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This page concerns 32-bit Windows Seven. If you have 64-bit Windows Seven, see a special page on the extremely complicated methods required for running WPDOS under 64-bit Windows.
Q. Why don't you recommend the
DOSBOX emulation software as a platform for running WPDOS? I am absolutely
certain that DOSBOX is a far better solution than anything you describe on your
site, even though I've never actually used DOSBOX and I've only read
what other people say about it. Why are you so stubborn and unhelpful?
A. Please see my answer to this
question elsewhere on this site.
Windows Seven is slightly more friendly to DOS applications than Windows Vista was, but not friendly enough. If you make heavy use of WPDOS, you should buy a computer with Windows XP for use with WordPerfect for DOS. In the US, you may want to consider a custom-built computer from JNCS.com, who can still supply computers with Windows XP installed, or with no operating system at all (so that you can install your own copy of Windows or anything else); for my own computers, I either build my own from components bought from JNCS.com or buy a minimal system from them and install my own copy of Windows. Note that you may be able to order a standard-brand computer with Vista installed and an option to "downgrade" to Windows XP; for a full commercial product, Lenovo is probably the best choice, and should be available anywhere in the world.
(September 2009) My current recommendations for a Windows-based computer for use with WPDOS are these:
Summary: You can continue to use WordPerfect for DOS under Windows Seven (as in Vista) in one of two acceptable ways: either by running it directly from within Windows (although you will not be able to use any graphics mode such as print preview) or by running it under Microsoft Virtual PC (which allows you to use graphics mode, but is more awkward and slower in some operations.
Warning: Windows Seven causes the following problems with WPDOS:
(1) Unless you use Tame (which fixes this problem), WPDOS may run slowly under Windows Seven.
(2) You will almost certainly not be able to use any graphics mode in WPDOS. This means that you will not be able to use Print Preview or graphics-editing mode in WPDOS 5.1 or any graphics or preview mode in WPDOS 6.x. If you absolutely must use graphics mode in WPDOS under Windows Seven, consider using either Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 as described on another page on this site, or one of the additional methods described on this site's page about WPDOS under 64-bit Windows; those methods also work under 32-bit Windows, but should only be used if you need the traditional full-screen text mode or graphics mode in WPDOS.
(3) Windows Seven makes it almost impossible to run WPDOS in its traditional full-screen text mode (where the screen is entirely filled by WPDOS displaying a 25-line screen). Even if you use the complex measures described elsewhere on this page that let you open WPDOS in full-screen text mode, WPDOS may freeze when you switch between the WPDOS screen and the Windows desktop. You can, however, use a full-screen display (using Windows' own fonts)m for the combination of WPDOS with Tame. either Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 as described on another page on this site, or one of the additional methods described on this site's page about WPDOS under 64-bit Windows; those methods also work under 32-bit Windows, but should only be used if you need the traditional full-screen textmode or graphics mode in WPDOS.
(4) The only reliable methods of printing from WPDOS under Windows 7 seem to be the following
(5) Some of the advanced methods found elsewhere on this site - for example the macros that copy and paste between WPDOS and the Windows clipboard - may cause WPDOS to crash under Windows Seven.
(6) A minor but annoying detail: If you create or reuse a desktop shortcut for WPDOS, it can only appear on the Windows desktop as a plain white rectangle with an arrow in the lower-left corner. Desktop shortcuts for DOS-based applications running under Windows Seven cannot display any other icon that you might wish to use. (See the workaround described elsewhere on this page.)
Note: Before performing the steps described here, you may need to disable Windows Seven's User Access Control (UAC) security feature until you have completed making the changes. If Windows will not let you open the relevant files, or bothers you with prompts, download and run TweakUAC and turn off UAC or switch it to "quiet mode"; when you are finished making and testing the changes suggested here, run the utility again to restore UAC.
Follow these steps very carefully before attempting to run WPDOS with Windows Seven:
(1) Test whether your system supports full-screen mode. On your Windows Seven computer, click on the Windows "pearl" where the Start Menu was in earlier versions, and enter the word "COMMAND" (no quotation marks); a DOS prompt should open. Press Alt-Enter, which normally switches between windowed and full-screen mode. If you get an error message saying "This system does not support fullscreen mode", then proceed to step (2), after entering "exit" to close the window. Otherwise, enter "exit" to close the command prompt, and proceed to step (3).
