DOS ain't dead

Switch from MS-DOS 6.21 to Windows DOS Box? (Users)

posted by CluelessInSeattl, Seattle, USA, 23.04.2014, 17:17

Hi again! Some of you reading this might remember me as the old guy with worsening disabling health problems who is still running MS-DOS 6.21 on an old laptop with a floppy drive.

That old laptop ain't getting any younger (and neither am I for that matter) and I'm worried that when it finally dies on me, I'll be left without my favorite computing platform. So I guess it's finally time for me to bite the bullet and try to figure out how to migrate my ancient DOS software over to a Windows environment before I lose my old laptop once and for all.

I'd be grateful for your help as I try to think through how to go about this project.

My health continues to decline, so I don't have that much time or energy each day to devote to this project. Most of my time each day is taken up by the most basic tasks of daily living, so a key factor will be keeping the transition process as simple and streamlined as possible.

Since I already know MS-DOS 6.21, as well as the early versions of Windows, (I used to have a version of Win 95 that came on a set of floppies!), it seems like the simplest way to proceed would be to find the most stable version of Windows with a DOS box that's most compatible with my old DOS 6.21 batch files.

So I guess that's my first question: "If you were trying to import your DOS 6.21 software, batch files and its config file into a Windows environment, which version of Windows would you choose?"

I'm pretty sure that some, or perhaps even most of you reading this will want to urge me to abandon MS-DOS and Windows altogether and make the jump to a current iteration of DOS. I'd be interested in what you might have to say, but have to warn you that I'm so old now, and suffer such cognitive impairment, that learning new skills has become very difficult for me. And as I probably don't have that much time left to me, I think that what little time I have left would be better spent on wrapping up my old computing projects that I started back in my CP/M days, rather than trying to learn a new system.

I'm eager to learn what you think of my proposal,

---
Will in Seattle
a.k.a. "Clueless"
Running MS-DOS 6.21

Complete thread:

• Switch from MS-DOS 6.21 to Windows DOS Box? - CluelessInSeattl, 23.04.2014, 17:17
  • Switch from MS-DOS 6.21 to Windows DOS Box? - RayeR, 23.04.2014, 19:04
  • Switch from MS-DOS 6.21 to Windows DOS Box? - ron, 24.04.2014, 03:44
    • Switch from MS-DOS 6.21 to Windows DOS Box? - Doug, 24.04.2014, 07:49
      • Switch from MS-DOS 6.21 to Windows DOS Box? - marcov, 24.04.2014, 11:13
        • Switch from MS-DOS 6.21 to Windows DOS Box? - alexfru, 24.04.2014, 13:02
          • Switch from MS-DOS 6.21 to Windows DOS Box? - marcov, 26.04.2014, 14:53
            • Switch from MS-DOS 6.21 to Windows DOS Box? - RayeR, 26.04.2014, 17:25
      • Switch from MS-DOS 6.21 to Windows DOS Box? - Doug, 25.04.2014, 20:03
  • Switch from MS-DOS 6.21 to Windows DOS Box? - glennmcc, 01.05.2014, 04:01