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HX-DOS Extender - compatibility lists

On this page… (hide)

  1. 1. About
  2. 2. Software compatibility lists
    1. 2.1 Works well console
    2. 2.2 Works well GUI
    3. 2.3 Works partially console
    4. 2.4 Works partially GUI
    5. 2.5 Notes on lists above
  3. 3. Latest version: 2.16 / 2.17pre
    1. 3.1 External files
    2. 3.2 See also

1.  About

See HX-DOS for product description.

2.  Software compatibility lists

2.1  Works well console

Compilers

See also Development, DevelAsm and DevelCandCPP .

  • TCC (Tiny C compiler)
    • By Fabrice Bellard (author of QEMU btw.) & Grischka , GNU LGPL
    • Versions 0.9.23 from 2005-Jun-17, 0.9.24 from 2008-Apr-01 (!!), 0.9.25 (untested)
    • The smallest and simplest useful C language compiler, designed as GCC compatible (mostly C99 compliant, no C++), but some bugs left and inefficient code generation
    • Originating from Linux, Win32 port, no native DOS version, but works well with HX (no self-compiling of the Win32 port ?)
    • Lack: relies on MSVCRT.DLL
    • Tester: DOS386
    • Project page: bellard.org/tcc
  • FASM (Flat assembler)
    • 1.67, 1.69 (1.71 is out, FASM G is out)
    • BSD-license, open source
    • FASM.EXE (Win32 console version 1.6x) works, FASMW.EXE (Win32 GUI based IDE) doesn’t
    • HX not very useful here, there are good native DOS versions of FASM also ;-)
    • Tester: DOS386
  • SolASM
    • Assembler, free for personal use
    • Version 0.15.01
    • Tester: Japheth
  • DISTORM
    • Project page: ragestorm.net/distorm
    • By Gil Dabah / Arkon , BSD (old versions) or GPL 3 license, written in C
    • Versions 1.7.22, 1.7.23, 1.7.29, 1.7.30 (last from 1.xx line), 3.xx
    • No true DOS version yet (add to YASM project ?)
    • Old (22 and 23) versions are perfect, new (30) require “MSVC80.DLL” , work mostly, but unnecessary bad dependency, and [CTL]-[C] causes crash
    • Disassembler, syntax acceptably similar to NASM/YASM/FASM
    • Tester: DOS386, Rugxulo
  • Objconv
    • By Agner Fog , GNU GPL 3, done in C++
    • Can convert objects (also PE) and disassemble them (very smart disassembly), but don’t try with huge files (> cca 1 MiO)
    • Japheth provides also a standalone HX-based DOS binary
    • Tester: DOS386, Japheth

Compressors

See Compress and GraphMediaTech for more info on some of them.

