The Expanded Memory Solution
EMS Magic is an expanded memory (EMS) emulator for DOS programs. It runs on most versions of DOS and Windows (32-bit), including Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8 and Server 2003/2008.
When using EMS Magic, your DOS programs are guaranteed to have EMS available to them, even on systems where EMM386 and the NTVDM EMM fail to load. EMS Magic is also the only solution which can provide EMS on Windows Vista, due to Microsoft removing all native EMS support.
EMS Magic has been tested extensively and is compatible with a wide range of applications. Just for starters:
- Advanced Revelation
- Ashton-Tate dBASE
- Borland C/C++
- Borland Turbo Pascal
- Borland Turbo Assembler & Debugger
- Borland Quattro Pro
- Locomotive Software LocoScript
- Lotus 1-2-3
- Lotus Works
- Lotus Symphony
- Microsoft QuickBASIC PDS
- Microsoft QuickC
- Microsoft Word for DOS
- Microsoft Works for DOS
- WordPerfect for DOS
Due to the complete implementation of the Lotus-Intel-Microsoft (LIM) 4.0 EMS specification, nearly all DOS programs which utilize expanded memory can detect and use the memory provided by EMS Magic.
What's New?
EMS Magic is now freeware!
- As I no longer have time to support EMS Magic, I am changing the license to freeware. I will still try to respond to emails but I cannot promise anything.
Version 2.1 was released on January 31, 2009:
- TSR loader format changed from COM to EXE. More compatible with TameDOS; NTVDM no longer crashes if Tame is loaded before EMS Magic.
Version 2.0 was released on December 15, 2008:
- Licensing has changed; EMS Magic is now free of charge for personal, non-commercial use only. The free
personal version of EMS Magic is identical to the commercial versions, with the exception of the
/QUIET switch, which has been removed to discourage unauthorized use.
- TSR loader improved to optimize resident memory usage and allocation. EMS emulator now uses up to 15% less memory because
the XMS fix is only loaded into memory when required. Previously the XMS fix was always resident even when not activated
(/NOXMS). In addition several EMS emulator functions have been optimized.
- XMS fix now fully supports odd-length XMS moves when using Function 0Bh (Move Extended Memory Block), including
single-byte moves. Most XMS 3.0 managers allow odd move lengths, even though the official specification says the
length must be even. A few programs (specifically, "Troopers") take advantage of this and use odd lengths
when moving blocks.
- /NOXMS switch removed; XMS fix is no longer loaded by default. Use the
/XMS3 switch to load the XMS fix if desired.
- Shortcuts for command prompt with maximum EMS are now created by Windows installer. Shortcuts with VDMSound will
will only be created if VDMSound is already installed.
- New website launched. HTML user's manual and Windows installer updated with new logo and colors.
Version 1.1 was released on April 9, 2008:
- EMS Magic will now load itself into UMBs by default, unless the /L
switch is specified. This should save ~7K conventional memory on most systems with limited free UMBs. Previously
LOADHIGH was needed to load EMS Magic into UMBs, which required 64K+
free initially.
- MAX option added to the /RAM
switch. Specifying /RAM=MAX will use all available XMS for EMS.
- /BEST switch added. This forces EMS Magic to use the "best fit" memory allocation strategy when loading, rather than the default "last fit". This is needed for some programs that expect the upper end of conventional memory to be available.
What People Are Saying
I have had a really hard time trying to get an older copy of Lotus 123 R2.2 for DOS to work on a Windows XP Laptop that I have at work here. After dueling with Microsoft who are stating that they no longer support what they produce, I found EMS Magic and tried it out. Here is what I found: It works perfectly and is 100% Stable under Windows XP with Lotus 123 R2.2. Thank you for the good work.
Joel
When I moved to newer equipment and newer versions of Windows (XP and Vista), while I could load Symphony in a DOS window, I could no longer open larger spreadsheets. After much surfing, I discovered EMS Magic which solves the "enhanced memory" problem and allows the opening of large files under both XP and Business Vista.
Chuck
EMS Magic © 2003-2014 Jon Ρetrosky