QBasic is a variant of the BASIC programming language designed by Microsoft. With QBasic, a user can design computer programs or utilities.

Availability

QBasic is an external command that is available in the following versions of Microsoft operating systems as qbasic.exe.

  • Availability

  • QBasic syntax

  • QBasic examples

  • Windows 95 and Windows 98 QBasic

  • All Versions of MS-DOS

  • Windows 95

  • Windows 98

QBasic syntax

Starts the MS-DOS QBasic programming environment.

QBASIC [/B] [/EDITOR] [/G] [/H] [/MBF] [/NOHI] [[/RUN] [drive:][path]filename]

QBasic examples

qbasic /run game.bas

Open QBasic and run game.bas.

Windows 95 and Windows 98 QBasic

QBasic is not installed when you put Windows 95 and Windows 98 on your computer. However, it is still on the Windows CD for support with older programs, and people still interested in programming in BASIC. QBasic is in one of the following locations.

If you do not have a program called game.bas, it opens a blank QBasic window.

Windows 98

X:\TOOLS\OLDMSDOS>

X being the letter of your CD-ROM drive. To use QBasic without the Windows 98 CD, copy QBasic.exe and QBasic.hlp to a directory on your hard drive.

Windows 95

QBasic can be in different locations depending on the Windows 95 version, and if your CD is an OEM CD. To locate QBasic, place your Windows 95 CD in the computer click Start, Find, and search for qbasic*.*, and ensure you’re looking in the CD-ROM drive. This command should locate two files: qbasic.exe and qbasic.hlp. Copy these two files to a directory of your choice on the hard drive.

If you have an OEM restore CD and do not have the directory above, follow the instructions for Windows 95 users.

  • How to determine the version of Windows on a computer.
  • Where can I find or download QBasic?
  • See our programming language definition for further information and related links on this term.