  • TAK
    • Promising lossless audio compressor, algorithm superior to FLAC and WAVPACK
    • By Tom / Thomas Becker, freeware, not (yet) open source
    • Written in Delphi
    • Versions 1.0 to 1.1.2 tested (2.xx out)
    • Older versions of TAK used to raise “Missing imports”, but ignoring helped, since 1.0.4 fixed on TAK’s side (useless stuff removed form executables)
    • Problem: very poor performance in “some” cases (I/O buffering/caching issue)
    • Tester: DOS386
  • FLAC
    • Lossless audio compressor
    • By Josh Coalson, GNU GPL (codec/library also BSD)
    • Project pages: http://xiph.org/flac/ , http://flac.sourceforge.net/ , http://sourceforge.net/projects/flac/
    • Versions: FLAC 1.2.1 2007–09–17, older 1.2.0 from 2007–07–25, 1.1.4 from 2007–02–13 and 1.1.2 (this version also has a DOS port compiled by Blair using DGJPP, but obsolete)
    • FLAC 1.3.x is out, binaries are bad (Pentium 4 only, trouble with HX)
    • Needs MSVCRT.DLL
    • Tester: DOS386
  • WAVPACK
    • Lossless (also “hybrid”) audio compressor
    • Project page: http://www.wavpack.com/
    • By Conifer Software / David Bryant / Roberto Jose de Amorim, open source, BSD-license
    • Tested versions 4.2 and 4.41 (meanwhile 4.70 is out)
    • Separate executables for compression & decompression, both tested
    • There are also some DOS versions: 4.31 compiled by PDSoft AKA Attila Padar AKA MPXPLAY using WATCOM, used to be available here freewebtown.com/mpxplay (dead), and 4.70 compiled by RayeR http://sourceforge.net/projects/ffmpeg-x264-dos/files
    • Tester: DOS386
  • Vorbis “OGG” audio codec: OGGENC, OGGDEC
    • Lossy audio compressor, Vorbis algorithm replacing MP3
    • Open source (“raw” codec has BSD-like license, tools GPL), unpatented
    • “aoTuV Beta6.03 (2015) (2015/8/10)” (needs Pentium 3 CPU, OK with HX)
    • “aoTuV Beta 5.7 - OggVorbis Encoder © 2003–2009 Aoyumi”
    • Obsolete: OGGENC2.EXE OggEnc v2.85 (libvorbis 1.2.0 [20080316 SVN]) © 2005 (!! - should be 2008, compiled 2008/03/16) by Michael Smith & John Edwards
    • Obsolete: OGGDEC.EXE OggDec v1.9.4 (libvorbis 1.2.0 [20080316 SVN]) Compiled on: Mar 16 2008 © 2008 by John Edwards
    • Needs MSVCRT.DLL
    • Both compressor & decompressor were tested, also some older / other versions do work
    • Tester: DOS386
  • OPUS
    • The “third generation” lossy audio codec by Xiph and contributors
    • Open source (“raw” codec has BSD-like license), unpatented
    • Win32 encoder and decoder binaries hosted by Mozilla do work with HX (tested “opus-tools-0.1.9-win32.zip” from 2014-Jun-13, and they don’t work on ME)
    • http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/opus
    • See Audio
    • Tester: DOS386
  • MPG123
    • Open souce MP3 audio decoder and console player
    • By Michael Hipp and many other contributors
    • http://www.mpg123.org
    • Doesn’t work on ME (missing “_time64″ in “MSVCRT.DLL”)
    • On HX decoding works with “MSVCRT.DLL” from XP, missing imports “CreateNamedPipeW” and “ReadFileEx”, ignoring helps
    • Tester: DOS386
  • AUDIOCV
    • cmdline audio editor incl. OGG VOBIS codec
    • open source
    • V. 1.22
    • needs MSVCRT.DLL
    • Tester: DOS386, MPXPLAY
  • FFMPEG
    • Commandline video transcoder compiled from FFMPEG video library
    • Can encode various proprietary video formats, also support for free WeBM/VP8
    • Can encode Theora also but buggy - better use FFMPEG2THEORA
    • Win32 binaries by Sherpya and Zeranoe, more recent ones have more problems with DOS and HX, 1.1.1 works (almost) incl. FFPLAY !!
    • Has the “Seek-origin-$0001′0000-BUG”, also affects all derivatives except MPLAYER, HX from 2.16 or newer is required
    • Needs also AVICAP32.DLL + AVIFIL32.DLL + CRYPT32.DLL (see below)
    • Many Page Fault bugs specific to various input video data, many got fixed, some still left
    • There are also DGJPP ports from 2008 by Mik, but no longer updated, and new (versions 0.10.xx 1.xx 2.xx) 2012 to 2014 ports by RayeR
    • Tester: DOS386, Japheth
  • FFMPEG2THEORA
    • Commandline video transcoder, from any codec and format supported by FFMPEG (incl. MPG, MOV, FLV, WMV3 (!!)) to OGG Theora ( .OGV ), free, open source and unpatented codec
    • http://v2v.cc/~j/ffmpeg2theora/index.html
    • By j / j^ / Jan Gerber, GNU GPL 3
    • Versions 0.17 to 0.30, newer is better, some versions do need AVICAP32.DLL (see below), all versions do need MSVCRT.DLL, for version 0.29 it must be from XP, since 0.30 only nightly binaries released, untested
    • Very easy to use
    • Also some minimal video editing
    • Bugs: input from frames collection implemented but still doesn’t work in 0.26 (finds the frames, but output is garbage, not specific to DOS & HX), scaling bug (fixed ?? retest needed), progress shows garbage on some files - but output OK, on some input files outputs garbage (fixed ??)
    • Based on FFMPEG library and LibTheora, its own “C” source size is cca 240 KiB in 12 files (was just 80 KiB in 3 files in 0.17)
    • 2.5 MiB EXE size, UPX’ed (badly: un-UPX to 8 MiB, then you can PESTUB it, or re-UPX down to 2.3 MiB, but then better no PESTUB - it would prevent easy decompression)
    • Use MPLAYER (Note: old versions have poor support) or DUGL Player (better) to play OGG Theora files in DOS, MPXPLAY can play the sound from those
    • Needs HX 2.16 to get around “spurious-seek-BUG”
    • Tester: DOS386
    • Project page: http://www.v2v.cc/~j/ffmpeg2theora/index.html
  • FFMPEG2DIRAC
    • Fork of FFMPEG2THEORA, encodes to Dirac or Theora
    • Runs, but trouble needing further investigation, no way to play the result in DOS (fixed now ??)
