DOS Program in Vista

Hi,

I have a friend who just got a new PC with Vista Home Basic. He's using an
old DOS program that worked under XP, but doesn't appear to work properly in
Vista. When I execute the program, it comes up with the error message "This
system does not support fullscreen mode. Choose 'Close' to terminate the
application." My choices then are "Close" or "Ignore". Whichever option I
click on, the program will then run, but in a miniscule window that I can't
alter.

Any ideas on how to get this to run in fullscreen like it did before? I'm
working on getting him to join the 21st century, but in the interim, I'd like
to make this work...at least temporarily. Thanks in advance for any
suggestions.

GTifeld wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I have a friend who just got a new PC with Vista Home Basic. He's using an
> old DOS program that worked under XP, but doesn't appear to work properly
> in Vista. When I execute the program, it comes up with the error message
> "This system does not support fullscreen mode. Choose 'Close' to terminate
> the application." My choices then are "Close" or "Ignore". Whichever
> option I click on, the program will then run, but in a miniscule window
> that I can't alter.
>
> Any ideas on how to get this to run in fullscreen like it did before? I'm
> working on getting him to join the 21st century, but in the interim, I'd
> like to make this work...at least temporarily. Thanks in advance for any
> suggestions.

IIRC, I don't believe DOS programs will run full screen in Vista. I could
certainly be wrong about this, but it might be better for your friend to
look into virtualizing instead, either with Virtual PC, VMware, or DOSbox.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
Don't Panic!

Thank you, Malke. I will look into those. Do you recommend any particular one
over the others?

"Malke" wrote:

> GTifeld wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > I have a friend who just got a new PC with Vista Home Basic. He's using an
> > old DOS program that worked under XP, but doesn't appear to work properly
> > in Vista. When I execute the program, it comes up with the error message
> > "This system does not support fullscreen mode. Choose 'Close' to terminate
> > the application." My choices then are "Close" or "Ignore". Whichever
> > option I click on, the program will then run, but in a miniscule window
> > that I can't alter.
> >
> > Any ideas on how to get this to run in fullscreen like it did before? I'm
> > working on getting him to join the 21st century, but in the interim, I'd
> > like to make this work...at least temporarily. Thanks in advance for any
> > suggestions.
>
> IIRC, I don't believe DOS programs will run full screen in Vista. I could
> certainly be wrong about this, but it might be better for your friend to
> look into virtualizing instead, either with Virtual PC, VMware, or DOSbox.
>
> Malke
> --
> MS-MVP
> Elephant Boy Computers
> www.elephantboycomputers.com
> Don't Panic!
>

GTifeld wrote:

> Thank you, Malke. I will look into those. Do you recommend any particular
> one over the others?

Well, I have only used DOSbox briefly for games but not on Vista. I've used
Virtual PC (free) and VMware (not free) and much prefer VMware. But that's
just a personal preference. Since VPC is free and USB isn't going to be
involved with DOS, you might want to give that a try. There's a newsgroup
for VPC and VMWare has forums.

microsoft.public.virtualpc

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
Don't Panic!

VMWare Rocks! But IIRC the free VMWare Server version was not supported
on Vista as a host the last time I checked (at least not on Vista x64) -
that may have changed since I checked though. You'll just need to do
some homework to see if any of these solutions will even work on Vista
Home Basic (VPC does not look like it will and I have no experience with
DOSbox).

Virtualization really is a sweet technology, I couldn't get by without
it (FWIW - I use VMWare Workstation on Vista x64, but it's not
inexpensive). Good luck, let us know if you find anything.

Malke;651659 Wrote:
> GTifeld wrote:
> > > >
> > > Thank you, Malke. I will look into those. Do you recommend any
> > particular
> > > one over the others? > >
>
> Well, I have only used DOSbox briefly for games but not on Vista.
> I've used
> Virtual PC (free) and VMware (not free) and much prefer VMware. But
> that's
> just a personal preference. Since VPC is free and USB isn't going to
> be
> involved with DOS, you might want to give that a try. There's a
> newsgroup
> for VPC and VMWare has forums.
>
> microsoft.public.virtualpc
>
> Malke
> --
> MS-MVP
> Elephant Boy Computers
> 'index' (http://www.elephantboycomputers.com)
> Don't Panic!


