vDos Reviews

Back in '86 I wrote a few applications in Dataease a first generation relational database with application builder front-end. Most of my apps bit the dust but I still use the one I wrote to manage household expenses. I have to tweak it every year to get over the millennium bug (it was real!) both otherwise it still does what I needed it to do. A dozen years ago I spent ages trying to get it to run in Windows 7 which ended up with me running it within a DOS Emulator for Linux which ran within an Oracle VM environment. It seemed to break every few months and need fixing - what a palaver! So that was where I was an hour or so ago when I googled "How to run a DOS program in Windows 10" and up came vDos. All I needed to do was download vDos; copy my app into a subdirectory and edit autoexec.txt to change directory into that subdirectory and run the batchfile I wrote decades ago. I just can't get over how simple this was! Huge thanks to JHM Schaars for this.

VDOS is an extradordinary program. It allows old DOS programs to function on Windows 7, thus eliminating the need to set up Windows Virtual PC and Windows XP Mode; and on Window 10 it eliminates the need to set up Hyper-V. Jos Schaars is brilliant and I thank him for his guidance,

I am using vDos to run FoxPro Dos programs on Windows 10 (32 & 64 bit) and Windows 7 (32 & 64 bit) on a local network. I wrote these programs over 25 years ago to use as retail pos and inventory control. I have received very quick support with the small problems I encountered.

Great for DOS emulation, lightweight.

Works perfectly. Used it to resurrect our WAMPUM dBASE III clone from 1985. Everything works just as it did 32 years ago. Download WAMPUM from: nerd.bz/2ocd0ap

I have used Quicken almost since it was first published on MSDOS. I LOATHE all the Windows versions - yes, I have tried. When I moved to Win10 (64) I was going to find a way to run DOS Quicken or be damned. vDOS saved my bacon. There are a small number key combinations that don't work but there are easy alternatives that are almost as good. Many thanks!

Although I use Office in my Windows 7 environment, I still need to access files in WordStar and, believe it or not, Condor. vDos has been incredibly helpful! Thank you so much for providing this valuable product, it works like a charm!

My wife, who is an accountant, relies on a DBASE III program circa 1986. Her trusty XP computer bit the dust a few months back and she replaced it with a shiny new computer running Windows 10 64-bit. This turned out to be a massive Charlie Foxtrot as 64-bit Windows OS's don't support 16 bit (as I discovered) . I managed to get it running to a point using DosBox, but she hates it, and also flat refuses to use XP on Virtual box - "I've got a new computer, why do I need to install another computer"! Anyway, Vdos to the resuce - she can use her program pretty much the same as on her old XP machine! Thanks be to god, and the creator of Vdos!

Having been a long-term user of DOSBox, I recently stumbled upon vDos, and was pleasantly surprised (***NOT*** about the vdos.info wbsite, stupid box-model makes many pages only partially visible, "overflow:hidden" should be removed ASAP!) However, I have found some problems with that old stalwart of DOS, Vern Buerg's LIST. It does not allow screen mode-switch, i.e. go from 80x25 to 80x43/50, and the ViewArc function results in an "FV" not found, even when LIST and FV are in the same directory. Also the integration with 4DOS is less than optimal, I would prefer to be able to use my own (PC DOS 2000) command interpreter and tools. Also one of my most favourite DOS programs (a TSR) does not work, it gives me just a blue screen and, when running vDos frameless, there is no way other than the TaskManager to kill it. Greatest problem: No FPU support, and this really is a show-stopper!!!

vDOS works great, and I'm finding that it's a valuable daily tool. I struggled for a few years with DOSbox, and vDOS is light-years ahead in usability. vDOS runs all old-time DOS biz programs like VisiCalc. It works flawlessly with SharkBase (VP-Info), and it's now become a valuable part of my daily toolkit. Many thanks to the people who put this lifesaver together. It should have a Wikipedia page that other apps could point to, but there's too many other tools called "vDOS", so there might be some confusion. There's a fright screen when accessing vDOS website, but pay no mind - vDOS has forgotten to fix up its security certificate, that's all. vDOS is a 10 out of 10 for this user.

vDos works almost perfectly with Clipper-based server/client software called MKS Micro Key Central-1, at least when running as a client (the server instance requires an LPT dongle or dongle emulator). The only major shortcoming I found with vDos was its handling of LPT output. Central-1, which runs from a network share mapped to a drive letter, uses LPT1 for live line-printer logs and LPT2 for printed reports. Since the line-printer output on LPT1 never gets closed, I need a timeout for that port. But printed reports to LPT2, which does happen to close after each report, sometimes pause mid-page while the database is being searched -- a timeout here will cause undesired page breaks. And, in both cases, vDos is writing LPT output to the network share with the risk that multiple Central-1/vDos instances will stomp on each others printer output (I run vDos, itself, from the share too). Thankfully, the vDos source code was straightforward enough that it was easy to patch it so that LPT ports output to named pipes, pumping the output directly to a custom helper app to properly process everything. I was also able to add a CTRL + close box "force close" feature for the rare DOS app lockup and changed the Beep() call to a PlaySound() call so I could specify a .wav file for the beeps used regularly in Central-1.

