How To Access Programs Windows 8

How to Run DOS Programs on Windows 7/8/10 and Other Windows Tips

There's a lot of older telecom and other software out in that location that is very specialized, not upgradeable, not replaceable, and won't run on modern Windows operating systems like Vista, XP, W7 or W8. But it works but fine and spending a lot of money to supercede information technology seems crazy.

There are many Windows 95/98 and fifty-fifty 3.ane computers out there running these special apps today.

When Vista and XP came out many of the DOS programs that ran fine under W95/98 wouldn't run at all on those operating systems.

The expert news is that Windows 7 and Windows 8 32 bit (not 64 flake) has changed that! I don't know about W10 that's supposed to come up out some fourth dimension next yr.

Note that if you lot use a 32 bit operating system, you have to brand sure yous are using the 32 scrap versions of any Windows programs yous're using (not the 64 bit versions).

It turns out that Vista and XP didn't handle the DOS programs and their memory needs very well. There were issues converting 16 flake (DOS stuff) to the 32 bit retention addressing scheme in Vista and XP (and the 64 bit versions of all Windows systems). If you're interested in the nitty gritties this is a expert caption of how "thunking" (the power to share data between 16 and 32 bit stuff) was cleaved in Vista and XP:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2008/x/20/9006720.aspx

Simply the 32 bit versions of W7 & W8 piece of work correctly with DOS programs!

The DOS stuff we use in our office never worked in Vista or XP. All of the installs of W7 I had were 64 chip, so the DOS stuff never worked on W7 for me either.

So I decided to endeavour the W7 32 bit only to run into what happened, and the programs worked about 80% fine. That meant that I could now use the DOS plan on a automobile with a mod browser, which happened to be one of the requirements for us to drift that machine from W98SE. I couldn't find a mod browser that runs in W98SE.

Luckily for united states of america I wrote the DOS programs we use and could modify them easily. For some DOS programs the original authors aren't around anymore, so information technology might have some actress tweaking to make information technology piece of work on W7 if information technology's possible at all. In that location's a pretty good take a chance in that location won't be a problem if yous take a look at some of my tips, beneath.

One of the benefits of using a DOS program is that it'south very quick and easy to use without a mouse.

DOS programs seem to run a lot slower on W7 32 bit than they did on a W98 box. The DOS programs we use are blindingly fast on W98 machines. Not on W7, but perfectly usable.

If all y'all take is a 64 bit system to play with there's a program called DOSBOX that will let you lot run DOS programs on both 32 chip and 64 bit systems (really designed for playing onetime DOS games), going back to Vista and XP (as well as W7 & W8). You tin check it out at:

http://www.dosbox.com/

The DIR Command is Unlike!

We do a lot of reading directories for new files. We do that past doing a DIR command and reading the output into retentivity and massaging the results. Information technology turns out that in Vista and above they added a line to the meridian section of the DIR output, which was like shooting fish in a barrel to fix past throwing away 5 lines instead of 4 before we started looking for file names.

They besides changed the format of each line with a file name in the DIR, only that didn't matter for us.

Kicking Issues with Network Drives

W7 often has a trouble connecting to network drives from any workstation. In the case of our machines they're involved with automating processes. I really needed the machine to boot up and connect to the network drives automatically, without my manually clicking on the asunder drives to reconnect.

I run a batch file with the cyberspace use command to reconnect the drives, but it doesn't reconnect the drives unless yous wait almost 20 seconds after the W7 machine starts loading stuff in the Startup Grouping. This is in a batchfile chosen reconn.bat:

internet use L: \\Serverd\Ddrive
cyberspace utilise K: \\Serverd\Edrive
internet apply P: \\Backup1\C
net utilise Q: \\Backup2\D

The fix is to delay reconn.bat so it waits 20 seconds...

Delaying Running Programs

I couldn't just driblet the reconn.bat batch file into the startup grouping considering the drives wouldn't reconnect unless I waited 20 seconds to run the batch file. To fix that I bought a programme called Startup Delayer (the costless version would besides work, but won't save the configurations for testing):

http://www.r2.com.au/page/products/bear witness/startup-delayer/

In add-on to delaying the batch file to reconnect the network drives, I also had to delay whatsoever programs that utilize those drives from starting before reconn.bat. Startup Delayer let me set up all the programs that need to see the networked drive to run after the drives were reconnected. That actually saved a lot of time and hassle!

Wow. I near had a Windows 7 32 chip machine that worked as good as W98SE!

Printing from DOS Programs

It turns out that you probably demand a lilliputian assistance getting print statements in DOS programs to work on a network or USB printer. It might work without help, but it was a problem for us. A quick fix was a program called Printfil:

http://www.printfil.com/english.htm

This lets you specify a local or network printer. Seems to work fine, and at that place are lots of options to play with.

Print Screen

We run some reports by doing a screen impress of the DOS screen. We used a DOS TSR (Terminate and Stay Resident) on the old W98 machines to print the screen to a page on the printer, and then send a form feed to eject the folio from the laser printer. That'due south worked well for us for a long time, but the TSR won't run in the DOS box in W7 32 bit. Greenshot solved that problems for us:

http://getgreenshot.org/

This program lets you tell it to take hold of the Print Screen when you push that push button (you can tell it to use any button), and send it to a printer with a form feed. I save toner on the laser printer past telling the program to only print in blackness and white, and in our case inverting the colors so the bluish groundwork on the DOS screen doesn't show upwardly in black on the printer. It'southward easy to setup, free, and really handy!

CAPS & Number Lock

Nosotros need the caps lock and num lock to be set up differently in unlike DOS screens. With the old DOS and W98 machines I simply peeked and poked memory to determine the status and set the caps and num lock. Those peeks and pokes definitely don't work on W7!

