How to install DOS 6.22 on VirtualBox?

Introduction

Originally 86-DOS, written by Tim Paterson of Seattle Computer Products, DOS was a rough clone of CP/M for 8086 based hardware. Microsoft purchased it and licensed it to IBM for use with Microsoft's IBM PC language products. In 1982, Microsoft began licensing DOS to other OEMs that ported it to their custom x86 hardware and IBM PC clones.

Microsoft DOS 6.22 was the last standalone version from Microsoft. It was also the last from Microsoft to run on an 8088, 8086, or 286.

6.22 adds DriveSpace, a replacement for DOS 6.20's DoubleSpace drive compression that was removed in 6.21.

Files Needed

• DOS 6.22 Floppy Images Archive

Creating the Virtual Machine

If you have not yet installed VirtualBox, see our tutorial on How to install Virtualbox on Windows 10?

Open up VirtualBox and select New. 

A Create Virtual Machine dialog box will appear allowing you to select which operating system it will be using for this virtual machine (VM).

Enter the Name you want for your VM. In Type, choose 'Other'. For version, choose 'DOS'. Click Next. You will be presented with the option to choose the amount of RAM.

We will leave the default which is 32 MB. Click Next. Now the option is regarding a hard disk for the VM.

As we don't have any virtual hard disk, we will choose 'Create a virtual hard disk now'. Click on Create. The Hard Disk creation wizard will open.

We will choose VDI format but you can choose any format depending on whether you want to use the virtual machine with some other software in future or not. Click Next.

Choose Dynamically allocated. It allows you to save much space on the host OS. Many websites claim that using dynamically allocated hard disk slows down the guest OS, but I do not find it true. Click Next.

Here you can choose the size of the Hard Disk. For DOS 6.22 you can choose any value from 40 MB to 2 GB. We will choose 1 GB. Note that if you have chosen to create dynamically allocated disk, then the size of the disk will be very small at this point and it will continue to expand as you install programs and add files. It will not expand more than the size selected here. Click on create.

The wizard completes and you’ll see DOS 3.1 as an option that is currently ‘powered off’. 

The VM has now been created. Now we need to add the installation floppy. Click on 'Empty' in the Floppy Device 0 option then click on 'Choose a Disk File' option.

Choose the 'disk1.img' file and click on open.

Now we need to change some settings for the virtual machine. Click on Settings.

Change the following settings.

• System > Acceleration tab > Deactivate Nested Paging
• Make sure Audio > Audio Controller is SoundBlaster 16
• Network > Adapter 1 > Attached to > Choose Bridged Network (shown below)
• Make sure USB > USB controller is disabled

Now the VM is ready to start. Click on 'Start' to start the VM.

Installing DOS 6.22

After the virtual machine starts, you will see the following screen,

Press enter to continue installation.

Since this is a virtual machine, you can safely choose to configure unallocated disk space. Press enter to continue.

Since, we have already inserted the disk, press enter to restart the virtual machine.

The formatting of the virtual hard disk will start.

Choose the setting which is applicable to you. If in doubt leave the defaults. Highlight "All settings are correct." and press enter to continue.

The default location is OK. Press enter to continue.

The installation will start.

When prompted to insert the second disk, click on Device > Floppy Drive > Choose a disk file.

Choose the second disk image and click on OK.

After the installation is finished, you will see the above screen telling you to remove all disks.

Click on Devices > Floppy Drive > Remove Disk from virtual drive.

Press enter to restart the virtual machine.

After the virtual machine restarts, insert the the fourth disk image called - Suppdisk.

Type the following and press enter after each line to install supplemental utilities including the DOS SHELL shown in the first picture:

a:

a:\setup c:\dos

Press A to install all components.

Since VirtualBox virtualizes VGA monitor for DOS systems, press F5.

Press Y to reinstall a better version of ISO.CPI file.

You will reach this screen. Press host key + R to restart the virtual machine. On windows it is Right Ctrl + R.

We have successfully installed DOS 6.22.

We have created a tutorial on what to do after installing DOS 6.22 which includes how to setup CD Driver, enable tab completion, install a better alternative to the edit program, install unzip, install sound drivers, install MS Word, make the DOSSHELL work with mouse, system optimization and much more. It is available here - What to do after installing DOS 6.22?

Make sure you follow that tutorial so that you can have a better DOS experience. We are also working on a tutorial on setting up networking in DOS 6.22 along with a working Web Browser. We will post the link here, so stay tuned.

Conclusion

We have successfully installed DOS 6.22 on virtual machine and installed Supplemental Utilities on it. Stay tuned to this blog to know how to make DOS 6.22 much better. If you have any questions or feedback then email me or use the comment section. You can also contact us on any of our social media accounts through direct message/comments.

 

For issues related to the functioning of this website or in downloading files, use the message button in the lower right corner.

Please share this tutorial as much as you can.