Running PC Prevue in DOSBox-X

This guide teaches you how to install the software within DOSBox-X, a fork of DOSBox that is more appropriate for a program like this.

Requirements

• DOSBox-X - Either download one of the prebuilt binaries or compile it yourself.
  • Note that vanilla DOSBox has been tested and proven to work, as evident by the previous iteration of this.
• Windows 95 Installation CD - Windows 3.x will not run it, not even with Win32s (although Windows NT 3.51 has been tested by another individual and has reported to work.)
  • You can obtain a copy of Windows 95 either using a physical retail CD (if you have one, if not buy one) or via third-party websites. For this guide, I will be using a OSR2 disc image I acquired from WinWorld.
• DiskExplorer - An old utility (that is not to be confused with another product from Runtime Software ) for importing and exporting files into disk images commonly used by PC emulators from around the time. Any tool for this kind of task should work, but I've had luck with it in the past. (You can also just put the files in another folder and mount that directory to another drive letter in DOSBox.)
• VBE Miniport 9x - A universal display driver influenced by the VGA.SYS display driver included with Windows Server 2003 and XP.

Optional

• MS-DOS 6.22c boot disk - If you are using DOSBox-X, it will partition and format the virtual image upon creation, so including this is kind of redundant unless you cannot use the fork for whatever reason (or are stuck using vanilla DOSBox).

Configuring DOSBox

Windows 95 requires additional configuration to run properly in DOSBox. Open up the dosbox(-x).conf file with your text editor and add/replace these options:

[sdl]
autolock=true

[dosbox]
title=PC Prevue
memsize=128

[video]
vmemsize=8

[cpu]
cputype=pentium_mmx

[autoexec]
ver set 7.1

If you are using vanilla DOSBox, you'll need to change the cputype to pentium as the former is exclusive to DOSBox-X.

Creating a virtual hard disk image

Windows 95 will not run properly unless run on a VHD (virtual hard disk.) Previously, I used PCem to create a hard drive image, however since publishing I have found out there are much better and versatile methods of creating a virtual disk image.

Like with the previous iteration of this guide, 400 MB will be my preference for disk size.

through the GUI

Since DOSBox-X version 0.83.9, it is possible to create a hard disk image directly from the UI. You can find this option under the ‘DOS’ menu.

using imgmake (CLI)

IMGMAKE is a command prebundled with DOSBox-X. It can be accessed once you reach the virtual DOS environment.

IMGMAKE hdd.img -t hd -size 400 -fat 32

This command builds a disk with a filesize of 400 MB and formats it as FAT32.

Honorable mentions

• qemu-img, a command-line utility bundled with QEMU:
• Windows PowerShell:
• dd (Unix):
• your preference here

Transferring files to the virtual machine

There are several ways of getting files onto a virtual machine.

using DiskExplorer

Download and extract to a folder of your choosing, then run DISKEDIT. A dialog box should appear. Navigate to the folder containing your newly created disk image and select “(Manual HD)” as the profile when prompted.

By default, nothing should appear. At the bottom of the window, under Format, select ‘ATFormat’ in the dropdown, Basic partition.’ from the list, then click OK.

mounting a separate folder

Place all of the files you want to transfer into a folder, then mount the folder within DOSBox. You can either do this in the menus or in the virtual DOS environment:

mount E <folder location>

This command can also go under the [autoexec] portion of your configuration.

Installing Windows 95

Mounting an ISO image is pretty straight forward:

IMGMOUNT D OSR2.iso

(This assumes your ISO is named OSR2 and included in the same directory as DOSBox-X.)

Likewise, you can also directly mount the disk image in the menus.

Proceed to install Windows 95 as you probably would on actual hardware.

When everything is done, you should now be at the Windows desktop.

• If you installed with the original DOSBox, you may need to install VBE Miniport 9x to correct any graphical glitches.

Installing PC Prevue

Follow the instructions here.

Receiving listings

To receive the listings, open up the DOSBox configuration and go to the [serial] field (add it if it does not exist), then look for a line starting with ‘serial2=dummy’ and change dummy to nullmodem port:1234. After this, reopen DOSBox. You might get a pop-up from Windows Firewall. If so, make sure both boxes are checked (or checked depending on whatever your Wi-Fi/ethernet connection is set to ‘home/private’ or ‘public’). DOSBox should now be listening for TCP/IP connections on port 1234.

Once Windows starts up, reopen PC Prevue and wait for it to get to the Guide, then on your main OS open up a command prompt, navigate to the PrevueCLI directory, and enter the following command:

If you are using vanilla DOSBox, you can verify that listings are being sent correctly in the DOSBox Status Window, which should mention that a client has connected. Shortly after that, you should see the listings appear one by one in the window.

NOTE: If your ListingsCommand is set up properly, the vertical lines should not appear within the listings. If so, then make sure to set omitSpecialCharacters to true.