Brian, how much does a babysitter cost nowadays in Sydney and how much time would you need ;-)
Gerard 2013/2/16 <[email protected]> > Hi all,**** > > ** ** > > I run DP on Win7Pro 64bit, using VMWare Player. It easy to do, and you get > great performance if you use say Windows 98SE as the Guest operating > system. You can of course use Win 7 32Bit as the Guest operating system > but that’s a lot of overhead to run a DOS app that itself can easily fit a > floppy diskette if anyone could ever find one of those relics from the > past. **** > > ** ** > > I have also had reasonable success with running FreeDOS/PCDOS and MSDOS as > the guest operating system, but there a few hurdles to overcome. **** > > ** ** > > Firstly you need to create a VM Machine and hard drive and leave it > empty. **** > > Then you have to create a DOS bootable virtual floppy boot disk, (I am > trying to think what software I used for that), but you can tell VMWare to > use this “floppy diskette image”, and its bidirectional, you can read and > write to the virtual image from within VMWare. You need to configure the VM > to use this image as its floppy diskette (You can do the same thing with > CD-ROM or ISO images, but since you need to install drivers into DOS to > read the CD-ROM it is something of a Catch-22, you can add CD-ROM support > later in the configuration)**** > > ** ** > > I should add that the Virtual Floppy Diskette image must contain not just > the boot files, but also you will probably need utilities like Format.com, > MSCDEX.EXE, XCOPY, etc etc, whatever you can fit into 1.44Mb (I have never > gotten the 2.88Mb Floppy image VMWare supports to work)**** > > ** ** > > The next hurdle is to get VMWare to boot this floppy, normally it will > want to boot from the virtual hard drive you originally create, and the > damn things runs so fast that you can’t press the F2 or F12 key to > configure create a boot sequence so that it tries to boot from the floppy > first. If you insert “bios.bootDelay = "5000"“ as a line in the VM’s VMX > file then you will get a 5 second (5000 milliseconds) window of opportunity > to get to the F12 key to choose to boot from floppy. **** > > ** ** > > Ok, so here you are. Probably looking at a very familiar screen (for older > members) where you are asked to enter today’s time and date, followed by > another familiar C:\> It all becomes very nostalgic.**** > > ** ** > > So then you have to do some work. The next thing to test your memory and > internet researching abilities is to set up the autoexec.bat and config.sys > so that you can configure the DOS memory, HIMEM UMB, Files and Buffers (you > need these to get DP to work, a minimum of 40 files). (DO NOT be tempted to > load SHARE, it was never much use anyway). You also need to add the Driver > for the CDROM and parameters into the config.sys, and MSCDEX and its > parameters into the autoexec.bat. **** > > ** ** > > But once you have that you have a virtual machine that boots up (and very > quickly if you remove or change the bios.bootDelay parameter, and get to a > comfortable C:\> in no time flat, unless you left the boot sequence to > Floppy diskette and still have the image in.**** > > ** ** > > Ok now to whet your appetite you will need to get DP and say a DP > application on there. You can access shares, USB sticks. Floppies are just > a little slow, because you cannot change the virtual floppy, so you could > repetitively reboot the VM incrementally and copy fragments from > incrementally created floppy images. I chose to put a large app and the DP > files onto an CD ISO image, using WinImage (I think) as the creator. Then > XCOPY’d (if you remembered to install it and set the PATH so your dos > utilities), into a new folder. You can use the internal COPY command, but > my app had folders to contend with so XCOPY is far less of a headache.**** > > ** ** > > Fire up DP and watch it fly. **** > > ** ** > > But, now the really difficult part starts. Its one things to have DP > working on a Virtual Machine island but to interact with the real world is > more difficult. First you need to install a network device driver then > TCP/IP stack, and then an MS NET Client or similar on top. There are many > of these. Then you have to tweak it to access shares (remember that DOS > will not connect to a share not in 8.3 name format. Also the Host needs > some registry changes to allow the type of authentication that the early > DOS network clients used, and then you need to set us shares for the > printers, and redirect LPT1, to use one of these shares. I got it working > some time ago, and I was pleased with how it worked, but it was way too > much work. **** > > ** ** > > The Win98SE alternatively works wonderfully, and you do not have to worry > about Windows activation like with later versions, so you can keep multiple > versions of your appliance (remembering of course Microsoft’s licencing > arrangements J) printing works fine, I imagine things like DPSpool etc will > also work. Antiviruses are a problem since there are not too many now for > Win 98, but if you only ever use it for DP then its probably not much of a > worry. By using a more lightweight Guest OS, there are few demands on late > model hardware so you will probably see Win98 work at speeds you never > thought possible. Sharing files either direction etc is also so much > easier. **** > > ** ** > > If I ever have time, and that’s rare with two kids around the house, and > if I can make a pre-made appliance which does not breach Microsoft > licencing I will upload one so anyone can use it.