I am about to evaluate VmWare workstation 8 but I immediately come accross a problem where I simply can't find an answer or clue as how can I possibily create a VM as described below. As I am trying to furnish as much as possible for what I intend to create, so please bear with me for the description below might be a bit lengthy:
1. I am migrating from WinXp 32bits on a Intel Core2Quote 9400 machine to Win7 64bits on a Intel Core i5 2500K PC.
2. Among all the possible VM that I might want to create with VMWare 8, one of the very crucial virtual machine that I am interested in is a WinXP DOS (i.e. it is MSDOS ver 5.5) like the one I get when I open up a fullscreen WinXP DosBox. i.e. a) I want to run my new PC with Win7 64 bits. b) Within the Win7 as stated in a) above, I want VMWare WS 8 to run a virtual machine which is essentially a MSDOS 5.5 environment.
3. So, it is possible for me to create a virtual machine such as that in 2. b) above? How am I going to create that? i.e. For 2.b) above, I don't want WinXP at all, I just need its fullscreen DOSBOX.
Alternatively, Is it possible to run a VM which is MSDOS 6.22, is there any readily made MSDOS 6.22 VM that I can import into my VMWare 8? I don't think I am able to find my old MSDOS 6.22 diskette, even if I can, I don't have a floopy disk with my new PC...
to boot a VM without EFI-Bios from USB you need to boot from a Plop-bootmanager.iso first - then once the Plop bootmanager has booted you can let it chainload the USB device.
Problem with this approach - you may need to start it a few times - often the USB device will only boot with USB 1 speed during the first attempt
________________________________________________ Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow" I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...
If you want to know what's supported then have a look at the Compatibility Guides.
The short answer is yes you can create a DOS Virtual Machine...
However you need to provide your own installation media since MS-DOS is not freely distributable. I'd imaging that other then a TechNet Distribution (if even still available) if you find MS-DOS for download on the Internet in any other way it is probably an illegal distribution since I don't believe Microsoft distributed MS-DOS in a open manner via the Internet. You'll need to find your floppies and then either use a USB Floppy Dive on your new system or any system that has a Floppy Drive and then use a program like WinImage to make floppy disk images from which you can install from.
TechNet Professional (NFR) TechNet Professional (Retail) TechNet Professional (SA) TechNet Professional (VL) TechNet Professional with Media (Retail) TechNet Professional with Media (VL) TechNet Standard (Retail) TechNet Standard (VL)
B} A product called FreeDOS, which is 99% compatible with MS-DOS is available in thr Net and like the name suggests is FREE. After a decade it now reached ver 1.1
C) Like WoodyZ says MS-DOS is, and alwasys as been a suported product under WS
But I have WinXP license, doesn't that means everything contained within that WinXP is licensed? I means, if it is legally right for me to install WinXP, why it is not legal for me to install its DOS?
My problem is, I want just that DOSBOX as a virtual machine and exclude WInXP itself... I couldn't figure out even how should I start?
May I ask this, if I prepare a bootable CD, inside which, it I have:
1. Norton ghost (command-line ver)
2. A ghost image of my current bootable DOS HDD (this is want I want as a Virtual Machine)
then I create a ISO of the above CD and use it as the mean to create my VM, can I?
What I mean is can I use Ghost to restore a bootable HDD image in the process of creating my VM?
The CMD enviroment you use with XP is a command shell or better a CLI (Command-line interface) which has some features in common with DOS but a different purpose. It's built into the products Windows NT/Windows 2000/Windows XP/Windows 2008/Windows Vista/Windows 7/Windows 2008 R2. And in contrast to MS DOS, Windows 95 and Windows 98 it's not meant to be DOS.
If you want to use DOS to do certain things like running some DOS games you can however use Freedos but in a VM you might get some problems "emulating" some VBE graphics. My advise for those games would be not to virtualize but to use DOSBOX which emulates instead of virtualise, an older PC for those games. Still not every old game will run but there's a lot of old stuff running with DOSBOX.
Please explain what you really want to do with the Windows XP CMD.
But I have WinXP license, doesn't that means everything contained within that WinXP is licensed? I means, if it is legally right for me to install WinXP, why it is not legal for me to install its DOS?
My problem is, I want just that DOSBOX as a virtual machine and exclude WInXP itself... I couldn't figure out even how should I start?
Windows XP does not contain MS-DOS. The MS-DOS Bootstrap (IO.SYS) and the MS-DOS Kernel (MSDOS.SYS) are Zero Length files in Windows XP. Windows XP does contain the MS-DOS Shell (COMMAND.COM) or CLI (Command Line Interface or Interpreter) however this by itself is not considered MS-DOS. At a minimum a somewhat functional MS-DOS would be considered having all three of theses as binaries present and MSDOS.SYS stopped being a binary in IIRC Windows 95 however for sure it was no longer a binary in Windows 98 meaning Kernel Functionality was being handled by a Windows Executable not a MS-DOS Executable.
As to any legality, assuming you legitimately own a copy of Windows XP, you certainly can install it providing you have a valid license. In other words only install it on the number of systems you're licensed for. You cannot however break it into pieces to be used separately beyond it normal functionality.
As to MS-DOS if you legally own a copy or can legally obtain a copy that you're legitimately licensed to use then you certainly can install it in a Virtual Machine, otherwise you'll need to obtain and use FreeDOS.
May I ask this, if I prepare a bootable CD, inside which, it I have:
1. Norton ghost (command-line ver)
2. A ghost image of my current bootable DOS HDD (this is want I want as a Virtual Machine)
then I create a ISO of the above CD and use it as the mean to create my VM, can I?
What I mean is can I use Ghost to restore a bootable HDD image in the process of creating my VM?
I have a bootable Pendrive, what if I place Norton Ghost and my DOS HDD Ghost image in it, can I use it to do the setup? I mean I create a VM for DOS with blank HDD and have it connect to my Pendrive...
It is possible to command the VM to boot from my Pendrive so that I can run Ghost to restore the image to the VM's HDD?
I'd just make a Bootable ISO Image containing GHOST and the DOS HDD Image and boot the Virtual Machine directly from the Image and restore the Ghost Image directly to the virtual hard disk after first booting it with GParted Live ISO Image to partition/format it first. Note that partitioning/formatting first may not be necessary however if it is, it's not a big deal to do first anyway.
to boot a VM without EFI-Bios from USB you need to boot from a Plop-bootmanager.iso first - then once the Plop bootmanager has booted you can let it chainload the USB device.
Problem with this approach - you may need to start it a few times - often the USB device will only boot with USB 1 speed during the first attempt
________________________________________________ Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow" I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...
