Supporting OS/2 Applications Under Windows NT

Supporting OS/2 Applications Under Windows NT

Windows NT has limited support for OS/2 applications. By default the following is supported under Windows NT:

OS/2 1.x-character-based applications are supported only on the Intel platform running the OS/2 subsystem.
If the OS/2 applications make any calls to the Presentation Manager, they are not by default supported in the OS/2 subsystem.
OS/2 applications can be executed on RISC-based Windows NT systems if the OS/2 applications are Bound applications. Bound applications are applications that have been written to execute in either OS/2 or MS-DOS. Because there is no OS/2 subsystem for RISC-based systems, these bound applications execute only in an NTVDM.

You can force a Bound application to execute in a NTVDM on an Intel-based Windows NT system by using the Forcedos command. By default though, Bound applications always choose to run in the OS/2 subsystem because they execute faster in their native environment.

Expect at least one exam question that deals with the concept of Bound applications and the Forcedos command. Remember also that the only way to execute OS/2 applications on RISC-based systems is to use the Forcedos command for Bound applications.

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