# DOS in XP?



## russfraz (Oct 14, 2007)

I hope that i'm posting in the right section.I have a dozen or so DOS games that i'd like to play,i have XP Home.Despite having DOSBox,i haven't been able to get them to play,following the commands.I know that some DOS games simply won't play on XP no matter what,but for none of my games to work seems unlikely.Should part of the HD be formatted for DOS-If so,how much space?Thanks in advance.


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## saikee (Jun 11, 2004)

That will depend on if the Dos games were written in fat16 or fat32 filing system.

The fat16 has a limit not able to address beyond the 2Gb in a hard disk. Therefore since you have already XP installed and it is larger than 2Gb so any fat16 partition created at the rear end of XP is not readable by Dos. To put another partition in front of XP will make XP unbootable because it cannot have another "c" drive in front of it.

If the game programs are in fat32 then you can put them in any fat32 partition anywhere. The limitation of a fat32 partition is that no single file can be bigger than 4Gb.


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## russfraz (Oct 14, 2007)

Thanks Saikee,
That's the first understandable explanation that i've received for this problem.So,would an external HD or an older PC be the answer?


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## saikee (Jun 11, 2004)

An older PC will do it by putting Dos in the first 2Gb, assuming you have to us a fat16 partition.

MS DOS does not boot from an external hard disk. If you need one try FreeDos.


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## laos (Oct 20, 2007)

FYI, the reason they do not run on XP is because XP isnt based on DOS

XP is based on the NT Family, unlike windows 98 and earlier, which have more parts of it based on DOS, meaning a better chance of compatibility

you can do like he said, run Freedos alternatively via external other PC

then theres the option of VMWare or such with any DOS program (MSDOS, or Freedos) and running your games there. And let me not rule out Emulators. Although many are buggy and most are not great with the greatest DOS Games, you still have a chance with DOS Emulators such as DOS Box and etc.

Good Luck, plenty of options availible. Theres always EBay and searching for an old old old PC that runs MS Dos


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## Bozidar (Oct 31, 2007)

My current OS is XP2000 and I hope to upgrade to the latest XP release. Is Microsoft offering better support for DOS so that I may run Batch programs which use the CHOICE command??

Also there was talk about a VM machine which allows a user to navigate between a DOS environment and an XP environment. Does anyone know of such a possibility ??

Any help would be appreciated...

Ted


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## html81993 (Jul 8, 2005)

Does an error message come up. When I tired using a collection of DOS games I had on an ME, I got a message saying something along the lines of that this was a Windows not a DOS. What I did was right clicked on the icon, went to properties, clicked prevent DOS from recognizing Windows, and I was able to play the games. Again, that was in an ME, and I'm not sure if it does the same for XP, but it should be the same or very similar.


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## rls0730 (Nov 5, 2007)

I was able to dual boot xp and dos. check this thread for more info

http://forums.techguy.org/showthread.php?t=648077&highlight=xp+dos


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## ZeRealBigBoss (Mar 17, 2007)

I stay with W98 for exactly that reason: XP only acts as if it executes DOS, but it prevents everything to a.o. directly access ports and memory (serial, paralell, game, screen). DOS games will never run on anything over W98/ME. That has nothing to do with the disk format, only with dictatorial programming of the OS. Get an old box with a 4GB disk and game on that one.


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