Confused what you mean. Windows XP can run a DOS emulator by clicking the Start menu, then Run... and then typing "command.com" (without the quotes, of course)

When i run the program QuickBasic 7.1 (or any other versions for that matter) it says something about a Windows NT file cannot open the dos file. Never knew there was a dos shell in XP thaught just command prompt.

Ok i did Command.com and it gave me
C:\WINDOWS\System32\command.com
C:\WINDOWS\System32\AUTOEXEC.NT. The system file is not suitable for running MS-DOS and Micosoft Windows applications. Choose 'Close' to terminate the application.

I get something similar when i use QBasic 7.1....

Go to properties of QBX.exe, click memory, set EMS to None, everything else to Auto and check uses HMA. You don't set compatibility to windows 95 or 98, and you can check the "close on exit" (optional), and then click OK. The system automatically creates the qbx.pif file that has the same attributes.

You can double click on either qbx.exe or qbx.pif and it will load any size file which some people have had a problem with. These settings works for Qbasic or Qbx.

I installed QuickBASIC 4.5 (yeah, I know, but it's comfortable) on a P4 2.3G (w/448Megs of RAM) HP Notebook w/ 30Gigs free on the hard drive and running XP.

I first ran this QB version on a P3 166M (both under DOS and within Win3.1)and then on a P4 1.3G w/256Meg of RAM, from within Win98se.

And in both those cases it ran well and smoothly.

On the HP notebook it is SLOW and if I open two BASIC windows at the same time the machine all but stops. With just one open, other programs (and even system functions like "view Folder") become VERY slow - and CPU usage jumps to 100%.

I KNOW that QuickBasic can run smoothly in MUCH less memory than the notebook has available, with less free space on C: and with a much slower processor.

So the question is "what do I have to change to get the sustem to allocate resources in a way that doesn't slow everything down?"

TIA for any suggestions.

I need it too.

I am sick of how Microsoft makes things obsolete on purpose.

Quickbasic 4.5 will run under Windows XP home edition as it is on my machine and does run o.k. I don't use it anymore though. The problem with the old DOS programs is the memory restriction (just the 640K) to play with however large the actual physical memory is on your machine. The main reason I stopped using Quickbasic was because I was starting to run into the memory barrier when programming (i.e the programming language plus my code in memory at the same time was sometimes causing the "out of memory" message to appear). This could be got round to some small extent by unloading one of the forms whilst working on the other ones etc. The other problem was the enourmous slowing down effect running a DOS based program has on the other programs/printers on the system. For some reason when running a DOS program it uses practically all processor power causing other programs to slow drastically. Maybe someone else has a technical explanation as to why this happens.
Anyway the bottom line is you would be well advised IMHO to get a more modern programming language.

Hope the above helps.

Here I've built a program easy to install it will allow you to use any Dos Programs on Windows XP. Heres the Site. :cheesy:

Windows XP Dos FIX

Download DOSWinXP-Fix.exe

Yes; I just happened across your question. I have been running quickbasic4.5
for years and last year decided to try it on xp. 1) start, run, type in cmd.exe,
ok. 2) when the cmd screen and prompt come up , type cd \. 3) change
dir to whereever you have qb.exe .4) type qb.exe 5) when the quickbasic
blue screen appears, right click on title bar then properties to set up your
options for your screen. hope it works for you.