DOS Program giving me grief in XP

[mmj1]

I have a DOS program running on my Windows XP Pro computer. It seems to run fine; however, if I minimize the program and try to open Excel or Word or anything else it takes forever. Once I close the DOS program it opens perfectly fine - no hesitation. I checked the Task Manager when the DOS program was open and it showed NTVDM.EXE with 99% CPU usage. Is there any way to correct this without having to close the DOS program everytime I want to open another program?

I also have another question about the DOS window. When I open the DOS program it shows in a box that does not take up the entire screen -- I clicked on the left hand side of the DOS program box and went to properties and selected "Full Screen" and the DOS window does become full screen; however, I can't retain the setting. Everytime I open the DOS program I have to go back to the properties and select full screen. Anyway to make it retain the settings??

Thanks for your help!!

[doctorgonzo]

The problem with running DOS applications in Windows XP is that Windows has to emulate DOS, because XP is completely different from 9X versions of Windows. NTVDM.EXE is that virtual machine that XP uses to run DOS programs, so you can't avoid it. Some DOS programs will work on XP with no problems, others will be a resource hog like yours, others won't work at all.

Check to see if the program you are running has a version that is compatible with XP. Otherwise, you don't have many options. DOS programs are obsolete, and future versions of Windows probably won't be able to run them at all.

If you really want to use the program, consider dual-booting your system with XP and Windowx 98, which should work much better.

[mmj1]

DoctorGonzo, Thank you for the explanation. I know there isn't another version of this software but we are in the process of converting our information to a windows product. However, it is convenient to alt tab between the two to copy some of our information. One other question, someone recommended we try a third party product called TameDos (www.tamedos.com) -- Have you had any experience with this product and do you think it would be worth a try??

[Statica]

Honestly, if you were to buy a 3rd party program, I'd recommend getting VirtualPC 2004. And create a guest OS with an older operating system. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/vir...rview2004.mspx