**** > > ** ** > > Bye**** > > Brian**** > > ** ** > > ** ** > > *From:* [email protected] [mailto: > [email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Gerard van Loenhout > *Sent:* Saturday, 16 February 2013 7:31 AM > *To:* Jon Ong > *Cc:* Dataperfect Users Discussion Group > *Subject:* Re: [Dataperf] Screen size win7/32**** > > ** ** > > Jon, I find dosbox a bit too slow building up, especially with data from > links.**** > > And we are 5 people using it on a network, that's why I chose not to use > dosbox.**** > > ** ** > > But I guess a relaxed person like you ;-) would probably be okay with > dosbox. You can always try it. It's free.**** > > ** ** > > I know other people that are happy with dosbox on Win7/64.**** > > ** ** > > Gerard **** > > ** ** > > 2013/2/15 Jong <[email protected]>**** > > Gerard, Geert & Tim:**** > > **** > > Really nice to get continued support for our DP dinosaur from the gang. > **** > > **** > > I've considered switching to Access or other databases but I still believe > simple is better, especially with complex data sets that I deal with in a > medical practice.**** > > **** > > Full screen really only a concern for the portable netbooks I have to > carry around at work, I realize that's not too much of an issue on the big > screen.**** > > **** > > From what I've seen so far, someone (excuse me for forgetting who it was) > said win7/32 pro allowed XP emulation with full screen so it looks like > that's the easiest way to go for me. **** > > **** > > As for win7/64, (which unfortunatley I have on one of my laptops), it > looks like best solution is creating a virtual PC using VMware and then > WinXP -- lots of work there.**** > > **** > > Jon**** > > -----Original Message----- > *From:* Gerard van Loenhout [mailto:[email protected]] > *Sent:* Friday, February 15, 2013 12:26 AM > *To:* [email protected] > *Cc:* [email protected]; Dataperfect Users Discussion Group > *Subject:* Re: [Dataperf] DOS in Win 7/64 questions**** > > Hi Jong! **** > > ** ** > > I use DP Win7 / 32 Home. The window is not bigger than the dosbox in XP.** > ** > > I find it quite comfortable to work with. **** > > With these big screens nowadays I haven't actually tried fullscreen.**** > > ** ** > > Geert probably knows more.**** > > ** ** > > Gerard **** > > ** ** > > 2013/2/14 Jong <[email protected]>**** > > Geert & everyone: > > Thanks for the latest info on Dp in Win7/32, just a few clarifiers: > > 1. Do you have pro or home version Win7/32? > 2. Does DP run in full screen mode? > 3. How do you print up your HTML output from DP? > 4. Is there a print spooler we can use similar to DP Spool to make > printing > seamless? > > Jon**** > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected] > Sent: Thursday, February 14, 2013 6:49 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [Dataperf] DOS in Win 7/64 questions > > > Hi all, > > I can only agree with Gerard : I am running DP 'straight out of the box' > without any problem on a Win7/32 system. NB: I don't even use Tame ! > > All my reports are saved into html-files, which solves all possible > printing problems... > > Regards, > Geert. > > > > On Wed, 13 Feb 2013 09:03:25 +0100, Gerard van Loenhout > <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Don, I was the one who started the most recent discussion about Win7. > > DosBox is too slow. I bought a couple of Win7/64 PCs at Dell. I bought > > a CD from them with Win7/32 for the same PCs so I had the right > > drivers. Now DP works fine. > > > 2013/2/12 Don Friedman <[email protected]> > >> I know that there has been discussion about this but I can't seem to > >> find > >> a way to search it out on the main site. Is their a trick to that? > >> I've finally "grown up" and put a couple of Win7/64 boxes in the office. > >> I'm assuming that I can run dosbox to run DP without much trouble - I > >> never > >> have a need to print from DP and if I remember right that was part of > >> the > >> problem. Am I on the right track here? I'm assuming that it will still > >> be > >> faster to run DP via dosbox on my newer machines than to run them on my > >> older XP machine. > >> Don > >> -- > >> *Don Friedman > >> ProfessionalRecords.Com LLC > >> PRS Data Systems > >> Liveport WiFi* > _______________________________________________ > Dataperf mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.dataperfect.nl/mailman/listinfo/dataperf > > _______________________________________________ > Dataperf mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.dataperfect.nl/mailman/listinfo/dataperf**** > > ** ** > > ** ** > > _______________________________________________ > Dataperf mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.dataperfect.nl/mailman/listinfo/dataperf > >
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