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I am trying to start an old DOS game (SimFarm) however it says that it cannot find the file. However the file is in the directory, and it exists. When I click on it, gives the same error.

I tried installing another game that runs off DOS, the main "Windows" window opens, however when I click install it says it cannot find the install file either, but it exists in the directory it shows that it doesn't.

How can I fix this so I can get back to this game playing?

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Edit your question to show the exact wording of the error messages. – CarlF Jan 16 '10 at 5:58
Note that the author also didn't come to SU to update his post with sufficient information – Ivo Flipse♦ Feb 22 '10 at 7:53
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migrated from stackoverflow.com Jan 16 '10 at 5:49

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closed as off topic by quack quixote, Ivo Flipse♦ Feb 22 '10 at 7:53

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3 Answers

up vote 2 down vote

You don't say what version of Windows you are using.... And without more information, I can't really help you much more.

Unless this is an old machine with Dos, I would highly recommend you look in to DosBox which can solve a whole range of problems.

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Definitely try DosBox; it works great and SimFarm is listed as supported: dosbox.com/comp_list.php?showID=242&letter=S – shf301 Jan 16 '10 at 14:06
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up vote 1 down vote

Make sure the games you're trying to run are in a folder (or folder structure) that uses 8-or-less-character names without spaces. For example, the folder C:\Program Files\My DOS Game wouldn't be as likely to work as C:\DOSGame because of the pre-Windows "8.3" file/folder structure.

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I would have thought that it should still work, but just be processed as c:\progra~1\my~1\ by the game... – William Hilsum Jan 16 '10 at 10:22
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Many DOS programs add the path to the environment variables of the operating system (using the PATH command in config.sys, which of course doesn't work for Windows NT based operating systems unless you do it manually, see the Advanced System Properties > Environment variables), if the path is not set, the program will not run.

you can always run old DOS games in DOSBox, works like a charm.

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