Telemec pl722 software probs

We have a problem Houston!

We have just downloaded pl722 from Schneider to use on some old TLX 17 plc's.
Unfortunately our laptop runs XP Professional and doesn't like dos based programs.
Schneider told us to install MS Virtual PC and load Win98 onto it and run PL722 from this setup.
We have to load "User Interface" first.
When we try and install onto Virtual PC we get all sorts of problems: Firstly the keyboard goes bananas and virtually unusable (I see why its called VIRTUAL pc now!) I think pl722 some how resets the keyboard to French. (keys in different positions).
Eventually we get various messages like:- "Fatal Error: 316
C:\TE_BOOT\Autoexec.Pre
Cannot find file, package is incomplete. Use a complete Telemecanique package"
We get various messages like this with different error codes.
Schneider emailed another copy with the same results. I think the package is ok. But I think the problem lies in trying to run this program through Virtual pc and Win98.

Has anyone else had similar probs and if so can you suggest a fix apart from a big hammer!

Thanks.

Free alternative to M$ Virtual PC

I was going to try Micro$oft Virtual PC when I found DOSBOX. I've installed it and the suggested frontend, D-FEND on my XP Pro notebook computer. Very easy. I had begun to use it with GE Fanuc's old LogicMaster Six software which even requires ansi.sys in the config file. It seems to work, haven't tried to connect to S6 through COM1 (don't have a S6 handy). DOSBOX supposedly takes low level control of the comm port. The program is for running old DOS-based games, but it should work for any old DOS-based program. Here are the links:

http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/news.php?show_news=1
http://members.home.nl/mabus/dfend.htm

Good Luck!

Well believe it or not I actually got it all loaded. Took me 4 hours and the air was rather blue though! And my eyes were like p*** holes in the snow afterwards! I couldn't load it on virtual pc just too many probs. In the end I copied the files onto floppies and installed from them straight onto the c drive. I used XP's Win95 compatibility mode to do it. The programs open ok but we're still waiting for a cable so can't test on a plc yet!

Thanks for the suggestions anyway, I was getting to the point of kicking it all into touch and succeeded on my last attempt.