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DOS task switchers / multitasking environments

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First post, by keenmaster486

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I'm not too familiar with these but I'm looking for something that does this:

-Runs in background
-Key combo to switch between "running" tasks or a new DOS prompt to start another program
-Light on memory
-Plays well with JEMM
-Doesn't screech and go insane when presented with a program that does anything more than output some text to the screen

I used to use DOSSHELL for this type of thing, but if I recall correctly it uses a lot of memory and is a bit more than what I'm looking for.

Any recommendations?

World's foremost 486 enjoyer.

Reply 1 of 2, by Yoghoo

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You could try DESQview and TopView for example. But I don't know if they are compatible with JEMM. JEMM is of course much newer than all of those DOS programs so it was certainly not tested back then.

Reply 2 of 2, by Jo22

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Novell DOS 7 has/had both a task-switcher and a task-manager.

The first one (TaskMAX) needs an 8086*/80286 and can run active applications/suspend inactive applications,
whereas the second one (TaskMGR) needs a 80386 and does real multitasking (uses V86, DPMI).

(*On 8086/88 it uses swap file to swap out suspended applications, on 286+ it uses XMS if available)

Edit: Correction. It seems that TaskMGR in NVD7 might include TaskMAX functionality and is no separate application anymore.

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