No. I think printing is possible using h-a-l-9000's MegaBuild (http://home.arcor.de/h-a-l-9000/index.html), although I've never tried that myself. Generic USB support doesn't exist in DOSBox.

Thank-you. That is exactly what I wanted to know.

Is USB support a future goal?

No, it isn't. DOSBox is intended to play DOS games. DOS itself had no USB support and any USB devices that are useful now (storage, mouse, keyboard, joystick and sound) are usable through the host operating system anyway. Printers are not used by games anyway, but h-a-l's build makes it possible.

And printing to USB *might* not even work with HAL's MegaBuild. I might be wrong, though, I vaguely remember something about it.

I think you must share your USB printer and redirect it to an LPT port, for instance:

net use \\network\printer lpt1: /persistent:yes

The poster asked about usb support, not printer support (though it is strange
why you'd need usb support for any dos app).

Dosbox claims to be able to boot an operating system. That's why I asked, but you have answered my question--thanks. I am only responding because you seem to be wondering why I asked.

If you want to boot an OS use bochs or some virtualizer.

Yes, I currently do use another virtualizer, and I also do use Dosbox for old games, but I was hoping to use only one. However, other virtualizers are too slow or have other kinks when it comes to old games, and Dosbox does not handle USB, so I'll still need separate applications. That was my idea, anyway.

What sort of USB device are you wanting to connect? I'm curious what sort of DOS program would require a USB dongle or something to work...

he did mention a printer in the first post...
Apart from that I can't think of anything else that USB support would be needed, since Dosbox does "support" some devices you can hook up to your computer via USB. Joysticks, CD-Rom drives, probably USB sound cards are working in Dosbox as long as they work in the host

he did mention a printer in the first post...

He explicitly posted "does it have usb support" mentioning for example printers,
posting in the dev forum. If he only wants printing i'd guess he had asked for it.

Not to mention once a solution was offered for printing the OP then said DOSBox still couldn't be used because it doesn't offer USB support.

So perhaps if the specifics could be listed, there might be a better chance of someone coming up with a solution. About the only things I can think of that wouldn't work through DOSBox are an OS with its own USB drivers that directly access the hardware, or something that presents an interface to the host OS that doesn't have an equivalent in DOS (like a USB generic HID device - UPS, dongle, etc.)

From experience with other users who post here, the want for USB support is limited to USB printers and I really can't think of a device you'd need USB support for in Dosbox (printing aside).

I didn't think it would work (printer or otherwise) because no one sounds very sure, but I'll keep this information in mind the next time I take a whack at it. Thanks.

ray, it would be nice if you could elaborate what you mean with otherwise? As you can read we have been discussing it and have no idea what USB-device you'd want to use that isn't supported...

Anything. Everything. It doesn't matter. Are you implying that you have a list of USB devices that do work? If so, maybe I could use it sometime for something, but for now, you all have answered my question. Thanks. You all are very thorough. I wish all forums were like this.

The problem is we're all a bit confused why you would ask such a question, unless you have encountered a specific problem. It's like someone asking whether Microsoft Word has USB support - it doesn't need it because Windows, being the operating system, looks after all hardware devices, USB or otherwise. Microsoft Word just talks to Windows and doesn't have to know whether a device is USB, PCI, serial or bluetooth.

Likewise DOSBox uses the operating system to talk to the hardware inside the PC, so it doesn't need USB support to make use of USB devices.

Hence we're all a bit confused about what you meant by "USB support" 😀

Certain virtual systems provide USB support (e.g., VirtualBox), others do not (e.g., VirtualPC). I only asked the same of DosBox and received a good enough answer.