This is the easiest way I institute to fix the caps and num lock from the DOS program on the W7 machine. I only call a batch file from the DOS program which runs "capslock on" or "capslock off" in the batch file. Aforementioned with numlock.

http://www.rjlsoftware.com/software/utility/capslock/

http://www.rjlsoftware.com/software/utility/numlock/

Running this program is a lot slower than the pokes, just it works for u.s.a..

Arranging the ICONS on the Desktop so They'll Stay!

We leave the DOS plan open all the fourth dimension on the W7 desktop in the upper left corner. It turns out that W7 puts other icons at the upper left corner so they're always covered up by our DOS program. W7 likes to rearrange icons later on you lot motility them, from time to time.

The fix I institute for that is a Windows program called DesktopOK:

http://www.softwareok.com/?Freeware/DesktopOK

Information technology lets you save your icon arrangement and restore it when the system boots. It lets usa put the icons anywhere we need them, and they return to the right position after the system restarts.

Digging Around in a Windows Auto to Encounter What's At that place...

In the former days with DOS I used a plan chosen XTREE to give me the lowdown on whatever PC I sat down at. Before you start changing stuff it's a really expert idea to know exactly what'south on the car. XTREE (and and then XTREE Golden) did a swell chore of giving me a graphical tree view of everything on a deejay, and let me install or set stuff without screwing upward the auto further.

Today I use a clone of XTREE called ZTREE that runs on all versions of Windows. The author of ZTREE used all the same commands as XTREE so you don't have to use a mouse to do anything :

http://www.ztree.com/html/ztreewin.htm

Information technology gives a much clearer motion-picture show of what'southward on a hard drive, local or remote, than My Computer or Windows Explorer. If you've never used XTREE it will take a little while for your fingers to acquire what they have to practice to become you lot where yous desire, but one time your fingers learn it information technology's incredibly fast.

Having WiFi Problems, and You Accept W7 or W8?

In W7 and W8 they added some capabilities to the netsh (network shell) control that really helps diagnose why WiFi connections aren't working well. To access netsh, click the Showtime push button in W7 and blazon cmd into the little text box at the bottom, and hit enter. I don't utilise W8 so I don't know where y'all find the identify to go to cmd in W8 since there'south no START button.

When the command box opens, at the prompt type:

netsh wlan evidence networks mode=bssid

You can get a piffling more than information with:

netsh wlan show all

It volition give you a list of all the WiFi networks that can be seen. The important affair is to see what Channel your WiFi is on, and what all the other WiFi routers are on. In the instance above you can come across that all the networks are on Channel xi. In this example information technology doesn't matter much considering the indicate is so bad on the 2nd two networks listed (at that place are 2 more when I scroll downwards), but having two or more WiFi routers set up to the same channel is a recipe for crummy WiFi for everybody.

If you have a router that does both 2.4 and 5 gig, you'll run into ii SSIDs for your location. Make certain neither one is on the aforementioned channel every bit a nearby router, unless possibly if the point force from the other routers is really low.

The fix is to get into your router and alter the channel, or both channels if you accept a 5G router with ii SSIDs.

In that location is a wonderful app called Wifi Analyzer by farproc in the Android Google Play and Kindle app stores that works peachy, and gives you the same information as the netsh wlan commands in W7/8.

When you open the free app after downloading it, touch on View and choose AP list from the drib downward. It gives you all the WiFi routers it tin can see, signal strength and the Aqueduct number.

I haven't establish an app that will do that on ios for iPhones/iPads, but there may be ane.

Finding Utility Programs on the Internet is Unsafe!

The links I provided for the various utilities on this page are safe as far as I tin can tell.

BUT, if the utility is gratuitous you'll probably find it on many other sites on the Internet. The problem with almost all of those sites that let you lot download free software is that they "wrap" the software in their own installer , which is there to put all kinds of other questionable software on your PC along with the free software you want.

CNET is probably the safest place to download free programs because they requite you the option to use a Directly Download Link (if you know to practice that), or use their Installer which will probably screw up your estimator. See the Two ways to download software from CNET circled in crimson:

Even SourceForge, the place that says it'south "Trusted for Open Source," wraps their downloads in an installer:

They exercise tell you a second fourth dimension that yous're going to exist using an installer when I tried to download Filezilla. If I install any of the junk in the installer by accident, Filezilla shares in some of the money they get from SourceForge. Other software on SourceForge may or may non have an installer?

So perhaps it doesn't contain malware? I did bank check and they tell you in BIG letters that y'all tin opt out of two goofy programs they want to put on your PC (I opted out). I think when I tried the direct link it was notwithstanding wrapped in their installer, but I'thousand not positive. I didn't want to spend much time trying to get bad stuff onto my figurer!

In general I think I'd trust CNET only with the direct download link. I guess they need to accuse money to pay for the servers, and the makers of the junk software they install more often than not pay them per install.

SourceForge lets savvy users opt out of installing the junk in their installer. Any time you are downloading something take the time to read the bullshit on the screen! Don't but click Take. Beingness really careful can save you A LOT of headaches.

Almost ALL of the other sites with collections of "free software" that you tin download may really screw upwards your computer with junk when you lot use their installer, or they may fifty-fifty install malware that would be very difficult to get rid of (if you can at all).

If a site says yous should use their Installer to make downloads faster (or for any other reason), DON'T DOWNLOAD IT! Look for the original author'due south site which probably has a direct download link. If they as well have a link to get information technology from one of the free software sites, go for the straight link!

Source: https://www.sandman.com/knowledgebase/dos-program-compatibility

Posted by: stocktonourthen1981.blogspot.com

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