MS-DOS Kermit and Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP/Vista/7

Can I Use MS-DOS Kermit in 32-bit Windows?

MS-DOS Kermit is a 16-bit DOS program for MS-DOS, PC-DOS, DR-DOS, etc, that also can be used (with some extra setup work) in Windows 3.1 and earlier.

MS-DOS Kermit was not designed for and was never intended to run under 32-bit or 64-bit Windows operating systems such as Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Millenium Edition, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003, Windows Vista, Windows 7, etc etc. Although you might be able to start MS-DOS Kermit on these platforms, it will not be able to access all of their devices and features:

• For serial communications, MS-DOS Kermit accesses the COM port hardware directly. Therefore it can use only Windows communication ports whose drivers perfectly emulate 8250 or 16550A UART hardware. It can not use TAPI devices, Winmodems, RPI modems, ISDN modems, nor in most cases PCMCIA, USB, or Plug-n-Play devices, which are accessible only through 32-bit Windows drivers to which MS-DOS Kermit (as a 16-bit application) does not have access. Nor can it access true COM ports if they are owned by TAPI, unless you release them from TAPI first, which you must do outside of MS-DOS Kermit, since MS-DOS Kermit can not access TAPI.

• MS-DOS Kermit can not use 32-bit Windows network stacks. It can't use its own built-in TCP/IP network stack either because only one network stack can be active at a time on a given adapter.

• MS-DOS Kermit can not access long file or directory names, or file or directory names containing spaces.

• MS-DOS Kermit can not access windows printer queues.

• MS-DOS Kermit does its own memory management, which is liable to collide with that done by Windows, resulting in "out of memory" or other errors.

Nowadays new PCs tend to have Windows XP or higher preinstalled, plus a Winmodem and/or USB serial port, and the Microsoft TCP/IP stack. MS-DOS Kermit can not use the Winmodem, nor can it use the TCP/IP stack, nor USB ports, etc. Thus it is not appropriate or recommended for, nor supported on, Windows 95 and later; that is, any 32-bit or 64-bit version of Windows.

If you wish to try MS-DOS Kermit under 32- or 64-bit Windows (or OS/2), you may do so at your own risk. If you have any trouble, the remedy is to use Kermit 95 instead, which is the native, recommended, and supported 32-bit Windows Kermit software for Windows 95 and above, and which has none of the limitations listed here. It "just works" out of the box with any Windows communications device or network stack, gives you full access to Windows features, and is fully supported in Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, and Windows 7, as well as in IBM OS/2, and it has loads of features that MS-DOS Kermit doesn't have, including XYZMODEM protocols built in, an SSH client, an FTP client, Kerberos and SSL/TLS security, Unicode, and much more.

CLICK HERE to read about Kermit 95. CLICK HERE to download a free 21-day trial version of Kermit 95.

[Kermit 95 Home] [Kermit Project Home]