Excelente emulador. Necesité usar un programa Clipper en Windows 8.1 y se ejecutó perfecto.

Apart from ascii data or file entry problems with Fortran programs, a very effective emulation under 64-bit Windows systems, of most of MS-DOS V5.00, and which can run every one of over 200 commercial programs and compilers I tested, that normally run perfectly under MSDOS and 32-bit Windows command line execution.. The major problem in Fortran is that carriage return is not correctly processed, requiring a <Ctl-enter> (i.e. a linefeed) immediately after the return key for any keyboard or ascii record entry..I hope this will be fixed. This vDos offers a solution to Microsoft NOT CURRENTLY offering emulation of MSDOS in 64-bit Windows systems So if you load 64 bit Windows instead of 32-bit Windows, you may NEED vDos!. There is an efficient replacement of traditional Config.sys and Autoexec.sys files by similar well-documented .txt stand-ins. Installation is fast and easy. I found the 2014 version, used with 4DOS shell, to be the best common solution for emulating every program type tested. . There are some problems; 1) the 2015 version does not execute programs compacted by exepack.exe (but will run under the 2014 version, or under v 2015 with a modified configuration file). 2) in text entry to a program (not the shell), a cr AND a ctl-cr are needed since the return key code is not replaced with cr-lf as Microsoft defines for ascii line termination. 3) in text entry, there is no effective correction possible for mis-typing; backspace stores that character; the delete key is not replaced with ascii 07h nor left arrow with 1Bh. 4) Not being able to abort with Ctl-C means the task manager has to be invoked after an input error. Some very few services (like get disk ID number) do nothing; or or are not supported yet. Some read-with-file-handle services do not provide the internal editing of delete, abort, or lf replacement (by cr-lf). But the programs WORK; although screen-keyboard interfacing has the mentioned bugs! T.B.Wright, Sydney

A great job! The ideal solution to run legacy apps in 64 bits modern OS.

Really, an excellent work!, a lot of thanks.

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A really excellent solution for running 16-bit DOS applications that were otherwise left behind in the Windows world when PCs went to 64-bits. In the spirit of the old days of DOS, vDos is a very compact program that loads in an instant and does the job without fluff or window dressing. For me, vDos lets me continue to run John Friend's Grandview (and later, Symantec's) on 64-bit PCs, and that's a great relief. It's wonderful to see a 25+ year old DOS program running happily on a modern PC. Thank you!

Absolutely THE best emulation for serious, mission critical DOS based applications. A lean, mean vDos machine. Finally, file/record locking support! Easy and brings back to life software that is productive and useful. Thanks Jos. My hats off to you my friend. Would love to contribute in any way possible. Thank you, Thank you!!!

Excellent tool to run 16-bit applications that are still used. Thanks to the developer for his efforts.

This is exactly what i was searching for! Now i can run my clipper applications on win7. The integration of DosPrinter.exe (print to every win-printer or save the output as PDF or RTF) is also very good. Great work! :-)

So far very good. Before I can test at a client I am a little worried about the DosPrinter that needs to be bought. Does it expire after 30 days, give a message or stops working? I see your point regarding winprint not being quite suitable. Thank you for the excellent work!

A remarkable project, letting users run MS-DOS apps very effectively under Microsoft Windows (32- or 64-bit) from XP right up through Windows 10, with gorgeous full-screen displays and your choice of TrueType fonts. I'm getting great performance out of WordStar for DOS, including clipboard support and using modern printers. Thank you, Jos Schaars!

Wow. I support a few creaky old Clipper apps, some of which were written in 1992 or so. I'm now compiling and running a Clipper app on my Win 8.1 laptop no problem using vDos. Impressive.

Incredibly easy to install and configure. Since most of the gaming-specific stuff has been removed, it's MUCH faster and more stable for running business apps than standard DOSBox (for example, re-indexing a 225MB cTree data file went from taking approximately 3 hours to just over 20 minutes - on the same hardware). I had previously been struggling with another DOSBox customization (0.73MB with file/record locking); even with "cpu=max", it was incredibly slow and not very stable. So far, vDOS is darn fast and appears to be rock-stable. It even warns the user if s/he tries to kill vDOS while the app is still open. Thanks to vDOS, my clients just might be able to keep their ancient software for another few years! As I always say: if it ain't Baroque, don't fix it. Hartelijk dank, Jos!

This mod of DosBox has been sorely needed in the business community since the demise of WinXP. The install was pretty easy. The self-documentation in the autoexec and config files was very helpful. Most importantly, I got my dos-based Cobol programs running; no changes required. I test-installed this on a Dell mini laptop running Win 7 Starter. Function keys were a problem with every program that used them (none in my Cobol code, though); maybe that's a function of its being a notebook. One of my really old dos programs, an extremely simple file viewer, wouldn't run and Microsoft's EDIT and QBASIC wouldn't work. So it's not totally perfect. This virtualization of DOS works so well with Windows since all the files are accessible in Windows folders. The dos window can be either a scaled window or full screen. The character-based display is crystal clear. The reference to the columbia.edu site is an excellent one, incidentally. I haven't experimented yet with printing. It almost looks too good to be true if I can actually print my PCL-based forms!