(Replied privately by mistake)

Or you can use VMWare Player for free.

On Mar 23, 2013, at 7:20 PM, Eric Donn <[email protected]> wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> Like Brian I use VMware Player - and the virtual machine is Windows XP.  I 
> use tamedos, and using Uwe Sieber's freeware DOS fonts in combination with 
> the screen size on the layout tab of a shortcut to DP you can get the DP 
> almost the size of the screen but windowed.
> Also like Brian I use predominantly W7 64bit but also have some XP and W7 
> 32bit machines, and I also run virtual machines.  I have virtualised MSDOS 
> and IBM PCDOS 2000 but that does not allow the use of DPSpool.  It takes less 
> than an hour to get up and running with VMware player.
> 
> VMware workstation costs around $200 US and that allows you to clone virtual 
> machines.
> 
> Regards
> Eric Donn
> Director
> J.I.T. Systems Ltd
> “ZERO DOWN TIME OR WE FIX IT FOR FREE”
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [email protected] 
> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of 
> [email protected]
> Sent: Sunday, 17 February 2013 11:00
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: [Dataperf] Screen size win7/32
> 
> G'day Geert,
> 
> But there are often compelling reasons to use the 64bit variant.  I have so 
> many computers with so many variants of operating systems, versions of 
> applications I have written, versions of Microsoft Office etc that I need to 
> still occasionally support. So in the interests of de-cluttering, and 
> reducing my electricity bills (cutting greenhouse emissions and saving the 
> planet) I decided I should dump the machines and create Virtual images of 
> them, and load them in VMWare, so I have reduced my PC's down to 2 (you got 
> to have one spare if the other breaks down).  Windows 32Bit cannot access 
> enough RAM for my liking, but with my Windows 7 64-bit with 16Gb RAM INTEL 
> i7,  I can run three or four Windows sessions simultaneously each using an 
> optimal amount of RAM - and in fact individually they each run faster as VM 
> on the newer hardware than they ran as physical machines.  Also many machines 
> comes preloaded with the 64Bit version of Windows 7, or my clients have them, 
> so it's not going to go away.
> 
> But if I need to run a virtual machine for a specific application, eg DP, I 
> do not want to use a slower more resource hungry operating system than I 
> need, also if you use say Windows 7 - 32Bit as a virtual machine, any changes 
> you make to the virtual hardware potentially means you have to reactivate 
> Windows, and if runs out of activation before Microsoft thinks you are a 
> pirate you have to call and explain and beg Microsoft to let you reactivate.  
> Which is why I advocate if you go the virtual PC way, you go for the slimmest 
> non-activating OS that you can work with. 
> 
> Bye
> Brian
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [email protected] 
> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected]
> Sent: Sunday, 17 February 2013 2:17 AM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: [Dataperf] Screen size win7/32
> 
> I still think that a WIN 7/32 CD is the cheapest and easiest solution for 
> dummies like me :)
> 
> Regards,
> Geert.
> 
> PS:
> I live in the south of France and I may be able to take care of two Aussie 
> kids for a couple of weeks without breaching any Microsoft licencing, on the 
> condition that they can survive on french food ! ;)
> 
> 
> On Sat, 16 Feb 2013 10:50:52 +0100, Gerard van Loenhout 
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>> 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*
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>>> ** **
>>> 
>>> ** **
>>> 
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> 
> 
> -- 
> 
> Vriendelijke groeten,
> Geert De Baets
> mailto:[email protected]
> Web: http://www.debaets.be
> 
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