  • MENCODER
    • Related to MPLAYER product (GUI), see below
    • Allows encoding and transcoding/converting of movies (no Theora output)
    • Has bugs resulting in a Page Fault on some input data, NOT HX specific, exactly same occurs on non-DOS systems as well :-D (some now fixed, some not)
    • Needs HX 2.16 to get around “spurious-seek-BUG”
    • Needs retest + details
    • Tester: DOS386
  • 7-ZIP
    • Archiver by Igor Pavlov , very good compression & strong encryption, GNU LGPL (LZMA algo + SDK public domain)
    • Project page: http://www.7-zip.org
    • Tested many versions 4.17…4.65: “7za.exe” , “7z.exe” + many DLL’s or 1 DLL , also 9.20 (only stable one from 9.xx era)
    • Since 9.32 dropped support for ME, then bumped version number to 15, version 15.06 has missing import “LookupPrivilegeValueW” in “ADVAPI32.dll”, ignoring switches problem to “Unsupported Windows version” reported by the binary, finally ugly patch allows to run it on HX, needs MSVCRT.DLL (older versions didn’t), version 16 is out
    • Problem: when creating encrypted 7-ZIP archive, the program may crash randomly in rare cases, when extracting encrypted 7-ZIP archive, it may damage the data and report “OK” in rare cases, very rarely crash instead, threading problem (??) see bttr-software.de/forum…12435
    • Problem: updating of archives doesn’t work, reason are temporary filenames like “BLAH.ZIP.tmp”, use DOSLFN or UI21DEB, read docs of UI21DEB for deeper analysis of this problem
    • Versions 9.xx support filesystem images, “direct” disk support doesn’t work (known limitation of 7-ZIP + bug in HX ?)
    • Alternatively, some versions do have DOS ports, based on “p7zip”, compiled with DGJPP 2.04 & “pthreads” library, also there is 7ZDECWAT minimal 7-ZIP extraction utility compiled by Rugxulo
    • Tester: Japheth, DOS386, Rugxulo, other people
  • UHARC
    • Interesting compressor, can beat 7-ZIP on some files
    • Sort of “semi-public” project, no official download, seems to be free for personal use but closed source
    • Sort of “hidden” behind “WinUHA” thing (“Windows” GUI with no compress code, uses UHARC)
    • DOS version exists, sort of “up-to-date”, but crippled in dictionary size because of limitations of PMODE extender used (never heard of DOS/32A ?)
    • Project page: none, some info here: wikipedia.org/wiki/Uharc wikipedia.org/wiki/UHARC (deletion candidates)
    • V. 0.6b
    • Tester: DOS386
  • PPMD-J
    • By Dmitri Shkarin
    • Free and open source, from 2006-Feb-16
    • Simple compressor, PPMD-J algorithm
    • Tester: DOS386
  • PAQ
    • By Matt Mahoney and contributors, written in C++ , GNU GPL
    • Very hard core compressor, very slow, memory hoggy (depends from version and settings, cca 50 MiB … 2 GiB)
    • Rather experimental, no stable file format
    • Some 8.xx and 9.xx versions tested, do work
    • Tester: DOS386
  • UDA
    • By Dwing
    • Free and open source, version 0.301, 2006-Dec-19
    • Experimental PAQ8I based compressor, very slow
    • Only 40 KiB source (C++, inlined MMX’ing ASM)
    • Needs 180 MiB RAM
    • Tester: DOS386
  • MCOMP (console)
    • High performance (← should be, but …) experimental/demo compressor by Malcolm Taylor
    • Passing crappy WinRK self extractor needed to access this program
    • Uses the “GetFileSizeEx” call in KERNEL32.DLL, crashes in WinME/98 on this problem  :-D , in DOS it works with HX 2.11 and above !!
    • Tester: DOS386
  • KZIP
    • Compressor compatible with PKZIP 2.x but stronger compression
    • By Ken Silverman , closed source freeware
    • Slow, memory hog
    • Various 2006 to 2009 versions tested, all do work
    • needs MSVCRT.DLL
    • Tester: Japheth, DOS386
  • PNGOUT
    • PNG optimizer (strong compression), image converter (to PNG only)
    • By Ken Silverman , closed source freeware
    • Slow, memory hog
    • Various 2006 to 2015 versions tested, all do work
    • UPX’ed, not easily decompressible, needs MSVCRT.DLL
    • Tester: Japheth, DOS386
  • OPTIPNG
    • One more PNG optimizer, open source, ZLIB/BSD license
    • © 2012 by Cosmin Truta
    • Versions 0.5.5 to 0.6.3 (but barely any progress recently, oops, 0.7.xx out)
    • Bug: under HX can’t save image back into same file, -out needed to specify a different filename if input is already PNG - filename problem like “blah.png.bak” , get UI21DEB for more info and fix
    • Tester: DOS386
  • TruePNG
    • PNG Optimizer by x128@ua.fm
    • Tested 0.4.0.4 from 2012–04–06 and 0.6.2.2 from 2016-Apr-03
    • Download: x128.ho.ua/pngutils.html
    • Freeware, closed source, no manual
    • See GraphMediaTech for general info
    • Needed to use in DOS: Un-UPX (not all versions are compressed), Ignore missing imports, “/out” specify output name, in EDR-DOS also “UI21DEB N”
    • Tester: DOS386
  • INNOUNP
    • Unpacker for InnoSetup installers
    • Copyright © 2004–2012 QuickeneR, GNU GPL
    • Project pages: http://innounp.sourceforge.net/ , http://sourceforge.net/projects/innounp/
    • Allows to extract files without executing it (very good for DOS)
    • Console utility, versions 0.19 (2007–02–23) to 0.38 (2013–02–01)
    • OK for installers from InnoSetup up to 4.xx, fails with 5.xx and newer due to file format change, crucial info moved from MZ header into resource area, INNOUNP reports “no InnoSetup at all” in DOS, effect caused by silly usage of “LoadLibraryEx” with “LOAD_LIBRARY_AS_DATAFILE” flag that HX doesn’t support, can be “fixed” by patching the PE header of the incoming installer file
    • DOSLFN might be required
    • Tester: DOS386

