Shortcuts that You Run in DOSBox

From DOSBoxWiki
Revision as of 22:25, 28 January 2012 by HHaddow990 (talk | contribs) (→‎A Small Shortcut Maker: added code to name the shortcut differently from the file, introduced output text and added information in the folder part of the code)
Jump to navigationJump to search
  • This will allow you to use a shortcut to your program using a batch file that you run in DOSBox it's self.
  • This way you can keep you mount settings
  • Create in the root directory of the folder you use primarily for DOSBox a text file and rename it [program].bat
  • The shortcuts will need to be in the same (mounted) drive as the program(s) you want to run
  • Open it in notepad and type
    • @echo off
cd [program dir]
[program]
cd \
REM once the program is closed this will take you back to the root directory
  • To run it (provided your autoexec has something like "mount C C:\folder", C:\ and [program].bat is in C:\folder) just type [program].
  • So for theme hospital that would be 'hospital.bat' and
    • @echo off
cd hospital
hospital
cd \
  • and to run it all you need to do is type 'hospital'.
  • If autoexec is empty then you will need to add the lines
    • mount C C:\folder
and
C:\

A Small Shortcut Maker

  • You can write a program to do this quickly
  • Unfortunately this can't be run from dosbox due to the set /P command not being supported by DOS 6.22 (if there is a native command that will allow for the input of a string then feel free to modify the code you will also have to change the choice syntax from choice [/m "text"] to choice [text])
  • Create a batch file in the directory you want the shortcuts to be in lets call it short.bat and write this to it
    • @echo off
set /P program="Enter the name of the program: "
choice /m "Does the program folder have the same name as the program file (only if folder is in shortcut directory): "
REM i.e. shortcut is C:short (in DOSBox) and file is C:\folder\file
REM say no if folder is C:\prog\folder\file and if shortcut is in C:\shortf\short use the full path
if errorlevel 1 set folder=%program%
if errorlevel 2 set /P folder="Enter the name of the program folder: "
choice /m "Do you want the shortcut to have the same name as the program file"
if errorlevel 1 set shortcut=%program%
if errorlevel 2 set /P shortcut="Enter the name of the shortcut: "
echo @echo off > %shortcut%.bat
echo cd %folder% >> %shortcut%.bat
echo %program% >> %shortcut%.bat
echo cd \ >> %shortcut%.bat
echo "A shortcut to the file %file% in the folder %folder% wwith the name %shortcut%"
echo "To run %file% just type %shortcut%"
pause