VDos is a fork of the DOSBox project which enables you to run DOS programs under Windows. (Yes, 64-bit Windows, too, even if it normally warns you that "this app can't run on your PC").

VDos isn't for playing games. It doesn't have all the hardware emulation of DOSBox, can't handle joysticks or pretend to be a host of different Sound Blasters. If that's what you're after, stick with DOSBox.

What vDOS offers instead is better support for more serious, text-oriented applications. A simple example: its console uses a TrueType font, which means you're not stuck with tiny, fixed-sized text, and can increase its size (Win+F12) or decrease it (Win+F11) as required.

You can paste the contents of the Windows clipboard into your vDOS application by pressing Win+Ctrl+V.

DOS applications won't understand the clipboard, of course, but that's not a problem. If there's information you'd like to transfer, display it on the vDOS console, and press Win+Ctrl+C. VDos dumps the contents of the screen as a text file, then opens it in Notepad (or your default .txt file app).

Built-in file and record locking ensures you'll be able to use the most heavy-duty of database apps without risk of file corruption.

There's support for Windows printing, although only via the shareware DOSPrinter. This occasionally prints a copyright message on the first page and costs $30 to register.

Configuration is generally easy, not least because of its live file system (the program uses your own drive letters and folders, not a virtual "x:\"). VDos.pdf in the installation folder is only 1 page and a mere 10KB in size, but it still provides all the core details you need to know.