I have dealt with this sort of scenario a number of times. I have
administered many small businesses,  primarily  professional offices with 2
to 10 employees. These offices more often then not use proprietary
software...like special medical or dental or legal or veterinary...  to run
the office that is often customized for them.

They usually come with ongoing expensive support packages.. Many times they
bought their programs it back in the DOS 6X days and continue to use it.
DOS has none of the benefits of a multitasking GUI but is extremely robust
and easy to use for repetitive tasks. I have one customer who had their DOS
6.0 box ON for FOUR years without a reboot.

I have found that these programs often will NOT run in a Win9X DOS window
and must run in pure DOS. I have always needed to patch and tweak the
software to run in Win98 DOS 7  and have big buffers to handle the data
base. The first thing to do is to call the software manufacturer and ask
them if it will run in your OS....but don't bet the farm on their answer. I
have been told yes no problem and then ended up with huge problems after I
did the upgrade. If this happens your customer will get very mad...at you.

You will often find that these companies offer and recommend a Win9X GUI
Upgrade version but you customer may be reluctant to upgrade because

1) It will be expensive ...could be many thousands of dollars in software,
training, moving data to new program, lost employee time learning how to
use it...and just general confusion during the transition.

2) ...Learning curve for employees. You can pretty much count on the
employees who have to use it are going to hate having to learn new software
and office procedures...this is particularly true if they aren't windows
savvy..which will be most employees.

I would be very surprised if any manufacture gives you the official OK for
Win2K.

The first thing to do is find the name and manufacturers of ALL the
programs they run and make contact with the manufacture.
Then If possible build a test box and try out the software with someone who
knows how to use it....just because it loads doesn't mean it will
work...have somebody who knows what they are doing play around with it.

Once you talk to the manufacture you will have some idea what will work.
Keep in mind that in a office environment the biggest cost to the owner is
often not the hardware upgrade but the training and getting through the
transition process.

Mark Rode
The NOSPIN Group

>      I am currently quoting a price to a customer for a server and 3
>workstation network.  The customer wants Windows 2000 Server and Windows ME
>for the workstations.  The main software the office uses for billing and
>bookkeeping is a DOS based program.  I have looked all over Microsoft's web
>site and I can not find any information if Windows 2000 Server and Windows
>ME supports DOS programs.  Does anyone know or have any experience with this
>situation??
>Jim Cook

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