DOS Progs Slow-Down !!!

I note that any DOS program running in XP, and executing ongoing operations will, after a short time, slow to a crawl. Move the mouse or other "screensaver-ending" activity, and the speed picks up again to normal, but then again after the short time slows to a crawl, etc., etc. What causes this, and how to prevent it? Thanks ! ...

 

Just found what should have been an obvious solution. Create a shortcut to the DOS program, then go into Properties -> Misc, and set the Idle Sensitivity all the way to minimum.

 

Further Insight mystery ! :

With Idle Sensitivity set to minimum as described in the previous post, the slow-down of running DOS programs actually still happens, but the drop in speed is much less than with higher Idle Sensitivity settings, hence at first I missed it. The speed still drops to about 1/2. Any ideas & thanks ....

 

I'm assuming this is an older 16bit DOS application where a shortcut to the .exe contains a tab for memory options. If so, play around with them to find what the app likes best.

Also (and still in the shortcut box) under Program and the advanced button - it should give you where the PIF is pointing to get various settings. The default is autoexec.nt and config.nt in \system32. Check those to see if they have the settings you would expect the app to add to autoexec.bat and config.sys on an older OS. If not, make up your own and maybe put them in the app folder.

 

These programs are, modest continuously running graphical routines, and compiled (*.EXE) programs developed in QB45. I wasn't even aware of autoexec.nt or config.nt, but have tweaked the DOS shortcut properties extensively, all to no avail.

 

If the apps wrote any environment requirements they had to config.sys or autoexec.bat or both (and lots of graphics applets did) then you really may need to make sure those are available to the apps.

Probably worth your time to look at Troubleshooting MS-DOS-Based Programs in Windows XP .