50 DOS And Early Windows Boot Managers
Hello everyone,
Firstly, I apologise if this is posted in the wrong section, but it really didn't seem to fit anywhere else.
I've been experimenting with multi-booting DOS and early versions of Windows (3.1, 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP) for a little while now and some of those efforts I've already uploaded to the Internet Archive.
In several of those I tried some boot managers (OSL2000, XOSL and BootitNG).
Just out of curiosity I decided to see just how many boot managers I could find that would suit DOS and early versions of Windows.
So far, I've managed to find 50 boot managers and I've upload them with this post, together with my impressions of each one after trying them out in VirtualBox.
Most of the boot managers are from the 1990's and early 2000's and are getting very hard to find on the net now, so uploading them to the archive is a way of preserving them so they're not lost when the few existing sites that have them disappear.
While there are 50 different boot managers, there are 125 versions of them in total.
35 of the 50 are Freeware and 15 are either Shareware, Trial, Commercial or Demo.
Several of the Shareware products seem to work quite OK with no restrictions apparent, along the lines of the 1990's "You must register this product after 30 days" but without any real limitations on function.
I've packaged all the boot manager files I have in one .zip file - there are screenshots of each boot manager in the folders.
There's also a .pdf document with details of each boot manager version I have, together with a brief blurb from the author about their product.
I've uploaded these files to the Internet Archive here:
https://archive.org/details/50-dos-windows-boot-managers
I've also uploaded these to my Synology web site and there are more download options available:
https://multiboot-windows.dscloud.me/
The .pdf document also has my impression of each boot manager and based on this I've grouped them into categories (Excellent / Very Good, Good, OK, Poor / Unusable).
These are purely my impressions based on my experience with seeing how well they worked for multi-booting a Windows VHD that had either DOS-W3.1, W95, W98 and XP installed (or DOS-W3.1, W95, W98 and Windows 2000).
It isn't a thorough review of each one as I only spent enough time on them to get them installed and see how well they worked at multi-booting Windows - and in a lot of cases, they didn't.
Rather than quibble with my assessment of each, download the zip and try them out for yourself as your experience and opinion of them may be different to mine.
I've also created floppy images and/or ISO images for each one (if they didn't have one) so that I could install them in DOS (or Windows in a few cases) and these images are included in the relevant boot manager folder(s).
The following caveats apply to the boot managers and my testing of them in VirtualBox (and my opinion of them):
* The boot managers are mostly 1990's and 2000's products intended for DOS and Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP
* Some may work with later Windows but that's for you to experiment with
* These are all MBR based - no UEFI boot managers
* These are all intended for DOS and Windows - no Linux boot managers are included
* The majority (35) are Freeware but some Shareware, Trial, Commercial or Demo products are included
* Most have very little documentation, although some (Boot-US, BootitNG, have very good documentation)
* Some need to be manually installed and require reasonable DOS skills to be able to update/save a DOS MBR
* The rating of each and the associated comments are purely based on my impressions
My Impressions Of Each Boot Manager
I only did enough testing to install each and see if they worked OK to multi-boot DOS and Windows.
I looked for usability as well as function and gave each a rating as:
Excellent / Very Good - Does the job well and has a few bells and whistles
Good - Does the job well but with fewer embellishments
OK - Basically gets the job done
Poor / Unusable - Doesn't do the job / fails to install / usability is woeful
My reasons for each are detailed in the .pdf review document I've uploaded.
Your experience may differ.
The 50 boot managers I tried - listed in order of preference from Excellent to Unusable - are:
Excellent or Very Good:
01. OSL2000 9.32 (with Cute Partn Mgr 0.9.8) . . .Freeware
02. XOSL-OW 1.1.6 (with Ranish Partn Mgr) . . . . .Freeware
03. BootitNG 1.87 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Freeware
04. BootUS 2.1.8, 4.1.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Shareware
05. Ranish 2.44, 2.90.15 (incl. partn Mgr) . . . . . .Freeware
06. GAG 4.10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Freeware
07. Paragon Advanced Boot Manager 5.5 . . . . . . .Shareware
08. Acronis OS Selector 5.0SE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Special Ed
09. Bootit Direct Multi Boot Utility 1.14 . . . . . . . .Shareware
10. Smart Boot Manager 3.7.1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Freeware
Good:
11. Extended Fdisk 0.93 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Freeware
12. Airboot 1.06 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . Freeware
13. MBM - Multiple Boot Manager 0.39 . . . . . . . .Freeware
14. Mattsoft Boot Manager 1.19g - DOS . . . . . . .Freeware
15. BootMGR - Multiboot ManaGeR - 2008 . . . . .Freeware
16. Boot Manager Plus 1.42 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Freeware
17. MBLDR - Master Boot LoaDeR . . . . . . . . . . . .Freeware
18. Symon 3.21 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . .Freeware
19. MasterBooter 3.7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Freeware
20. OS-BS (OS Boot Select) 2.0b8 . . . . . . . . . . . . Freeware
