Guide Part 1: First Steps

  • 1) Download the DosBox Builds

    Download the 3 major DosBox builds referenced here. These include the official DosBox 0.74 release, DosBox Daum and JDosBox. NOTICE: As mentioned on the "Important Files" page, please use the provided version of DOSBox Daum to ensure compatibility with this guide.

    Install or extract them as necessary. We will be utilizing DosBox Daum and DosBox 0.74 for our installation of Windows 95.

    Need more help? See the video on how to perform the installation!

    DOSBox 0.74 ￫

    DOSBox Daum ￫

  • 2) Editing the Configuration File

    Once you have extracted or installed the various versions, it is now time to prepare them for proper use with windows. We will be utilizing the DosBox Daum build.

    Locate the configuration file, in DosBox Daum this is called dosbox.conf. Open this file using notepad or a similar text editor.

  • 3) Configuring the output

    The output describes the way that your screen is drawn while using DosBox.

    Setting the output to openglnb, or opengl with no buffer, will allow us to use Voodoo emulation later.

  • 4) Adjusting memory allocation

    The vmemsize parameter sets how much video memory is allocated to your emulated graphics card in megabytes. Setting it to 8 mb allows high resolution and color depth modes.

    The memsize parameter controls how much RAM is allocated to the system. 512 mb is the maximum for DosBox Daum, do not adjust this setting beyond 63 mb for other builds.

  • 5) Configuring CPU

    It is important to put the CPU parameters exactly as they are shown here.

    These settings ensure optimum compatibility with the Windows 95 operating system."

    Note that due to the way that DOSBox is designed, setting "Max" cycles does not fully utilize the CPU. In order to achieve full utilization you must set "cycles=max 105%

  • 6) Configuring Voodoo

    We will set the voodoo output to opengl for now.

    Later in the installation, this will allow us to utilize voodoo emulation using the real graphics card in your host computer.

  • 7) Ready to execute!

    It is time to start DosBox Daum.

    Locate the application and start it. You will be met with a simple command prompt as shown in the next step.

  • 8) Running DosBox

    Initially in DosBox you will be loaded into the default Z drive. You will be looking at a plain, very DOS-like prompt.

    This prompt is actually a modified version of freeDOS, and has many of the same functions.

    Part 2: The Hard Drive ￫