Misc

  • HTML TIDY
    • Tool to clean up and fix HTML, reports errors and fixes them, makes source formatting nicer
    • By Dave Raggett (original author, no longer active) and other contributors, free and open source
    • Win32 binaries do exist but hard to find, versionning chaos (Hint: htmltidy.zip 1 MiO)
    • Tested 2000-Aug-04, 2004-Jul-01, 2009-Mar-25 and 2012-Jan-10 binaries, all OK
    • Tester: DOS386
  • SoX (console)
    • Command line utility that can convert audio data of various uncompressed and “raw” formats to other formats
    • MP3 and OGG VORBIS sort of “supported” only with external libraries
    • It can also apply various acoustic effects to sound files
    • Can connect to sound drivers in Linux and Win32
    • Version 14.4.1 works mostly (not all effects) and needs “zlib1.dll” only, 14.4.2 needs 1′000′000′000 DLL’s
    • One trouble under DOS are filenames
    • Free and open source
    • But needs MSVCRT.DLL
    • Alternatively, there is an old DOS port compiled using DGJPP 2.04 (some bad hacks)
    • Tester: DOS386, Flox (??)
    • See Audio
    • Project page: http://sox.sourceforge.net
  • VOLUMAX
    • Peak normalizer for WAV audio files
    • GNU GPL, version 0.50, by John Edwards
    • Works well with HX, but “by design” not very useful, see Audio why
  • WaveGain
    • ReplayGain tool, loudness normalizer for WAV audio files
    • GNU GPL, version 1.3.1, by John Edwards
    • Works well with HX, the better alternative to VOLUMAX, see Audio why
    • Manual and source code seem to contain some outdated and wrong info about “Vorbis”, and dead link to “replaygain.org”
    • Provides “only” the original implementation from over 10 years ago
  • NCONVERT (console)
    • Image converter, closed source freeware, related to XNVIEW GUI program
    • DOS (“MS-DOS”) version exists but is obsolete from 2002 (uses DOS4/GW), hey since 4.90 DOS is supported again, latest is 6.88 ;-)
    • Latest version: NCONVERT v6.55 © 1991–2013 Pierre-E Gougelet (Mar 14 2014/11:05:21) Version for Windows NT/9x/2000/Xp/Vista (HX almost OK, doesn’t work on ME) 6.88
    • Since 5.30 (?) Aspack executable packer not used anymore, caused trouble in the past
    • Very same (apart from sortorder) 7 missing imports in DGDI32.DLL for all NC versions 5.75 to 6.55 : BeginPath, EndPath, FillPath, GetCharABCWidthsFloatA, GetEnhMetaFileA, SetBoundsRect, StrokePath
    • “Add text” feature doesn’t work because it relies on Win32 font API, HX’s font support is far insufficient, in DOS version it’s disabled as well
    • See GraphMediaTech
    • Tester: DOS386
  • ImageWorsener
    • http://entropymine.com/imageworsener
    • Image converter
    • More correct implementation than many other programs (like NCONVERT), correct resampling (caring about “Gamma”), converter for several formats like BMP, PNG (also 16-bppc), and WEBP, internal 16-bppc processing (AKA less quality loss), slower
    • Free and open source
    • Minor problem: one missing import, ignoring helps
    • Minor problem: outputs some garbage characters on the screen instead of Unicode cross and arrow
    • Works on P1 processor
    • See GraphMediaTech
    • Tester: DOS386
  • GNU Octave
  • Murasame 07.01 program for drawing block diagram or flow chart work
  • ODT2TXT
  • ADLMIDI
    • Project page: http://bisqwit.iki.fi/source/adlmidi.html (source code only)
    • YouTube video and discussion: yt.com/watch?v=GyMc2xLrolk and yt.com/watch?v=ZwcFV3KrnQA
    • Hidden outdated Win32 binaries: http://bisqwit.iki.fi/src/adlmidi-111-win32.zip and http://bisqwit.iki.fi/src/adlmidi-112-win32.zip
    • Open-source free MIDI player by Joel Yliluoma AKA Bisqwit , including multiple OPL3 card emulation
    • Has a GW-BASIC and C++ version
    • GW-BASIC version relies on MIDI support of ISA sound cards, it is supposed to be run in DOS-BOX
    • Source code in C++ supports many targets: Win32, DGJPP (does it work?), …
    • Win32 binary provides “native” support (“FM synthesis”, converts MIDI into audio samples), and outputs sound through WINMM WaveOut, HX does emulate it, but needs ISA SB16 card, further existing ADLMIDI binary has no “save as WAV file” feature (it is in the source ??) → it is not very useful as-is, 1.1.2 can save RAW PCM
    • Tester: Iw2evk Roberto, DOS386, Bisqwit (??)
  • LYNX (Windows port)
  • XPDF
    • Commandline tools to extract PDF and viewer with minimal GUI
    • Commandline tools ported to Win32 do work with HX, viewer is Linux only
    • See DocumentFormatsViewers
  • PDF2HTML
  • MUPDF
    • Commandline tools to extract PDF and viewer with minimal GUI
    • Commandline tools ported to Win32 do work with HX, viewer does NOT
    • See DocumentFormatsViewers
  • UUDeview 0.5.20
    • Binary encoder/decoder that supports Base64, BinHex (decoding only), Uuencoding, Xx, yEnc
    • Project page: http://www.fpx.de/fp/Software/UUDeview
    • Open source freeware, version 2004–01–03
    • Needs MSVCRT.DLL
    • Tester: Milla
  • HDEDIT
    • HD editor by Japheth
    • Has native DOS and WinXP versions
    • Since HX 2.13a, also the XP one works in DOS (just testing physical disk access emulation)
    • Some trouble left ??
    • Tester: DOS386
  • AS.EXE GNU assembler
    • 2.13.90 AS (MinGW)
    • 2.15.94
  • ASW.EXE 2.9.5 AS (Free Pascal)
  • BCC32.EXE
    • 4.0 Borland C++ compiler
    • 5.5.1 C++ compiler of C++ Builder Command Line Tools (free).
  • BRC32.EXE
    • 5.02 Borland resource compiler
    • 5.40
  • BZIP2.EXE 1.0.1 pack utility from MSYS 1.0.10 [1]
  • CABARC.EXE 1.00 Microsoft Cabinet Tool
  • CL.EXE
    • 8.00 MS VC 1.0, 16-bit C compiler