OK:
21. MBRBM 1.1 / MbiRa 2023 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Freeware
22. BootLDR 2022 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . .Freeware
23. XORboot 0.60, 0.74 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Freeware
24. MSTboot 4.2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . .Freeware
25. Power Quest BootMagic 1.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . .Shareware
26. PsychTechSoft BootWizard Pro 4.0 . . . . . . . .Trial
27. System Commander 3.09 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Commercial
28. BootStar Boot Manager 8.30 . . . . . . . . . . . . .30 day Trial
29. Partition Boot Manager 1.08 . . . . . . . . . . . . .30 day Trial
30. Bootmenu 1.1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . .Freeware
Poor or Unusable:
31. PLOP Boot Manager 5.0.15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Freeware
32. Grub4DOS 0.4.2 / Grub2WIN 2023 . . . . . . . .Freeware
33. Zboot Manager 2.13. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Shareware
34. The Partitioner + Boot Menu 1991 . . . . . . . .Shareware
35. MBR Boot Manager 2.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Freeware
36. BOSS - Better OS Selector 1.1 . . . . . . . . . . . .Freeware
37. Xboot 1.2, 2.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . .Freeware
38. Boot Manager 2.0 (by O'Razoff) . . . . . . . . . . Freeware
39. BootEasy 1.1, 1.7.1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . .Freeware
40. OS Boot Manager 1.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Freeware
41. LegendOS Boot Manager 0.92 . . . . . . . . . . . Freeware
42. DocsBoot+ 0.40b . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . .Freeware
43. Partita 2000 2.10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . .Freeware
44. Vpart Graphical Boot Manager 2001.11.8 . . Freeware
45. Icepack Boot Manager 0.30 . . . . . . . . . . . . .Freeware
46. Boot Manager BTX 1999 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Freeware
47. MWRload 1999 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . .Freeware
48. KMH's Master Boot Sector Loader 1.0 . . . . . Freeware
49. Boot Manager 2.0 (Gresko) . . . . . . . . . . . . . Freeware
50. 7Tools 5.7.5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . .Demo
If you're interested in boot managers, here are 4 good sites for them:
Old-DOS.RU search for "boot manager" returns 178 entries
http://old-dos.ru/
Simtel archive 99 entries
https://ftp.sunet.se/mirror/archive/ftp.sunet.se/pub/simtelnet/msdos/bootutil/
Garbo archive 28 entries
http://ftp.icm.edu.pl/pub/garbo/pc/bootutil
SAC search returns 19 entries
https://www.sac.sk/
I suggest you download and try out some of the boot managers as they can make multi-booting DOS and w9x easier.
Kind regards,
shotter_nail
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here are a few screenshots of some boot managers (the full set is on the IA and my web site):
Firstly, I apologise if this is posted in the wrong section, but it really didn't seem to fit anywhere else.
I've been experimenting with multi-booting DOS and early versions of Windows (3.1, 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP) for a little while now and some of those efforts I've already uploaded to the Internet Archive.
In several of those I tried some boot managers (OSL2000, XOSL and BootitNG).
Just out of curiosity I decided to see just how many boot managers I could find that would suit DOS and early versions of Windows.
So far, I've managed to find 50 boot managers and I've upload them with this post, together with my impressions of each one after trying them out in VirtualBox.
Most of the boot managers are from the 1990's and early 2000's and are getting very hard to find on the net now, so uploading them to the archive is a way of preserving them so they're not lost when the few existing sites that have them disappear.
While there are 50 different boot managers, there are 125 versions of them in total.
35 of the 50 are Freeware and 15 are either Shareware, Trial, Commercial or Demo.
Several of the Shareware products seem to work quite OK with no restrictions apparent, along the lines of the 1990's "You must register this product after 30 days" but without any real limitations on function.
I've packaged all the boot manager files I have in one .zip file - there are screenshots of each boot manager in the folders.
There's also a .pdf document with details of each boot manager version I have, together with a brief blurb from the author about their product.
I've uploaded these files to the Internet Archive here:
https://archive.org/details/50-dos-windows-boot-managers
I've also uploaded these to my Synology web site and there are more download options available:
https://multiboot-windows.dscloud.me/
The .pdf document also has my impression of each boot manager and based on this I've grouped them into categories (Excellent / Very Good, Good, OK, Poor / Unusable).
These are purely my impressions based on my experience with seeing how well they worked for multi-booting a Windows VHD that had either DOS-W3.1, W95, W98 and XP installed (or DOS-W3.1, W95, W98 and Windows 2000).
It isn't a thorough review of each one as I only spent enough time on them to get them installed and see how well they worked at multi-booting Windows - and in a lot of cases, they didn't.
Rather than quibble with my assessment of each, download the zip and try them out for yourself as your experience and opinion of them may be different to mine.
I've also created floppy images and/or ISO images for each one (if they didn't have one) so that I could install them in DOS (or Windows in a few cases) and these images are included in the relevant boot manager folder(s).
