Will Windows 7 run DOS programs easily?

jefro February 26, 2011 at 19:05:05

Maybe. Windows has not had exactly dos for years. MS offers a type of command based system that may work. Other ways are dosbox or making a virtual machine. I suspect that a 32 bit version of Windows 7 would be fine and still run your old stuff. If you get the 64 bit version they failed to install the old 16 bit stuff so you'd have to add that in. Either way someone here should be able to get you going. "The era of big government is over," said Clinton 1996

X86 February 26, 2011 at 23:34:55

Install MS-DOS in an Emulator, therefore you will save yourself a heap of trouble..

princecorum February 27, 2011 at 00:37:39

you could also look into powershell see if you can use that instead of dos, its very powerful and you might even enjoy it.. i hate computers! but cant help myself....

Fingers February 27, 2011 at 05:48:07

You also might like Openoffice (openoffice.org) as your office suite and it can be downloaded for free (full suite, not trial, not partial unless you choose not to install everything). It should be able to read your old files and MS Office files too. You have to be a little bit crazy to keep you from going insane.

thanks for this thread; I worked for IBM in the 1960's on their early multi-tasking, timesharing and virtual operating systems, thought I must be the last geek running WP 5.0 ... Lotus-123 ... dBase for DOS ... imho, still some of the best programs around, and as my dad used to say, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". Held out as long as I could, now I am being forced to upgrade my Windows 98 machine as a lot of stuff doesn't work there any more.