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16 bit exe

4 replies on 1 page. Most recent reply: Jul 21, 2004 7:56 AM by Matthias Neumair

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Matthias Neumair

Posts: 660
Nickname: neumi
Registered: Sep, 2003

16 bit exe

Posted: Jul 20, 2004 4:39 AM

During my application I have to call a external 16 Bit program.

When I try to call it via

Runtime.getRuntime("myfile.exe")

I get the following error message during runtime:

[/i]16-Bit-MS-DOS-Subsystem
C:\WINDOWS\system32\ntvdm.exe
Error creating the environment for the application. Click "close" to exit the application.[/i]

The file works correctly when called from the command line.

I'm using Windows XP Professional (also tried on XP home) SP1 with all avaiable security updates.

btw: I'm using a german Windows system, so I had to translate the error message and it could be a bit different than the message on a english system.

What does ntvdm mean, NT Virtual DOS Machine?

Matthias Neumair

Posts: 660
Nickname: neumi
Registered: Sep, 2003

Re: 16 bit exe

Posted: Jul 20, 2004 7:36 AM

Big error:

I meant
Runtime.getRuntime().exec("myprogram.exe");

I know the exec() command supports runtime environment settings.
But I wasn's able to find any focumentation for this settings.

Can anyone help me or give me a link with a description of the settings?

Matt Gerrans

Posts: 1153
Nickname: matt
Registered: Feb, 2002

Re: 16 bit exe

Posted: Jul 20, 2004 10:42 AM

Hmm. I made this little program for experimenting:

public class Executor
{
   public static void main( String [] args ) throws Exception
   {
      String commandLine = join(args, " ");
      System.out.println("Executing \"" + commandLine + "\"" );
      Runtime.getRuntime().exec( commandLine );
   }
   
   private static String join( String [] parts, String separator )
   {
      if( parts == null || parts.length < 1 )
         return "";
      else
      {
         if( separator == null )
            separator = "";
         StringBuffer gestalt = new StringBuffer( parts[0] );
         for( int i = 1; i < parts.length; i++ )
         {
            gestalt.append( separator );
            gestalt.append( parts[ i ] );
         }
         return gestalt.toString();
      }
   }
}

It looks like just trying to run %SystemRoot%\system32\command.com (the 16-bit command interpreter) gets the error you mentioned.

Something similar in Python works just fine:

import os
print 'Running "%s"' % ' '.join(os.sys.argv[1:])
os.system(' '.join(os.sys.argv[1:]))

So I guess it is something with the JVM. I tried running command.com inside cmd.exe and that doesn't do the trick, either...

Matt Gerrans

Posts: 1153
Nickname: matt
Registered: Feb, 2002

Re: 16 bit exe

Posted: Jul 20, 2004 11:09 AM

I assume you are trying to run a 16-bit console app, because running a 16-bit Windows app doesn't seem to be as difficult.

Trying to do that using "cmd /c", causes cmd.exe to appear in the task list, but no command prompt window to appear, so I'm not sure if it is successfully running the 16-bit console app, but just hiding it.

Anyway, here is something which seems to work:


java Executor c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe /c start 16bitapp.exe

I did this with an old 16-bit COM file and it worked; it just causes it to appear in another window.

Matthias Neumair

Posts: 660
Nickname: neumi
Registered: Sep, 2003

Re: 16 bit exe

Posted: Jul 21, 2004 7:56 AM

"cmd /c start" did the trick, thanks.

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