One of the things i like about these old school games is they are turn based so I can pause them and then do some work... then come back to the game. Sadly, in games like Might and Magic 1, when I alt+tab out of it it makes the screen all weird. So I am looking for a way I can just make it into a window and then click the tabs on the bottom of the screen (I am using window 7) to quickly go from one window to the next.

Is there anyway to run these games in a window?

Yes there is! But you need to edit the DOSBox configuration file for the game to do it. Go to the game's directory and look for a file called something like DOSBoxMM1.conf or similar. Open it in a text editor like Notepad. Then, find the line that reads "fullscreen=true" and change it to "fullscreen=false"

That will make the game launch in a window instead of fullscreen. At any time you can press ALT+ENTER to switch between windowed and fullscreen.

But the window is tiny! Too small to play in. So, go back to the configuration file and find the line that reads "windowresolution=original" and set it to any resolution you like, e.g. "windowresolution=1024x768". That will change the size of the window to whatever you like.

Remember to save your changes to the file! If you're worried about messing something up, make a backup copy before you edit it.

You specifically asked about running the games in "fullscreen windowed" mode. This is possible, but I've never tried it. I think the way you would do this is set windowresoluition to be equal to your screen resolution, but then use a third-party program like ShiftWindow to make it a borderless window that's centered properly. However I've never tried using ShiftWindow with DOSBox so I'm not sure how well it works. Also note that setting windowresolution to a widescreen resolution when the original games ran in a 4:3 resolution might result in a stretched image.

Simply go into your Dosbox.conf file which sould be dosboxMM1.conf or something similar in the game's directory.

Simply change to fullscreen=false and autolock=false (auto lock would prevent your from switching to another window if you're using multiple monitors). I would also change windowresolution to the resolution of your monitor (ex: windowresolution=1440x900). Save that and you're done on the playing in a window front.

For actually playing in a borderless window I highly recommend using Windowed Borderless Gaming. Its a portable app that you can just run in the background that does the work of getting rid of the borders and in most games properly resizing the window for you. It can be gotten here: http://westechsolutions.net/sites/WindowedBorderlessGaming/download

Simply run BorderlessWindowedGaming.exe then Might and Magic 1. There should be a new icon of a monitor in your tray at the bottom right. Right-click this and you'll be given a list of various options that'll be handy to tweak later if you need to. What you're looking for is "Add Window (F3)". Click on that. Next, click on the title bar of your Might and Magic game window. The window should automatically fill your monitor without a window. Now you're set.

Wow! thank you both so very much. I will tinker around with these ideas and see what I can do.

*tips hat*

Please post back with the results, I'd like to know if the fullscreen window works!