    • 8.00c MS VC 1.5, 16-bit C compiler
    • 8.00.3190a MS VC 1.5, 32-bit C compiler
    • 9.10 MS VC 2.0
    • 20 MS VC 4.2
    • 11.00 MS VC 5
    • 12.00 MS VC 6
    • 13.00 MS Visual Studio.NET 2002
    • 13.10 MS Visual C++ Toolkit 2003, a FREE compiler [1]
  • CVTRES.EXE
    • 5.0 MS tool
    • 7.00
  • DAO.EXE 4.0B Golden Hawk CD Disc At Once write tool [5]
  • DCC32.EXE 15.0 Borland Delphi 7 compiler
  • DUMPBIN.EXE MS tool
    • 5.12
    • 7.00
  • DUMPLX.EXE 2.1 LE/LX file dumper
  • DUMPPE.EXE 2.1 PE file dumper
  • EXTRACT.EXE 5.1.2600
  • FBC.EXE 0.13b, 0.16b FreeBasic compiler [1] (obsolete, check for 1.0.5)
  • FPC.EXE 1.0.10, 2.0.4 Free Pascal compiler [1]
  • FTE.EXE 0.49 Editor
  • FTP.EXE 1.3.2 FTP client from MSYS 1.0.10 [1][3][4]
  • GCC.EXE 3.3.1 GNU C++ compiler, MinGW [1]
  • GZIP.EXE 1.2.4 pack utility from MSYS 1.0.10 [1]
  • H2INC.EXE 7.0 MS tool
  • HEXITW.EXE 1.57 HexIt (Win32)
  • ILINK32.EXE 5.0 linker of C++ Builder Command Line Tools
  • LD.EXE 2.13.90 LD, MinGW [1]
  • LDW.EXE 2.9.5 LD, Free Pascal
  • LIB.EXE 3.4 MS OMF 16-bit librarian
  • LIB.EXE
    • 5.12 MS COFF 32-bit
    • 7.00
  • LINK.EXE 5.60 MS 16-bit OMF linker
  • LINK.EXE
    • 5.12 MS 32-bit COFF linker [2]
    • 7.00
    • 7.10
  • LZASM.EXE 0.47 Assembler
  • ML.EXE
    • 6.14 MS MASM
    • 6.15
    • 7.00
    • 8.00
  • NASMW.EXE 0.98.38 Netwide Assembler
  • NMAKE.EXE
    • 1.62 MS tool
    • 7.00
  • OPEN WATCOM 1.2–1.4 all binaries in directory BINNT except WD.EXE
  • PSCP.EXE 0.58 SCP client [4]
  • PSFTP.EXE 0.58 SFTP client [4]
  • RAR.EXE
    • 3.0
    • 3.3
  • RC.EXE MS resource compiler
    • 5.0
    • 5.1
  • REBASE.EXE MS tool
  • SC.EXE 8.38 Digital Mars C++ compiler
  • TAR.EXE
    • 1.12 GNU tar
    • 1.13.19 GNU tar from MSYS 1.0.10 [1]
  • TASM32.EXE 5.0 Borland’s TASM
  • TDUMP.EXE 5.0 Borland tool
  • TELNET.EXE 1.3.2 Telnet client from MSYS 1.0.10 [1][3][4]
  • TLIB.EXE 4.5 Borland tool
  • TLINK32.EXE 2.0 Borland linker
  • UNRAR.EXE 3.2
  • UNTGZ32.EXE 0.95
  • UNZIP.EXE
    • 5.4 Info-ZIP
    • 5.52
  • UPX.EXE 2.0 packer for executables
  • VIM.EXE 5.8.9 editor from MSYS 1.0.10 [1]
  • WS.EXE 1.22 Wordster. WordStar-like editor by P. Houle
  • XC.EXE 2.51 XDS Modula-2 compiler
  • XCOPY32.EXE Windows 98 file copy program [1]
  • XLINK.EXE 2.6 XDS linker
  • ZIP.EXE
    • Info-ZIP Win32 binary
    • V. 2.31
    • Open source
    • Tester: Japheth
  • Kinesics Text Editor
    • Text editor, “console” based, compact and nice, has all “core” editing features, but no “advanced” ones
    • Project page: http://www.kinesics.com/editor
    • Free and open source, done in C++, version “Build 030″ from 2005
    • Very convenient & intuitive control (Hint: use right mouse button or <F1>)
    • DOS version exists, but is obsolete (16-bit, memory problems)
    • Requires HX 2.10 (older versions have a bug in the clipboard implementation, and another thread/stack related bug, unusable)
    • Tester: DOS386, Japheth
  • GT2
    • GT2 is a file detection utility that detects various file types according to their content (binary signature)
    • Project page: http://philip.helger.com/gt/index.php (dead)
    • Closed source freeware, version 0.35 2006–09–06
    • Supports executables MZ/NE/PE/LE - HUGE amount of linkers, EXE-packers (no ASPACK) etc. (does NOT know: PESTUB, FASM), archives (no 7-ZIP (!!), no KGB), images, video (no OGG/OGV), … etc.
    • Supplies much info on PE (export, import, …) but buggy, better use Japheth ’s PE (see below) for such cases
    • Works, marginal annoyances: requires ENTER to be pressed before each screen of information, drive/path must end with “\” (earlier versions don’t have this problem however)
    • Needs MSVCP71.DLL & MSVCR71.DLL (available at project page)
    • There are some obsolete DOS versions and VERY obsolete sources (TP/DOS) available
    • Tester: Milla, DOS386
  • PE 1.8, 1.9 … 1.24
    • Feature rich PE and COFF (32-bit and 64-bit) file analyzer, also disassembly (but only “dumb” stream approach applied to code sections, better use Objconv )
    • By Japheth , was Public Domain and open source (MASM → JWASM) except disassembler DLL (no source ever released), now Freeware and no source
    • Provides similar info as GT2, but only on PE and COFF files, more correct results
    • Works also on DGJPP files, but “/STUBSIZE” can be needed
    • Pre-linked with HX stub, old versions had strange $40 bytes of garbage above it
    • Bugs: not rejecting broken/non-COFF files - displays garbage (incl. beep “characters” ) to the infinity (possibly fixed, needs retest), crashing on imports of some PE files (fixed in 1.17)
    • Disassembling support is optional and provided by a DLL
    • Also a DOS standalone version exists including DKRNL32 and DPMILD32 as well as HDPMI32, optional DLL for disassembly still applies
  • PEMAP
    • PE file analyzer
    • Open source freeware, © 1998 by B. Luevelsmeyer , done in C (WATCOM)
    • Problem in HX: missing import VerLanguageNameA
    • Tester: DOS386
  • EDUMP
    • Edump - Executable files dumper 1.62
    • Supports NE, LE/LX, PE, PE64, ELF, ELF64
    • © 2008 by SEN Kemerovo AKA Eugeny Suslikov hiew.ru
    • License: “somewhat free” but no source code, and redistribution prohibited
    • Tester: DOS386
  • CLAMWIN
  • MC.EXE
  • FAR file manager
    • Text mode Win32 file manager with FTP feature
    • Can be used as FTP client - it is the only one interactive FTP client working in DOS
    • Originally written by Eugen Roshall (author of RAR)
    • Payware (1.7) or BSD open source freeware (2.0 only ??)
    • Needs HX 2.16
    • Tester: Laaca
  • PANDOC

