Member Avatar for chuckles

Greetings.........

I bought a basic application that doesn't print out a hard
copy properly. The sellers of same can't figure out what
the problem w/their code is. Would like to get a "bare bones"
Qbasic app without mortgaging my very being.
Am I asking too much, or is my need doable?

Many thanks for anything........chuckles :-|

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Short summary tied to the thread: bought a BASIC program that prints poorly and found a free copy of QBasic that “won’t work w/WinXP.” Earlier replies from and pointed toward free BASIC tools and alternatives. The gap left in those replies is practical, repeatable steps for getting a DOS-era QBasic program to run and print on a modern Windows box, plus low-effort migration options that avoid endless troubleshooting.

Three practical approaches (ordered by least-to-most change):

  • Run the original QBasic inside a DOS emulator or VM. DOSBox is the common choice for DOS apps; a minimal workflow is:

    1) Put the QBasic folder under C:\QB
2) Start DOSBox
3) At the DOSBox prompt:
   mount c c:\qb
   c:
   qbasic.exe

    This preserves the original behavior and lets the program run even when the host OS lacks native DOS support.

  • If printing is the problem, capture output to a file or map the DOS printer to a Windows printer. For programs that print to LPT1, mapping the DOS LPT to a shared Windows printer or exporting the program’s print output to a text file and printing that from Windows are reliable workarounds. Emulators and VMs differ in how they expose printers, so choose the method that preserves the original print stream.

  • Long-term fix: port or compile the source with a modern QBasic-compatible tool (examples exist that produce native Windows executables). That removes the DOS layer and uses normal Windows printing APIs, which is the most robust solution if source code is available.

Notes and cautions: 64‑bit Windows editions typically lack the built-in DOS subsystem, so native execution may fail there; an emulator or VM is required. If the program is only available as an EXE with no source, the emulator/VM route is safest. When source is available, small edits to route output to files or to a modern BASIC compiler will save time and make printing consistent on modern systems.

Reference to earlier thread input: the suggestions by and about free/basic alternatives are on the right track; the steps above show how to run legacy tooling reliably and how to migrate printing to modern Windows.

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Member Avatar for Buff

Well Qbasic is basically free since it came with msdos from version 5 - Windows
98 /MSDOS 6.2

It's around on several web sites.

Versions 4-7.1 of Quick Basic are available too (free). Whether it is technically legal to download them is another matter.

Member Avatar for khkwa

You can try

http://www.qbcafe.net/english/index.html?dl_pages/compiler/index.html~qbc_main

Greetings.........

I bought a basic application that doesn't print out a hard
copy properly. The sellers of same can't figure out what
the problem w/their code is. Would like to get a "bare bones"
Qbasic app without mortgaging my very being.
Am I asking too much, or is my need doable?

Many thanks for anything........chuckles :-|

Member Avatar for chuckles

Found free QBasic. Won't work w/WinXP.

Many thanks to all who aided!

chuckles

Member Avatar for khkwa

Hi, don't quite understand what you mean by it is not working with Windows XP. It should work in a DOS environent which you can simulate in Windows XP. Of course, in any case, QBasic won't give you a Windows-like appearance.

You may try switching to the following versions of BASIC compilers/interpreters:

1. Just BASIC at http://www.justbasic.com/index.html
2. Xblite at
3. Small BASIC at http://smallbasic.sourceforge.net/

Each of them has its own advantages. But small applications I encourage Small BASIC. And, by the way, you might need to modify the codes accordingly if the codes were originally written for QBasic.

Found free QBasic. Won't work w/WinXP.

Many thanks to all who aided!

chuckles

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