12. The MS-DOS Environment Under Windows

In This Chapter

• 32-bit versions of Windows simulate the MS-DOS environment for old programs.

• You can give old DOS programs as much memory as they want.

AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS are alive and well...sort of.

• DOS compatibility is good but not perfect; you might have problems with some games and old modem and networking software.

MS-DOS Programs on Windows

Old programs never die; they just get harder to maintain. That’s an old programmer’s proverb—well, no, it’s not really. But you quickly find that it’s true if you have to use or support MS-DOS programs on modern versions of Windows. Some programs that are based on this original 16-bit, character-based PC operating system are still in use ...

Get Windows 7 and Vista Guide to Scripting, Automation, and Command Line Tools now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.