[TriLUG] OT: legacy 16bit DOS programs on Win2k

[Michael Thompson]

Its been so long since I've done this that I'm not sure exactly what
'widget' was enabled/tweaked, but I once had the same problem with an
NT3 terminal server (Citrix) and a hungry DOS app.  Basically, the first
user to attach to the server ran fine, everyone else after had horrible
speed issues.  Characters literally took 30 seconds each to appear. 
What I eventually did was edit the .PIF file.  There was a setting in
the .PIF editor that allocated a percentage of processor time, which
IIRC, was default 100%.  It took some experimentation, too much was bad,
but too little was also bad.  It was not perfect after, but everyone was
able to use the dos app until we got our gui upgrade, even though the
vendor told me I was wasting my time.

I've just checked our NT4 server and can not find a pif editor, aside
from right-click-properties on a link to a batch file, but maybe this
can help your googling...

Also IIRC, wowexec.exe is automatically run on NT/2000 machines to
translate ??16 bit apps?? and is not really user configurable.

Wow, I've just realized how much I have forgotten about NT.  Oh
well....  :)

--mike

On Wed, 2003-04-30 at 18:44, ryan.wheaton at attbi.com wrote:
> Sup y'all.
> 
> I know that this is off topic, but i'm googled out and i figured maybe someone 
> here has run into this as well.
> 
> we have an old 16bit DOS app that management has decided to bring back and 
> employ company wide (tomorrow), and I'm trying to figure out a way to best do 
> this.
> 
> The program (EasyRes) is a CPU HOG.  I mean, when you're in it and running, 
> NTVDM (the win2k dos virtual machine) uses 100% of the processor 100% of the 
> time.  I'm googled around and I'm trying to find a more efficient way to run 
> this program.  However, it's not as important to get performance to a 
> reasonable state on our local users desktops as it is for our 3 remote users 
> that log into our Terminal Server (2k)...  Imagine 3 users using a program that 
> uses 100% of the processor 100% of the time simultaneously.  I think that the 
> Terminal Server just might spontaneously combust.
> 
> I've thought about a few ways of doing this, but they all seem really far 
> fetched, and I hope to God there is a simpler solution.  What one person 
> suggested is to have 3 seperate terminal servers, so each can be his/her 
> processor hog.  I don't really like this idea.  I've never used the DOSEMU 
> program with linux, so i have no idea of it's performance, but I was going to 
> check that out, and if it was reasonable, run EasyRes on the linux box and have 
> a remote X session through the Terminal Server.  This also seems a bit far 
> fetched, and would probably take a little while to set up.
> 
> Ideally, I'd like to just work with what I already have.  I've read some about 
> a windows app, wowexec.exe (windows on windows), but haven't found much 
> documentation about how to implement it, or how much of a performance gain it 
> would give.  Most of the things i've read have said that wowexec will help with 
> your memory issues, but had no mention of CPU cycles.  One thing i was going to 
> check out tomorrow was to run EasyRes through VMWare on my win2k box, and see 
> if it still ate up the processor.
> 
> so, that was my extended SOS.  is there something i overlooked?(there usually 
> is)  anyone got a better solution/idea?[please]
> 
> -rtw
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