DOS Box

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What Does DOS Box Mean?

“DOS box” or “DOSBox” in IT slang is a term that gets used in more than one way. People may refer to a DOS box as some sort of emulator or software program that accommodates playing old DOS-based games on a new Windows computer or other modern device. However, people can also use the term DOS box to talk about an older computer that only runs the DOS operating system.

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Techopedia Explains DOS Box

What these two uses of the term DOS box have in common is that each of these technologies, the old retro computer and the new emulator, both support the types of DOS-based executable files that were so popular in the 1980s and early 1990s. Using a DOS box allows people to get back in touch with that technology that amazed and intrigued them at a younger age. The term DOS box belongs in the canon of retro technology jargon, as hobbyists and others use vintage computers or modern emulator tools to support an old PC-DOS environment.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology Specialist
Margaret Rouse
Technology Specialist

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.