How to Run DOS Prompt in Windows 8

Shubham Srivastava
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Introduction

To run a DOS application in Windows 8 requires a little bit of trick. It's not as simple as to just double-click on the program and use it. But many of you are thinking that whoever will use a 16-bit program or DOS Application now a days.

But there are some tools and applications that are only supported in DOS or the operating systems until Windows XP. For example as I am the Computer Science Student then I have used Turbo C Tool which is basically supported in DOS mode (there is an alternative for this tool as well but I love to use this). Basically to run a DOS Application in Windows 8 we need a third party tool, called an emulator. The DosBox is a famous tool that helps us to to run a DOS Application in Windows 8. DosBox is an open source tool and is lightweight to install. DosBox is capable of running most DOS applications inside its environment. Here follow the link to download it and don't worry; it is safe to use.

To run the DOS Prompt, Download the Latest Version of DosBox

Now once downloaded just install it and I don't think you need to do any installation. After installing the application the icon will be on your Desktop. Just double-click on that and the DosBox will open in your computer.

You are now in the DosBox shell. Note that it automatically puts you at the Z:\ drive; we want to change that. Try typing in the DOS command C:. Note that it says the drive doesn't exist. We could mount the C drive everytime we open the DosBox by typing mount c /home/yourname/dosprog every-time.

But why do that when DosBox can create a configuration file to take care of that for you! But first we need to create the file. At the DosBox Z:\ prompt, type in:

config -writeconf /home/yourname/dosbox.conf

You now have the configuration file.

Type: exit

This puts you back in your terminal session.

Type: sudo gedit dosbox.conf

This will open the DosBox configuration file. Scroll down the dosbox.conf file to this section: [autoexec]

# Lines in this section will be run at startup.

Type: mount c /home/yourname/dosprog

This will automatically mount the C: drive to your dosprog directory.

If you want DosBox to automatically start on the C: drive. Enter C: on a new line after your mount line.

Save and quit gedit

Now at the terminal prompt, type in DosBox; it should auto mount the C: drive (and if you followed step 8a, it will also start you on the C: drive).

Manually Mounting a CD-ROM

Place a CD in your CD-ROM. Ubuntu will happily auto-mount the CD for you to /media/cdrom0 assuming that you placed teh CD in that drive. If you have more than one CD-ROM drive Ubuntu will have mounted it to /media/cdromx where x is a number. Now that we're done with that OS stuff back to DosBox.

Type: mount d /media/cdrom0 -t cdrom

Now your CD is mounted in DosBox to the D: drive. Again if you'd like to test this:

Type: D: and press enter.

Now type dir and press enter. You should again get a listing of all items on the CD.

Now we will create a c++ program in the editor and will take output in the DOS Prompt