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Author Topic: Windows task-switching issue Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-03-2007 10:08 AM                        I'm having an annoying computer problem. If I switch from a non-windows program (BASIC, actually) running in a window, back to the regular Windows environment using ALT-tab or just by clicking the other window, there is about a 7 second delay before "regular" Windows will respond. I assume there's some setting in the window running BASIC that needs to be fixed, but what is it? Any ideas? I'm running Windows XP Pro if that makes any difference. [ 12-03-2007, 11:12 AM: Message edited by: Mike Blakesley ]  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 12-03-2007 01:13 PM                     "Basically", you're using DOS if doing BASIC since DOS is still at the core of XP, but barely enough there since Windows needs a fraction of old MSDOS to operate. Microsoft really would love to dump DOS all-together like APPLE did with their text based DOS, but still shows loyalty to their customers by keeping enough MSDOS in there to make them happy .. like yourself when you play with BASIC. Take a peek at this site if you still love playing with MS-DOS programs, including BASIC. I still play with a bunch of DOS programs in my laptop here (and I have XPproSP2 as well), including an old copy of Lotus 2.3 which I've created an icon for that program on my desktop. Good luck - Monte  |  IP: Logged Mark J. Marshall Film God Posts: 3188 From: New Castle, DE, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 12-03-2007 03:04 PM                    I don't know the answer to your specific problem, but if you like playing in DOS within XP, I would suggest VMWare. You'd probably get a much cleaner experience that way. We have an old accounting system that only works under DOS (or Windows 95), but since you can't buy hardware to run either of those anymore, we use VMWare on XP. The XP user boots up the virtual 95 PC, logs in to the accounting system, and voila.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-03-2007 03:29 PM                        The only thing I use BASIC for is -- we run a little UPS shipping service on the side here, and the Basic program is one I wrote about a 15 years ago that prints the receipts for the customers and keeps a file on how much we charge vs how much we're paying UPS. For some dumb reason, the UPS software we use doesn't have a facility for making customer receipts, so I built my own deal. I've been wanting to create an Excel file to do the receipts. I've got it to where it does the math OK, but I can't figure out how to make it "accumulate" the transactions from one to the next for the end-of-day balancing.  |  IP: Logged Evans A Criswell Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1579 From: Huntsville, AL, USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 12-03-2007 03:38 PM                        Nothing runs DOS anymore? I thought all computer would still run DOS if you could boot from a small FAT file system. All systems still seem to have the old text-modes built in, and even recent Windows boxes still come up in that for the BIOS stuff before booting.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-03-2007 05:02 PM                        The ol' DOS program runs fine - its the switching back to Windows that's the problem. I'll click in some other window and the system just hangs there with an hourglass for 6 or 7 seconds....as if it has taken everything in its power to run this stupid little DOS (BASIC) program. That pause is what I'm trying to solve.  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 12-03-2007 06:19 PM                        Is the disk activity light on the entire time you're waiting for the switchover? How much RAM does the machine have?  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-03-2007 06:28 PM                        No, the activity light doesn't come on at all during the process. I don't always get the hourglass either -- just the delay, sometimes. This is a 2-year old Dell machine with lotsa memory, 2 GB I think, so that shouldn't be an issue.  |  IP: Logged Mark J. Marshall Film God Posts: 3188 From: New Castle, DE, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 12-03-2007 06:30 PM                    New systems will run DOS, but finding drivers for new hardware is difficult. Virtual machines make it much easier to get a new system up and running with 95 and all of the network drivers and what not. It's also very easy to pick the virtual PC up and move it to another physical PC. Much easier than trying to keep older pieces of hardware running.  |  IP: Logged Daryl C. W. O'Shea Film God Posts: 3977 From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from) Registered: Jun 2002 posted 12-04-2007 04:33 PM                        If you first open a shell (run-> "cmd.exe") and then try to start NTVDM with "command.com" does it bitch at you about being broken?  |  IP: Logged Brad Allen Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 688 From: Evansville, IN, USA Registered: May 2000 posted 12-04-2007 06:16 PM                     quote: Mike Blakesley No, the activity light doesn't come on at all during the process. I don't always get the hourglass either -- just the delay, sometimes. This is a 2-year old Dell machine with lotsa memory, 2 GB I think, so that shouldn't be an issue. Have you scanned for malware/spyware lately? Running Norton IS? It's a freakin, trouble makin resource hog.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-04-2007 07:16 PM                        Brad - This computer used to have McAfee on it, but it conflicted with the UPS software which has to talk to UPS every day, so we took the McAfee off and all has been well since then. It's currently running without any security software except Windows firewall. Might be worth a try to reinstall something and give it a scan, but it's working 100% perfect in every other way except this thing. Daryl: Excuse my ignorance here, but what do you mean by "try to start NTVDM with "command.com" "?  |  IP: Logged Daryl C. W. O'Shea Film God Posts: 3977 From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from) Registered: Jun 2002 posted 12-04-2007 08:27 PM                        You can start the NT Virtual DOS Machine (NTVDM) by typing the command "command.com" and hitting enter from within the text mode shell (run "cmd.exe" from the Start->Run dialog). Has this machine always been slow switching between this basic program and other windows? What version number of basic? Which incarnation of basic, QBasic?  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-04-2007 10:59 PM                        OK, I'll try that tomorrow when I'm near that computer. I'm not sure how long it's been doing this, but it didn't do it when new. It's a 2-year old machine, give or take a few months.  |  IP: Logged Brad Allen Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 688 From: Evansville, IN, USA Registered: May 2000 posted 12-07-2007 05:32 PM                     Mike, you can download and install Ad-Aware for free. It does a fair job of finding and removing crap/ad/spy ware that gets downloaded without your knowledge. Download Adaware here  |  IP: Logged

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