2.2  Works well GUI

  • Sophit
  • Crappy Space Invaders
  • Globe
    • Scientific program GLOBE for display stars and earth movement
    • DOS version used to exist but had been dropped
    • http://www.advsys.net/ken/
    • Tester: iw2evk? Iw2evk Roberto
  • GrafX2
    • Painting program
    • Project page: http://code.google.com/p/grafx2
    • Download: http://code.google.com/p/grafx2/downloads/list
    • Uses SDL.DLL
    • Latest DOS version from 1999 exists, open source, but very buggy
    • Some versions do work well, some don’t: there was a missing import GlobalMemoryStatusEx in KERNEL32.DLL (seems trivial to fix, no longer needed ?), latest version “grafx2–2.4.2035-win32.zip” from 2012-Oct-19 and version 2.3 instead have a missing import LookupIconIdFromDirectoryEx in “SHELL32.DLL” , ignoring ends up in “DPMILD32: unresolved import called” , only well working version is 2.2 “grafx2–2.2.1430-win32.zip” from 2010-Mar-28
    • Tester: DOS386, iw2evk? Iw2evk Roberto
  • KPIC
    • Simple image viewer for Win32 by Ken Silverman
    • http://advsys.net/ken/utils.htm
    • PNG, GIF, JPG
    • Uses low-level GUI API only
    • Tester: DOS386, Roberto iw2evk (trouble ?)
  • Boyca.exe
    • V. 0.28
    • BoyCott Advance/SDL, a GameBoy Advance emulator [3]
    • Tester: Japheth
  • HERETIC 2
    • game by Raven Software [1][3][7]
    • Tester: Japheth
  • BLOBWARS.EXE 1.02
    • SDL game by Parallel Realities [3]
    • Tester: Japheth
  • QUAKE 2
    • game by Id Software [3]
    • Tester: Japheth
  • Anti-grain geometry
    • Powerful graphics and geometry library for Delphi and Freepascal. Has very beautiful demos!
    • Tester: Laaca
  • VisualBoy Advance (SDL version)
    • Excellent GB/GBC/GBA emulator
    • SDL version works smoothly with HX (start with -F)
    • Tester: Wengier
  • Crayon
    • Interesting “uncategorizable” game (5 MiO archive size)
    • Project page: kloonigames.com/blog/games/crayon
    • Uses SDL
    • Annoyances: needs MSVCP60.DLL and DOSLFN (extracts to many files with long names)
    • Tester: Laaca, DOS386
  • Puzzle “15 squares”
    • By ssp  written in FASM, 10 KiB executable
    • HX 2.12 or newer needed
    • Tester: Japheth, DOS386
  • OpenTyrian (classic aka no-mod)
    • A SDL and C port of the original Turbo Pascal source code from the DOS game tyrian v2.1 (a space shoot-em-up)
    • URL: http://code.google.com/p/opentyrian/
    • Doesn’t suffer from the runtime 200 error like the original
    • Tested working under HX 2.16
    • NOTE: using a “hqxx” scaler may result in slowdowns, use “scalexx” instead
    • Unsure if joysticks work, quite positive on the sound
    • Tester: NickC
  • ScummVM
    • ScummVM is a program which allows you to run certain classic graphical point-and-click adventure games, provided you already have their data files
    • URL: http://www.scummvm.org/
    • Tested working under HX 2.16 with “Beneath a Steel Sky”
    • NOTE: You NEED the game data files to run them, Scummvm only replaces the old executable.
    • Start with “dpmild32.exe -g scummvm.exe -f”
    • DOSLFN not required, but recommended (without it Scummvm will load up it’s internal theme. Doesn’t seem to affect performance.)
    • Tester: NickC

