Smart Luck DOS programs will not run on 64-bit windows. The only way to make them run is by upgrading the operating system to Windows 7 Professional, then installing XP-Mode. XP-Mode is actually a very large file (about 400 mb or so) which contains the hundred thousand or so files that are found on the C drive of a fully installed Windows XP Pro. Microsoft Virtual PC makes XP-Mode behave like an XP computer. When it is opened and the mouse is clicked in that window, any of Smart Luck DOS or windows programs can be installed and run. Note that Windows 8 Pro DOES NOT work with XP Mode.
XP-Mode requires Windows 7 Professional (or higher) which costs between $65 and $90 to upgrade from Windows 7 Home Premium and $150 to $200 to upgrade from 64-bit Vista. There is another way to use Smart Luck programs and it is probably easier for most people to use than installing and setting everything up in XP-Mode.
If you want to get and use XP-mode, view our 32-bit vs 64-bit page which contains all of the information on how to determine your operating system, how to upgrade to Windows 7 Professional (with links to Microsoft and Amazon) and how to install XP-Mode and Microsoft Virtual PC.
Dosbox is an open source, free, DOS Emulator program that will allow the Smart Luck programs to run on 64-bit windows platforms. A program on our web site will connect Advantage Plus to DOSbox with no setup or configuration on your part. To get everything working, do the following:
Dosbox does not connect to any printers and is not able to start a windows program. The net result is that programs running in Dosbox cannot print to a printer. However, they can easily print to a file.
To print Advantage Plus charts (or wheels from the DOS wheel programs), for example, press F2-Print, press 'f' to print to a file, type f for the file name and press ENTER. If the file already exists, it will ask if you want to Replace the file or Append to it. Type R or A.
When you are ready to send that file, f, to the printer, click on the Print F shortcut icon made in step 3 or press CTRL+ALT+p (That's press and hold down the CTRL key and at the same time, the ALT key to the left of the space bar, then press the letter p. It's definitely a two handed operation but not that difficult and is close to the Windows standard CTRL+p for printing and so should be fairly easy to remember). All charts in the file will then print. To avoid re-printing the same pages next time, be sure to select R to Replace the file when it asks.
DOSbox has just one essential limitation - it does not allow DOS programs to start windows programs directly.
You can still use Windows programs outside of DOSBox at the same time, since DOSBox is in its own window,
but the inability to directly start a Windows program has
an effect on printing and on connecting to other Smart Luck programs.
The printing problem is resolved by using the steps in 4 above.
There is no easy solution at this time for allowing Advantage Plus, for example, to start Wheel Gold or
Filtering Full Wheel Generator programs.
This is the normal behavior to send Smart Picks to a wheel program.
In Advantage Plus, when you go to the Smart Picks Screen, Chart W, and press F7-Wheel,
Advantage Plus will attach the smart picks to the currently selected history file,
then it makes a temporary file which contains the selected Smart Picks
and tries to call the wheel program passing the name of that file as a parameter.
The wheel program will fail to start, but the Smart Picks will end up in the history file
and will be visible to the windows wheeling programs in the history file.
These will show as FILL WITH options.
In essence, the functionality is not lost when using DOSbox, though the direct use of the function key doesn't work.