The following caveats apply to the boot managers and my testing of them in VirtualBox (and my opinion of them):
* The boot managers are mostly 1990's and 2000's products intended for DOS and Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP
* Some may work with later Windows but that's for you to experiment with
* These are all MBR based - no UEFI boot managers
* These are all intended for DOS and Windows - no Linux boot managers are included
* The majority (35) are Freeware but some Shareware, Trial, Commercial or Demo products are included
* Most have very little documentation, although some (Boot-US, BootitNG, have very good documentation)
* Some need to be manually installed and require reasonable DOS skills to be able to update/save a DOS MBR
* The rating of each and the associated comments are purely based on my impressions
My Impressions Of Each Boot Manager
I only did enough testing to install each and see if they worked OK to multi-boot DOS and Windows.
I looked for usability as well as function and gave each a rating as:
Excellent / Very Good - Does the job well and has a few bells and whistles
Good - Does the job well but with fewer embellishments
OK - Basically gets the job done
Poor / Unusable - Doesn't do the job / fails to install / usability is woeful
My reasons for each are detailed in the .pdf review document I've uploaded.
Your experience may differ.
The 50 boot managers I tried - listed in order of preference from Excellent to Unusable - are:
Excellent or Very Good:
01. OSL2000 9.32 (with Cute Partn Mgr 0.9.8) . . .Freeware
02. XOSL-OW 1.1.6 (with Ranish Partn Mgr) . . . . .Freeware
03. BootitNG 1.87 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Freeware
04. BootUS 2.1.8, 4.1.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Shareware
05. Ranish 2.44, 2.90.15 (incl. partn Mgr) . . . . . .Freeware
06. GAG 4.10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Freeware
07. Paragon Advanced Boot Manager 5.5 . . . . . . .Shareware
08. Acronis OS Selector 5.0SE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Special Ed
09. Bootit Direct Multi Boot Utility 1.14 . . . . . . . .Shareware
10. Smart Boot Manager 3.7.1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Freeware
Good:
11. Extended Fdisk 0.93 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Freeware
12. Airboot 1.06 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . Freeware
13. MBM - Multiple Boot Manager 0.39 . . . . . . . .Freeware
14. Mattsoft Boot Manager 1.19g - DOS . . . . . . .Freeware
15. BootMGR - Multiboot ManaGeR - 2008 . . . . .Freeware
16. Boot Manager Plus 1.42 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Freeware
17. MBLDR - Master Boot LoaDeR . . . . . . . . . . . .Freeware
18. Symon 3.21 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . .Freeware
19. MasterBooter 3.7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Freeware
20. OS-BS (OS Boot Select) 2.0b8 . . . . . . . . . . . . Freeware
OK:
21. MBRBM 1.1 / MbiRa 2023 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Freeware
22. BootLDR 2022 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . .Freeware
23. XORboot 0.60, 0.74 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Freeware
24. MSTboot 4.2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . .Freeware
25. Power Quest BootMagic 1.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . .Shareware
26. PsychTechSoft BootWizard Pro 4.0 . . . . . . . .Trial
27. System Commander 3.09 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Commercial
28. BootStar Boot Manager 8.30 . . . . . . . . . . . . .30 day Trial
29. Partition Boot Manager 1.08 . . . . . . . . . . . . .30 day Trial
30. Bootmenu 1.1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . .Freeware
Poor or Unusable:
31. PLOP Boot Manager 5.0.15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Freeware
32. Grub4DOS 0.4.2 / Grub2WIN 2023 . . . . . . . .Freeware
33. Zboot Manager 2.13. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Shareware
34. The Partitioner + Boot Menu 1991 . . . . . . . .Shareware
35. MBR Boot Manager 2.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Freeware
36. BOSS - Better OS Selector 1.1 . . . . . . . . . . . .Freeware
37. Xboot 1.2, 2.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . .Freeware
38. Boot Manager 2.0 (by O'Razoff) . . . . . . . . . . Freeware
39. BootEasy 1.1, 1.7.1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . .Freeware
40. OS Boot Manager 1.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Freeware
41. LegendOS Boot Manager 0.92 . . . . . . . . . . . Freeware
42. DocsBoot+ 0.40b . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . .Freeware
43. Partita 2000 2.10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . .Freeware
44. Vpart Graphical Boot Manager 2001.11.8 . . Freeware
45. Icepack Boot Manager 0.30 . . . . . . . . . . . . .Freeware
46. Boot Manager BTX 1999 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Freeware
47. MWRload 1999 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . .Freeware
48. KMH's Master Boot Sector Loader 1.0 . . . . . Freeware
49. Boot Manager 2.0 (Gresko) . . . . . . . . . . . . . Freeware
50. 7Tools 5.7.5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . .Demo
If you're interested in boot managers, here are 4 good sites for them:
Old-DOS.RU search for "boot manager" returns 178 entries
http://old-dos.ru/
Simtel archive 99 entries
https://ftp.sunet.se/mirror/archive/ftp.sunet.se/pub/simtelnet/msdos/bootutil/
Garbo archive 28 entries
http://ftp.icm.edu.pl/pub/garbo/pc/bootutil
SAC search returns 19 entries
https://www.sac.sk/
I suggest you download and try out some of the boot managers as they can make multi-booting DOS and w9x easier.
Kind regards,
shotter_nail
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here are a few screenshots of some boot managers (the full set is on the IA and my web site):
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