At the very end of the file is where your custom AUTOEXEC.BAT code can be written. Quit DOSBox then open the file you just created in your favourite text editor.Within DOSBox, enter the following (in one line):Ĭonfig -writeconf '/Users//Library/Preferences/DOSBox Preferences'.To save yourself the trouble of writing out that nasty mount line each time you start DOSBox, and to allow yourself to tweak some performance options it's best to create a preferences file. Windows in the day needed a printer, any printer, to display some fonts properly. When you get to the printer installation step, click the 'Generic / Text Only' option and hit.Choose 'Let you make the modifications later', because DOSBox won't use any boot files Windows creates anyway. You'll be asked if you want to make any changes to AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS.Because we're dealing essentially with a folder not a real file system, 'Permanent' virtual memory won't work. When you're asked about virtual memory, leave it with the default 'Temporary' option.When you're asked, don't worry about using the option to search your drive for existing applications, there aren't any! Leave the option to install printers checked though.

Choose 'Custom Installation' with your arrow keys during the DOS-based part of the installation.

The Windows 3.x installation process is fairly self explanatory, but just a few helpful pointers:

Now you can navigate to your Windows installation files and start the setup process:.

Obviously if you created a folder, reference that instead:

If you created a disk image, mount it in Mac OS X, then fire up DOSBox and map your image to c.

Create another folder within your dosbox folder or your disk image called setup for example, then copy the contents of each Windows 3.x floppy disk into it.

Alternatively if you want to keep things neat and tidy, you can create a dedicated disk image using Disk Utility.

Create a folder in your home directory that will serve as you C: drive in DOSBox.

Grab yourself a copy of DOSBox and install it.

For people interested in running Windows 3.x, DOSBox provides generic emulated hardware that you can easily install software for. You don't need to worry about setting up your own copy of DOS from scratch, saving you the trouble of configuring AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS, and all the graphics and audio for a huge slew of devices is already set up. While it is akin to comparing minnows to sharks in features, the latest Mac build of DOSBox (0.72) weighs in at 10MiB, compared to VirtualBox 2.0.4's 34.6MiB or VMware Fusion's 247.6MiB.ĭOSBox also has some distinct advantages other than filesize if you just want to run DOS.

As I mentioned in the previous post in this mini-series, one of the options for running Windows 3.x on Mac OS X is using the excellent little DOSBox DOS emulator.

Bat emulator for mac