How Cloudhouse can help with DOS migration and customisation
DOS: the precursor of all modern operating systems
It’s amazing that even though the final official version of DOS was released in the year 2000, DOS can still be found quietly working away behind business critical applications in companies and public sector organisations. Read on to find out how Cloudhouse can help you with migration and customisation.
What is DOS?
DOS stands for Disk Operating System. Version 1.0 of PC-DOS was released with the first PC back in August 1981. It revolutionised computing. DOS is the precursor of all modern Windows operating systems: it’s a single tasking, single user, non-graphical operating system.
Companies created many applications in DOS running important internal processes.
Between 1981 and 1995, all DOS applications were 16-bit: designed to run on 16-bit microprocessors. Some of the popular frameworks from this era include Turbo C/C++, dBase, QuickBasic, Symantec Q&A and Microsoft Visual Basic 1, 2 and 3 to name just a few.
These days, with 64-bit CPUs being the norm in the mainstream personal computer market, this causes issues for old DOS software. The 16-bit CPU instructions required to run 16-bit applications are not accessible from 64-bit Windows. In fact some 16-bit applications fail to run even on 32-bit versions of Windows.
Difficult choices
Companies who still rely on DOS applications are faced with difficult choices when it comes to upgrading their systems.
In most cases with commercial-of-the-shelf (COTS) solutions, these will no longer have vendor support, and in many cases the vendor may no longer exist, meaning there are no straightforward upgrade paths for organisations to take.
On top of this, the in-house developed applications from this era are often highly complex, and very difficult to re-factor into modern frameworks – and that’s even when you have the source code. If the source code is lost, it’s even more difficult.
Here at Cloudhouse we have also found that many applications of this era used ingenious hacks and undocumented APIs to achieve results – but these can cause unexpected problems or reliability issues when using existing publicly available solutions.
Cloudhouse can help: our team has MS DOS experience, and we can support you with migration and customisation. This knowledge can be hard to come by these days, but we have worked successfully with clients who have tried and failed to update their system before.
Success stories
Symantec Q&A Database
We successfully migrated a Symantec Q&A Database system with hundreds of complex batch files and macros to run on Windows 10 x64 / Server 2016. Our approach meant the existing batch files and macros could generally be used “as is” without modification. We also optimised a 16-bit CPU emulation layer to get the required performance on the client’s hardware.
Telecommunications software
We worked with a company using an MS-DOS application for interfacing with 1980s telecommunications billing hardware over a serial port. This was successfully migrated to work with Windows 10 x64 and now uses a USB serial port.
Cloudhouse is experienced in many development environments
Cloudhouse has experience in MS-DOS software development, and development environments replicating a range of tools from this era including (but not limited to)
- Microsoft Macro Assembler (MASM)
- Turbo C / C++
- Turbo Pascal
- Clipper
- Delphi
- QuickBasic
- Symantec Q&A
- Novell bTrieve
- Microsoft Access 1 & 2
- Visual Basic 1, 2 & 3
Software diagnostic tools
In addition we have experience using the software diagnostic tools of the era such as
- NuMEGA SoftICE
- DeGlucker
- Windows CodeBack
- TurboDebugger
Want to find out more?
If you would like to find out more, contact us for a no obligation conversation. We also offer a 100% Promise to all new clients who purchase a license agreement with us: you will be able to run your legacy app on the latest version of Windows or your money back.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Commercials
Cloudhouse costs are split into two elements – the licensing required to deploy application compatibility packages, and the professional services needed to create the application compatibility packages.
Licensing is offered on a per user basis for desktop applications and a per server basis for server applications. There are discounts available based on volumes.
Professional Services costs are dependent on the nature and complexity of the application. We quote a cost for packaging once we have been able to see the application, or portfolio of applications.
Contact us here with your requirements and we will provide you with a quote.
Packaging and Maintaining Applications
Cloudhouse provide the Professional Services to package applications.
Cloudhouse recommend packaged applications are tested in the standard UAT environments used for natively installed applications, or applications packaged in App-V. The more representative the test environment is of the live environment, the greater the chance of finding any issues prior to go-live.
Service packs and updates can be applied to the applications in a package using the Editor, refer to Updating, Editing and Maintaining Containers which describes how a new snapshot is created for the update, and how it is then applied to the package.
Operations
Cloudhouse recommends the same team who manage the operations of native apps.
Applications running in Application Compatibility Packages can be deployed, and managed with same tools, or scripts used to deploy natively installed applications e.g. SCCM, InTune, LAN Desk. Please refer to Supported 3rd Party Products and Versions for details.
Support
The Cloudhouse Package does not include OS components, it only contains the packaged application plus Cloudhouse components. Cloudhouse recommend the same team that is responsible for supporting applications packaged with App-V, or delivered as natively installed applications, support Cloudhouse Application Compatibility Containers.
Full documentation is made available to Cloudhouse partners and customers as required.
Training
Cloudhouse offers a full packaging service that can scale to meet any requirement. In the event, however, that a partner wishes to offer application compatibility packaging as part of a wider solution, Cloudhouse will work with that partner. Please contact us here for details.