Windows 286/386 on either UTM or DOSBox-x running MSDOS 5.0

Hello,

I was trying to do an experiment to see if I could get either Windows 286 or Windows 386 to run on either DOSBox-x or UTM virtual machine (which runs on MacOS). I don't know if anyone else has attempted this or not, but if you have I'd love to know what your experience was.

I attempted it on both and had difficulty. On DOSBox-x, I believe I had everything configured properly to emulate the correct speed, as well as put in the correct setup for Windows 286/386. Unfortunately, when I would launch Windows 286/386 the splash screen would appear with random characters appearing underneath the Windows title. I could not proceed beyond that.

When attempting it on UTM, I was able to get to the proper splash screen when Windows started, but even though random characters didn't appear, I was unable to proceed beyond the splash screen.

Both DOSBox-x and UTM were running on the latest version of MacOS. MacOS was running on Apple Silicon. I have a Windows 11 machine that I haven't tried a DOSBox-x setup yet.
I know there are other ways to get Windows 286/386 running on virtual machines on X86/64 virtual machines; but I was specifically experimenting with this setup to see if it could be done on Apple Silicon.
I picked DOSBox-x and UTM because I wasn't aware of any other free virtual machine that would work for my purposes. If anyone has any other ideas for either free (or cheap) virtual machines that run on Apple Silcon machines, please let me know.

If you have had success running any virtual machine on Apple Silicon with Windows 286/386 (running on any version of DOS), please let me know.

Thank you in advance for describing your experiences as well as solutions!

Comments

  • You have to tell the emulator to report itself as running DOS version 3.3. Otherwise, Windows will crap itself at startup like you described.

    Under real MS-DOS, one would use setver.exe, but DOSBox runs its own implementation of DOS.
  • Excellent suggestion. Thank you!
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