DOSVisor vs MS-DOS Player

DOSVisor is a Windows project that runs some MS-DOS programs in a virtualized 16-bit real-mode environment using the Windows Hypervisor Platform API. It is presented as a demonstration of that API rather than a complete DOS emulator. Hardware virtualization handles the CPU, while software emulates the DOS layer. A custom Interrupt Vector Table uses CPUID instructions to trigger VM exits and intercept DOS interrupts. DOSVisor captures I/O requests but supports only a small set of common requests. Timing support includes the BIOS counter, RAM refresh toggle bit, system clock, RTC registers, clock interrupts, and DOS current-time calls; the 8253 PIT timer is not fully implemented. Keyboard handling monitors state, keeps a simple buffer, and passes input through interrupts. Basic terminal commands support simple text-based games and other basic programs. BIOS data areas and the Program Segment Prefix are allocated but mostly unpopulated. The free public repository contains bin and src directories, with no releases or packages listed.

MS-DOS Player is a free command-line emulator for running 16-bit DOS-compatible commands in a Win32-x64 environment. It is aimed at text-mode utilities such as file converters, compilers, assemblers, debuggers and text editors. DOS programs inherit Windows environment variables and can access host file paths directly. The Windows archive provides binaries for emulating 8086, 80286, 80386, 80486, Pentium 4, NEC V30 and IA32 processors. Documented hardware includes up to 32 MB of RAM, LIM EMS, serial and parallel I/O, keyboard and mouse input, timers and text display. Virtual COM1–COM4 can connect to host COM ports, with a maximum baud rate of 9600 bps; parallel output is written to a timestamped .PRN file in TEMP. A 16-bit command file can also be embedded in a 32-bit or 64-bit executable that runs without msdos.exe. The project is a fork tuned for the ReC98 build process, and its source is available under GNU General Public License version 2.