QBasic Tutorials: QBasic with DOSBox - Part 1

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QBasic Tutorials: QBasic with DOSBox: DOSBox offers the opportunity to use outdated 16-bit applications (DOS programs), even in modern 32/64-bit operating systems. This tutorial describes how to run QuickBASIC 4.5 on Windows 7 by using DOSBox.

Author: Crossroads

Created: 2015-08-18
Updated: 2022-05-24

QBasic with DOSBox

Other Parts on this Tutorial:

Part 1 - Installation Instructions

First of all, you should create a folder to organize all your DOSBox stuff:
C:\oldDOS (all suggested directory names and paths can of course be customized individually)

After downloading, install DOSBox to C:\oldDOS\DOSBox
Download and extract QuickBASIC 4.5 into a new subdirectory: C:\oldDOS\QB45

Your directory structure should now look like this (click images to enlarge):

Directories - Fig. 1.1 Directories - Fig. 1.2 Directories - Fig. 1.3

Once DOSBox has been launched, the welcome screen should appear as shown in Fig. 2.1.
Next, the QuickBASIC directory has to be connected to DOSBox using the MOUNT command:

! Don't forget to hit [ENTER] ↵ at the end of each line

Type in
mount C C:\oldDOS\QB45 ↵

Next step is to change to drive C. Simply type C: ↵ (Fig. 2.2)

The next step is not essential, it's merely to check whether we are actually in the appropriate directory.
Type dir , then press ↵

Now the directory listing should be displayed as shown in Figure 2.3.

DOSBox - Fig. 2.1 DOSBox - Fig. 2.2 DOSBox - Fig. 2.3

Finally, we need to launch QuickBasic 4.5 (which is the QB.EXE File)
To do this, we only need to type in qb and confirm with ↵

Voilà - it's done!

QuickBASIC - Fig. 2.4

! Part 2 demonstrates how to start QuickBasic within DOSBox more easily.