2.3  Works partially console

  • HASHDEEP (formerly MD5DEEP)
    • Calculates MD5, SHA256 and other hashes
    • By Jesse Kornblum , Public Domain (excl. external code)
    • http://sourceforge.net/projects/md5deep/files/md5deep/
    • Needs HX 2.17 (“CommandLineToArgvW”) function, and MSVCRT.DLL from XP
    • ME/98 no longer supported since 2007
    • Latest version 4.3 from 2012 works almost with HX
    • Don’t run with empty commandline (hangs), use “-h” for help
    • Official ZIP is silly as it contains many bloated and identical (!!) files, just pick one of them (32-bit) and name it “HASHDEEP.EXE” (looks at its own name, will not run as “HD.EXE” or similar)
  • VirtualPASCAL
    • VP.EXE 2.1.279 Virtual Pascal IDE, except debugger
    • VPC.EXE 2.1.279 Virtual Pascal command line compiler
    • Closed source freeware, abandoned
    • Serious problem: tends to open unreasonably many files at same time
    • Tester: Japheth, AH
  • PELLES-C, POASM, POLINK
    • Project page: http://www.smorgasbordet.com/pellesc/
    • Old version is 5.00.1 from June 8, 2008 , closed source freeware
    • POASM.EXE 5.0b2 - works now, but obsolete in favor of JWASM
    • POCC.EXE 2.90 Pelles C compiler
    • POLIB.EXE 2.90 Pelles library manager
    • POLINK.EXE 2.90 Pelles linker, but 5.0xx doesn’t work anymore ?
    • POMAKE.EXE 2.90 Pelles make
    • PORC.EXE 2.90 Pelles resource compiler
    • Available only inside an installer, need Vista/XP to extract it first
    • 5.0xx versions need HX 2.16
    • Tester: Japheth
  • ConvertZ (console) 1.5
    • Character set converter for Chinese & English texts
    • Problems: works for English texts, but partially for Chinese ones
    • Tester: Wengier, DOS386
  • CVS client
    • Version 1.11.22, Win32 console
    • GNU GPL v. 1 (!)
    • Only offline mode, connecting to server does not work (fixed in HX 2.16 ??)
    • Project page: http://cvs.nongnu.org/
    • Tester: Udo

