Microsoft Office 4.3 on Win3.x, DOSBOX

ratman743

I'm not 100% sure how to install MsOffice 4.3 on Windows 3.x in DOSBOX. I read on the information page where it states that "To perform a non-floppy install using floppy disk images, extract the content of each disk in to folders named Disk1, Disk2, Disk3, etc. Then run setup."

I'm not sure exactly what they mean on that. Is it suggesting that I make different subfolders in one folder and mount that, or to mount every folder manually?

(I really hope it's not the second option.)

Thanks for any help!

SomeGuy

Different subfolders in one folder, yes.

Those instructions are for real hardware and general VMs and emulators. DOSBox is the only one that has that mounting feature.

So on your emulated drive you might have
c:\o43su
c:\o43su\disk1 <-run setup.exe from here
c:\o43su\disk2
c:\o43su\disk3
c:\o43su\disk4
...
and so on.

Although on some emulators it might be simpler and faster just to feed it each disk image as drive A:.

ratman743

Thanks! I figured it'd be like that, but I wanted to make sure.
I'm very glad I didn't have to dismount and mount every folder manually.

ratman743

:!: I'm actually having another issue.
Bear in mind that I did run fakeshar.exe before running Windows 3.1 in DOSBOX, which is supposed to fake a share.exe file, seeing as it's not supported when a folder is mounted as C:\ in DOSBOX.

http://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=9405

^(I learned how to do most of this stuff here)

Anywho, after the installation, I got an error that a file could be created (I can't remember which exactly), and that the Microsoft Office Manager thingy (The one that makes a workgroup template) was needed to create this file. I tried using that, and I got an error that said that, again, it couldn't be made. Well, it didn't even say that. It just said something like "The error text couldn't be made".

I was wondering if this is specific to MS Office 4.3, and If it would happen on 4.2 as well or not.

Thanks again for the help!

SomeGuy

Well, first of all, DOSBOX is a poor environment to run Windows in. It is really geared towards running DOS games. The issue you have run in to is an example of that.

My preference is to use a virtualizer or a more complete emulator, and then use a tool like Winimage to open and insert files in to hard disk images. PCEM (not to be confused with PCE) is a popular emulator, QEMU is another emulator. Technically Dosbox can be used as a full system emulator too, but it is more of a pain.

Anyway... I do vaguely seem to recall there were some differences between the Office versions (4.2, 4.2c, 4.3, 4.3c) regarding file sharing, but I don't recall what they were.

ratman743

I thought it was something to do with file sharing...

And about the emulators, I do not have much experience using anything else but Virtual PC, VirtualBox, and DosBox.

As for QEMU, it's only available in source code, and Linux. As a Windows XP user, I'm not sure if I want to meddle in that.

And, as for PCEM, it is very specific. As you can probably tell, I'm quite picky on my emulators.
I might look into PCEM, but I'll have to do a bit of research on the exact specifications each available machine type emulates.

Thanks, again!

[EDIT]
It seems that PCem actually requires specific BIOS ROMs. The only other emulators I've ever used emulated Macintosh systems, not PC systems. This is going to take a bit to get used to, especially seeing as I have to find the specific BIOS ROM for the system I want to emulate. This is a lot more accurate, so that does intrigue me quite a bit.

[EDIT2]
Turns out I didn't run FAKESHAR in the correct way. Now everything works fine in DOSBOX.

msorri

I've ran my Windows 3.1 emulation on Bochs. Working great, I'd say.

altracker9

ratman743 said: "And, as for PCEM, it is very specific. As you can probably tell, I'm quite picky on my emulators. It seems that PCem actually requires specific BIOS ROMs."

I am using PCEM 10.1 right now and it is great for emulation. You can find almost all the ROM Bios on line with a little searching. I am using it mainly with the AMI 386/486 Clone CPUs. The best thing about PCEM is that it is just like using a real PC. No special settings like DosBox. Just set up WinImages of your HDDs and FDDs. PCEM then just uses the images as your hardware. I have mine set up as A: /B: /C: and /. You configure everything in Bios just like a real PC. I run games and office software from the period with generally no problems.

By the way, I also have Win3.11 for Workgroups on DosBox and it runs ok, but I do not use it often. I not real proficient with DosBox and have been planning on setting it up on PCEM, but I need to create larger images for the drives.

Try PCEM. This is a great emulator.

ratman743

I'm thinking of using the IBM PS/1 Model 2011, but It can only support up to 1MB of RAM from what I've read.
I'm wanting to use the 486 for a Windows 95 installation, and the 386 for a Windows 3.1 Install.

However, I'm not too sure on which specific models to use on those.

Maybe you could give some suggestions on the best one?

Thanks

ratman743

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_PS/1

This is originally where I figured out that it could only support 512KB~1MB of RAM.

And I know this is Wikipedia, but for the most part this information should be accurate.

BigCJ

The floppy version of Office 4.3 never wanted to work right for me in any emulator. Got some "SHARE" error regardless of the setting, but that's beside the point. Since you're using DOSBox, try an ISO of the CD version. That has never failed me and installing is so much easier (no extracting disks to ~30 different folders.) Just load it into Daemon Tools and use the "MOUNT" command at the prompt. The rest is child's play.

ibmpc5150

I also don't recommend to install MS office 4.3 with DOSBOX.
I installed this on PCEM or real PC (486 or Pentium)