DOS fullscreen application crash

[B. P. TBC]

Hi all!

I have Windows XP (SP2). I tried to start some old (DOS) applications.
Console applications runs well, but character-mode applications (e.g.
games, or self-made FreePascal graphical apps) can't start. When the
program swithches to fullscreen, only a black screen appeared. When I
switch back to windowed mode, the program simply closes.
If I try to start a (MS-DOS) console application to start in fullscreen
mode, the same happens.
Is this normal in XP SP2? Or what can be the problem?
Anything else works well on my computer.

Thanks for your help!

P.

[JJ]

Post by B. P. TBC
Hi all!
I have Windows XP (SP2). I tried to start some old (DOS) applications.
Console applications runs well, but character-mode applications (e.g.
games, or self-made FreePascal graphical apps) can't start. When the
program swithches to fullscreen, only a black screen appeared. When I
switch back to windowed mode, the program simply closes.
If I try to start a (MS-DOS) console application to start in fullscreen
mode, the same happens.
Is this normal in XP SP2? Or what can be the problem?
Anything else works well on my computer.
Thanks for your help!
P.

It's expected when running MS-DOS games under Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista
(and newers). It's because those games usually requires:

* Direct access to hardware. Hardware access would be locked by Windows
to keep system stable.
* A non standard graphics mode that requires direct access to hardware in
order to set it up.
* Specific execution mode. This would be locked by Windows to avoid
interfering the OS (Windows).

Fortunately, there's already a program that work around this problem:

DosBox
http://www.dosbox.com/

It's a command-line based program, but there's two good GUI for it:

D.O.G.
http://www.freewebs.com/erikgg/

D-Fend
http://dfendreloaded.sourceforge.net/

[B. P. TBC]

Post by JJ
It's expected when running MS-DOS games under Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista

Understood... but under Win2k, and on my previous machine, which runs
Windows XP (non-SP2), most of them run well. And I want to solve this
problem: why can't I run these apps on my machine?
Theoretically WinXP SP3 can run graphical MS-DOS programs.
Some of these programs are small FreePascal-tutorials, which use the
standard graphics modes.

Post by JJ
DosBox

Thank you! :-)
I already know and use dosbox, but if possible, I want to find a real
solution, not a workaround.

Thanks:
P.