(2) Warning: This procedure is not recommended, and may cause your computer to freeze when you switch between WPDOS and the Windows desktop! If you want to be able to use WPDOS in its traditional 25-line full-screen mode, and you got an error message when you tried the experiment in step (1), then you must use Windows Seven's "Standard VGA Graphics Adapter" video driver (as described in the next paragraph) instead of whatever driver you or Windows installed for use with your video hardware. Remember that the "Standard VGA Graphics Adapter" may not be available or usable on your specific system!
How to install the Standard VGA Graphics Adapter in Windows Seven: Right-click on the Windows desktop; choose Personalize from the pop-up menu; choose Display Settings from the Personalize dialog; on the Monitor tab, click Advanced Settings...; on the Adapter tab, click Properties; on the Driver tab, click Update Driver...; click on "Browse My Computer for Driver Software"; click on "Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer"; in the "Select a device driver" list, scroll down to Standard VGA Graphics Adapter and highlight (select) it; click Next. (If you do not find the Standard VGA Graphics Adapter listed, then your computer cannot use it.) If your monitor goes blank, wait five minutes, then power down your computer and restart it normally. If your monitor does not go blank, wait while the driver is installed; click Close; then continue to press Close or OK or otherwise close dialog boxes until you are back to the desktop. If you are prompted to restart your computer, do so. You probably should do so anyway. (If you want to reverse this procedure, follow the same instructions, but let Windows automatically install the appropriate software for your system instead of browsing your computer for driver software.)
Warning: Some video hardware is incompatible with the Standard VGA Graphic Adapter, and, even if you install the Standard VGA Graphic Adapter, the drivers will not actually work. (A primitive graphic driver called "VgaSave" will be used instead.) One example of such hardware is the Intel 965 video hardware used in many Windows and Macintosh laptops. This hardware therefore does not allow the practical use of full-screen WPDOS under Windows Seven.
(3) Enable non-US keyboard if necessary. If, and only if, you do not use a US-English keyboard layout in WP, you must modify the Autoexec.nt file on your Windows Seven system to that DOS applications such as WPDOS use the keyboard that you need. Download this desktop shortcut EditAutoexec.nt to your Windows Seven desktop or some other convenient location (you may need to right-click on the links and select Save link as...). Right-click on the file; choose "Run as Administrator" from the pop-up menu to edit the associated file in Windows Notepad; go the foot of the file and add this line (replacing xx with the two-letter abbreviation of your keyboard layout, for example, uk or nl):
kb16 xxClose and save the file. The change that you made will apply to the next DOS application you launch; you do not need to reboot your computer. Important: If you use any program that uses a special Autoexec.nt file, you must make this change in all such files.
(4) Install WPDOS. Install WPDOS to your Windows Seven computer. Install a desktop shortcut for WPDOS following the advice elsewhere on this site. Note that the shortcut will appear on the desktop as a plain white rectangle, no matter which icon you may select in the shortcut properties sheet. Specify on the Window tab that the program should open in either a window or full-screen, depending on which you prefer.
(5) Install Tame. Run WP. If it seems impossibly slow, install Tame now; otherwise, you may install Tame later.
(6) Consider disabling graphic mode. After selecting a printer, use Shift-F1/Display and choose Auto-Select so that WP will chose its IBM VGA 640x480 graphics driver. Now use Shift-F7, 6 (in WPDOS 5.1) or Shift-F7, 7 (in WPDOS 6.x) to switch to print preview; you may have to wait as long as a minute before the preview appears. When it appears, press F7 to return to text mode; you may have to wait as long as a minute. If the wait is intolerable, and you want to avoid it in the future, close WPDOS and rename all the .VRS files in the WPDOS directory (rename them to something like .VR9 so that you can restore them in the future if you need to); if the .VRS files are renamed, WPDOS cannot try to switch to graphics mode, and will display only a brief error message if you attempt to do so.
By following these procedures, WPDOS will be usable (although probably without graphic mode), but you may prefer to run WPDOS under Windows XP.
