My Very First MS-DOS 8 Standalone Distro!

In this tutorial, we'll show you how to create an MS--DOS 8 standalone distro. MS--DOS 8 is a classic operating system that still looks and works great on modern computers.

This distro will let you run classic MS--DOS 8 applications and games without needing any additional software. We'll walk you through the entire process, from planning to installation to testing. So if you're a MS--DOS 8 fan or just want to learn more about this old operating system, this tutorial is for you!
00:00 windows me dos
00:34 extracting ms-dos 8 from windows me
05:28 installing ms-dos 8
12:26 ms-dos 8 memory management
17:16 installing ms-dos 8 tutorial for beginners
24:35 why use ms-dos 8 - ms-dos 8 features and benefits
27:55 'ms-dos 8 iso

Welcome to the Adventure! This is Adam. If this is your first time here thank you for stopping by. On this channel we discuss #retrocomputing pre Windows XP operating systems and related software. You will find how to videos, and demonstrations, among many other projects. There is a little bit here for all manner of retro computing enthusiasts.

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[captainkeyboard]

I love stories about people using microcomputers. That is why I watched your show. I feel that I could work with DOS, because it is commensurate my keyboarding skills. I could operate that operating system and hope I would not need to memorize every single command.

[ringtailedfox]

i'm glad CD-ROM support is built-in... is it possible to get MS-DOS mode networking and USB support working, too? I remeber seeing experimental USB drivers (for USB 0.9) under MS-DOS 6.22... but that was a lifetime ago...

[jell_pl]

in the list of your VMs i see arachne - nice to see that after a quarter of century :D
it reminds me about allegro game library from also similar time when i was learning how to code in C, using djgpp ;)

[axle.student]

Thanks for this. I remember back in the day attempting to make portable DOS OS (and Win9x, ME) in the same fashion. Ultimately I didn't achieve distribute-able portable CD-ROMs but had a few that worked[ish]. The main thing is that I did learn a heck of a lot along the way, which was the important part :), like how to make Win 95 run from 60MiB of files lol
>
Since the BART-PE and other portable Win-PE creators came out I kinda stopped making portable OSs from scratch. But creating custom Win-PE USBs and my own Ubuntu flavours is still a fun kick :P
>
Just stepped back into a bit of DOS fun recently with FD 1.2 and 1.3 and writing some setup guides/books for software dev on DOS :P
Have a great day :)

[charleshines]

I used to use QEMM a lot when I still used DOS. It really helped out a lot with freeing that 640K so that things can run normal. Of course some games had their own different memory needs and there would sometimes be a separate boot disk to get those running. It was not the most convenient thing but it worked. Also tinkering with AUTOEXEC and CONFIG.SYS was not always easy. Then if that wasn't bad enough a lot of computers from that time period also had jumpers that had to be moved to assign the proper resources or the computer might hang and appear to be broken. Does Windows still use IRQ and DMA settings? I never have to bother with them any more so I wonder. Anyhow I can't remember the last time I used a floppy disk or any DOS software.

[bootmii]

I feel like WordPerfect 5.1, Lotus 1-2-3, and Brief would be good additions for the Optional Programs folder.

[KoralLeidy]

Does this version support DOS=NOAUTO flag in config.sys?

[edgeeffect]

Woah! I had always assumed DOS 7 from windows '95/'98 was the last DOS.... Windows '98 was my last Windows version - I "went Linux" before ME came out.
I still think naming an operating system after Myalgic Encephalomyelitis was a very very bad idea!

[Jahades]

Add CD-ROM support during install for cdrom based games?

[someguy]

Cool. When would you use this over DOS 6 or 7?

[sacredbanana]

But.. why? MS-DOS 8.0 removed real mode support essentially breaking most DOS programs

[vicokoby]

Is there any advantage to using MS-DOS 8 instead of MS-DOS 7.1?

[lemagreengreen]

I do remember wondering if there was anhything about the DOS that Me ran with but... it wasn't very important by that time and of course Me went to lengths to even avoid you ever knowing it was running on top of good old DOS :)

It's interesting MS did make it a whole new version, that said I couldn't tell you the functional difference between 6.22 and 7.0/7.1 except for long filename support.

[finkelmana]

Interesting... but why do this work, when you can just download and run FreeDOS? It is still under active development- even MS employees contribute to it. Plus it has far, far more capabilities, such as support for modern computer, USB, networking and more.

[GreySectoid]

Are there any benefits of running this on say 386/486 instead of the combat-proven 6.22?

[Winnetou]

Given how little is changed, wouldn't this be more like 7.2 ? 7.22 ? :D

Also, I'm lazy to test, but with the better memory manager (and I guess, more conventional memory available?) would this make Arena or Daggerfall run better ?

[klotz__]

The patreon has been removed. Any other way to get the iso?

[dimn]

but most important, how about games, did you tried some? ;-)

[seanvogel]

Not sure why people want to add background music, especially when they are talking.

[eidodk]

So you want to release a dead OS, that no one has any use for. Have fun.