Try running dosbox shortcut with the -noconsole parameter.

BOX 1 contains the lines
CONFIG: Loading settings from config file dosbox.conf
+
MIDI: Opened device:win32

I changed the target line command from

"C:\Program Files\DOSBox-0.63\dosbox.exe" -conf -noconsole"C:\Program Files\DOSBox-0.63\dosbox.conf "

BOX1 still opens but does not contain the first line
CONFIG: Loading settings from config file dosbox.conf

I then tried
"C:\Program Files\DOSBox-0.63\dosbox.exe" -conf"C:\Program Files\DOSBox-0.63\dosbox.conf -noconsole"

This appears to do nothing ??

"C:\Program Files\DOSBox-0.63\dosbox.exe" -conf"C:\Program Files\DOSBox-0.63\dosbox.conf" -noconsole

that's the one!
thanks to you both for the support

It may be less annoying not to have this window around, but just know that without it DOSBox would leave some actual (log) files around in whatever folder you've started DOSBox from.

Is there a way to get both the window and the log file(s)?

It's not over yet!!

Just noticed this today....

the weirdest thing

If I start DOSbox using -noconsole I don't get the 2 DOS sessions (2 DOS boxes). This is exactly what I want.

If I then close DOSbox and try and restart it nothing happens (or doesn't appear to).

When I then close down windows (XP Pro) my DOSbox appears (more than once dependent upon how many times I tried to start it. If I tried 4 times then there will be four sessions)

Anything I can do?

- Don't hit the X to close DOSBox. Instead, use the 'exit' command at the virtual DOS prompt.
- After closing DOSBox, bring up the Task Manager in XP (ctrl+alt+delete) and make sure no dosbox.exe processes are still running (if there are, kill them).