Does Windows 7 do DOS?

[Big O]

Originally Posted by Californio

Looks like if you have Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate you can download from Microsoft a XP Virtual Machine and run your program in XP mode. Sort of Boot Camp on OSX.

Boot Camp requires that you partition the hard drive for each system. Then you can only boot one OS at a time. Is this the same thing?

[1JimMarch]

I have a lot of experience with Windows XP virtual machines under Linux. I don't know if Windows 7 is doing quite the same thing but if it is, the entire XP system lives in a single file on the Win7 disk.

In my Linux system, the XP virtual machine lives in a file that maxes out at 15gig the way I set it up, and will grow to meet that as I load it up. I can add a second "virtual disk file" if needed, but I can also store data from within the virtual machine on the host machine's hard disk. From within the XP virtual machine, I have a drive letter created that points upwards into the host OS file system. That way, all the data I work with inside XP is actually on Linux disks and is available to Linux as well.

If the XP guest OS ever goes screwy in any way, I can throw it out as it's just a file, and reload that file from backups.

The guest OS needs a piece of software that tells it how to use the host system resources. Again, I suspect Win7 is similar, or at least, the XP machine you can download from MS has what Virtualbox calls "guest additions" built in.

You can get Virtualbox for free for Mac, Windows or Linux hosts here:

http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

Note that a lot of Win7 systems are shipping as 64bit flavor, which means you need the "AMD64" variant at that page. Even if your CPU is from Intel, they licensed the 64bit stuff from AMD so it's properly called "AMD style 64bit".

I do know that Virtualbox has been in development for three years that I know of, so...it might be more stable than MS's virtual machine system.

Once you "build a virtual machine" (specifying resources like memory, etc.) you boot an OS into it from CD or an ISO file (a file equivelent to a CD in layout), load the guest OS, then install the guest additions for that OS. Guest addition software is available for XP, Win2000 if you want something with less resources, Linux and a few oddballs. Not DOS itself unfortunately, or Win98 which would be sweet for light needs and small memory footprints.

Once a VM guest is built, it can be transferred from host to host, even across OS types. In other words, I can set up a working XP system on my machine and then copy the data files it lives in (the main file plus descriptors) over to another computer running Virtualbox.

[JDay]

If you have Windows 7 Professional or higher and have VM enabled on your CPU you can install XP Mode to run anything that will not run under 7.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/vir.../download.aspx

[1JimMarch]

Virtualbox doesn't need hardware virtualization features in the CPU. It helps, don't get me wrong, but it's not required.

[JDay]

Originally Posted by 1JimMarch

Virtualbox doesn't need hardware virtualization features in the CPU. It helps, don't get me wrong, but it's not required.

I believe hardware virtualization is required if you want to run XP apps on your windows 7 desktop instead of in a dedicated VM.

[dude]

Windows 7 does not have a DOS Virtual Machine, as XP does.

But, if you have "XP Mode" installed on Windows 7 Ultimate or Professional, it will run DOS programs.

XP Mode is unavailable to any edition of Windows 7 below Professional, such as Home Premium.

[1JimMarch]

XP Mode is unavailable to any edition of Windows 7 below Professional, such as Home Premium.

Virtualbox to the rescue then, if you want to do VMs on "lesser" variants of Win7 (or Vista for that matter).

[NavalWarfare31]

You could always try running a virtual machine. I use vmware player and Im running Windows Server 2003 on Vista Premium Home edition to study for my MCSE.

[ke6guj]

Originally Posted by 1JimMarch

Virtualbox to the rescue then, if you want to do VMs on "lesser" variants of Win7 (or Vista for that matter).

AFAIK, you can still run VirtualPC on those lesser versions of Win7. YOu just don't get the free licensed XP virtual machine (you need to use your own licensed copy of XP, no difference than XP in Virtualbox or other virtualization solution) and you don't have application virtualization to the Win7 desktop.