer:


Sourceforge Download Installer

They do tell you lot a second time that yous're going to be using an installer when I tried to download Filezilla. If I install any of the junk in the installer by accident, Filezilla shares in some of the money they get from SourceForge. Other software on SourceForge may or may non have an installer?

Then maybe it doesn't contain malware? I did check and they tell yous in BIG letters that you can opt out of two goofy programs they desire to put on your PC (I opted out). I think when I tried the direct link it was notwithstanding wrapped in their installer, just I'm non positive. I didn't want to spend much time trying to become bad stuff onto my computer!


Sourceforge Download Installer

In general, I call up I'd trust CNET only with the directly download link. I approximate they need to charge money to pay for the servers, and the makers of the junk software they install by and large pay them per install.

SourceForge lets savvy users opt out of installing the junk in their installer. Any time you are downloading something take the time to read the screen! Don't merely click ACCEPT. Beingness really careful can salve you A LOT of headaches.

Almost ALL of the other sites with collections of "free software" that you can download may actually screw upwards your calculator with junk when you use their installer, or they may fifty-fifty install malware that would be very hard to get rid of (if y'all can at all).

If a site says you lot should apply their Installer to brand downloads faster (or for any other reason), DON'T DOWNLOAD Information technology! Await for the original writer'south site which probably has a direct download link. If they likewise have a link to go it from ane of the costless software sites, go for the direct link!