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From: nelson_p@apollo.HP.COM (Peter Nelson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: RE programs crashing in Desqview
Message-ID: <4913c88c.20b6d@apollo.HP.COM>
Date: 8 Mar 90 21:02:00 GMT
Sender: root@apollo.HP.COM
Distribution: usa
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Apollo Division - Chelmsford, MA
Lines: 41



    After posting some problems I've had in running certain 
    programs under Desqview I've received many responses from 
    other people describing problems they've had with Desqview.
    I've also read of other problems in running certain programs
    under Desqview here on the net and on various BBS's. 

    As a result of all this I am forced to sadly conclude that 
    Quarterdeck's product, while probably adequate for certain
    "known-to-be-safe" applications, is not yet a reasonable
    choice for a general-purpose environment.  Based on my
    extensive discussions with Quarterdeck *before* buying the 
    product in which they gave me glowing descriptions of how 
    reliable and tolerant of misbehaved programs it is, I'm 
    afraid it appears that Quarterdeck is intentionally trying
    to mislead the public by implying in their product is better
    than it really is in this respect, although admittedly
    they never said it will run "*any* DOS program".  

    It may also be true that some programs which seem to fail
    under Desqview *could* be made to run under it theoretically
    if we knew exactly how to configure it for that case.  But
    there's no *systematic* way to do this, you just have to try 
    a little of this and a little of that, and even Quarterdeck's 
    tech support has been unable to solve the riddle of my
    Zortech C graphics programs crashing under Desqview.

    I was relating my Desqview woes to a friend at Lotus who said
    he's heard it before about Desqview and suggested I try a 
    product called VM-386.   Does anybody know anything about 
    this product?   I understand it doesn't do windows: I can live
    without that; what I really want is to have multiple (2 is 
    probably sufficient) tasks running at the same time without
    crashing into each other or doing anything else they wouldn't
    do all by themselves.  The main thing I want is NO hassles and
    NO farting around tweaking things trying to get them to work.
    He said VM-386 fits the bill.  Does it?   Who makes it?  I 
    still have 60 days to get my money back on the Desqview.

                                                  ---Peter