Old FTM Family Archives CDs

[bwarnerok]

I found behind a crop of dust bunnies, a stack of old CDs that I had gotten back in 1994 when I first changed over to FTM. I put one in and it wants me to load a GRS viewer (which is included on the CD). I googled and apparently this is still what one has to do to view these.

Scary part. it's in DOS!

I can ignore my mouse and do DOS with no problem but I just have a fear as to how this old program might upset my persnickety puter which is operating on Vista. Vista can't even run Microsoft Office 2002.. what's it going to do to something from 1994?
Anybody tried viewing these old CDs lately? Any problems or alternative ideas?

betsy

[MarkJ]

There is a program which runs on Windows (as well as other systems) called DOSBox. It runs in Vista apparently too and, as its name suggests, runs a DOS emulator on your PC. Although used by many people for games, it should work for your program I suspect.
http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/news.php?show_news=1

Hope it helps,

Mark

[Neil Wilson]

Scary part. it's in DOS!

betsy

Now that is something I can understand. DOS does work on Vista, try this
Start
All Programs
Accessories
select
Run
Type in cmd
press enter and this opens a DOS box
Type in dir
press enter
This will display any directories in the current path
Type in exit
This will close the DOS box
Just like one times.

[MarkJ]

Isn't the Vista version of DOS similar to the XP version - i.e considerably cut down from the old DOS versions? I know with XP, many DOS programs do not work or don't work correctly.
The XP cmd runs some DOS commands, but not all - and I don't think it can deal with the strange old ways of the good old batch files and memory allocations needed for many programs - but I could be wrong! I have used the cmd in XP on several occasions and found it fine for the command line tools such as netstat or tracert, but I didn't have much joy with say Doom or Quake from memory.
I suppose the thing to do is to see if the cds and the GRS viewer will work correctly from the command line in Vista, and, if not, give DOSBox a try.

Mark

[bwarnerok]

Vista is such a mess. From what I understand MS wanted to build a "better mousetrap" but in a rush to get things released, they let the rat out of the cage. It has a nasty way of freezing and networking is a nightmare. My browser drops offline yet the messenger still works. ??????? Only fix is to just reboot the monster. I keep thinking they will send out a "service pack" and fix this junk as there are posts all over by people suffering the same woes. I think they had "security" in mind when they built it... they just hadn't finished it and had the nerve to release it. My new puter came with just Vista installed. yes, I could dump it all and load an old XP but at this point it's just easier to deal with the quirks until they get it straight. OH yes.. it also does NOT like Outlook. It has a new version for mail and throws one mighty tantrum if you even begin to think of using the old one. (and that's just having it on your HD.. not opening it). Initially the startup screen was a real snoozer... but I finally figured out how to block 80% of the garbage it was preloading (including a cute clock on the desktop) and at least can now restart in a relatively short period of time. (before it was 15 minutes). Some program still don't work... there are patches for others. Just a matter of trial and error.
Since I also operate on Macs, and the 9.0 to OSX bucket of worms... I'm rather use to computer inconveniences. Hate it!

Betsy

[MarkJ]

I haven't used Windows for quite a while now - except for an occasional dabble with XP for professional reasons. All my machines run Linux - not had much experience with Macs to be honest.
Whatever OS people use is entirely up to them - Windows is fine for most people, they are used to it and it does the job. I have used Linux for so long that I find Windows hard to use. I was a Windows user in the days of 3.11, 95 and 98 - but never really got on with XP, too much of a change for my luddite mind!

Mark

[christopher_n_lewis]

TWR computing used to sell a refreshingly cheap viewer for these CDs that ran under Windows 98. Perhaps they can help you, their support service is good.
Christopher

[Neil Wilson]

Vista is such a mess. From what I understand MS wanted to build a "better mousetrap" but in a rush to get things released, they let the rat out of the cage. It has a nasty way of freezing and networking is a nightmare. My browser drops offline yet the messenger still works. ??????? Betsy

Ha someone else who has browser problems, mine just freezes, yet if I am using the Firefox browser which came with this Vista PC, it doesn't (well not yet anyway). Just checked I am using IE at the moment. Does that mean that someone in PC World was on the ball?

[Ed Bradford]

Betsy, I too have some of the old FTM CDs. I'd be happy to check for you, however, at the moment I'm in the process of moving and the majority of my household items, including my main PC and all of my CDs, are in storage. Currently I'm living in a hotel and working off of my laptop. It may be a while before I get settled. If I haven't gotten back to you by mid December and you haven't gotten an answer in the mean time, please PM me as a reminder.

...................Ed