Running an old DOS program in XP

[Mr.Everready]

I've just received our new PC at work and transferred some of our files over.
We have a program that runs in DOS that we need to get to work. Does anyone know how to set it up and get it running ?
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the undemocratically unelected mod of the Scottish section

[veeeffarr]

Sorry to sound stupid, but have you tried running it yet? If so, what happens?

[Jamie.]

I bet its a 16-bit application for some kind of accountancy / customer receipt things?

16-Bit programs never seem to work properly in windows xp, When im building the computers in work i always use windows 98/2000 for these applications as they are a lot more stable

[thx1138]

partition your hard-drive,and install W98 on the partition to run the DOS progs?

[Mr.Everready]

Just to clear up a few things.

this is an old program that initially was run on a machine running Windows 3.1
The last pc was Win98, which obviously still works. There is not a .exe file to get it to run. It was set up with a quick launch icon.
So I assume there must have been some command to get it to run.
When I right click the icon it has command line C:\F.BAT the MS DOS name is FISHSE~1.PIF
How do I find out how the program is running ?
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the undemocratically unelected mod of the Scottish section

[Jamie.]

Ahh, as I suspected, old program

go onto the old computer, click start then run, Type C:

find "F.bat" and couble click it, if it opens and the program works fine simple copy that to your new computer and "see" if it works, but I doubt very very much it will, asl ive said we always use older versions of windows for dos programs

[veeeffarr]

PIF is a a shortcut to an MSDOS application.

a BAT file is a series of MSDOS commands that are processed in order... Like this

"@echo off - stops printing to the dos box
echo Hello - prints hello in the dos box
pause - pauses display"

If you go to your C:\ Drive... Is there a file there called F.BAT?

If so, open F.BAT, copy the contents, and paste it up here.

[Mr.Everready]

Right I've found the F on C:
It's a MSDOS Batch file
If I click on edit it says

BTRIEVE
CD TASP
TAS MO
cd\
MENU

brieve,tas and tasp are applications in the folder of the program that I'm trying to run.
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the undemocratically unelected mod of the Scottish section

[veeeffarr]

You need to create a new folder, copy the Brieve, Tas and Tasp directories into it (Plus any others that are in the same folder as Brieve, Tas and Tasp).

Put F.bat into the new folder, and run it.


So you have.

C:\NewFolder\TAS
C:\NewFolder\TASP
C:\NewFolder\BRIEVE
C:\NewFolder\F.BAT

[m99dws]

Just use DosBox

https://dosbox.sourceforge.net/news.php?show_news=1

[mattfuzzy]

windows xp doesnt use Dos like older versions of windows did, it uses something else instead which is pretty much the only thing that seperates it from other versions of windows.... and yet windows still sucks... anyways as for shortcuts and stuff and batch files.... i wouldnt even bother unless you have a good mind for figuring things out and stuff... sounds like you only got half the program in the first place, unless alot of money depended on it id just blow the thing up or something

[Fortuna]

I agree with DOSbox. Very good program.

[Mr.Everready]

Just tried DOSbox but an error comes up when I got to print.
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the undemocratically unelected mod of the Scottish section

[Jamie.]

Whats the errors?

[Mr.Everready]

Please check your printer - there is a problem Line #58

How do you go about adding a partition on the new drive ? I think this might be the way to go. I've been into management and if I right click the drive the option does not come up.
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the undemocratically unelected mod of the Scottish section

[Jamie.]

Say if the disk is 100gb, and there is already a partition on it at 100gb. Then you cannot make another unless you use a program called "partition magic" But ive never used it so I cant say anything there

[Marci]

Use/Download/Find/Buy VMWare to setup a dos virtual machine. This then maps in printer support via windows and should elliminate any printing issues you're having.
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