2.4  Works partially GUI

  • Flight simulator
  • MPlayer (console or GUI)
    • See Mplayer for product description and project pages
    • Media player (unrelated to M$’s player), originates from Linux
    • Has also a DGJPP port with VESA and VIDIX support making usage via HX no longer that unique
    • Free & Open Source, GNU GPL, with most codecs based on FFmpeg
    • Some release versions: 1.0RC1 from 2006–10–22 (itself very buggy), 1.0RC2 (better, but GUI output “-vo gl” doesn’t work on HX anymore)
    • Several “unofficial” SVN versions like “ Mar 06, 2007 ”, “ MPlayer Sherpya-SVN-r22472–4.1.2 © 2000–2007 MPlayer Team ” did work on HX incl. “-vo gl” GUI output but slow
    • Tested version: “ MPlayer Sherpya-SVN-r30075–4.2.5 © 2000–2009 MPlayer Team ” (enabled “-vo sdl”, works again and well)
    • Win32 version compiled with MinGW (good or not, see project page …)
    • Starts as console app (!)
    • Needs a GUI (OpenGL, “vidix”, “matrix”, SDL, VESA) to output video
    • VESA output is deactivated in Windows version, SDL got enabled in r30075 2009–12–20 and works well, historical support of “gl” (slow) in 2007, 2013 “sdl” or “directx”
    • Decomposing video into frames and saving them as PNG or JPG, as well as “-vo yuv4mpeg” works and always worked well (no HX GUI needed)
    • RC1 had a serious CPUID / instruction usage bug (some lower-end CPU’s affected), fixed in 2007 versions, later problems again (CMOV), fixed in r30075 2009–12–20
    • Requires HX 2.17 or above, historical experimental support of “-vo gl” since HXRTD 2.11-pre
    • Recent versions don’t work anymore (?), reportedly r36349 from 2013-Jun-17 is the latest working
    • Related project: MENCODER (console, see above)
    • Tester: Laaca, DOS386, Japheth, Sherpya, Iw2evk Roberto, other people
  • Aspectrum.exe 0.1.8 Another Spectrum emulator (uses Allegro 4.1)
  • Atari800.exe 2.0.2 Atari 800 emulator
  • QEMU 0.8.1 (very buggy), 0.8.2, 0.9.0 (preferred), 0.9.1 (retest needed)
    • Emulator, supporting full emulation, has also an optional “accelerator”
    • Open source, by Fabrice Bellard
    • Uses SDL.DLL & FMOD.DLL
    • Originates from LINUX (beta), Win32 version is alpha, GUI of HX-DOS also, unreliable but might work if you invest some effort and have luck
    • Needs some DLL’s: MVSCRT.DLL, GLU32.DLL, CRTDLL.DLL, OPENGL32.DLL
    • Better NOT to use -full-screen
    • Keyboard bug fixed by Japheth and included (only ??) in binaries by bttr (retest needed)
    • Some older versions reported to work also, but even more problems
    • 0.9.0 requires at least HX 2.11, 0.9.1 at least HX 2.13
    • Versions 0.9.0 and newer do not work on WinME/98, but do on HX :-D
    • All versions need “-g” switch
    • Tester: Japheth, Udo, DOS386, Wengier, other people
  • “Shockwave Realtime Fire Demo”
    • Cca 90 sec of nice graph effects & sound, 640×480 mode, written in FreeBASIC
    • Minor problem if mouse driver active: cursor not hidden, and the sound …
    • Tester: DOS386
  • BOCHS
    • Emulator, FULL emulation ONLY, more mature than QEMU, but very slow
    • http://bochs.sourceforge.net
    • bttr-software.de/…10913
    • Versions 2.2.6 (very buggy, avoid), 2.3 (better, but still has “(EIP=0)-BUG”), 2.3.6 (CPU seems fixed), 2.3.7 (1.1 times faster, more rigid about raw image sizes), 2.4.x (introduces one useless missing import), 2.5.x, 2.6.1 (reportedly another minor speedup, missing imports “SetScrollInfo” and “MapDialogRect”, 2.6.2, 2.6.5, 2.6.6 still working but needs better “IPHLPAPI.DLL” (download below), PC speaker better, SB16 broken, XDMA unfixed, MOUSE wheel not good enough, 2.6.7 bad release (needs Pentium 4 processor, bugs not fixed), 2.6.8 (reportedly fixed SB16, untested)
    • Open source, GNU LGPL, done in C++
    • Emulates the full PC with various hardware components, CPU emulation includes 64-bit support (added long time ago and long time before before 16-bit and 32-bit emulation was mature), uses 2 BIOS files (more are optional), always use the BIOS included in the package, other versions usually don’t work and can cause “spectacular” problems, I/O devices include a “high-end” IDE/ATA controller (?) but XDMA doesn’t work (fixed in 2.6.7?)
    • Since HX 2.8, BOCHS is supported (but affected by the “mouse bug” ), better use 2.16 or later
    • The “official” binary of the “Windows” version doesn’t use SDL, however SDL is supported in the source, so recompiling with SDL enabled is theoretically possible, also experimental unreleased DGJPP port exists
    • Uses NSIS installer, has to be installed in “Windows” first or use 7-ZIP (full DLL version) with DOSLFN to extract, or without DOSLFN and deal with duplicates …
    • Problem: mouse driver can hang on init (CTMOUSE both with and without /O but also LogiTech driver, only if XDMA is involved ??) (fixed in 2.6.7 ??)
    • Has to be configured using console mode dialogs (behaviour changed in 2.4)
    • Make sure that the image files are not read-only - this causes trouble !
    • To start it, following commandline is needed: “DPMILD32 -g B -f XX.BO -q”
      • Supposing: “B.EXE” is the BOCHS executable, “XX.BO” is the BOCHS config file
      • “-g” is the “force-GUI” switch for DPMILD32 (same thing as with QEMU and many others)
      • “-f” “file” : specifies the config file for BOCHS
      • “-q” “quick start” : Makes BOCHS immediately run the GUI and start emulation/booting, instead of console based dialogs (in DOS, there is no space for both (2 “Windows”) at same time)
    • There are serious lacks in the GUI, emulated screen can overflow host screen size (preferably right), colors can be wrong, button bar is inexistent (it is on the bottom instead of top of screen and is empty) - but the emulation runs :-)
    • DOSLFN is NOT required for running if you correcly rename affected files (most notably the BIOS’es)
    • Tester: Japheth, DOS386
  • Distortum Priority survive
    • Realtime strategy a little bit similar to Starcraft but with nicer graphics
    • Project page: distortum.mysteria.cz
    • problem - mouse cursor sometimes doesn’t react to movements or reacts wrong - fixed in HX 2.16 ??
    • problem - doesn’t work without sound: “Unable to set sound” ??
    • Tester: Laaca, DOS386
  • Dogfight
    • URL: http://dogfight.kuto.de
    • 2D side scrolling game where fight small planes from World War I. Similar to old classics Sopwitch
    • problem - mouse cursor sometimes doesn’t react to movements or reacts wrong (doesn’t hurt much because mouse is used only in menu)
    • Tester: Laaca
  • Little big adventure 2
    • Beautiful adventure game by Adeline, commercial, abandonware, no legal download
    • Has/had also a native DOS version (sound: ISA SB only ?)
    • running Windows version under DOS will become interesting when will be released version of HX with AC97 sound driver
    • problem - distorted sound (maybe specific to my system / “emulation” driver)
    • Tester: Laaca
  • MDK
    • 3D third-person shooting game by Shiny entertainment
    • has also a native DOS version
    • more problems - weird problems with color mapping in main engine, extremely buggy mouse reactions (better don’t touch mouse at all - fixed in HX 2.12) and no sound (?)
    • Tester: Laaca
  • Postal
    • 2D action game by Running with scissors - very bloody and very controversal
    • problem - weird colors but acceptable
    • sound and controls work
    • Tester: Laaca
  • GNASH
    • Player for SWF files (sort of movie, invented by “Macromedia”), originates from Linux
    • Project pages: http://www.gnu.org/software/gnash/ , http://www.gnashdev.org/
    • Beta version now, old Win32 executable compiled with M$VC++ 8.0 from desperately obsolete 0.7.1 did work (very badly, in both DOS and Win32), newer version compiled from 0.8.2 with MinGW works well, but not in DOS: missing imports, exceptions
    • Free & Open Source
    • Starts as console app (!)
    • Uses SDL to output graphics (this is good)
    • Old version needed many DLL’s: also some “special” ones: MSVCR80.DLL, MSVCP80.DLL, 0.8.2 only MSVCRT.DLL
    • Loads like a charm, outputs manual to the text screen
    • HX 2.16 (?) or newer needed
    • Problems: old version was very slow, broken scenes, new doesn’t work
    • Tester: Japheth, DOS386

2.5  Notes on lists above

  • [1]: requires LFN support
  • [2]: these apps may require a lot of file handles
  • [3]: needs HX GUI.
  • [4]: requires a packet driver to be installed.
  • [5]: needs a DOS ASPI driver and WNASPI32.DLL from Windows 9x.
  • [6]: requires OPENGL32.DLL (+GLU32.DLL) from Windows 9x.
  • [7]: environment variable DPMILDR=16 must be set.

3.  Latest version: 2.16 / 2.17pre

Release date: 2009–11–16 / update 2014-Jan-05 binaries only

Project page and download: http://www.japheth.de (dead since cca 2014-Aug)

3.1  External files

  • dll-download-system.com Hosting various DLL’s (MSVC*.* and more), note that many of them have problematic licenses, also most of them exist in many versions and here just 1 version per DLL is available, and it may be the “optimal” one for HX or not. There are many such “DLL pools” around, this is the probably only one accessible with DOS browsers, though.
  • HXDLL.ZIP (4735 Byte’s, updated 2014-Jul-12) Some extra DLL’s (mostly dummy)

3.2  See also
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