Why should OS/2 got all the multitasking for! Especially given that it was bloated by late 80's standards and didn't support the features of the 386 processor either. However, Quarterdeck Office Systems created a revolutionary product. Well, Desqview wasn't that new. It was originally released in 1984 as a competitor to IBM Topview on the IBM PC/AT. On the 286 though, the DOS programs that Desqview loaded had to fit within that 640KB barrier. However, with QEMM386 (Quarterdeck Expanded Memory Manger) on PC's equipped with the 386 processor, the sky was the limit when it came to memory. Using QEMM 386, Desqview could now make use of all the memory that was in the PC. DOS programs could blast past the 640KB barrier and run in their own dedicated sessions.

Programs could be specifically written to run under Desqview as well. These programs could also preemptive multitask and make use of memory beyond 640KB. However, very few Desqviewspecific programs exists. Most use it as a DOS multitasker, where Desqview did not disappoint. Because COM serial ports could be multitasked on 386eqipped PC's, many users who operated BBS sites would run Desqview on their main workstation and virtualize the serial ports so multiple BBS sessions could run on their PC at the same time. Thus, more users could connect to a single workstation on those multiple connections virtualized by Desqview.

Desqview also supported the virtualized graphics capabilities offered by the 386 processor. Graphical DOS programs could run in a window. Desqview was a very powerful product for its time. It turned that singletasking 386equipped PC into that powerful workstation.

86Box is emulating a 16MHz, 386eqipped PC with 4MB's of RAM along with a Trident 8900 SVGA Adapter. The emulated computer has two 30MB harddisc images connected to it and MSDOS v3.30A is installed.

This was the version of Desqview/QEMM386 that I ran on 86Box
https://archive.org/details/qemm6.02d...