What do you think of DOSBox?

[MaineRadioMan]

Someone told me to download it and use it for my windows 7 PC, I was wondering if anyone has used DOSBOX and how they like it???

[tristen]

I don't have a need to use it myself, as I have a number of computers running a variety of operating systems, but many people who frequent the Communication Devices section of the forum swear by it. I also have acquaintances who use it regularly.

If I wished to obtain some information regarding DOSbox or any other software I contemplated using, I would firstly visit the software author's/manufacturer's website and read what appears there. In this case the site is .

It is also available from SourceForge.net, a very useful site to bookmark, as Sourceforge has much useful software for download. The site is quite safe to use, as is the vast range of open-source software appearing there.

I would then use a search engine, such as duckduckgo.com, yahoo or google, with search terms such as "who uses dosbox?" - .

Now, read and evaluate the comments appearing at the various sites returned by your search.

Anyway, why don't you download and try a copy of DOSbox yourself?

You have nothing to lose and have possibly much to gain.

If for some reason you don't like it, simply uninstall it.

Do your own evaluation. It is really very straight forward.

[enf]

If anyone plays old games they will probably need it. I have it on one of my laptops running on Windows 8.1

[mtv]

Given your user name, I expect your purpose is for radio programming, but there are other uses, as per enf's post.

Like tristen, I use slow computers (with dedicated serial ports) and various operating systems when the need arises.

I haven't used DOSbox myself, but others I know of who have, seem to have no problem using it.

I have used Mo'Slo for radio programming. (which can also be used for slow gaming)

Some info on Mo'Slo .

[Uncle Fester]

Someone told me to download it and use it for my windows 7 PC, I was wondering if anyone has used DOSBOX and how they like it???

Tried it a long time ago and didn't like it, found it confusing and had big timing problems and other headaches but this was for old games.

I use DOS/Win9x installed on a virtual machine. VirtualBox and VMware player is free. VMware player is better for Win98SE which is what I use (on a Windows host) and I reboot to DOS mode when required. You can find DOS6.22 images (and...cough, Win98SE) for VMware on the net if you don't have the floppies

[MaineRadioMan]

I only really want it to program Motorola SP50 radios. I have played with it a little but i find it extremely hard to use! But Im still playing with it and not ready to give up on it yet. Is there any other program you would use to program SP50 radios?

[fromaron]

Would it be easier to buy an old laptop running DOS with genuine RS232 port for few bucks (if you can find it though) and forget about using DOSBOX and VMs?

[Uncle Fester]

Would it be easier to buy an old laptop running DOS with genuine RS232 port for few bucks (if you can find it though) and forget about using DOSBOX and VMs?

Why a laptop?
Most PC desktops I have seen have a physical COM and LPT port, even in the Windows 7 era.
If you are actually using a laptop together with a USB to RS232 convertor than that would be your problem. DOS knows no USB (maybe very complicated workarounds).

If your DOS application just needs to transfer data then I don't see why it can not run in a WIN7 cmd prompt (providing it has a real COM port) using compatibility mode of an early Windows version.
If it has a .bat to start, just right click and select under compatibility (properties) WIN98.

Edit: just realised this will not work with 64bit Windows. Best to use WMware player and a DOS 6.22 image. Takes perhaps 5 minutes to set up once you downloaded it and provided you have a physical COM port.

[fromaron]

Why a laptop?

Just physical size considerations. Easy to hide in a cupboard when not in use.

[Jazo116]

For those still interested,

I found the (DOS Box Game Launcher) Pretty handy. Its a Java frontend for DOS Box so you don't have to configure the DOSbox environment in the notepad editor.

I personally like to run radio software on an old laptop in Real DOS with a CPU Cache program. I use a Toughbook CF-27 Pentium 500MHz. Its slow enough to run DOS, the cache can be manipulated, and it is still "fast" enough to dual boot Win XP.

If you really want to run DOSBox, there is a couple of tutorials you can follow along with and .

Important notes:

If using a USB to Serial adapter, map it to COM1 or COM2 in Device Manager.
Turn off the FIFO for that COM port, and slow the speed of the COM port down.
Then, when running the RSS in the DOSBox, slow the CPU cycles down (control + F11).

It seems that the older the radio you are trying to program, the more difficult it is to get the RSS in DOSBox to sync up with the radio.

I personally avoid it myself for really old stuff. I was testing it out on an old 16 ch MT1000 and it was not working right, to the point where it actually garbled the serial number of the radio, and I had to fix with my Toughbook in real DOS.

I suppose if you are using stuff a lot newer, like Jedi and Astro stuff that is probably not a problem.

Anyway, best of luck.

If anyone needs help just let me know.

--Joel