What is the latest version of the Windows operating system that can run DOS applications without using DOSBox which in my opinion is a pain to use?
Can some sort of compatibility mode be installed in newer versions of Windows operating systems?
Why has the support been dropped? Was it for technical reasons or marketing reasons?
What is the latest version of the Windows operating system that can run DOS applications without using DOSBox which in my opinion is a pain to use?
Get ready to be surprised: The last version, as of this writing, is Windows 10 32-bit version 1703.
"What's the catch?" you are probably asking. The catch is that a DOS program does not only expect DOS, but also a DOS-era computer, like a 40 MB partition, FAT16 file system, etc. You should give them these.
Why has the support been dropped? Was it for technical reasons or marketing reasons?
Only 32-bit editions of Windows support DOS apps which are 16-bit. The reason is the x86 architecture of Intel and AMD which does not support 16-bit operations in long mode. So, in case of 64-bit versions of Windows, the support was never dropped; because it was never added in the first place.
Can some sort of compatibility mode be installed in newer versions of Windows operating systems?
It can. And it has a name. Its name is DOSBox!
Oh, I perfectly understand what you want: You want to mix the comfort of the modern operating environment and the old DOS app. But you should understand that this comfort has been achieved with technological advances to which the old DOS apps do not adhere. DOSBox is a pain because DOS was a pain. I am sorry but you can't have your cake and eat it.
While it is true that 32bit Windows still supports some MS-DOS apps even in modern versions (Windows 8, 8.1, 10), the DOS environment emulation is drastically limited. You can't for example run apps that use CGA, EGA or VGA graphics mode, only text mode, and don't expect internal PC speaker or its emulation to work, that support was dropped long ago. As for sound card support, I am afraid that DOS sound is dropped altogether. If your app utilize the use of internal onboard PC speaker, sometimes it just doesn't work, sometimes it glitches in weird ways where the program crashes and leaves an uncanny sound behind.
The truly last edition of Windows that natively supports DOS apps in an entire extent, is Windows XP, and even then there were some limitations and the DOS environment emulation just wasn't that perfect. The best results would be with Windows 9x, which were still DOS based, as opposed to Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Windows XP, which were NT based (as the rest of Windows nowadays), or with MS-DOS itself, obviously. If you need to use the modern hardware, the best option for you would be to use DOSBox or other emulation software (like VirtualBox or VMware). You can mount physical device ports to the virtual machine so they can be used to access your physical printer if you need that, so the only thing that limits you in using old DOS apps is the hassle with setting eighter a virtual machine or a physical machine up.
MS-DOS was discontinued for a good reason. It was a hassle to set up properly the way the user wanted, it was a hassle to navigate around and use the OS, and it was a hassle to install new programs and apps in it. You had to know the command line or have someone install a commander app for you. Windows added the GUI to DOS, but first versions of Windows weren't much better to be honest.
