run an old program under Win10 64 bits with parameters

Question

I need to run in compatibility mode 2 programs for MsDos:

• quick basic (QBX.exe);
• some program called HEOB which was created in quick basic (HEOB.BAS).

Normally I would create a *.bat program inserting this path: C:\HEOB\BC7\BIN\QBX.EXE /RUN C:\HEOB\HEOB.BAS

How can I do this in Win10 64 bits? Done directly I get the error with the compatibility issue.

Answer 1

You can't run 16-bit programs in 64-bit windows. In 32 bit windows, 16 bit programs run in a virtual subsystem, and 64 bit windows dosen't have it. In earlier builds of windows 10, NTVDM support could be enabled through optional features, but now this is not available. So you need to use a 32-bit windows for running 16-bit MS-DOS programs. Or you can use a virtual machine for this.

Answer 2

64-bit Windows does not support 16-bit programs (both DOS and old Windows software) and never has.

I suggest you try with DOSBox, an emulator originally created for playing DOS games. It’s free and open source software.

Using QuickBASIC with DOSBox may violate its license, because it’s not MS-DOS.

After starting DOSBox, you need to “mount” the folder where your program is located:

mount C X:\Path\to\your\program

Then you can go to C: and start qbx.

Answer 3

I routinely run DOS programs using DOSBox. This isn't quite a virtual machine, though it does emulate enough of an old Pentium computer to allow most old games and business software to run; it differs from most VM software in that you can assign a Windows 10 file system folder to be a "drive" in DOSBox, allowing easy exchange of data between the DOS session and Windows.

There are several DOSBox implementations out there, some of which have additional capabilities. The "standard" DOSBox is available from https://www.dosbox.com but I use the Daum's Cafe SVN from http://ykhwong.x-y.net/ because it supports "printing" better.

Answer 4

https://www.qbasic.net/en/qbasic-downloads/DOS/Windows-Solutions.htm

Here is yet again, another DOSBOX solution with 3 different versions to choose from.

App and data may come from different drives and supports W7 to W10.

Answer 5

I have DOS running on my Windows 10 machine now. The only practical way to run DOS is with a Virtual Machine. There are a number of possibilities - I use VMware V16 now. Works fine.

You simply cannot run 16-bit processes on a 64-bit Windows machine.