Posted by Andy Warne on 28, 2001 at 6:48 AM:
In Reply to: Yes it is emulated!.. (more>) posted by Andy Warne on 28, 2001 at 5:56 AM:
Looking at the patch mentioned by Jmark, it seems to take advantage of the fact that the actual DOS files are still on disk but not normally invoked. The patch allows the files to be accessable during boot. So it is more correct to say that in a standard install of ME there is no DOS running but it can be forced to start during boot by some dicking around.
: In Windows ME Microsoft has removed DOS and all real-mode support. You cannot boot into command-prompt mode. DOS programs run in a DOS VM (Virtual Machine) an emulated environment. DOS is not hidden, it is not there at all behind Windows as it is in previous versions.
: Not being able to load real-mode drivers may cause some problems in areas such as DOS extended memory support and running video cards in modes other than the standard ones Windows uses (eg for arcade monitors). The way DOS programs run in ME is similar to Windows NT/2000 except that programs are still allowed to address hardware registers/ports etc directly which is not allowed in NT.
: There is some info on real-mode support removal in this Microsoft article:
: http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q269/5/24.ASP?LN=EN-US&SD=gn&FR=0&qry=%26quot%3Bvirtual%20machine%26quot%3B&rnk=7&src=DHCS_MSPSS_gn_SRCH&SPR=WINME
: : nt