What is the oldest Windows operating system that can run DOSBox?

Comments

• CheekySneaky

  October 30 edited October 30

  So I've done some testing with DOSBox version 0.74-3 from 2019 (the latest release available on DOSBox.com) and these are my results:
  
  

  IE4 status / OS	95 RTM	95 B	95 C	98 FE	NT 4.0 SP1	NT 4.0 SP3	NT 4.0 SP6a
  IE4 not installed	MSVCRT.DLL not found	MSVCRT.DLL not found	*	*	SHGSFP	SHGSFP	SHGSFP
  IE4 only (no Desktop Update)	OPENGL32.DLL not found	WS2_32.DLL not found	*	*	**	SHGSFP	SHGSFP
  IE4 and Desktop Update	OPENGL32.DLL not found	WS2_32.DLL not found	WS2_32.DLL not found	Works	**	Works	Works

  
  Legend:
  
  SHGSFP = "Procedure Entry Point SHGetSpecialFolderPathA not found in SHELL32.DLL"
  *OS Comes with IE4 and Desktop Update
  **IE4 requires NT 4.0 Service Pack 3 or higher
  
  
  So the oldest version of Windows that DOSBox 0.74-3 will run on is NT 4.0 (1996) with SP3 (1997), provided that IE4 and its Desktop Update (1997) are installed.
  The oldest version of Windows that DOSBox 0.74-3 will run on out of the box is Windows 98 First Edition (1998).
  
  
  As for the things you need to do to get DOSBox running:
  On Windows 98 FE, you can just install the OS, then DOSBox, and be done.
  
  On NT 4.0, you need to:

  1. Install Windows NT 4.0,
     
  2. Install Service Pack 3 or higher (IE4 bundles SP3 for your convenience),
     
  3. Install Internet Explorer 4 and the Desktop Update,
     
  4. Install DOSBox 0.74-3,
     
  5. Be done
     
• SomeGuy

  October 30

  The WS2_32.DLL can be added to Windows 95 with the W95ws2setup.exe update. (Don't know if that will make it run).
  
  That said, I have DOSBox 0.72 running on Windows 95 OSR2.1 without the IE 4 crap. DUN14, Winsock 2, MSVCRT updates, and a video card that supports OpenGL.