Hmm, never heard of that problem before... once upon a time DOSBox would crash if you closed the console window rather than the main window, but that was resolved, and either one should close both. As a workaround, if you don't really need the console window, just don't open it in the first place by running DOSBox with the -noconsole command line parameter.

well, the -noconsole switch still allows the programs to run, but when the program is exited DOSBox stays in memory as a process in Task Manager.

Any more ideas?

Not exactly sure what you're trying to do, but if you're expecting DOSBox to close just because you terminate a program running inside it, that won't happen automatically. If that's what you're trying to do, you can use an EXIT command after running the program, because DOSBox will close when the top-level command shell exits.

An example of what the [autoexec] section in dosbox.conf might look like:

1mount c c:\dosapps
2c:
3cd myapp
4myapp.exe
5exit

you can also do something similar by specifying the program to run and the -exit parameter on the command line; it's in the readme.

thnx for your reply. the example you gave is exactly how the CONF file is written. hmmmm

I'll try -exit on the command line

Well, since you say it only doesn't work on a particular notebook, have you tried removing all programs running in the task tray? I know notebooks tend to have a lot of "monitor" type apps running for power management and whatnot, and maybe an app is interfering.

well, had a eureka moment (got it working, DOSbox no longer stays in memory) but I don't know how it happened 😒

went along the lines you were thinking (possible software conflict) and started doing everything imaginable, stopping processes, msconfig diagnostic mode, safe mode etc.

When it worked in safe mode I knew we had something. Kept experimenting and now it works in full mode ... just wish I knew how we got there!

thanks for your help!