WARES Execution Alternatives

The move to 64-bit Windows 7, 8, and 10 eliminates running WARES natively on a Windows operating system. There are other options, however. These are:

  • DOS emulation using vDosPlus on Windows 7, 8, and 10
  • VmWare or similar virtual machine execution of DOS/WARES
  • Microsoft’s Virtual Windows XP emulation (32-bit Windows only)
  • Remote desktop access to WARES on an ADDS Server (32-bit Windows only)
  • Linux Ubuntu desktop operating system, and DOSEMU

Of these options, the easiest and most effective solution is the first one, VDosPlus.

vDosPlus Emulation Program

VDosPlus addresses the following concerns with running DOS applications today:

  • DOS programs cannot run on 64-bit Windows systems
  • DOS uses Windows Short File Names (SFN) and not Long File Names (LFN)
  • DOS does not print directly to Windows printers
  • DOS characters do not scale, the resulting display may be illegible
  • Programs requiring EMS memory (e.g., WARES) may not work
  • NETBIOS networking (SMBv1) is deprecated and may not work

vDosPlus is an emulation, and therefore it runs more slowly than native DOS would. The other benefits of vDosPlus far outweigh the performance cost when using WARES.

vDosPlus is freeware, but its developers would appreciate any donation you would make when registering the program.

Installing vDosPlus

  • Download vDosPlus.zip. Windows will probably save this file in your Downloads folder.
  • Open the download link in the browser, or open your Downloads folder in File Explorer and right-click file vDosPlus.zip.
  • Choose Extract from the file menu, and use C:\vDosPlus as the Destination Folder.
  • Open folder C:\vDosPlus in File Explorer, Right-Click program vDosPlus.exe, and select Create shortcut to create a desktop icon.
  • In File Explorer, copy Consolas font files from folder C:WindowsFontsConsolas to the new C:\vDosPlus folder created above.

Note

Program vDosPlus is documented at http://www.vdosplus.org; the download revision is at http://www.columbia.edu/~em36/wpdos/vdosplus.html. There is also a program installer download available on sourceforge at https://sourceforge.net/projects/vdosplus/.

Configuring vDosPlus

In the same way as traditional DOS programs, vDosPlus uses two files to set the system configuration: config.txt and autoexec.txt. vDosPlus ships with a default files config.txt and autoexec.txt, and these files must be replaced to run WARES.

The following sample files have been tested to work with WARES for most installations. (Call support if these do not work correctly.) Install these files as follows:

  • Open Windows File Explorer, and navigate to folder directory This PC ‣ Local Disk (C:) ‣ vDosPlus
  • Right-click file config.txt, and rename it something like config_orig.txt
  • Right-click file autoexec.txt, and rename it something like autoexec_orig.txt
  • Download config.txt, saving it to the C:vDosPlus folder
  • Download autoexec.txt, saving it to the C:vDosPlus folder
  • Start WARES from the desktop icon for vDosPlus

Modifying the Configuration

If the message appears, “The WARES.BAT command program cannot be found”, then either:

  1. there is a mistake in your config.txt, or
  2. your WARES installation is non-standard. Change either the AREVSHARE or the AREVLOCAL entry in autoexec.txt to match the location where WARES is installed.

If you are running in a multi-user environment, each WARES user should have a unique identifier. Edit file autoexec.txt and change the AREVUSER entry to USER01, USER02, ... as desired.

There are many other display options in vDosPlus, some of which are included in the configuration files but commented out (lines starting with ‘#’ or ‘rem’). If you are good with DOS, change these settings to your liking. But read the README.TXT file for vDosPlus before making changes.

The sample text for config.txt follows:

XMEM = 32 XMS
USEDRVS = ON
# BLINKC = OFF
MOUSE = ON
FONT = CONSOLA
# ITALFONT = CONSOLAI
# BOLDFONT = CONSOLAB
# BOITFONT = CONSOLAZ
FRAME = ON
PADDING = 1
TITLE = WARES Warehousing
ICON = W:\AREV.ICO
# ICON = C:\ATLAS\AREV.ICO
LPT1 = SEL:"HP-LaserJet" RAW

The sample text for autoexec.txt follows:

@ECHO OFF
SETLOCAL
SET AREVUSER=WARES
SET AREVSHARE=W:
SET AREVLOCAL=C:\ATLAS\
PATH %PATH%;C:\4DOS;C:\DOSZIP;C:.;..
SET TEMP=%%TEMP%%
IF NOT EXIST %TEMP%\NUL SET TEMP=C:.
EMSMAGIC.COM /RAM=MAX
IF NOT EXIST %AREVLOCAL%WARES.BAT GOTO SHARED
CD %AREVLOCAL%
GOTO RUN
:SHARED
IF NOT EXIST %AREVSHARE%\WARES.BAT GOTO MISSING
%AREVSHARE%
:RUN
CALL WARES.BAT %AREVUSER%
GOTO EXIT
:MISSING
ECHO The WARES.BAT command program cannot be found
PAUSE .
:EXIT
EXIT

Change Desktop Icon

  • On the desktop, <Right-Click> the VDosPlus icon and click the Change Icon button
  • Search either C:\Atlas\ or W:\ to find the icon file arev.ico
  • Click Apply and OK to save the changes

Configuring Printing

Notice the last line of config.txt above. vDosPlus ditches printer sharing and the old netprint.bat printer mapping, printing directly to named Windows printer devices on your workstation instead. You can map LPT1, LPT2, and LPT3 to Windows printer names in config.txt as shown, and then WARES will print to those printers without having to display the Windows print dialog.

If your default Windows printer is Microsoft print to PDF, printing to a WARES printer not mapped in config.txt will display the Windows print dialog, defaulting to Microsoft print to PDF. For example:

  1. Copy the HP-Laserjet profile to PDF-Printer in WARES at Tools ‣ Reports ‣ Printer Driver
  2. Associate LPT3 with the PDF-Printer driver in WARES at Tools ‣ Reports ‣ Setup Printers
  3. DO NOT assign LPT3 to a Windows printer in the vDosPlus config.txt file
  4. Optionally, set printer Microsoft print to PDF as the default printer in Windows, assuming the workstation is used primarily for WARES
  5. Simplify PDF printing of specific WARES forms or reports by copying the report definition in Tools ‣ Processes ‣ Report Setup to a new name, and adding LPT3 to the Driver entry.