DOS application in WinXP

From: chris <cb_at_mythtech.net>
Date: Tue Jun 8 16:31:32 2004

>WHAT "application"? It really DOES matter.
>"old"? "legacy"?

Its a medical scheduling application called Perfect Care.

>WHO told you? the author of the program?? Uncle Charlie??

The support guys at the company that made the software. Their exact
statement was "we've had major problems getting it to run in DOS under
XP". When asked if per chance this was unique to XP, the answer was no,
it was a problem with the entire NT line's DOS ability. Their recommended
solution? Upgrade to their new Windows based product. That's more or less
what is going to happen, but not for another few months (the upgrade is
going to a different product, but regardless it will be upgraded, so I
need a solution that will run for 4-6 months)

>Have YOU tried it?

No, but I plan to. But the location is 3 hours away from me, so it isn't
something I'm going to drive to give a whirl. It will wait until I am at
the location doing the rest of the upgrades. It may be a simple work
around, or it may be very complex, I won't know more info until I get
there next week.

>Sorry to seem harsh, but "been told it won't run" is
>quite a bit different from "it won't run".

Agreed... but I've been "told" it won't run, and I need to make it run,
so I want to arrive at the site armed with options on how to get it to
run.

>The DOS box in NT (which XP is one of) is just fine
>for running "old legacy DOS application"s (PROGRAMS).
>BUT,...
>NT will NOT permit certain kinds of hardware access,
>such as writing disk sectors, "for security reasons".
>Therefore, XenoCopy can not run in any version of NT
>(NT3,NT4,Win2K,XP).

All this I knew. It may be doing some kind of hardware access, I don't
know.

>If the reason that the "old legacy DOS application" won't
>run is because it needs to do something that has been
>blocked "for security reasons" (such as writing disk sectors),
>then it won't run any better with VPC.

Won't it? VPC makes the software think it is running on its own computer.
So I would think the software could write to "disk sectors" inside VPC.
>From there VPC would take care of altering that into whatever method XP
wishes to be used.

>So, it DOES run in a Windoze DOS box. There are few things that
>will run in a Win95 DOS box that won't run in an XP DOS box,
>other than "security risks"

Correct, they are currently doing it inside Win95. But like mentioned
above, the software developers say it doesn't work inside the NT
structure. So they may do something that is restricted (they may also
just need a very tweaked PIF and don't bother telling anyone that in an
effort to get them to upgrade to a newer version... I really can't say).

>What kind of partition does the system have?
>Does the "old legacy DOS application" need access to the hard disk?
>(ones that REALLY are "old" would not)

Don't know and don't know. I have not yet stepped foot on site, and the
salesman that did originally spec'd out using a Terminal Emulator to
access the legacy system. When I questioned why we had to purchase a new
program to access something they are currently doing in Windows (ie: why
not just run whatever program they are running now to access it), that is
when I was put on the hunt to find the answer. After talking to the site
myself, it now appears the salesman was incorrect and it is in fact
running a DOS application. BUT, I haven't been there myself yet, so maybe
it will turn out to just be some terminal front end. The people on the
site don't really know themselves, all they could do is tell me what they
do to make it run, and from that I get the impression it is a DOS
application (that and talking to the developers, they said it is a DOS
app).

>1) Boot from floppy with DOS 6.2x. If it DOES need the hard disk,
>then make a small FAT16 partition for it to use.
>
>2) install a dual boot of XP and Win98, and make the drive,
>or a partition of it, FAT32.

No can do. The app needs to be run side by side with other XP/2000 based
apps (the new app that is dictating this hardware/OS upgrade requires
either XP or 2k). So I can't do a dual boot as it will prohibit both the
legacy and the new app from running at the same time (I can do a VPC type
solution since that will run in a window inside XP... but VPC's pricing
will probably be an issue for something that I need 5 copies for only a
few months)

-chris
<http://www.mythtech.net>
Received on Tue Jun 08 2004 - 16:31:32 BST

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