Note: Before performing the steps described here, you may need to disable Windows' User Access Control (UAC) security feature until you have completed making the changes. If Windows will not let you open the relevant files, or bothers you with prompts, download and run TweakUAC and turn off UAC or switch it to "quiet mode"; when you are finished making and testing the changes suggested here, run the utility again to restore UAC.
If your printer is a standard laser printer that is connected to your computer by a parallel port, then WP will print normally under Windows Seven. If your printer is connected by a USB cable or across a network, but uses a WP printer driver (not one of the methods found on this site for printing to any Windows printer), then you can use one of this site's methods for printing to USB or networked printers. The most highly-recommended method is the DOSPrint method described elsewhere on this site; but you may also use the PrintFile method, as described elsewhere on this site.
If you have a Windows-only printer and require one of this site's methods of printing to any Windows printer, then you may want to experiment with the methods on the linked page. Most, possibly all, of the methods described on that page should work with Windows Seven.
Note: Before performing the steps described here, you may need to disable Windows' User Access Control (UAC) security feature until you have completed making the changes. If Windows will not let you open the relevant files, or bothers you with prompts, download and run TweakUAC and turn off UAC or switch it to "quiet mode"; when you are finished making and testing the changes suggested here, run the utility again to restore UAC.
Desktop shortcuts for DOS-based
programs running under Windows Seven display only a blank generic icon, as in
the example shown here. When editing the properties sheet of a desktop shortcut,
you can select any icon you like, and the icon that you select will
appear in
the General tab of the properties sheet, but it will not appear on the Seven
desktop. Only the generic icon will actually appear on the desktop.
This problem can be worked around in either of two ways:
Either (a) Create a batch file that runs the DOS-based program, create a shortcut to the batch file, and assign a custom icon to the shortcut. (For detailed information on creating and changing shortcuts, see another page on this site.) This workaround may cause minor problems in memory management, etc.; further information will be posted here when it becomes available. (But see the note elsewhere on this page about batch files under Windows Seven.)
Or (b) Right-click on the Windows desktop; select New from the pop-up menu, then Shortcut; enter cmd.exe when prompted to enter the location of the item; type a name such as "WPDOS" when prompted to type a name for the shortcut; click Finish; right-click on the resulting shortcut and choose Properties; on the Shortcut tab, in the Target field, do not change what you see there, but carefully move the cursor to the right of cmd.exe, type a space, then the following text (replacing c:\wp51 with the actual location of WPDOS on your system): /c c:\wp51\wp.com (note very carefully that this begins with a forward slash, then the letter "c", then a space, then a directory location), then click on Change Icon and change the icon as described below.
If
you use either of these workarounds, you may want to use one of the two Windows
Seven-ready WP icons
included in this archive file; the two images are
based on the Novell and Corel logos used for Windows versions of WordPerfect.
Download the archive file to your Windows desktop; double-click on the archive
to open it; and copy one or both icons to your WP directory. (You may
need to disable User Access Control temporarily in order to do so.) Right-click on the
shortcut to your batch file; in the Program tab, use the "Change Icon" button,
and select one of these two icons. The two icons look like this, WPNovell.ico
on the left, WPCorel.ico on the right.
You may also use the more familiar WP icons available with earlier versions of Windows. For WPDOS 5.1, after pressing the "Change Icon" button in your batch file shortcut, type MORICONS.DLL in the filename field, and choose the familiar gray icon. For WPDOS 6.x, download this icon library file; copy it to your WPDOS directory; and, after pressing the "Change Icon" button in your batch file shortcut, navigate to your WPDOS directory, choose the file named WPICON60.ICL, and select the first icon in the library.
By default, the Windows Seven Start Menu does not include the familiar Run... box. You do not really need it, because you can enter commands in the field at the foot of the Start Menu. But if you want to enable the Run... box, right-click on the Windows "Pearl" in the lower-left corner of your screen, choose Properties, Start Menu, and click on Customize... In the list of options, scroll down until you find "Run Command". Check the box next to it, then click OK until the dialog box closes. The next time you open the Start Menu you will see a Run... command in the lower right of the menu.