--
mkprilliman

"The Deathstar is fully operational."

Antec Nine Hundred / Core 2 Quad Q6600 / MSI P6N Diamond / CoolerMaster
RP Pro 1000 PSU / X-Fi 7.1 / 4x 1GB Corsair XMS2 PC-6400 / 2x MSI
NX8600GTS-OC / 150GB Raptor (system) / 2 x 500GB HDD (RAID 0) / 1x 300GB
HDD (beta partition) / Venus T4U (1TB capacity) / 1x Dell 2407WFP
wrapped by 2x Dell 2001FPs / Logitech Z-5500 speakers

mkprilliman wrote:

>
> VMWare Rocks! But IIRC the free VMWare Server version was not supported
> on Vista as a host the last time I checked (at least not on Vista x64) -
> that may have changed since I checked though. You'll just need to do
> some homework to see if any of these solutions will even work on Vista
> Home Basic (VPC does not look like it will and I have no experience with
> DOSbox).
>
> Virtualization really is a sweet technology, I couldn't get by without
> it (FWIW - I use VMWare Workstation on Vista x64, but it's not
> inexpensive). Good luck, let us know if you find anything.
>

I can tell you that VMware does work on Vista HP but I don't have the free
version; I have VMware Workstation for PC (and VMware Fusion for my Mac).
So obviously I like VMware. ;-)

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
Don't Panic!

Yep, VMWare Workstation works on Vista fine, I was just referring to the
free version since I thought it might be unlikey that the OP's friend
would want to pony up the $189 to play DOS games.

I tried the free version (VMWare Server) on Vista Ultimate x64 about 10
months ago and could not get it to work properly. I've never tried it on
Vista x86 so I really can't say if it will work or not in 32-bit land.

I had no problems with Workstation on x64 though, so I went ahead and
bought a license after successfully evaluating the free trial for that
version. Worth the cost to me since I am a developer, but for running
old console apps? Not so much...
Malke;651739 Wrote:
> mkprilliman wrote:
> > > >
> > >
> > > VMWare Rocks! But IIRC the free VMWare Server version was not
> > supported
> > > on Vista as a host the last time I checked (at least not on Vista
> > x64) -
> > > that may have changed since I checked though. You'll just need to do
> > > some homework to see if any of these solutions will even work on
> > Vista
> > > Home Basic (VPC does not look like it will and I have no experience
> > with
> > > DOSbox).
> > >
> > > Virtualization really is a sweet technology, I couldn't get by
> > without
> > > it (FWIW - I use VMWare Workstation on Vista x64, but it's not
> > > inexpensive). Good luck, let us know if you find anything.
> > > > >
>
> I can tell you that VMware does work on Vista HP but I don't have the
> free
> version; I have VMware Workstation for PC (and VMware Fusion for my
> Mac).
> So obviously I like VMware. ;-)
>
> Malke
> --
> MS-MVP
> Elephant Boy Computers
> 'index' (http://www.elephantboycomputers.com)
> Don't Panic!


--
mkprilliman

"The Deathstar is fully operational."

Antec Nine Hundred / Core 2 Quad Q6600 / MSI P6N Diamond / CoolerMaster
RP Pro 1000 PSU / X-Fi 7.1 / 4x 1GB Corsair XMS2 PC-6400 / 2x MSI
NX8600GTS-OC / 150GB Raptor (system) / 2 x 500GB HDD (RAID 0) / 1x 300GB
HDD (beta partition) / Venus T4U (1TB capacity) / 1x Dell 2407WFP
wrapped by 2x Dell 2001FPs / Logitech Z-5500 speakers

GTifeld wrote:
> Thank you, Malke. I will look into those. Do you recommend any particular one
> over the others?
>



Innotek's VirtualBox (http://www.virtualbox.org/) is a freeware virtual
machine solution that works well on Vista. (I prefer it to Virtual PC,
but your tastes may vary.


--

Bruce Chambers

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